NCAA Football 14 - Out Now! - Now With Infinity Engine 2 and Ultimate Team Mode! - 7/17: The Last NCAA Football Game? :(

It's getting decent not great reviews. Basically it's the best game this gen but its getting rather bland. That seems to be the consensus 

 
Played one game of the early release; it was raining during the game, and towards the end of it, the frame rate was getting out of hand. Haven't gotten to play yet under "good" weather conditions yet, so hopefully it's just a weather thing as rain is generally a frame rate killer for most games. It got to the point where a short run play was over, and the QB was audibly (as in sound, not calling an audible) still doing his pre-snap checks/calls during the cut scenes that play between plays.

 
I've played a couple games from the early release now, and I don't know. I think I get how reviews are just kind of "meh". I really hope the next generation of consoles has something new in store for sports games because I feel like we've almost reached a peak in terms of the experience they offer. There's only so many ways you can change how a guy falls down. Until these developers figure out how to actually make smarter AI that doesn't amount to Condition A + Condition B = Reaction C, I feel like these games are going to pretty much play the same year after year. You still get blockers who just stand there, you get DBs who have their back turned making INTs, etc.

I haven't really put a tremendous amount of time into an NCAA game since NCAA 10, but to me, the gameplay doesn't feel drastically different. Sure, it looks better, and there are marginal improvements here and there. But there's just an odd feeling when you find yourself approaching the game the exact same way 4 years later. This isn't a knock on NCAA 14 or the series...as I definitely feel the same things can be said about Madden, NHL, etc. It's just, like I said, I think sports games on the current gen have reached their peak in terms of performance. What we need to start seeing moving forward to prevent the entire genre from stagnating is them getting smarter. Because a lot of what we have right now is overcompensating for poor strategy and fundamentals with big plays and user skill level.

At the end of the day though, if you're a big enough fan of something, you'll suffer through the negatives just to experience something you love. In a way that speaks more to the lack of competition in these markets. But yeah...there's not really anything groundbreaking happening with these games anymore.

 
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I don't think any of us thought were going to get anything groundbreaking. With these releases it's a lit the tweaks and added features. I'm really excited for it.
 
WV Matsui said:
I don't think any of us thought were going to get anything groundbreaking. With these releases it's a lit the tweaks and added features. I'm really excited for it.
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That's fine. But with marginal improvements, "is it necessary to upgrade?" becomes a legitimate question. I mean, sure, they can brag about Ultimate Team...but with the direction UT went with Madden and NHL last year, I have pretty much zero interest in it. I think they really jumped the shark with the idea of microtransactions pretty much being required last year. UT became way too much of a grind for little payoff if you weren't dumping real dollars into it.

 
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You're barking up the wrong tree with me. I have bought every madden and NCAA since they were introduced. Never skipped one and probably never will its always been a tradition and I still get excited like I used to back in the 90s when a new one is released every year. :)
 
WV Matsui said:
You're barking up the wrong tree with me. I have bought every madden and NCAA since they were introduced. Never skipped one and probably never will its always been a tradition and I still get excited like I used to back in the 90s when a new one is released every year. :)
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I get that. Like I said, if it's something you really enjoy, it's easier to be more forgiving (or to feel like they have you by the balls...which is how I feel about NHL). But I think it's also a fair statement to acknowledge that it makes you the type of customer that is ripe for EA to take for granted and take advantage of. Like I said, I definitely don't think the game is broken or unenjoyable. But if you're a casual college football fan, I don't know that this year's game offers a whole lot (unless you just absolutely adore Ultimate Team) to make you feel "ashamed" for continuing to play NCAA 13...or even NCAA 12, for that matter. That's all I was getting at.

 
Oh they are definitely taking advantage of me. The smart thing to do would buy in a 2 to 3 year cycle to really be impressed but u enjoy it so much :)
 
n8rockerasu said:
I've played a couple games from the early release now, and I don't know. I think I get how reviews are just kind of "meh". I really hope the next generation of consoles has something new in store for sports games because I feel like we've almost reached a peak in terms of the experience they offer. There's only so many ways you can change how a guy falls down. Until these developers figure out how to actually make smarter AI that doesn't amount to Condition A + Condition B = Reaction C, I feel like these games are going to pretty much play the same year after year. You still get blockers who just stand there, you get DBs who have their back turned making INTs, etc.

I haven't really put a tremendous amount of time into an NCAA game since NCAA 10, but to me, the gameplay doesn't feel drastically different. Sure, it looks better, and there are marginal improvements here and there. But there's just an odd feeling when you find yourself approaching the game the exact same way 4 years later. This isn't a knock on NCAA 14 or the series...as I definitely feel the same things can be said about Madden, NHL, etc. It's just, like I said, I think sports games on the current gen have reached their peak in terms of performance. What we need to start seeing moving forward to prevent the entire genre from stagnating is them getting smarter. Because a lot of what we have right now is overcompensating for poor strategy and fundamentals with big plays and user skill level.

