NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

[SageInfinite]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

I guess I'll never understand this "appeal to the masses" when it comes to EA/Tiburon. They make the only licensed football games. The masses have no choice, if they want to play football videogames it's EA/Tiburon or nothing. Instead of dumbing down the experience and the player they should be making the game as realistic as possible and finding ways to educate the gamer on the sport and how to apply it to the game, and give the options/sliders to tailor the game for younger audiences or non serious fans. If the masses wanted this fast arcade action pick up and play stuff NFL blitz and NFL street would still be around and they would be outselling the "sim" games, which to my knowledge has never happened.

You will always have people who complain, the greatest sports games this generation people bitch about them everyday, but they at least strive for realism for the most part. The same way they program fumbles into the game could be applied for botched snaps. I hate it when my 3rd baseman bobbles the ball and misses the easy out at first on MLB The Show, but at the same time I love it because it's realistic. Why is Tiburon so afraid of this? Why can't they force realism on us instead of forcing their way of doing things? IMO it just boils down to lazy development. I hope it changes next gen.

[BezO]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

might be showing my age here but it was the same way last gen. ps2, ea did the same and so did us as the consumer. i know alot of guys say 04 was one of the best but it was a pure arcade football game. half the routes didnt work, the players were so huge compared to field. you couldnt run half the routes or run plays...

I don't remember if '04 or '05 was my last Madden purchase, but I definitely jumped on 2K's bandwagon around then. 2K's football games definitely revealed exactly what was missing from Madden. It wasn't perfect, but they covered most of my, "Why doesn't Madden do this" list.

For clarification, I purchased '08 and returned it.

06 was ok and then 09 was really great on ps2 but still all lacked any kind of ai or sense of realism. this gen, early on was a great article about the ai capabilites of the 360 and ps3 and after that i knew we would have a hybrid all gen. to weak of AI to really create a football sim so they kept alot of who the older more arcade style from last gen, so we still have alot of canned animations instead of a flowing game...

It ain't the systems. Much of what folks are asking for has been done in other games. You eluded to your age, and I see your OS join date. You might remember EA saying PS2/XBox couldn't support gang tackling. Unfortunately for them, they said that the year 2K implemented it.

There is always a group of "this games sucks before I played it" on this board. Which is fine. But some of the post to me seem like ppl expect this game to be as real as football on Saturdays and that will never be the case. Ben Hamiular had a great point in his ign video. he said "fumbled snaps happen in real life, but if you fumbled a snap in the 4th quarter down 7 in your opponents redzone you wouldn't like that gameplay and would hate us for adding that." No matter what EA adds there are certain groups of ppl that will say, the line will never block perfect enough, the socks are not long enough, The numbers are too big, the jersey color is not right.

Hamiular shouldn't try to speak for folks. What is he basing that off of? What game had fumbled snaps that folks complained about?

Do they remove all fumbles? Do they remove dropped passes? Bad passes? At what point do they ask, "Do you want to play football?" It's sports. Sh!t happens.

I'm not saying their latest offering was perfect. But they are making progress.
Ppl talk about the glory days of PS2 and all these older football games as if they were without glitches and flaws. The difference back then was that there was very limited online play and there was no youtube and ebook to help ppl learn glitches and money plays to circumvent the A.I. You had to find that on your own.

Nobody said any of that. Some just liked those games more.

This is directed at ppl bashing the game before they've played it. based on a few pictures, a hype video and second hand accounts from a limited version played over a month ago. Whenever someone posted a positive experience they immediately post the negative or say "EA told them to say those things". You asked for middle ground. What about revamped option play, improved blocking assignments, foot planting, improved impact/momentum system, true fatigue system, a realistic speed burst. But then when someone post those things the next response is "well they should have been in the game, fatigue is not a feature". There was a post on the previous page giving great insight into zone blocking at the college level. I admire the knowledge that poster provided but is that a realistic exception at this point in time? For the a game to be able to compute that many variables and then represent them correctly? Hand placement, pad level, multi-tiered reactions, shoulder direction etc. No football has ever had blocking that authentic.

