| NCAA Football 14 Published and Developed by EA Sports/Tiburon Available Now Review Platform: PS3 Reviewed by: Lexicon |
EA Sports is back with it's annual College Football title: NCAA Football 14. It's also a return to the series for me, having felt betrayed last year by the omission of the sole reason I usually bought the NCAA game for: Importing rosters to Madden. But it wasn't just that, it was the gameplay of 13 that left me shrugging my shoulders and delivering the forearm shiver to the series for the first time since I started buying these games, starting with NCAA Football 2002. The demo left a lot to be desired last year and the new features EA tried to implement with the matrix-esque bullet time function made the game feel cheap. NCAA Football 13 has never been in my library of games and it probably never will. I just can't be sold on it (unless it's free, of couse).
Alas, it's a new year and I owed it to the series to at least download the demo, especially with the announcement that the Import Draft Class feature would be returning for 14. I played the demo, and honestly, it didn't blow me away. On the other hand, I heard nothing but glowing reviews from the majority of gamers that partook in the demo and wondered what they were seeing that I wasn't. Regardless of being unimpressed, I still bought 14 with the intention of using the rosters for Madden 25, which doesn't come out until late-August. After playing the game for the last 48 hours off-and-on, here's my take...
Alas, it's a new year and I owed it to the series to at least download the demo, especially with the announcement that the Import Draft Class feature would be returning for 14. I played the demo, and honestly, it didn't blow me away. On the other hand, I heard nothing but glowing reviews from the majority of gamers that partook in the demo and wondered what they were seeing that I wasn't. Regardless of being unimpressed, I still bought 14 with the intention of using the rosters for Madden 25, which doesn't come out until late-August. After playing the game for the last 48 hours off-and-on, here's my take...
Gameplay
Gameplay is the true hero of NCAA Football 14. What's different this year? Something big. In NCAA Football, you can now make cuts using the left stick. Sharp cuts, too. Now, it might not sound big, but trust me, it's a game changer. You no longer have to fiddle around with the right stick to juke and cut up the field, although you can if you'd like. All you need to do is cut on the left stick while running, and BAM! You'll leave defenders in your dust... hypothetically. Whether you make the right cut is up to you. It's a natural motion that will allow you to surprise your opponent, and sometimes even surprise yourself! Players plant hard into the turf, and it's hilarious to see defender's "ankles break" when you humiliate them. Here's an example from one of my Dynasty Mode games:
The run blocking has improved as well, though it's not perfect. Most of the times, you'll see your blockers get after defenders down the field, but there are times where they take a play or two off. I get that not every play goes well on the blocking front in real life, but some of the missed blocks are as boneheaded as it gets. The pass trajectories work great and never once did I cry "SUPER LINEBACKER!" That's not to say plays weren't made ala Manti Te'O, but they were never outrageous.
My RB feeling the effects of Infinity 2.0 Making it's debut in the NCAA Football series is the Infinity Engine, EA's real time physics engine that first made it's first appearance in Madden 13. But this isn't just the Infinity Engine, it's the Infinity Engine 2.0! What's that, you ask? Basically, it's a finely tuned version of the regular Infinity Engine. It works pretty well, but it still holds a problem I had with the first engine after it was patched early in Madden 13's life cycle. Allow me to explain: In the Madden 13 demo, the Infinity Engine was a bit over-the-top, but that also made it very fun to play. Soon after Madden 13 was released, the game was patched to tone down the Infinity Engine. This, in a sense, neutered the engine for me, and worse yet, it still left the bugs and awkward animations for us to laugh at. Infinity Engine 2.0 is still on the tame side, but the awkward animations are gone for the most part. The thing that got me most excited to see was the way ball carriers put a hand out to brace themselves when running behind a blocker, whereas last year you would have ran into your blocker and tackled yourself, Mark Sanchez-style.