At the end of the day though, if you're a big enough fan of something, you'll suffer through the negatives just to experience something you love. In a way that speaks more to the lack of competition in these markets. But yeah...there's not really anything groundbreaking happeningys with these games anymore.
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ncaa 14 is the best ncaa football on this gen of systems hands down. infinty engine being in the game makes the game playable which was not the case of 13 which felt like ncaa 12

 
n8rockerasu said:
That's fine. But with marginal improvements, "is it necessary to upgrade?" becomes a legitimate question. I mean, sure, they can brag about Ultimate Team...but with the direction UT went with Madden and NHL last year, I have pretty much zero interest in it. I think they really jumped the shark with the idea of microtransactions pretty much being required last year. UT became way too much of a grind for little payoff if you weren't dumping real dollars into it.
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i have a 97 rated overall team with out paying a penny for a card

 
Spent some more time with NCAA 14 because I remembered there were a few things I wanted to check for. And while this isn't a guarantee...it doesn't bode well for Madden.

1. Unless I'm just missing it, there are no defensive assignments again. I scoured the "strategy" and even "settings" menus looking for it and found nothing. Getting ripped up and exploited by a player that your "default" defensive player can't hang with? Tough shit. Figure it out.

2. AI clock management seems to be really bad...again. The CPU was putting together a nice drive before the half, had all 3 timeouts, but just let the clock tick down on them. They ran a hurry up a few times. But ended up going for the end zone with :03 left in the half, rather than kicking a 40 yard field goal.

To make sure I wasn't imagining things, I tested this again in the 4th quarter. Down by only 14, with about 2 minutes to go and 2 timeouts, the CPU's playcalling was all over the place. They'd run the ball, go back to the huddle while the clock is ticking down, run a hurry up on the next play and then spike the ball. This continued all the way until the end of the game, though still down by 14, they were running a hurry up and spiking the ball, letting the clock run out with one timeout left.

This concerns me because those two things are straight out of Madden 13. I didn't play NCAA 13, so I don't know if it was common there as well, but that's what I meant when I said these games need to get "smarter" next gen. There's no excuse for giving gamers less coaching options and having AI that can't grasp basic time management. We're supposed to get excited about new uniforms and how realistic the blades of grass look...but just not care about those gameplay related issues. If that's the case, I seriously have to believe these games are designed with a lower level of intelligence in mind.

 
Yeah but NCAA 14 is on V.1 of Infinity engine, isn't Madden 25 supposed to use V.2 of Infinity engine?
 
sicsonic said:
Yeah but NCAA 14 is on V.1 of Infinity engine, isn't Madden 25 supposed to use V.2 of Infinity engine?
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Nope. NCAA 14 uses Infinity Engine 2

http://blog.games.com/2013/07/08/review-ncaa-football-14-runs-wild-with-infinity-engine-2/

Though, really, that should only have to do with the physics side of things and really not have any impact on the AI knowledge or ability. And I will say, in the 3-4 games that I've played, the running game did feel better (though playing on lower difficulty settings could be a contributor to that too). I did notice linemen holding their blocks a bit better, and I wasn't running into them and falling over (which I know was a big improvement...and I think that will make a difference). Don't get me wrong, these are definitely improvements. It just seems inconsequential when extremely rudimentary things are left out.

To make sure I was being fair, I did load up NCAA 12 again (the most recent one I own), and I'm not seeing defensive assignments in that one either. So, maybe that was just a Madden thing. Kind of surprising that Madden would remove them before NCAA would add them though. I really can't remember if NCAA 10 had them, but I KNOW Madden 12 did, lol. As for AI logic and clock management...that seems to be getting worse and worse, haha.

 
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The current year NCAA has always played like the previous years madden. It has been like this for quite some time.
 
WV Matsui said:
The current year NCAA has always played like the previous years madden. It has been like this for quite some time.
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Yeah, I know it used to be that way. But I thought I remembered NCAA jumping ahead one year and doing some new things that Madden hadn't done or something. Maybe I'm just making shit up though, lol.

 
Ok - I will be picking up my copy of NCAA 14 tonight after work.  PM me if anyone want to trade Big 10 code for either PAC 12 or SEC code.

 
the blocking in this game is by far best ever in any ea sports football games sometimes when blockers lays a guy out legit makes me go ohhhh and watch replay.

 
only negative i would say about this game is the players ratings in u.t alot of the players you would think would be higher rankings are pretty dang low seems like the best players are the really old players.

 
TimboSliceGB said:
yep been this way for every year on this gen even on ps2 was this way. I love ncaa 14 because it plays and looks like madden 13.
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TimboSliceGB said:
the blocking in this game is by far best ever in any ea sports football games sometimes when blockers lays a guy out legit makes me go ohhhh and watch replay.
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These statements completely contradict each other. The blocking in Madden 13 was horrible. I have numerous videos saved of blockers just standing flat footed blocking the air and letting a defender just walk right by them. I think saying that NCAA is just last years Madden is too much of a blanket statement. If you want to cite specific examples (like I did above), that's fine. But it's still a different game. Some things they fixed. Some things they didn't. It's not like they just copy/pasted the Madden code and said "good enough".

