NCAA Football 13 Gameplay Trailer

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by Catamount53

I don't necessarily agree with that. Its not uncommon for players to modify their route if they know the route they are supposed to run is well covered and they see an open area in the defense. You hear it every game "finding the soft spot in the zone". That is all that this is supposed to simulate. This game does not yet have the AI where the receivers will do that on their own, so they give the user the ability to make it happen. I just hope in the future they tie this into a rating like route running or awareness to make it more balanced for the defense and more of a risk for the QB. I dont have a problem with it. My problem with the video is everyone abandoning their zones in the middle and leaving the FB wide open. Hopefully it is just a blown coverage and not a common thing.

I believe I understand what you and Illy are both saying but I don't see the mechanic that way. Like they said in the podcast I think it's representing "throwing a receiver open". I remember a couple years back when Kurt Warner threw/lead Boldin into that monster hit that got his jaw broken. Boldin was so focused on adjusting to the catch and following the ball that it lead him right into a big hit. That's how I see this feature when combined with receivers now trying to locate the ball in the air.

So hopefully we have a situation now where receivers are tracking the ball in the air and making sight adjustments because the ball is being thrown relative to where the receiver is. So if on a out route to the right sideline instead of targeting the 3 o'clock position on the left stick, I target the 2 o'clock and when the receiver looks for the pass, he sight adjust his route slightly northeast as a result of tracking the ball.

Last year we could have a receiver running an out route but you could throw the ball too early intentionally to make it a streak route, deep down field with the receiver and defenders going after a ball they shouldn't have been able to track. This year it seems like given that same scenario, the ball would be thrown in the vicinity of the receiver but would probably sail over their head but it wouldn't be thrown deep down field or change the WR's out route to a streak.

I don't think this will replace or simulate having receivers find the soft spot in zone coverage because they can only adjust to balls they see. So if a receiver is running a post pattern and they come open in the zone defense when running the streak part of the route, the QB can't cause him to break off that route right there by throwing the pass.

That said, the crazy thing is that the devs said there is logic built into the system that a receiver can be ready for a pass earlier if they are wide open. So that could essentially be utilized to simulate receivers finding soft spots in the zone depending how "open" they have to be to look for the ball early. However, that wouldn't cause them to sit down in the open space, it would just give an early window in the route for the QB to complete a pass.

At least this feature is creating discussion around real football techniques and strategy, instead of arcade football. lol

[noplace]

I just don’t understand how a sport that’s predicated on beating the person in front of you & winning 1 on 1 battles, things like momentum, weight and strength means nothing. Football is all about whose bigger, strong and faster, strategy comes next. EA has completely missed on this especially in the trenches where games are won and loss. Anyone that ignores this fact doesn’t respect the game.

This is why recruiting is so important. (At this point OL/DL recruiting does not matter at all)

Adding this would fix so much wrong with this game. It would change the way we recruit because it would really matter who’s on the field. It would change the way you approach your opponents strategically. Fact is EA doesn’t have to fix these things because its worked for them for so many years without a threat of losing the consumer for mediocrity and not meeting the demands of hardcore fans.

EA continues to tread the line between casual gamers and hardcore gamers. Until someone else makes a game & bring some serious competition I don’t see them changing much, even into the next gen.

[The_Gaming_Disciple]

Quote: Originally Posted by noplace

I just don’t understand how a sport that’s predicated on beating the person in front of you & winning 1 on 1 battles, things like momentum, weight and strength means nothing. Football is all about whose bigger, strong and faster, strategy comes next. EA has completely missed on this especially in the trenches where games are won and loss. Anyone that ignores this fact doesn’t respect the game. This is why recruiting is so important. (At this point OL/DL recruiting does not matter at all) Adding this would fix so much wrong with this game. It would change the way we recruit because it would really matter who’s on the field. It would change the way you approach your opponents strategically. Fact is EA doesn’t have to fix these things because its worked for them for so many years without a threat of losing the consumer for mediocrity and not meeting the demands of hardcore fans. EA continues to tread the line between casual gamers and hardcore gamers. Until someone else makes a game & bring some serious competition I don’t see them changing much, even into the next gen.

Agreed.

I really hope someone, if not 2K, another company with the skill and innovation enters into the market. Just my small prediction, NCAA will have a major moment such as NBA Elite did with their Passion of the Bynum a.k.a. Jesus Pose...

[Motown]

I have not played my NCAA Football 12 for almost a year...that should tell ya somethin'...that & 1 new controller

[demon19000]

We'll see what happens. Am I impressed? A bit. Am I overly excited? Not necessarily. I usually wait till I actually play it to make a large judgement. I'll buy it though. Even though they could improve things more, I still get way more than $60 of enjoyment out of it. I definitely understand where a lot of the criticisms come from, no doubt. Also it probably helps that I don't go it with big expectations every year.