How long have you been playing Madden? Can you not look at a still and recognize an animation/scenario? Can you not see a vid and recognize something they didn't fix? The pics & vids are here for us to discuss. Folks use there experience with the game to dissect these pics & vids. Come release, most educated guesses end up being correct. When you're looking for certain things, their presence or absence is quite noticeable.

There's a select few that complain about desired features being added. I think it's odd, but you have to remember how far behind other simulations this game is. Folks are frustrated. Adding something this year that another game had 8 years ago can be exciting or frustrating.

[BA2929]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

Why can't they force realism on us instead of forcing their way of doing things? IMO it just boils down to lazy development. I hope it changes next gen.

I hate to say it, but not everything you, or anyone on here, hate about EA is due to lazy development. That seems to be the trend around here actually. Hate something EA does with the NCAA franchise? They're just lazy.
The "masses", as you call them, have the most money to spend. EA wants to make money, so they make the masses happy. It's not laziness, it's EA out to make a profit and they don't want to make the masses mad. They'd rather make the hardcore mad and lose out on 3% of their sales if they stop buying. If they make a center/QB combo muff up a snap late in the game there are about 5% of us who would say "that's just football". The other 95% would moan so much about it EA would just patch it out.

The masses make the world go 'round. Especially when money is involved.

[SageInfinite]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

I hate to say it, but not everything you, or anyone on here, hate about EA is due to lazy development. That seems to be the trend around here actually. Hate something EA does with the NCAA franchise? They're just lazy.
The "masses", as you call them, have the most money to spend. EA wants to make money, so they make the masses happy. It's not laziness, it's EA out to make a profit and they don't want to make the masses mad. They'd rather make the hardcore mad and lose out on 3% of their sales if they stop buying. If they make a center/QB combo muff up a snap late in the game there are about 5% of us who would say "that's just football". The other 95% would moan so much about it EA would just patch it out.

The masses make the world go 'round. Especially when money is involved.

Eh sounds like bs and a copout to me. Just my opinion. I don't think any dev is lazy at Tiburon, not questioning their work ethics, but the way they go about things and implementing them in game, comes off lazy to me.

[Madwolf]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

So what we're going to have in NCAAF 14 is 100% better offense, and 100% the same defense. Doesn't sound too exciting TBH.

Can't wait to have 300 yard passing games combined with 300 yard running games.

[DorianDonP]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

Eh sounds like bs and a copout to me. Just my opinion. I don't think any dev is lazy at Tiburon, not questioning their work ethics, but the way they go about things and implementing them in game, comes off lazy to me.

It is a copout. I said it the other week and I'll repeat it.

I think the casual crowd will buy it regardless of it becoming more "sim". I think it's a copout to keep saying they have to appeal to the casual crowd because for the most part, those people go with the flow anyway. It's one of two football games on the market, both made by EA. It's not like they have a choice if they just wanna sling it around with some friends.

Also, there are ways to remedy the problem he cited in the botched snap argument. It would just be something never done before in football games, which seems to be something they are afraid to try. Innovation.

Instead of pressing x to snap the ball. How about you have to use the analog stick, sort of like how you use the stick to shoot free throws in NBA 2k? If you aren't smooth with using the stick, then there is a greater chance that you will botch the snap. QB awareness and C attributes would tie into how precise you have to be when bringing the stick back to snap the ball.

A system like that could also factor into OL penalties like false starts, so it's not random. It's based on you being patient and precise with your stick skills every snap.

Now some will argue that pressing x is just easier and better, but I think if it got implemented, people would roll with it just like they roll with everything else.

I really hate to use the word because I think it's overused, but in this case, I think there are too many EA apologist that refuse to see how far behind these football games are compared to the rest of the sports market, which somehow manage to be realistic and appeal to the masses.

[TreyIM2]

I get many being mad, glad, indifferent, whatever. My take is that I'm going to see what this demo brings with the hands feel and look of it and take it for what it is then see it it's enjoyable. Then look forward to Madden demo and retail, see how I like that then continue to critique and make wish lists for EA. That's all I can do.

[mvb34]

So what we're going to have in NCAAF 14 is 100% better offense, and 100% the same defense. Doesn't sound too exciting TBH.

