OT: NCAA Football 13 Gameplay Chat (just finished)

Submitted by HartAttack20 on

Just caught the tail end of the EA Sports NCAA Football 13 live chat/reveal for the gameplay improvements, yeah I really had nothing better to do. I missed a lot of it, but I caught a few interesting changes they mentioned:

  • Improved realism on linebacker abilities (No more "super" linebacker picking off a pass that should be way out of reach).
  • New disguised coverage making it more difficult for WR motions to give away man or zone coverage.
  • Smoother read/pitch option mechanics.
  • Realistic coverage capabilities (this kind of goes along with the LB one, but it sounds like they took miraculous CB knock downs/INT's when they have their back turned to the QB).
  • Some playbook creation improvements that I didn't really pay attention to.
  • New special teams formations, realistic "lane" coverage.

That's all I really saw since I missed the first half or so of the show. It looks as thought they are actually improving on some big gameplay issues. It'll be interesting to see how much better some of those things are, mainly the ridiculous coverage abilities from past games, when the game comes out. Any other thoughts, or big improvements that I missed?

Ed: Just saw a post from EA Sports on the improvements. Link found here.

Owl

April 17th, 2012 at 3:41 PM ^

More control over pass trajectory, more catch animations, faster PA animation to cut down on automatic sacks, PA animation abortion to pick up blitzes, improved option pitching, improved pass on the run, if you don’t time your passes correctly the WR won’t be looking. I missed the second half (the bit you got), which seems to have worked out well.

Mr. Rager

April 17th, 2012 at 3:43 PM ^

FYI for anyone wondering who has NCAA 12 - there is a guy out there who updated the rosters for Xbox360 as soon as signing day was finalized.  So you can get your Pipkins fix on.  He rated everyone according to their Rivals ranking (e.g., 6.1 (five star) = 82 as a freshman).  I think he did a pretty good job.  It took me all of 10 minutes to edit Michigan's roster before I was happy with it.

I would post the kid's GamerTag but I am at work right now.  I will tell you I found it under NCAA Football - Rosters at OperationSports.com.  

ryebreadboy

April 17th, 2012 at 3:50 PM ^

Can they make it so I don't have to watch every single highlight at the end of each Legend mode game? Because seriously, why can't I skip those?

And yes, my favorite thing ever is the play action insta-sack. It will help tons if they can fix that.

Mr. Rager

April 17th, 2012 at 5:33 PM ^

Yeah that all got fixed, and then it reared its ugly head again.  I believe people were sick and tired of people cheesing online with fly routes, so that was EA's fix to the problem - make LBs superhuman.  Unfortunately, you can still cheese with Four Verticals all you want.  I really hope the superhuman LBs are "fixed" this year, and EA has implemented something real to fix the ease of the vertical passing game...

hart20

April 17th, 2012 at 3:52 PM ^

have major changes every year? Changes that supposedly fix those issues? I'll likely still buy the game, which is why EA can do whatever they want, but I won't believe it until I see it

Wolverine Devotee

April 17th, 2012 at 3:57 PM ^

They have put in the new HD scoreboards so now Michigan Stadium is complete.

I wish they would add the Spring Game feature they used to have on PS2. I miss those.

goblueritzy92

April 17th, 2012 at 4:01 PM ^

I hope they fix the QB running plays. Every single time there is a QB run, option, or zone read, the QB gets blown up in the backfield because it takes them forever to accelerate.

One Inch Woody…

April 17th, 2012 at 4:05 PM ^

In my opinion, their biggest improvement over the past 3 years has been the "sticky zones" in NCAA 12, which is really how it works in real life. That, and the "momentum" in tackling they put in NCAA 12. Together, they prevent people from just doing Dime defense (because the smaller DBs will get tanked by HBs) and from doing 4 verts every time (because all 4 vert routes will be covered in a cover-4 defense)

The non-super-linebacker thing becomes a problem when the offense is in a 00 set because then if you're playing base or nickel, you've got a linebacker on the split end and an over-the-shoulder pass will beat that guy (I adjusted my roster to have Darboh (74, 85 speed) at 6'2'' as the split end/Z2.. which totally kills all cover-4-ing linebackers on Darboh). 

The biggest problem right now is that the computer defense, if you just sim it, almost never does Cover-4 and in a poor simulation of game theory, tends to drop linebackers in coverage more than blitzing. That, and the idea of "momentum" in the game becomes way overblown. For example, I was Michigan playing Oregon and Oregon is up 21-0 at halftime... in the 2nd half: I kid you not, I completed ZERO passes because they would be zinged to Tacopants or dropped by the WRs. This needs to go. Maybe you can have the QB start breaking down with nerves in the 4th quarter, but NOT at the start of the 3rd. Oh, that and LBs CANNOT STALEMATE a pulling guard!! running QB power or HB power almost always requires a cutback.

JT4104

April 17th, 2012 at 4:08 PM ^

I actually hope the super safety and cb's are fixed. i dont know how many times I would run a nice combo route and the corner would come off of his man running a go and knock down or intercept a pass to the slot on a skinny post.

I actually didn't have a problem with the LB's....my biggest issue is the Oline full of guys in the mid 90's getting owned by 81 rated DE's.

Sinsemillaplease

April 17th, 2012 at 5:27 PM ^

but it only seems possible when the opponent is punting from the endzone. Punt returns on the other hand are pointless... even with an edited all 99 player returning the ball. I tried that a few times just for fun... it wasn't fun at all.

Amaizeinblue

April 18th, 2012 at 2:42 PM ^

I agree, I used to be able to return punts for TD's, I have yet to return one against anyone in the 12 version. Yeah the mascot stuff is cool the first time you see it but after that it's meaningless, the 13 version looks promising though. Shovel passing and blitz pick ups with be huge as well as knowing which receiver is paying attention, that drove me nuts in 12.

Danwillhor

April 17th, 2012 at 5:52 PM ^

THIS. EA football games this gen are trash. period. I still play NCAA 11 on PS2 because this gen is so bad for football games. players will still run like robots on ice, game will be animation based despite the loads of physics tech out there, still less features/options than less gen, etc. remember, it took 4 years on this gen of console for them to make a football game where the football rotated more than a SINGLE time on any pass, be it 10 yards or 50. just atrocious. But keep working on mascot games and legend mode, EA. Thats what the fans want..../s/