NCAA Football 14 Impressions Thread

[The JareBear]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

BenG, JeremyM, or anyone using a heisman offense AA defense hybrid, please advise

I love the idea of a split set but after one game I worry this feature is not working as intended

I had been on AA for both, so what I did was leave the sliders that relate to CPU offense (users defensive and CPU offensive) on the AA settins and then put the sliders relating to user offense (user offensive and CPU defensive) to default 50, except user QBA at 5, which is where I wanted to start on heisman

Well, I played am exhibition vs Michigan and it felt terrible. It felt like the whole thing was on default AA. I averaged 12 yards a carry and went 12/14 before turning it off.

Are you playing in exhibitions or dynasty mode? Is the way I'm setting the sliders up for a hybrid set wrong?

[Swamp Swagger]

Well after playing on Heisman some more another thing that bugs me is your D-Line never gets pressure with just 4 lineman.

I also see people say zone is useless, but with man you're Db's get beat on out routes and other routes just like it on a regular basis. Florida's top 2 DB's have 95+ on man to man rating and 90+ on zone coverage.

Zone has seems to work alright except against the over the middle passes its pretty bad.

[ClemTiger]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

Well after playing on Heisman some more another thing that bugs me is your D-Line never gets pressure with just 4 lineman.

I also see people say zone is useless, but with man you're Db's get beat on out routes and other routes just like it on a regular basis. Florida's top 2 DB's have 95+ on man to man rating and 90+ on zone coverage.

Zone has seems to work alright except against the over the middle passes its pretty bad.

My defenders RARELY get the proper depth that they should and don't drop out of their zone responsibility, even if there's no threat there. That's football 101 for any person who knows football.

And back to the defensive pressure thing. That is where all this useless zone and man defense stems from. If you have to constantly blitz and be left in one on one situations, most of the time you're going to get burned. There's no way an 80 rated OT should be able to block a Clowney consistently. If EA would allow front four pressure to be as effective as it was on the PS2, the game would be 10X better.

[kc10785]

Just played online a good game back and forth Clemson vs Kansas State. Right before halftime I throw a hail Mary with 5 seconds left he picks the ball off in the back of the end zone and goes out of bounds. Instead of the game giving him a touchback and go to halftime, they reward him with a Touchdown. I couldn't believe it. It change the whole game instead of me being down by one TD and getting the ball back at half I end up being diwn by 14.

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[nortobc]

Zone aggressive adjustment is screwing a pretty great game up. It's always just one thing with EA. I thought someone interviewed Josh H about the DB Glitch - well the formula for the DB Glitch stems from the nucleus that is the Aggressive Zone coverage adjustment.

Try for yourself:

Around the 3rd quarter, pause game - settings and select sides. Switch to CPU and then in the play select screen press L1 (adjustments) and see the defense is set to Coverage = Aggressive. Notice it is the only value that has been changed, nothing else.

I'm still testing for a fix - but this is the exact reason the DB glitch occured in NCAA 13 - and has been around in NCAA 12 (possibly 11). I'm posting this in the bug thread - doubt it will be looked at, but hopefully it will gain ground before the next damn game is out.

Holy **** are you serious???!!!! That is the DB glitch they were suppose to fix!!!! That single handledly ruined this game!

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[Swamp Swagger]

My defenders RARELY get the proper depth that they should and don't drop out of their zone responsibility, even if there's no threat there. That's football 101 for any person who knows football.

And back to the defensive pressure thing. That is where all this useless zone and man defense stems from. If you have to constantly blitz and be left in one on one situations, most of the time you're going to get burned. There's no way an 80 rated OT should be able to block a Clowney consistently. If EA would allow front four pressure to be as effective as it was on the PS2, the game would be 10X better.

Ya that's exactly why

The Lineman ratings do matter though (for the user offense at least) on pass plays because like i said I tested it and when you put in a Wr at the Right tackle or Left tackle and you will see a good D-lineman will push him backwards easy and get off his block easy.

But on Heisman against the CPU's offense it doesn't seem to mean squat. As they seem like they could have nobody's blocking against a good D-line yet the Qb has 5+ seconds every play.

[nortobc]

*Fingers crossed* Day 1 patch? Maybe? Hopefully? Otherwise I'm really enjoying the game so far, but I'm apprehensive about getting too involved if I'm going to start seeing wide open deep passes again like I did in 13.

How hard is it yo fix this? Just turn off the stupid cpu adjustments EA!

