Positives:
- The graphics and animations in this game are off the chart. They simply must be seen to be believed. Even average, ordinary plays are filled with animations so like-like that you find yourself reviewing them over and over. The replays are wonderful as well, shown from a new Broadcast Camera (other camera views are available as well) that takes you right into the action. You can really get lost in the game and find yourself completely immersed in the world of college football. Amazing. Check out this replay of a rather ordinary play, a 16 yard pass completion:
Check out the animations. From the initial camera angle behind the QB, see the receiver leap for the ball, which is thrown high and slightly behind him. See how fluid his leap is, how realistic it looks? You really see him push off to get airborne. Suddenly the camera angle changes and now it is isolated on the receiver. You see him time his leap, make the catch, set his feet to run and then get swallowed up by defenders. It's a simple play, it's life-like and it's a thing of beauty. The new progressive lighting system works beautifully as well, giving some really striking settings at game time.
- The running game has been significantly improved by enhancements made in the blocking AI. Now guards will pull effectively, fullbacks will hit someone on lead blocks and real holes will emerge. You can run inside or outside and the effectiveness is based on a combination of your skills as a gamer and the ratings of your players versus those of your opponent.
- The passing game has been tweaked for more realism. No longer are all incomplete passes the result of balls either being dropped by receivers or batted down by defenders. Passes are now realistically under thrown, over thrown or the timing may simply be off.
- The "120 ways to win" stuff works as advertised. Every teams runs it's real offense and at the real tempo. You'll see Michigan run the no-huddle spread, tiring out the defenses by not allowing time for substitutions. You'll see Nevada run their funky Pistol formation and UCLA run their pro offense. It's awesome to behold.
- The atmosphere has been taken up a few notches as well. Finally there is a real college atmosphere at the games. The crowd is livelier, the bands peppier and the presentation (by ESPN) is more professional.
- Dynasty mode has been much improved because recruiting is no longer the monotonous chore it used to be. EA has made it more interactive and much more engaging. I used to despise recruiting. Now I actually enjoy it, which makes Dynasty mode the most rewarding career mode in any sports game, in my opinion.
- You can have an online dynasty same as last year. But new this year is the ability to manage your team online from outside the game. You can now do your recruiting from your computer or iPhone. This is a tremendous new feature that I hope EA will have in all future sports games. And what's even better is that you can have your own single player online dynasty. You can have all the features of online dynasty while still playing by yourself. Too sweet.
- Teambuilder remains an absolutely addictive addition, where you can custom create your own schools and play them in any mode in the game. I have spent many, many hours on my four teams (that's my Affton Cougars in their 1st alternate uniforms in the video above) and I love seeing them in action on the field. There is a great community on the Operation Sports forums that will assist you in making the uniforms you want. Trust me when I say I have benefited greatly from their generosity. If you have the Xbox 360 version, look up my teams under my gamer tag, Quint75, and let me know what you think!
Negatives:
- In a game where so much detail has been lovingly recreated, it is just plain silly that the uniforms do not get dirty. Not in the rain, not in the mud. Speculation is that this may have been sacrificed to keep the frame rate up to snuff. Whatever the reason, it's silly. But I must say it does not bother me nearly as much as I thought it would when I first heard about it in the early reviews.
- The set of sliders given to help tweak game play is pretty darned generous and for once they actually seem very effective right out of the box. But why oh why does EA make everything adjustable by sliders except fumble frequency and injury frequency? They do this every year. You can adjust the frequency of interceptions, but not fumbles? Makes no sense. Never has, never will.
- The blocking on kickoff returns leaves much to be desired. Neither the CPU nor myself can muster any sort of nice returns; the ball carrier is met by tacklers almost immediately.
- By far my biggest complain with the game is the AI of the CPU ball carriers. There are a number of specific problems that keep them from being anywhere near as effective as they should be, which is a real shame as the blocking is done so well. Don't get me wrong, the CPU can and will get an effective ground game going against you. They will even beat you with it. But it still is not what it should be. To sum up the main problem, the CPU doesn't handle open space properly. For example, a RB will burst through the hole and have only the DBs to deal with. Rather than kicking into that extra gear, he may do a number of things that will take away what could have been a game breaking run. He may juke for no reason, slowing him down and allowing him to be caught from behind. He may keep the ball covered with both hands even though he is in the clear, which causes him to run much slower than if he was sprinting, again allowing him to be caught more easily. He may have a clear path if he would veer toward the sideline, but he doesn't; he cuts back inside. It can be really obvious at times, and frustrating for someone who sometimes likes to just do the recruiting and let the CPU play the games out on the field by itself. However, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic that this can and will be fixed with a patch. A few years ago, an NCAA game was released with this very same issue and it was improved via a patch. I can't recall if it completely fixed the problem or not, but I do remember it was much improved. Hopefully EA is getting an earful about this issue and will address it in an upcoming patch. If so, this game will simply be unreal.
In the meantime, here are 2 more videos to keep you satisfied, both of which once again show off the Broadcast replay cam. The first shows a nice QB animation as he completes a pass on a rollout. Notice how fluid his throwing motion is and how he seems to actually put force behind the throw. And I love how he subtly uses his arms to regain his balance after making the throw.
In the 2nd video, notice the QB starts off with a fake hand-off in play action. The camera then shifts to the safety, again at the start of the play, and you see him bite on the fake and then get beaten for the TD. Beautiful!
3 comments:
Good stuff, Jim. (And I agree wholeheartedly!) I did want to point out that with the online dynasty the only real action you can take is recruiting. You can see your roster, top 25, stats, standings, but you cannot take actions such as adjusting your depth chart, tweaking your playbook, etc.
Why they don't have this is beyond me, but it is just a first step. Hopefully we'll see much more of this in future iterations (across the family of EA Sports titles).
Hey Todd, thanks for the correction. I'll amend the article accordingly!
Yowza! Great review, as usual. I really enjoyed the demo. Looks like the visuals are a big step up. Too bad online dynasty is so limited by the sounds of things. It would be cool to be able to sim game results remotely.
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