NCAA Football 2012

Well, here it is a new year, so a new NCAA game is here. Supposedly lots of new stuff, upgrades, etc.  I'll pick it up, as I pick up the game every year.  2011 was a turn for the better vs. 2010.  '10 was the first one of these games that I returned within a week of having the game because the AI was just ridiculous.  I've had a few instances of that in the '11 game, but not too much.

However, I have been playing Dynasty mode, and started my 6th season this year.  In my off-season, a bug that pissed me off was, I had about 12 recruits left, and after the first week of recruiting, suddenly I became 10th on every recruits list of schools.  The prior week, I was 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., but suddenly I was 10th on EVERY list.  Being that the off-season is only 5 weeks, I then proceeded to lose every single recruit because I couldn't work my way back up their lists in time.  That REALLY pissed me off, because I had almost all 4 and 5 star players that had me either 1st or 2nd on their lists.

Then when I started my latest season, after week 1, it puts up the little weekly blurb on your team, and it listed a player's name that hadn't played on my team since my 2nd year in Dynasty mode.

One new feature is the ability to build custom conferences. Here's a screencap from a designer who re-built the old Southwest Conference:

I'd build some kind of all Florida conference: FSU, UF, UM, UCF, USF, FAU, FIU, etc.

Finished my 6th season in NCAA '11 as the MNC.  I pretty much blew out everyone I played, and then struggled with #1 Penn State and their QB/WR combo that burned me for 2 45+ yard TD passes.  Finally started getting pressure on said QB in the 2nd half (which forced him into 2 INTs) and my running game started coming around (thanks to my 3rd in the Heisman voting QB) as well.  Was behind 14-6 at the half, went up 21-14 in the 3rd quarter, Penn State tied it at 21 with a ridiculous screen pass on 3rd and long, then I ran, ran, ran, to inside the 20 yard line and kicked a FG with :01 remaining to win 24-21.

I also finished the entire season with the #1 recruiting class.  I'll probably play one more season (or two) and then transition to NCAA '12.  I wish I could import my players to a team in the new system like you can dump a draft class to Madden.

One week away.  Played the demo this weekend--little changes here and there in gameplay.  Had to adjust to the fact that they changed the way you go through the plays.  But in watching the updates, they said they fixed the collision detection stuff so now that's supposed to cut down on "whiffing" on tackles when you can see your player's hands go right through another player.  They also added new "diving catches" so your WR will take more chances in catching the ball.  And also, the crowd size will determine how loud the crowd is when you make a big play.  They said a small crowd will not be very loud during the game.  Plus, the graphics (as with every proceeding year) are improved.

Also, you can build your own playbook, and arrange how you view your plays, screen by screen.  So, let's say you want a page of nothing but option plays--you can put them all on the page in your playbook.  And you can also apparently build your own plays from scratch, or import an existing playbook, then tweak the plays to use it yourself.

You can not only build your own conferences, but you can also change the bowl tie-ins...for example, you could give the MAC conference champ an automatic BCS bowl berth.

I played the FSU/Alabama demo game on easy, and I trounced Alabama, which made me feel better about how my playing skills would translate from 2011 to 2012.  One thing I noticed--and maybe this is because it's a demo--the RB for FSU has dreads...but he doesn't really have dreads in "real life".  So that bothered me a little bit.  I wondered, if after the lawsuit that the college players filed against EA for their likenesses, that EA is trying to pull back a bit on how similar the players in the game are to the players in real life when it comes to "likeness".

Oh, and there are a lot of new "Road To Glory" changes that sounded pretty cool.  I never played that on 2011, so I may have to try it in 2012.  One thing you can do now is play both ways on offense and defense.  So you could get recruited on which position you excelled at, and there are also elements of "trust" with the head coach when you play, like if the coach plays you at QB and you throw a bunch of picks, the coach's trust goes down and you get played less often.