Also prominently featured this year is the popular Read Option offense, which works well and is a blast to use, once you pass the chemistry class that is the Oregon Playbook that is. Ok, so it's not that difficult to get, but you have to be on top of things at all times. This fast-paced style can turn disastrous if ran improperly. Luckily there's the all-new Nike Skills Trainer to lead the way! This mode is essentially a practice mode that allows you to experiment with the new controls and new playbooks in the game. Certainly a welcome addition to those who don't like to just jump into the fire.
A huge part of college football is the pageantry and atmosphere. It's something I always look for, and I'm happy to report that NCAA Football 14's atmosphere, while not spot on, is better. You'll hear and feel the difference between playing at San Jose State and playing at Boise State. All but one team (Baylor) seems to have their fight songs in this year, something that had been an issue in 13, as detailed by Owen Good of Kotaku. The crowd chants things like 7 Nation Army and Zombie Nation, both staples of real life college football. The crowd does fall flat at times when it shouldn't, however. Right after you make a big play that keeps you in the game or gives your team a late lead, often times you won't even hear a smidgen of crowd reaction.
Gameplay is the best it's been in the series, and it's about time that it's all come together. Gameplay is the glue for any game, and NCAA Football should be proud of the point it's gotten to.
Also prominently featured this year is the popular Read Option offense, which works well and is a blast to use, once you pass the chemistry class that is the Oregon Playbook that is. Ok, so it's not that difficult to get, but you have to be on top of things at all times. This fast-paced style can turn disastrous if ran improperly. Luckily there's the all-new Nike Skills Trainer to lead the way! This mode is essentially a practice mode that allows you to experiment with the new controls and new playbooks in the game. Certainly a welcome addition to those who don't like to just jump into the fire.
A huge part of college football is the pageantry and atmosphere. It's something I always look for, and I'm happy to report that NCAA Football 14's atmosphere, while not spot on, is better. You'll hear and feel the difference between playing at San Jose State and playing at Boise State. All but one team (Baylor) seems to have their fight songs in this year, something that had been an issue in 13, as detailed by Owen Good of Kotaku. The crowd chants things like 7 Nation Army and Zombie Nation, both staples of real life college football. The crowd does fall flat at times when it shouldn't, however. Right after you make a big play that keeps you in the game or gives your team a late lead, often times you won't even hear a smidgen of crowd reaction.
Gameplay is the best it's been in the series, and it's about time that it's all come together. Gameplay is the glue for any game, and NCAA Football should be proud of the point it's gotten to.
Dynasty Mode
Terry Rodgers, my ace WR, ended up being a 1st Round Draft Pick, giving me an extra 500 XP Dynasty Mode doesn't look all that different from the previous 4 or 5 editions, but it is. That's thanks, in large part, to the new recruiting in the game. No longer will you have to worry divvying up time to visit your students or calling them on the phone to guess what sorts of things your potential new recruits are into. Instead, you are allotted points. Now, these points vary depending on your Coaching Level, so I can only go off of what I started out as. I decided to take a challenge, and I recommend you do the same if you're going to dive into this mode. That challenge was Offensive Coordinator (which I will now refer to from here on as OC) for the San Jose State Spartans. SJ St is a 1 Star (out of 5) prestige school, but had a good season last year and also has a potential top draft pick QB in David Fales. Of course NCAA doesn't have actual players names in the game, so his last name was Seward. EA is currently fighting a player likeness lawsuit, but that's for another article.
Photo courtesy of PastaPadre.com You'll start your recruiting year off by looking at the pool of soon-to-be students, where they're ranked, where they're from, and what positions they play. You then target a list of recruits and that's when the points factor in. I was given 5,000 points per week to divide among the recruits as I saw fit, but I could only spend a max of 500 on each player. You also get bonus points that can exceed the 500 point maximum if you meet some of their criteria such as playing time, proximity to home, or a number of other situations. You'll be competing against a number of other schools, so you always need to be aware of where the recruit is leaning. For that there is a graph showing the contending schools and how many points apart they all are. I was scouting the #1 QB in the state, who happened to be interested in my little program, but Oregon got to him early and sealed the deal within the first half of the season. The next top target on my list was a DE from in-state. This DE was different in that he waited the whole season to choose his landing spot. I ended up losing him to Stanford by a measly 35 points. Thirty... Five...