 
A neat bonus for early players:

Unlock a legend! Try out the new Ultimate Team mode any time from July 9 to July 15 and you'll receive the Bo Jackson Freshman unlock.
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Picked up my copy earlier and will play some in a bit.

 
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A neat bonus for early players:

Picked up my copy earlier and will play some in a bit.



Snagging mine tomorrow. That's great news :)
 
We've got 7 spots left in the Online Dynasty. We'll be starting once the OS community rosters are complete.



I'll play. Do you have a link to the thread?
 
Started up Ultimate Team mode and my team has a lot of big-name players, but they get around the no-name player part of Madden UT by just giving you freshman versions of those players to put them between 60 and 70 rating. Along with that, your choice of favorite team gets you a set of uniforms, playbooks, and a couple extra players for that team. my choice of Ohio State got my Robert Rose and Jake Ballard as extras. It's too bad that EA doesn't have a Madden-style history thing that rewards you for playing previous games with some good bonus players.

I got Bo Jackson and Barry Sanders after getting my team, so I know that Barry isn't just for Season Ticket people.

The collections seem to be handled in an odd way, as there doesn't seem to be general Team/Playbook/Stadiums collections to fill up. They just have some Heisman-related player-specific collections, some mascot-related collections, some conference-specific collections, and temporary collections for the next week or so.

Edit: Looking around a bit more, the Freshman thing isn't how they do the casual curve thing, but how they block those starter pack cards from being used for collections. My starter Jake Ballard isn't eligible for the Big 10 collection, as I'd need to get a normal version of his card.

 
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FriskyTanuki said:
Started up Ultimate Team mode and my team has a lot of big-name players, but they get around the no-name player part of Madden UT by just giving you freshman versions of those players to put them between 60 and 70 rating. Along with that, your choice of favorite team gets you a set of uniforms, playbooks, and a couple extra players for that team. my choice of Ohio State got my Robert Rose and Jake Ballard as extras. It's too bad that EA doesn't have a Madden-style history thing that rewards you for playing previous games with some good bonus players.

I got Bo Jackson and Barry Sanders after getting my team, so I know that Barry isn't just for Season Ticket people.

The collections seem to be handled in an odd way, as there doesn't seem to be general Team/Playbook/Stadiums collections to fill up. They just have some Heisman-related player-specific collections, some mascot-related collections, some conference-specific collections, and temporary collections for the next week or so.

Edit: Looking around a bit more, the Freshman thing isn't how they do the casual curve thing, but how they block those starter pack cards from being used for collections. My starter Jake Ballard isn't eligible for the Big 10 collection, as I'd need to get a normal version of his card.
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Yeah, that's pretty much exactly how MUT has been. Starter cards don't go in collections, and they just started letting you pick your favorite team last year.

 
kdiddy1989 said:
So is it too late to get Barry now?

Just picked up my copy tonight but I'm a season ticket holder with no Barry.
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Hoping somebody knows the answer o this as well, I never had a chance to dl the demo before the game released since I let my brother in law borrow my 360 since I never used it much.
 
I wanna pick this game up, but i'd like for it to hit $45ish within the next couple weeks cause i know i'll only be playing it until madden comes out. Flls my football void and UT looks like fun

 
Flyersfan said:
Hoping somebody knows the answer o this as well, I never had a chance to dl the demo before the game released since I let my brother in law borrow my 360 since I never used it much.
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just download the demo and play the 3 games on it and share it and you should get the things you get with the demo

 
you get conf players in a pack



No kidding.

Are they gold? Elite? Bronze? Crappy? Is there a certain amount from each team? Are there uniforms? Any customization?
 
scrub0bk said:
I wanna pick this game up, but i'd like for it to hit $45ish within the next couple weeks cause i know i'll only be playing it until madden comes out. Flls my football void and UT looks like fun
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With the birthday coupon and PUR discount at Gamestop you can pick it up for ~$40 used.

 
http://www.gamespot.com/news/ncaa-wont-renew-ea-sports-contract-6411604?tag=nl.e513&s_cid=e513&ttag=e513

The NCAA is not going to renew their license with EA, or anybody else really, so this will be the last NCAA Football game as they have to change the name for next year's game. The licenses for the schools, conferences, and bowls are mostly handled by the CLC (Collegiate Licensing Company), so there shouldn't be much of a difference with the lineup of teams. It seems like the NCAA is really afraid of the outcome of the Ed O'Bannon suit and want to shed some weight quickly to keep their business running like normal. It would be a shame if this leads to the end of college sports games.

 
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