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[BenGerman]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

BenG, JeremyM, or anyone using a heisman offense AA defense hybrid, please advise

I love the idea of a split set but after one game I worry this feature is not working as intended

I had been on AA for both, so what I did was leave the sliders that relate to CPU offense (users defensive and CPU offensive) on the AA settins and then put the sliders relating to user offense (user offensive and CPU defensive) to default 50, except user QBA at 5, which is where I wanted to start on heisman

Well, I played am exhibition vs Michigan and it felt terrible. It felt like the whole thing was on default AA. I averaged 12 yards a carry and went 12/14 before turning it off.

Are you playing in exhibitions or dynasty mode? Is the way I'm setting the sliders up for a hybrid set wrong?

Hey Jared. I'm not sure exactly what to tell you, as that hasn't quite been my experience. I started out in Heisman/Heisman mode in exhibition, and then moved on to Dynasty mode with UF on a Heisman/AA hybrid.

I'm playing pretty much Heisman default in regards to HUM offense and CPU defense. For the most part, I've had nothing going offensively (312 yards against Toledo, 217 against Miami, and 281 against Tennessee), so it's worked out pretty well for me. I'd suggest you give it another try.

Also, make sure that the Heisman/AA setting are set up to correspond with how you want them. I originally mixed them up before noticing it at the last second.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

Tiburon knows about the bug. For some reason over the course of the development cycle they FAILED to address it.

It blows me away that people let them get away with this garbage. I have to say that, while thankful for the pre release interviews, podcast, and videos, I have to blame a lot of the creators of those releases. When is anyone, anywhere, from any site gonna man up and ask these devs the questions that need to be answered and not let them dance around them.

Ben, the new features and IE2, and everything sound great, but what has been done to fix the problems with the GOD AWFUL zone defense???? It was a problem last year and it's STILL a problem in the early release this year! WHYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!?!

Ben: We are aware of the issue and hope to address it in the next patch.

Huh? It's been an issue for OVER A YEAR and you guys ignored it! Why should we think you're going to fix it now?!?!?

I agree with you on all these points. There are a ton of small legacy bugs too that appear year after year like a familiar and unlikable in-law at Christmas. I mean Ben is a FSU guy, and they still haven't fixed pride stickers appearing properly on the helmet until like week 11. FSU is one of the most apparent examples of this bug because the glitched and non-appearing tomahawks really detract from that iconic look when it's week 7 in your dynasty.This is a bug that appeared when they attempted to redo pride stickers in 2009, and haven't fixed it since. Add to that the RB skinny arms glitch, and non-functional body size sliders from the same year.

And yes, last year zone defenses were useless, and you could completely shut teams down with simple combinations of pure man coverage and man blitzes. Basically two man under, some sort of man coverage+blitz, cover 1 or another blitz+jam depending on how many yards to first down. It made playing defense a valueless experience absent of any of the chess match that makes it worthwhile. As well, the aggressive zone crap causing stupid, canned, reactions from the safety ensuring they get burned deep is awful on its own, but not fixed after three or four patches, and an entire new release?

I understand balancing and improving the mechanics of an engine, now acknowledged as a misstep from the start, is a challenge, but damnit I think we should all expect them to figure some of this stuff out.

[prototype561]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

For those complaining about how bad the defense is, it all has to do with how bad the programming is for the cpu in general.

The cpu hasn't been able to run the ball all generation, to make an effective run game EA makes user players get blocked for 4+ seconds. This allow for the cpu runner to run 7+ yds before anyone gets close to him.

The cpu qb is not good at making quick decisions or reading the defense hence elite pass rushing lines get stifled by below average ones leaving the qb time to make a decision. They also make elite cb's get beat badly by average wr's.

I just went into practice mode with UGA vs Ga State, I picked a 3 man rush for Ga State defense. The Ga State defenders got my qb(UGA) on average of 3-4 seconds. I then went and used South Carolina defense with a 4 man rush against Ga State offensive line and it took them on average 4 seconds to get the qb.

Soo the worst team on the game was able to pressure my qb with a 3 man rush better than the best dline on the game was able to pressure the cpu qb.

EA programming = FAIL!

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

I just got hit with the game play slow really choppy frame rate bug in the 1st quarter. As soon as Florida scored a TD and they showed the highlight reel of it, everybody was moving really slow and choppy to the point it was making me mess up. Had to quit that game.

You could visually see everybody on the field was moving much slower then they were before.