And a new "Coaching Carousel", where you start out as an OC or DC for a team instead of HC, and eventually you work your way around the league until you get offered a HC job.  When you're playing OC or DC, that's the only side of the ball you control.  You have goals you're supposed to reach to determine if you're doing a good job--how many TDs running, passing, RB averaging 4+ yards/carry, etc.  The CPU controls the other side.  Which could be maddening if you're OC only, and you've just scored with a minute left, and now it's out of your hands as to if the defense can stop the other team from scoring.

Just picked it up yesterday.  For anyone interested, you can download rosters using these player tags:  XBox 360: Patrick Morty; PS3: gamingtailgate

I downloaded the PS3 rosters last night, and they look excellent.  Starting my dynasty this weekend.

I took FSU and moved them to the SEC (moved Vandy to the ACC).  I was going to put Notre Dame in the Big 10/12 but I screwed up and started the season after I switched FSU.  I'm three games in and have noticed a few little glitches for the PS3 version--when sorting looking at stats during a game, if you sort by tackles, it actually sorts by individual tackles, even if you're on the overall tackles column.  Also, when you select the option to check the stats, it doesn't refresh the menus, so you get the 2 new menu items, but it leaves the other 3-4 menu items on the screen (but you can't scroll to them or select them).

Tackling is weird--seems a bit better, but I've still had a few instances where my guy just throws his body at the ball carrier and bounces off.  Also ran into a case where I did one wrong thing, and I would have lost the game because of it (I restarted the game because I'm an asshole like that).  I got a turnover right before the end of the half, was up 13-7 and was on my opponents' 20 yard line.  I decided I was going to pass (although I was running all over them), got sacked for a 10 yard loss, then got sacked for another 10 yard loss, then threw an INT that was returned for a TD and completely changed the complexion of the game.  From then out, I couldn't do anything right and would have lost if I hadn't restarted the game.

Recruiting is pretty much the same--I went ahead and bought all the time-savers to see if that would help.  I've been able to sign a couple of guys just by offering them a scholarship without doing much recruiting (if I was #1 on their list).

Almost half way thru first season with FSU in the SEC.  Just beat #2 LSU pretty handily.

Also started a Road To Glory session, which is pretty interesting so far.  I'm half way through that 8 game season, and decided to buy the 5 star upgrade for my guy to try and get a bit better.  Playing as a 6' 6", 245 lb RB and DT.  My son made his own player in RtG last year, and he was like 7-8 feet tall, 400 lbs.  He literally would take the ball and just run over people on the way to the endzone.

Finished RTG high school portion as the state champs, even though my team lost a couple of games.  Got scholarship offers from a ton of teams for both RB and DT.  Went for FSU (of course) to be a RB.  Started at 4th string and have worked my way to 3rd string after game 2 (even scored a TD already too).  It's weird, because you hit the button to "skip until on field" and sometimes the whole game will cycle through and you'll never see the field.  I get to challenge the guy at 2nd string next.  It's sort of like practice was/is on Madden--if you hit certain milestones, you move up the line.

Just beat OU in my dynasty on a last second FG and blanked UK to go to 5-0 and I'm #4 in the polls.

Oh, and if anyone does RTG, be warned:  The playcalling is idiotic.  My QB sucked.  I would break off a 30 yard run, and then they'd bench me for the QB to throw 3 incompletions and punt.  Only 1 game did they really utilize me, and that was pretty much only the first half.  I had 100+ yards rushing in the first half, plus a 35 yard TD catch.  I got to run the ball like 5-6 more times in the 2nd half.  We'd be up by 6 with less than 2 min. left, and the CPU would choose to keep throwing the ball.  Even after I was getting 5-7 yards a run.  Or we'd be inside the 5, and they would keep throwing.  One game we were 1st and goal on the 1 yard line--the CPU chose to do a pitch play where I got no blocking, and was tackled at the 3.  He then proceeded to run 3 straight pass plays, including "Verticals" which is essentially a hail mary play.  From the 3.  No points.  We lost the game by 2.

But, in the playoffs, the QB seemed to get his shit together.  The playcalling was still suspect, but the QB played better.  Oh, and he got sacked a lot, especially early in the season.