Can't wait to have 300 yard passing games combined with 300 yard running games.

Is that normal in college football? College football is all offense and little defense anyway

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

Is that normal in college football? College football is all offense and little defense anyway

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Not true.

Passing Defense

1. Nebraska - 148.2 yards per a game
2. Michigan - 155.2

Matter of fact, the top 27 pass defense teams last year allowed under 200 passing yards per a game.

Rushing Defense

1. Alabama - 79.8 yards a game
2. BYU - 84.3

7 schools allowed less then 100 rushing yards a game. 50 schools allowed under 150 yards rushing a game. Only 22 schools gave up over 200 rushing yards a game.

OFFENSE

Only 23 schools averaged over 300 passing yards a game.

Only 5 schools averaged over 300 rushing yards a game and they were:

Army - Option Offense
Air Force - Option Offense
Oregon - Spread Offense
Georgia Tech - Option Offense
New Mexico - Pistol Offense

Only 32 schools total averaged over 200 rushing yards a game.

49 schools averaged less then 150 rushing yards a game.

[Big FN Deal]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

Not true.

Passing Defense

1. Nebraska - 148.2 yards per a game
2. Michigan - 155.2

Matter of fact, the top 27 pass defense teams last year allowed under 200 passing yards per a game.

Rushing Defense

1. Alabama - 79.8 yards a game
2. BYU - 84.3

7 schools allowed less then 100 rushing yards a game. 50 schools allowed under 150 yards rushing a game. Only 22 schools gave up over 200 rushing yards a game.

OFFENSE

Only 23 schools averaged over 300 passing yards a game.

Only 5 schools averaged over 300 rushing yards a game and they were:

Army - Option Offense
Air Force - Option Offense
Oregon - Spread Offense
Georgia Tech - Option Offense
New Mexico - Pistol Offense

Only 32 schools total averaged over 200 rushing yards a game.

49 schools averaged less then 150 rushing yards a game.

No need to let actual NCAA football stats and realism get in the way of making a fun football sim, lol.

IMO, EA Tiburon knows realism sells, they see the way games like NBA2k and The Show are heralded, hell they hired away The Show's CD to work on G4 Madden. I think the issue is they just haven't been able to make their football games that way, for whatever reason, so far. Realism for EA football games is like sour grapes at the moment for EA and their apologist because their games haven't gotten it right yet. However, IF on the new consoles, all this alleged investment in new tech and personnel pays off to make stellar realistic football games, on the level with other top sports sims, watch those same factions quickly change their tune. "OMG, I had a fumbled snap in a road playoff game because the crowd was going crazy, home field advantage is fo realz" #EAkeepin'itreal, lol

[stoncold32]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

At this point, all you can really do is laugh.

Point and laugh, indeed.

[SageInfinite]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

"OMG, I had a fumbled snap in a road playoff game because the crowd was going crazy, home field advantage is fo realz" #EAkeepin'itreal, lol

Just thinking about that scenario almost brought a tear to my eye, LOL. Man I hope Tiburon shocks us with the next gen. We have been deprived TOO LONG.

[Big FN Deal]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

Just thinking about that scenario almost brought a tear to my eye, LOL. Man I hope Tiburon shocks us with the next gen. We have been deprived TOO LONG.

If they do, the irony is I won't even get the chance to see all the tune changes from the "Ea football games are good enough" crowd because I should be too busy playing EA football games to notice, lol. I hope OS appreciates all the traffic EA Tiburon has driven to them inadvertently with their "controversial" football games this gen because I would have likely never found OS, if I could get immersed in EA football games.

[SageInfinite]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

If they do, the irony is I won't even get the chance to see all the tune changes from the "Ea football games are good enough" crowd because I should be too busy playing EA football games to notice, lol. I hope OS appreciates all the traffic EA Tiburon has driven to them inadvertently with their "controversial" football games this gen because I would have likely never found OS, if I could get immersed in EA football games.

Totally Cosign that great point, lol.

[Sundown2600]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Blog - Breaking Down the Gameplay

Too many ppl making excuses for EA and accepting mediocrity just because they love football. That's why EA Tiburon will always win, even when they lose.