NCAA Football 14 - Xbox 360 Reviews

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Coming off two very weak efforts EA Sports needed to reestablish the NCAA Football franchise as something other than an also-ran to Madden. What used to be an innovative series has been anything but in recent years and when trying for new features they've failed miserably with the implementation and their assessment of what consumers truly desired out of the product.

While NCAA Football 14 doesn't break any new ground actual effort is immediately recognized in areas that have desperately needed it. The challenge from the CPU which can now execute all manner of plays along with the physics engine and incredibly responsive player control makes the game fun again.

Debuting in NCAA this year is the "Infinity" engine physics that were first found in Madden NFL 13. The physics have been refined limiting the number of goofy looking pileups and players tripping over one another. There is still some of that but they're more easily overlooked. The benefit to gameplay though far outweighs those occasional oddities. Each play feels much more dynamic and the outcomes appear far more realistic.

The CPU AI is one of the biggest advancements made with NCAA Football 14. The CPU runs a wide variety of plays well ones that it had always failed at in the past and operates more true to the styles of each individual school. I've been absolutely gashed on the ground by an up-tempo pro style running team and had trouble stopping a team that primarily ran the triple option. The CPU QB just makes much better decisions. Users are also able to utilize a number of plays that had never worked in the past and that really opens things up to more creativity and variety.

Blocking improvements drive the success seen in the running game. Though there are instances where a blocker will break off prematurely to go after someone on the next level those haven't been too frequent. Whether at the line of scrimmage or downfield the blockers can be trusted much more. That, along with the exceptional player control, makes running the ball immensely enjoyable. Controlling the ball-carrier with the left stick is really all one needs to cut or make guys miss but the right stick also offers up a number of combo moves.

A few other gameplay related notes: running the read-option is an absolute blast, there has been encouraging push by defensive tackles to create interior pressure, the presence of an actual pocket for the QB is great to see, and the new Coordinator camera angle is a nice option to have I just can't commit to it since it isn't in Madden. My main takeaway gameplay wise is that I'm able to play the game the way I have always wanted to, go heavy in the run game and utilize movement in the passing game, and the competent CPU presents a unique challenge in every game.

While gameplay has seen dramatic advancement one area that notably lags behind is the presentation and atmosphere. This has been a weakness of the series that has yet to near an acceptable level. Commentary is more stale than ever, post-play scenes are better but still don't completely mesh with the idea of TV presentation, and the atmosphere just doesn't live up to what is expected from game day. It doesn't even come across as well as it can on TV let alone for those who experience it in person.

As far as Dynasty mode goes I'm not deep enough in to analyze the effects of the changes but so far like the simplified process in recruiting. Getting rid of what some will still feel was depth truly it was artificial depth that made things tedious and few fully understood was a good move. The skill trees for coaches is intriguing (tying in goals and point accumulation) as are the scouting effects and planning of campus visits while custom playbooks being brought in was a crucial move. The in-game Dynasty related presentation such as the new halftime show to go with the studio updates and bottom line ticker all add to the feel that the games are important and part of a bigger world.

The streamlined menu navigation and quicker loading times may be overlooked by some but it is a vast improvement over what has been arguably the most sluggish sports game this generation in those areas. No longer am I dreading firing up the game and moving through the menus.

Another valuable addition worth mentioning is the Nike Skills Trainer. EA has managed to create a tutorial that not only teaches well but is challenging to complete and has some rewards at the end in the form of Ultimate Team cards. I managed to get a feel for things like the Triple and Shovel Options that I never bothered to try and figure out in the past and now may choose to integrate in my gameplans and custom playbook.

Authenticity remains a problem with NCAA Football 14. It's astonishing how many uniforms are missing and stadium renovations not reflected. The new Husky Stadium isn't even in the game which makes playing as Washington far less appealing for me. I've actually hunted for different teams to use solely because of that and it's a bummer. For the most part only fans of the teams are likely to notice such specific omissions but there are a hell of a lot of fans of teams who are missing something. These are not things that sprung up as last second surprises but rather have been ignored, dismissed, or overlooked. EA will have difficulty hooking consumers for the long term when they fail to pay the proper attention to the specifics of each program.