[Illustrator76]

Quote: Originally Posted by Catamount53

I don't necessarily agree with that. Its not uncommon for players to modify their route if they know the route they are supposed to run is well covered and they see an open area in the defense. You hear it every game "finding the soft spot in the zone". That is all that this is supposed to simulate. This game does not yet have the AI where the receivers will do that on their own, so they give the user the ability to make it happen. I just hope in the future they tie this into a rating like route running or awareness to make it more balanced for the defense and more of a risk for the QB. I dont have a problem with it. My problem with the video is everyone abandoning their zones in the middle and leaving the FB wide open. Hopefully it is just a blown coverage and not a common thing.

But you can't realistically throw a receiver open by drastically changing his route based on where you throw the ball. It isn't physically possible. Look at that video. The TE IMMEDIATELY changes direction and cuts on a dime as soon as the pass button is pressed. That is unrealistic. The TE adjusts before he even knows where the ball is being thrown. If that is that case, then why have WR's run assigned routes? Why not just play sandlot football and tell guys to run wherever they want to and then just let the QB "lead them open"? Leading a WR open by throwing a ball in front of him (on a streak route for example) that drops behind the LB and in front of the safety playing a Cover 2 Zone defense is totally fine, but doing the same thing by "leading" a streak route into an out-route is unrealistic. Period. I played "other football" games whose passing system is superior to EA's and this type of thing simply isn't possible, the "other game's" passing system is route based, because it is grounded in reality. A receiver adjusting to the left or right on a poorly thrown deep bomb is totally different from him completely changing his entire route after the QB throws the ball.

Why worry about calling plays that beat certain defenses when you can just have your QB "lead" certain guys wherever he wants to? Why don't the pros do that then? Because it just isn't physically possible in most situations. I just don't like this, and I still feel like EA is cheating the defense in situations like this. When NCAA 13 drops and every offense is averaging 50+ points per game (and people are complaining because perfect defensive calls are being shredded by QB "lead passes"), Everyone can look to this post for my: "I told you so".

[Big FN Deal]

Illy I went back and looked at that play and I must admit the way the TE adjusted to the pass did not look organic. It appeared as if the TE was reacting to the left stick direction or knew where the balls was headed a little sooner than he should of, imo.

That said, he did "look back" for the pass before it was thrown though and the adjustment was only about 5 yards off the original route. So these things are improvements because last year, he would have adjusted without ever looking back and the pass could have been a streak down the seam 15-20 yards off the original route but the TE would have still chased it.

They also specifically said during that part of the video that you can lead or "throw a receiver open" in the direction he is heading. So hopefully it will not be possible to take that same out route heading towards the right and lead a "looking" receiver back left, against their momentum.

Now even though this was power point we are all aware of EA football's player movement animation issues so the way it played out probably will not look that much different in the retail but marginally at least. I personally can overlook what seems to be the usual quirky movement and a slightly early adjustment to the ball, in comparison to last year.

[Illustrator76]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

Illy I went back and looked at that play and I must admit the way the TE adjusted to the pass did not look organic. It appeared as if the TE was reacting to the left stick direction or knew where the balls was headed a little sooner than he should of, imo. That said, he did "look back" for the pass before it was thrown though and the adjustment was only about 5 yards off the original route. So these things are improvements because last year, he would have adjusted without ever looking back and the pass could have been a streak down the seam 15-20 yards off the original route but the TE would have still chased it. They also specifically said during that part of the video that you can lead or "throw a receiver open" in the direction he is heading. So hopefully it will not be possible to take that same out route heading towards the right and lead a "looking" receiver back left, against their momentum. Now even though this was power point we are all aware of EA football's player movement animation issues so the way it played out probably will not look that much different in the retail but marginally at least. I personally can overlook what seems to be the usual quirky movement and a slightly early adjustment to the ball, in comparison to last year.

I still disagree. That is not route based passing. In real life that ball sails over the WR's head because he is running an out-route and would not have enough time to slow his momentum and physically re-adjust in time to catch that ball unless he somehow jumped up and caught it. WR's running out-routes are not looking for balls thrown 5-7 yards over their head that they have to adjust to. They are looking for the ball in the spot that it is designed to go to for that specific route. Again, this is why we see a lack of incompletions in Madden without CB swats or WR drops; the passing game is just not restrictive enough and allows too many "video game" completions.

To each his own I guess.