Anyway, you'll also need to schedule some of your targeted recruits for school visits. You can choose to welcome them for a home game or a bye week. You only get a certain amount of points for a bye week, but a home game introduces many modifiers into the mix. These modifiers include goals as simple as winning a game or throwing for over 250 yards to more difficult tasks like getting a certain amount of sacks with a certain position. This makes nearly every game important in one way or another, whether that be to win for your current season ranking or to win for the future of your squad. This, combined with the fun gameplay, is what kept me wanting to play. You also have to be careful. There were many times where I was so focus on reaching the visiting recruits goals that I got off my gameplan and got in trouble of losing the game. There's a fine line you'll have to walk, and that keeps things exciting.
I went 11-3 with San Jose State, losing to #3 Stanford, Utah State, and #8 Boise State in the MWC Championship game. I won the MAACO Bowl in Las Vegas, and overall, I consider it to be a good year that we can continue to build off of. At the end of the year, I was offered a four year contract extension to return to San Jose State. I accepted, but you can also check out the other options available. I did notice some odd occurrences with the coaching carousel, such as Nick Saban (or the G. Williams to the generic roster names) won yet another National Championship beating out Johnny Manziel (who won another Heisman and put up even more ridiculous number than last season), but decided to leave Alabama for Virginia Tech. Things like that could potentially kill it for some players, but all-in-all it's a video game. Whacky stuff happens.
Anyway, you'll also need to schedule some of your targeted recruits for school visits. You can choose to welcome them for a home game or a bye week. You only get a certain amount of points for a bye week, but a home game introduces many modifiers into the mix. These modifiers include goals as simple as winning a game or throwing for over 250 yards to more difficult tasks like getting a certain amount of sacks with a certain position. This makes nearly every game important in one way or another, whether that be to win for your current season ranking or to win for the future of your squad. This, combined with the fun gameplay, is what kept me wanting to play. You also have to be careful. There were many times where I was so focus on reaching the visiting recruits goals that I got off my gameplan and got in trouble of losing the game. There's a fine line you'll have to walk, and that keeps things exciting.
I went 11-3 with San Jose State, losing to #3 Stanford, Utah State, and #8 Boise State in the MWC Championship game. I won the MAACO Bowl in Las Vegas, and overall, I consider it to be a good year that we can continue to build off of. At the end of the year, I was offered a four year contract extension to return to San Jose State. I accepted, but you can also check out the other options available. I did notice some odd occurrences with the coaching carousel, such as Nick Saban (or the G. Williams to the generic roster names) won yet another National Championship beating out Johnny Manziel (who won another Heisman and put up even more ridiculous number than last season), but decided to leave Alabama for Virginia Tech. Things like that could potentially kill it for some players, but all-in-all it's a video game. Whacky stuff happens.
Photo courtesy of EASports.com The biggest RPG element in 14's Dynasty Mode lies within the new Coach Skill Tree. As a coach, you earn XP (separate from the recruiting XP) by accomplishing small and large goals throughout the season. Smaller goals will consist of winning games and reaching certain game-by-game stat targets while larger goals will ask you to score 50 TD's in a season or sign a certain caliber recruit. That XP will boost your level, and those levels bring you perks. There are level caps for coordinators (level 27) and head coaches (somewhere around 50). Every time you level up, you get 1 point to spend in the Skill Tree. Honestly, it's hard to really call this a "Skill Tree," but I guess, in the most basic sense, it is just that. You won't be able to unlock certain perks without fully unlocking the lower perks first. Perks consist of a boost to your player's ratings to extra recruiting points. The recruiting perks will be the be the easiest to recognize right-out the gate, I would imagine. I personally didn't reach those perks as an OC.