Some issues spotted in early play include safeties stopping their drop back and coming forward when they shouldn't allowing for deep routes to be wide open. This seems to occur primarily when multiple receivers are going deep (hail mary and four verticals as examples). There are some reports of turnovers in the end zone resulting in a touchdown or ball placement on the wrong 20. The CPU almost never (I've yet to see it happen with 40+ games started) chooses to receive when they win the coin toss. Also somehow it's 2013 and there still are no surprise onside kicks despite that being a legitimate strategy coaches have at their disposal and attempt from time to time.

Ultimate Team has a lot interesting ideas that have been implemented but it falls short with some of them either due to limitations or aspects that went overlooked. Having professional players and some legends re-created as their college selves is pretty neat and legendary teams comprised of them are cool to go up against. The number of players who look nothing like themselves, not being able to challenge friends to head-to-head games, and the inability to see how the opposition's team shapes up hurts the mode though.

Despite the deficiencies the bottom line is that the fun factor is back with NCAA Football 14 thanks to the gameplay enhancements and changes in Dynasty. Two troubled iterations are now in the rear view mirror and this one has at least stepped back into adequate territory and may resonate far better than that with many. Other thoughts will be included after additional time is spent Dynasty, online play, and the new Ultimate Team mode.

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Look, by now you either know what NCAA Football and Madden are or you're probably not interested. They're football video games. This is more of that. If I hadn't lost last year's version in a move, I would have regretted this purchase.

In this version, EA crammed in four new features that I can think of, though I'm sure EA marketing can think of more:

1) Trading Cards

The trading cards are a dumb gimmick, but if you've ever wanted to collect electronic trading cards featuring former college athletes, well, I guess you might like them. It's part of a new mode featuring online and single-player games that let you build a custom team. If you say 'well isn't that kind of what Dynasty mode was already?' you'd be right.

2) RPG-Style Coach Skill Trees

This is my favorite new part of the series, but mostly because I think an RPG-Sports genre bender sounds amazing. You level up your coach and can follow a skill tree, choosing to be better at different aspects of your game. Not that deep, but at least novel.

3) New physics engine

For all the hype, their new physics engine is horrible. They tout 'bone-crunching tackles' and et cetera, but in reality what has changed is that you will regularly see players falling all over each other after a play is over and achieve never-before-experience levels of frustration as your dumb AI lineman trips up your HB more effectively than ever before.

4) A tutorial (finally)

Another definite positive. These games have long been inaccessible unless you already know everything about football, and their clear disregard for people who just want to learn the game was always baffling. Finally they've added a tutorial, though from the blatant ad placement it seems that Nike actually led the effort. It'll teach you when to do what and why and then let you practice, and it's great. If, though, you already know the stuff, don't expect 20 reps of an option play to be too fun.

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Another new feature for this year: Now includes a bug that causes Kirk Herbstreit to continually mock you (in the same voice clips from last year) for going for it on fourth down, regardless of whether you do so.

Look, the rules of football haven't changed much since last year. If you want a new version of the same tired football game that asks for $60 and then spams you with pleas for microtransactions and in-game advertisements, this is for you. If you already have last year's version, don't get it. EA needs to stop this annualized garbage until they decide to actually innovate.

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Its another year of NCAA Football. I had the pleasure of getting to play this game since Friday with the EA Sports Season Ticket Package. This is my last year having EA season tickets since I'm not sure what system I will be playing NCAA on next year. Anyway let's talk about football....

