EA Sports NCAA Football 12 Review

This week we're back on the review trail (No, not Crysis 2...soon, soon) taking a look at the newly released 2012 edition of EA Sports popular College Football Title. I've had my hands on the game for a few days now and was able to dive into several modes to give you detailed feedback. Full disclosure time: I am a huge College Football fan (Go Noles!) and an unabashed fan of EA's NCAA Football Series. As a result, I am also a harsh critic of the game as I expect it to be one of the best sports sim games every year.

So with that out of the way, here's my breakdown of NCAA Football 12.

Every year when this game drops, it is like Christmas in July for fellow NCAA Football fanatics like myself. Sometimes Christmas is amazing, sometimes it's just okay. This year I can honestly say that this game offers the best football experience of the current generation of gaming. Madden comes out in another month or so, but it will have a hard time beating out this game in my opinion.

This year, the NCAA Football team have introduced a number of long-requested features that enhance the overall gaming experience.

For Dynasty fans, they have introduced a Coaching Carousel that allows you to assume the role of a head coach, offensive coordinator, or defensive coordinator and work your way through the ranks of a simulated college football coaching career. Coaches will retire, coaches will get fired, and if you meet your goals you will get offers for better jobs. I simulated to the end of one season in dynasty as the defensive coordinator at Bowling Green where the team went 7-5. Offers came in from a variety of schools. This really increases the immersion factor in dynasty mode as there is now some variety to playing through several years.

If you choose to be an offensive or defensive coordinator, you will only "coach" or control that side while playing the game. You can choose to watch or simulate the side you don't control. As a head coach you play both offense and defense. You can also recruit both sides of the ball no matter which position you currently hold with your team. You can set ages, appearance, alma mater and names for every coach in the game as well.

Road to Glory (RTG), the one player mode that focuses on your player path through a college career, has also gotten an overhaul. Whereas before you could play through the high school playoffs, you are now given the option to import your high school team's uniforms into the game (via Teambuilder), a play a shortened or full senior season (11 games) plus the playoffs, and get recruited in a much more realistic manner.

You can also choose to play iron man football (both offense and defense) and get recruited on both sides. Once you pick a college from your list of offers, it's off to fight for a starting spot at your chosen position and a shot at the record books through the next four years.

Custom Playbooks also debut this year, allowing you to choose hundreds of plays to craft the perfect playbook of your choosing on both Offense and Defense. I spent the better part of last night recreating my old high school defensive playbook to terrorize opposing offenses in the game.

Both Custom Playbooks and Coaching Carousel are also available for the Online Dynasty Mode whose additions and add-on pricing I spoke about in last week's post about the EA Online Pass.

The gameplay, as I'll detail below, has seen significant tweaks making this year's game much more than just a simple update to last year's title.

Pros

There is already a patch available that addressed some early issues that were affecting gameplay issues out of the box.

A new dive button has been added to assist in grabbing those just out of reach throws for a big gain. So far I like it as well as the new tackle button on defense. It takes a little getting used to if you are used to utilizing the old hit-stick to make sound tackle, but the new addition is a welcome one.

Defense is much improved. I actually get a decent pass rush this year without having to resort to a blitz every play. Computer AI seems to have been tweaked significantly as the computer QBs will scramble more, run the option better and RBs seem to have better field vision when it comes to following blocks and breaking off big runs north to south. Overall there is just a better smoothness to the gameplay and a better flow in terms of on-the-field movement and the transition from play to play.

The graphics received an upgrade as well and are absolutely stunning. The dynamic lighting effects really show off the beauty of the game. I actually have both versions of the game and while the Xbox 360 version does look smoother, the PS3 game is just as gorgeous to look at.

Another plus is the dynamic attendance feature which sees crowds leave sooner in games that are blowouts or start off small for teams that are in the midst of pathetic low win seasons.

Cons

While I do hear a difference in the crowd noise from large full stadiums to smaller school venues, the overall quality of the audio is pretty low. Overall there are too many moments when, during a tightly contested matchup, the crowd seems dead or half asleep. When they do go nuts, meaning the stadium is rocking and the sound level rises, it is not maintained long enough and the overall sound is too low. Boosting the output on your TV or connecting to surround sound helps a ton, but it shouldn't be necessary.

There is also a noticeable degradation in endzone font and midfield logo quality for downloaded Teambuilder teams. While not overly noticeable to me during gameplay, this can be an eyesore during closeups and replays where the edges of the text appear pixelated and the choppiness of the font graphics looms large. There also seems to be a bug that exists when creating your custom playbook where the plays will disappear if the playbook isn't put together in a specific way. I'm still messing around with this feature and testing it, so I don't have a sure-fire fix yet.

Score

Those issues aside, NCAA Football 12 is a very solid 9 out of 10. This game is well worth your $59.99. The various gameplay improvements, specifically the elimination of the infamous suction blocking which would force players into predetermined animations, and the better zone defense and tackling really make it an addicting football experience.

As always, feel free to follow my video game ramblings via Twitter @SavingsGCapes.