Building your career from the bottom of being a small time coordinator to a big time head coach seems to have a lot of longevity. The bland presentation in the menus does bring Dynasty Mode down a notch or two, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to level-up my coach and improve my squad. If you start your career at the top, I can see the mode getting tedious much sooner, so as I stated before, I HIGHLY recommend starting from a smaller school. The gameplay had to be really solid to go along with this new dynasty mode, and thankfully that was all on point. There are some logic quirks with the AI when you're running only one side of the ball though. I was in Triple OT and had just scored a TD in the second possession to tie the game at 37. An extra point would have won the game, but the AI forced me to go for two, since the Head Coach controls Special Teams. Also, when you're playing as a coordinator, you don't get the full game presentation. Often times you'll miss the halftime show because you weren't controlling the game when the half hit, and you also won't see the game updates from Reece Davis throughout the game. There is a new ESPN score ticker on the bottom of the screen which is the best ticker I've ever seen in a game. The scores update in real time and the ticker will cut in with "priority scores" that directly affect your team and "upset alerts" when an unranked squad is downing a top 25 team. It's an enjoyable experience, and probably the most fun I've had with Dynasty Mode, ever.
Building your career from the bottom of being a small time coordinator to a big time head coach seems to have a lot of longevity. The bland presentation in the menus does bring Dynasty Mode down a notch or two, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to level-up my coach and improve my squad. If you start your career at the top, I can see the mode getting tedious much sooner, so as I stated before, I HIGHLY recommend starting from a smaller school. The gameplay had to be really solid to go along with this new dynasty mode, and thankfully that was all on point. There are some logic quirks with the AI when you're running only one side of the ball though. I was in Triple OT and had just scored a TD in the second possession to tie the game at 37. An extra point would have won the game, but the AI forced me to go for two, since the Head Coach controls Special Teams. Also, when you're playing as a coordinator, you don't get the full game presentation. Often times you'll miss the halftime show because you weren't controlling the game when the half hit, and you also won't see the game updates from Reece Davis throughout the game. There is a new ESPN score ticker on the bottom of the screen which is the best ticker I've ever seen in a game. The scores update in real time and the ticker will cut in with "priority scores" that directly affect your team and "upset alerts" when an unranked squad is downing a top 25 team. It's an enjoyable experience, and probably the most fun I've had with Dynasty Mode, ever.
Final Thoughts
So it all sounds pretty good right now, right? This has got to be the best game in the series.... RIGHT?! That's hard to say, to be honest. I like NCAA Football 14, but the problem with this game is polish. For all the neat new features and smoothed out gameplay, there are just as many rough areas. The CPU AI can be downright sickening with some of it's playcalling, especially late in games. The Infinity Engine seems to still be accounting for a ridiculous amount of dropped passes, an issue with the engine last year in Madden. The presentation can still be underwhelming, especially in bigger games like conference championships. There's currently a bug that has a large amount of teams sporting grey facemasks, a problem I didn't really think much of at first, but when you get teams like Virginia and Florida State wearing them, it's just not right. The game also looks murky and there is a lot of texture pop-ins. The crowd and many stadium backgrounds look awful. It seems almost as though graphics have regressed for EA Sports football games throughout this generation. Maybe that's something they're giving up in favor of other data being put onto discs.
The fact is that this will probably be the last time I play NCAA Football on this generation of consoles. By this time next year, I'll be waist deep in my PS4 and awaiting NCAA Football 15. NCAA Football 08 was my first game for my XBOX 360. The series has a very special place in my heart. But as good as NCAA is in some areas, it's also a reminder that it's time to move on. 14's a tough game to recommend to the casual gamer, but if you're a college football fan in the least, it's worth picking up. NCAA 14 is a game that can reach the National Championship, but it won't win the big game. Still, I can appreciate the product that was put out this year and I think you will, too.
The fact is that this will probably be the last time I play NCAA Football on this generation of consoles. By this time next year, I'll be waist deep in my PS4 and awaiting NCAA Football 15. NCAA Football 08 was my first game for my XBOX 360. The series has a very special place in my heart. But as good as NCAA is in some areas, it's also a reminder that it's time to move on. 14's a tough game to recommend to the casual gamer, but if you're a college football fan in the least, it's worth picking up. NCAA 14 is a game that can reach the National Championship, but it won't win the big game. Still, I can appreciate the product that was put out this year and I think you will, too.
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