This is it for current generation consoles. I don't see things getting much better for the NCAA franchise until the next generation systems really start to blossom. The gameplay is very similar to last years. This year there is more emphasize on smoother running animations than anything else. Juke moves look more natural than ever and spin moves still work to well. The graphics look the exact same as the last 2 years. Nothing improved at all. I managed to make it through 2 seasons of Road to Glory and 2 season of a Dynasty over the weekend and both modes feel the same as last year with a few dynasty mode changes... In Dynasty mode the recruiting is streamlined. Instead of making phone calls every week you simply allocate points to each player that carries over from week to week. No more talking to each player about special things your school is known for. Honestly I think it's almost too dumbed down. There is really nothing special to do. Allocate your points, offer a scholarship and simply play the season. The recruit visits are a little different this year in you can get more bonus points for your recruits if you do certain things during the game. For example you have a WR visiting your school week 11 and he wants you to throw for more than 250 yards in the game. IF you do he gets bonus points. Nothing special but it adds a little different challenge to those games. I found myself a couple times trying to pass for 250 yards, Rush for 100 and get 2 picks and 3 pass deflections all in the same game to appease all my recruits in town. The biggest change to recruiting comes in the off season. Now you only have 1 week to recruit in the off season. You can put all your points into a single player if you wish... As I said before the whole recruiting system is far to dumb down for what I'm use too. The whole point of playing dynasty is to go through the recruiting phase, not a streamlined allocate points and forget about them system. Then again NCAA killed the whole point of recruiting when they allowed users to be modified teams during the season. Simple start a game with any team you want and you can change all your players to 99's if you want. Then you can simply recruit 1 star prospect and make them 99's once they join your team.... I'm sure some people like all-star squads but it makes recruiting absolutely pointless.

The new feature I liked the most in this year's addition is definitely the skills tree for coaches. As your play through dynasty games your coach earns XP that can be spent on different upgrade for recruiting or gameplay. Sort of like Madden's introduction of XP last year. At first I was really excited but after playing through 2 seasons the only real benefit my coach received was I able to get more recruiting points each week. I wish the decisions I made had a bigger impact on the game but it's their first year with this new XP system.

The Big Question most people know already is can draft classes be exported to Madden?... Yes they can. Its back which is great because without draft classes my purchase of NCAA last year was pointless.

So that's about it for the new features. I know I'm leaving stuff out like the fact there are 20 different new option plays and things of that nature but they don't drastically change ones viewpoint on the game. Honestly NCAA FOOTBALL 13 was a better game but didn't have the draft class option which made people hate it. Some people will really like the new recruiting. I'm pretty indifferent about it but honestly preferred the old method of learning about players interests and trying to appease them. However like I said before the new XP system makes you feel like you can sort of customize your coach to your play style. Even if after 2 seasons your choices don't do much on the field for you. If you are an NCAA fan this is probably the best its going to get on current gen consoles so I recommend picking it up.

Honest reviews on NCAA Football 14 - Xbox 360

Love this game....If you bought NCAA 13 then you better buy this one....The Run Game is better this year an the recruiting is more challenging....no longer can you just recruit all the top 10-15 5/4 star recruits....now its actually a fun challenge. An I love the trait thing for the coaches that affect gameplay an recruiting. It can really make or break a teams possibilities.

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For anyone curious about the title, well a short explanation is that NCAA ended their licensing agreement with EA Sports. Also after the recent lawsuit, EA is done making future College football games as of now. Which to me is disappointing because EA was really starting to pick up their game and had a great looking future of NCAA games ahead. With that said I will start the real review, with what I liked and disliked about the game.

This year it seems the mechanics were a lot more polished than previous versions of NCAA Football. Now I've been buying the NCAA Football games since '04, (With the exceptions of '09, '10, and '12) 2006 has always been my favorite version from the series, and to be honest, it's been hard to find one since then to match it. EA Sports has been known to just throw out a new version year after year, with no big changes. This really goes for Madden as well, but there is always something special about the College football games that I liked. For one, it's the atmosphere of the crowd, that's 1 thing they can never seem to get right with Madden. Madden always feels too dull (Nowadays anyways) whereas NCAA always felt energetic and fun.