[ClemTiger]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

For those complaining about how bad the defense is, it all has to do with how bad the programming is for the cpu in general.

The cpu hasn't been able to run the ball all generation, to make an effective run game EA makes user players get blocked for 4+ seconds. This allow for the cpu runner to run 7+ yds before anyone gets close to him.

The cpu qb is not good at making quick decisions or reading the defense hence elite pass rushing lines get stifled by below average ones leaving the qb time to make a decision. They also make elite cb's get beat badly by average wr's.

I just went into practice mode with UGA vs Ga State, I picked a 3 man rush for Ga State defense. The Ga State defenders got my qb(UGA) on average of 3-4 seconds. I then went and used South Carolina defense with a 4 man rush against Ga State offensive line and it took them on average 4 seconds to get the qb.

Soo the worst team on the game was able to pressure my qb with a 3 man rush better than the best dline on the game was able to pressure the cpu qb.

EA programming = FAIL!

Yep, that's awful. The ratings should mean something, but they don't come close. Pressure or lack there of is the main reason the gameplay sucks so much.

[SECElit3]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

Tiburon knows about the bug. For some reason over the course of the development cycle they FAILED to address it.

It blows me away that people let them get away with this garbage. I have to say that, while thankful for the pre release interviews, podcast, and videos, I have to blame a lot of the creators of those releases. When is anyone, anywhere, from any site gonna man up and ask these devs the questions that need to be answered and not let them dance around them.

Ben, the new features and IE2, and everything sound great, but what has been done to fix the problems with the GOD AWFUL zone defense???? It was a problem last year and it's STILL a problem in the early release this year! WHYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!?!

Ben: We are aware of the issue and hope to address it in the next patch.

Huh? It's been an issue for OVER A YEAR and you guys ignored it! Why should we think you're going to fix it now?!?!?

I am starting to see a lot of reasons, that make believe I should leave this one on the store shelf.

[sooner1]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

I've played the snot out of the early release. I'm not an avid gamer but I've been playing sports video games since... forever. I'm 38 and mostly enjoy FIFA and Tiger Woods but each year I always get either NCAA or Madden.

I am absolutely enjoying this game. Best yet in my opinion. I'm playing on Heisman with some slider modifiers (QBA down to 5, increase pass coverage, increased CPU RB ability, decrease CPU run blocking, and a few others). I can post my specific sliders if anyone is interested but I'm getting some fantastic games! I'm loosing when I should and I'm winning when I think I deserve to.

My only moderate complaints are that I feel zone defense is unusable and the background imagery is very jaggy. I went back and played NCAA 11 with my son and the crowd imagery is FAR better in that version. I'm guessing they had to skimp on this in more current releases due to using more system resources on more critical gameplay type items. Again - a very minor issue for me.

I think the sliders really work on this game and allow you to tweak it in such a way that it can play to whatever level you are comfortable. I like a challenge so I'll always push it to where I have to play really well to win. But at the same time I don't want to make it impossible to beat a severely inferior team. I think I've found that balance so I'm happy.

I'll be buying this one on release day.

Every one is always entitled to their own opinion but I honestly feel like a lot of the complaints that I'm reading on here are from people that just expect TOO much from a game. I'm having fun and that's what it's all about.

Hey Mebby, I would like to try your sliders if you don't mind. I just want a realistic experience. Qba ive had on 10 is way too accurate on Heisman.

[BlackBetty15]

Re: NCAA Football 14 Available For Season Ticket Subscribers, Post Your Impressions H

I am starting to see a lot of reasons, that make believe I should leave this one on the store shelf.

I am still holding onto hope of a day one patch but I her ya loud an clear on just leaving this on the shelf. Funny how I was chastized to no end by just telling people to hold off buying for a few weeks and overcome the nostalgia of a "new 2014 game". I get that it's just a game but for many of us (me included) I get my rocks off gettin excited seeing an awesome game on sat and then want to get just as excited replicating said game on my dynasty. I just don't get that with EA and it hurts. I play this game and between all the issues that have been present since literally 2008 it's asanine. I enjoy the new engine, the jukes, and recruiting...but these other issues and graphics and oh so bad player models stand out like a nasty herpe when the game is playing. I still don't understand why NCAA can't just take madden and strip it down to models and code and plug in so to speak NCAA. I love the graphics in madden and the models are top notch. I just got into nba2k13 a few days ago and it's just jaw dropping how great that game is. Just gets me every time how something that "should" be good ends up a mess due to bad leadership and employee laziness.