Ever since EA Sports bought exclusive rights to American football from the NFL all the way down to pee-wee flag football, the games have always made it a point to remind gamers that EA is the butch and we consumers are the bitch. NCAA 14 is no different. They give us some new features this year, but there are a lot of things that previously worked that are no longer here.
I did not buy NCAA 13 for just that reason.
The Connected Careers features meant the Draft Class Exporting was no longer a thing. That pissed me off enough to ignore both college and Madden 13. I’m aware some people get the game and never play dynasties. They do just online games and single seasons (Me! – Moody). They’re out there, I know a few, but I don’t understand it (Sorry?).
It’s like going out for burgers and only eating the bun.
It’s like dating Kate Upton and only letting her wear high-neck shirts.
Seriously, what’s the point?
College football is about recruiting and building a program based on a roster that rotates players through on a regular basis. I’m sure the single serving fans liked NCAA 13 just fine. They can also be stuck in a boiler room with Roseanne Barr. Luckily, that mess is gone and draft class exporting is back! Thus, apparently, EA is capable of listening to gamers! Let’s make it a point to not forget that in the future.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
My excitement for the bevy of new features was tempered by the absolute farce that was the cover selection this year (oh, yeah, this matters. Second to recruiting, college football is all about unreasonable obsession. Don’t believe me? Just look at the statues schools are building now).
In years past, the cover athlete was a player who was a Heisman finalist or at least in the damn running. This year it was put to a popular vote and what do we get? A quarterback with a dead arm who doesn’t know how to tie his shoes; whose spot on the depth chart in his senior year was a yellow sticky note because his coaches had no fucking clue what to do with him. The runner up? A guy with so many concussions that he will probably never play again, and refers to himself in third person because he honestly believes he’s talking about someone else.
See what democracy gets you?
Now that we’ve got the package out of the way (that’s what she said!), lemme just say this: I hate the menus. They look like they are designed for people who can’t read, and that’s a tad bit funny since it’s a game about colleges. It also reminds me of Windows 8 (strike two, bucko). Once I found a complete roster edit with real names, I launched into my initial dynasty run (you might be able to suspend disbelief and believe that QB #2 for Texas A&M is Paul Black, but I respect myself and demand more out of life…).
Instantly, players get into things EA has added this year. There’s a goal system for coaches that earns XP for a Coaching Skill Tree. The balance on getting these points seems fair. It took me six weeks to hit my first level up with my coach. Each level up lets you unlock one skill. The skills are a mixed bag; some are useful, some less so. Head coaches get a game management and a recruiting tree. Coordinators have one tree pertaining to what side of the ball they coach.
You also get your first look at the new recruiting system (we’ll get into that later) and see some of the new faces on the list of teams (who let Old Dominion in here? This isn’t basketball!). But for the most part, it’s the same old preseason of making your schedule and setting up the recruiting board.
IT’S GAMETIME
NCAA 14 debuts the Infinity 2 engine, a more refined version of last year’s physics engine used in Madden 13. This is a big deal and is the biggest leap the franchise has made in years. While this may not appear a huge accomplishment initially — considering the core gameplay is nearly the same and the move was made to the current generation of consoles — Infinity 2 still affects the game in a number of positive ways.
Most notable of all changes is the lack of “vacuum tackles” that plagued the previous NCAA‘s. By shifting the tackling to body physics and making it less reliant on animation-based tackles, it’s now possible to squeeze through tighter spots if you’re positioned properly. The downside of the collision system is that you can be taken down by your own teammates. My running back has tripped over his tackles’ feet while trying to cut in too close on stretch plays, and he’s also ran right up the back of a big guard and bounced off and went down. Same goes for defensive backs on interceptions. There have been some epic collisions between corners and safeties going up for passes (…but that sometimes happens in football? – Moody).
The new engine also impacts the passing game. Receivers interact more realistically with defenders and can create space as they run routes. There’s also far less cheap interceptions by superhuman defenders. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve cussed out my TV because some scrub middle linebacker suddenly developed a 55” vertical leap and picked off a pass intended for a receiver 8 yards down field from him. Fuck those guys. Luckily that doesn’t happen as much anymore. Body position matters for defenders, meaning if you get a safety turned around on play action or a double move, you can zip a ball in right past him — and there isn’t much that can be done about it.
The option system has also been overhauled, making it more viable now than it ever has been. Pre snap icons display your option reads, and the blocking AI in the Infinity 2 engine actually opens holes for you. It also makes defending the option a bitch and a half…as it should be.
EA GIVETH, EA TAKETH AWAY
2005. That’s the high water mark for me. Not the actual year, but the NCAA 2005 game. For this Monsignor, that had some of the best dynasty features, including a truly great Team Discipline system. Not only did you have to work around injuries, but players sometimes had to be suspended for being entitled little dickheads. Oh look, the star running back missed curfew and is slacking in the classroom! You actually had the decisision to suspend the douche for a game or two (to keep your program respectable), or you could do the whole SEC thing — ignore said violations — and dare the NCAA to say something. Turn a blind eye enough and you could lose scholarships or get a bowl ban.
Why in nine hells can’t we have that again?
It’s more enjoyable than that Road to Glory abortion they keep forcing on us. Seriously, EA can go buy a case of Tollhouse cookie dough, and.. you know, forget it; I’m not playing your stupid ass Road to Glory. NO ONE IS!
The biggest takeaway this year is the Recruiting System, which has been freaking gutted. For real. The call & pitch system has been replaced by a vague point system wherein you assign X number of points to a recruit, then magically recruit fairies swept from behind the scenes and shit glitter on everything. Then, POOF, you’re 2,000 points behind the first place team and there’s no goddam reason to ever give for it. I get that the old recruiting system was tedious, but at least you knew what the fuck was going on. I find cooking tedious, but I don’t want to replace it with a system where I assign an arbitrary number of points towards cooking that is supposed to encapsulate my hunger level, cooking skill and what I’m in the mood to eat, then die of starvation the next day for no discernable reason.
As hollow as in-season recruiting is, the Off-Season is even worse. If you want to even call it an off-season. Instead of five weeks of recruiting and visiting, you get one week, a pile of points and no real direction. It’s almost like they forgot to do offseason recruiting and had to shoehorn it in the day before the game shipped. It’s kind of a mess. You get 10,000 points to use as needed, but it still doesn’t really make sense. It’s just assigning points and hoping everything is ok.
So, at least there’s Scouting. You can devote points to scouting that unlocks more and more stats until you know exactly what your recruit has going for him. There is also a gem/bust dynamic where your scouting could discover that little 3-Star recruit is actually rated in the high 70s or low 80s (what you’d expect from a 4 or 5 star recruit) or you that stud 5-star running back is an underachieving bust who really should be a 3-star. That I like. If that were combined with the old recruiting system, you’d have magic (and not lame ass Doug Henning magic; we’re talking about Cris Angel mindfuck magic that makes weak minded fools kill themselves in the street).
Take scouting, old recruiting and then bring back the program discipline system and you’re going to have to package the game with a Fleshlight. You do the math.
FINAL VERDICT
Just as it is every other year, NCAA 14 is kind of a mixed bag. What it does well, it does really well (and will probably mess up next year). What it doesn’t do well, it completely ruins. The play on the field is better, the play off the field is worse. There’s also a bunch of modes I didn’t and probably will never play (i.e. Road to Glory, Ultimate Team). I’m sure someone will find value in them, which is a shame because these are the things EA will keep — instead of devoting the resources to any of the countless features that worked in the past and were promptly shit-canned.