This year they have made a lot of steady improvements with the infinity engine. Initially I was disappointed when playing Madden 13 (When they introduced infinity physics) the gameplay didn't really grasp me, so I was a bit wary when I heard they were bringing pretty much the same thing to this years version of NCAA. Well my initial doubts were quickly thrown out when I played the demo and realized how much better the game felt. Now having it and playing it quite a bit, it is a huge improvement over last years game and the years before that. It even works much better than Madden. It feels like a real college football game again, no more of players "gliding" across the field, no more stiff looking animations. The game plays much more fluid now, with the players actually being able to make cuts, and they actually look like they run now. Before the running animations seemed off, and clunky. NCAA 13 was fun, but NCAA 14 has really set the bar. A bar that can no longer be passed with the cancellation of the series lol.

If you're a fan of the series, you'll love the new look, the players look more realistic. Catching, running, tackling animations are much more realistic this year. The atmosphere is still there and better than ever, which like I said before is 1 thing I always enjoyed about the series. Whether you like to play with friends or like to win the championship in Dynasty mode, you will love this installment of the franchise.

Dynasty Mode: My favorite mode I use, it's pretty much the only mode I use anymore. This year they've fixed it and returned back to the days of old.

Recruiting: Is so much better this year, ever since they introduced the calling system of NCAA 11, I've been wanting back the system of 06 where you just used points to recruit your players. This year they finally brought it back! Don't get me wrong,I liked the calling system at first, but after the first few weeks in a season, you get tired of it really quick. It took you away from the time you could be playing the actual game. Now it's quick and simple.

Other than recruiting Dynasty mode hasn't changed a whole lot, in terms of features, but that really doesn't matter as all we really want to do is play football anyways right?

With that said I do have a few minor gripes about the game. The actual gameplay itself, like I said is really top notch and fun. There is always those lingering issues they can never seem to get right. The "Shoestring tackle" for instance, when you dive for a player a fair distance away and tackle them at the feet, EA Sports haven't really been getting this entirely right. As it is annoying when the CPU goes for a shoestring tackle and they are further away from me when they are on the ground, them bam, they fly forward and bring me to the ground. An annoying issue when you have an open hole to break a huge run, it can get annoying. Also interceptions in the game, I get they wanted a more fluid style of play, which is what they have created, but also it's annoying when you intercept the ball, you're holding down to run and the camera turns around then you're running away from where you want to. I do more so prefer the old stop, screen turns then you go. I guess this way can make things a little more interesting in some instances.

The Pause Menu: Ugh I don't know where to begin here, I don't get why they insist on changing this every year. To get a "Fresher look" I can understand that, but do they really have to make you go to such great lengths to find things? Like when you are in the game and need to use that 1 challenge you have, you have to pause, go over to strategy go down to coach's challenge. They could have just put it in the pause menu for in game use. It can be a nuisance to be looking around for something when you just want to get it over with to play the game.

There still is the other issues of calling a fumble from the QB an incomplete pass, when you look and it's clearly a fumble. You can't do anything about it though, the commentating is off in some parts of the game. Saying things that really don't make much sense to what is really going on in the game.

One last thing that annoys me this year, EA Sports finally brought back Draft class exporting. I've been wanting this feature back and the year they finally do it, the timing couldn't have been more worse. It's practically useless (to me anyways) with the problems I've been hearing about Madden again, and the fact that I didn't much care for the Madden demo again. I will be skipping on Madden this generation, and I'm holding out for Next-Gen to see if it is improved at all. (from what I've seen, no lol) With no NCAA on Next-Gen (Or anymore NCAA games at all for that matter) them bringing back draft class exporting is like a slap in the face. IMO.

Those are just a few of my minor gripes about the game, I'm sure I would have more, but no sports game is absolutely perfect, so those issues will always arise. I will finish by saying this is definitely the best NCAA I have played in a long time by far. If you are a fan of the franchise, then you really have to pick this one up. Because there is no more "holding out" for a better experience. The college football games are now finished it seems, and this being the last installment is perfectly fine with me, because this title will have longevity for the years to come, with downloadable rosters, the game should live on just fine for this gen. You can take this for what it is, it's just my opinion on the matter, buy the game you won't be disappointed.

TL;DR: Best one in awhile, Buy it. Lol