For those of you wanting to know an in-depth look into this years NCAA football title.
At first glance, the game looks great. The crowd looks realistic and excited, the grass/turf looks nice, and the players, although sometimes blocky on the sidelines, look decent as well. For those of you that care, there are no ref's on the field.
I then moved to the Campus Legend Mode, which seems so watered down and lacking compared to past NCAA titles on the last gen. FYI: I wanted to start as a Tight End, because that is the position I wanted to play in high school, but you didn't have the option. So WR it is....VERY BORING...so it was my next choice, a running back. Pretty much, you go through a couple high school games which only contribute to your "Caliber" score (1-5 stars) and then you move on to your college of choice (if you're good enough). Next, all you have the option of doing is continuously practicing for around 2 weeks to earn a starting job (seems too easy??) and participate in daily "Evening Events." Although interesting at first, these events lost my interest after my first season. This mode should have been so much better. It was missing things like fan mail, school transfers, a dorm room design, and just different components that have been seen and could have been easily implemented in the mode. I got to the middle of season number 3 before this mode lost my interest (of course i gotta finish it some time so i can Madden it up later)!
Alright, so I then moved to the Franchise Mode. You can't create a school to take over, so that was pretty disapointing. So then, I wanted to pick a team that was semi-average so i wouldn't be easily picking up recruits and making the game more of a challenge, so i went with Pitt. The first thing you will do will be recruiting up to 35 players who you think will eventually sign with your team. There is a "Create a Prospect" mode, but this was very disapointing when all 5 of my created prospects chose not to go with my team. To recruit a player, you must call them frequently (pretty much every week) and try to pitch your schools best points. You can also send them to a game and let them explore your campus (or whatever their interests want them to do). The whole recruiting aspect ,again, is interesting at first, but becomes a pain to call these multiple players frequently.
After that, you go right into your season, where I returned to the gameplay aspect (meaning, not just running the ball in Campus Legend). The passing mechanic in this game is SO difficult to get used to. You have to be absolutely still to throw a semi-accurate pass. The difficulty in this comes when you have multiple faster defensive lineman on you butt as soon as you snap the ball. Options (to me) are pretty difficult to run. They are also sometimes unrealistic because you will frequently see an opposing quarterback get tramped by two players, and the option lateral land perfectly into the running backs hands. Another fault in the gameplay is the turnovers. Everybody that has reviewed this game better have said something about it. It is very common to have around 6 turnovers every game...just on your team. Fumbling happens frequently so you don't want to run, and interceptions occur even more frequently. There are limited sliders to adjust this, but they still do not get rid of the problem. Defense is sometimes pretty frustrating because the hit stick (which i feel is one of the most satisfying components of EA's footbal titles) is very unresponsive and tough to execute. Also, tacklers will frequently just fall off of a ball carryer. I mean, I know i am running with Pittsburgh's defense but come on. Sometimes a running back will break through about 3 different tacklers before he is even slowed down. Gang tackles are a great addition and slightly make up for the frustrating defensive experience.
As I said before, things are missing. Even simple things like displaying the word "FUMBLE" on the screen would be nice so i'd actually know that the ball is loose and about to be picked up for another turnover. Things like the Pulse Meter take away SO much meaning in being at home. Pretty much, if you're at home, there is no real difference. Even if you adjusted the sound sliders to make the crowd louder than anything, i still don't get that feeling of great college football.
Another complaint about the sound is the fact that normally, NCAA titles have the best soundtracks (in my opinion) because the normally get some younger, more upbeat bands. This time around, there are no song tracks. Yes, you will sit there and listen to numerous school fight songs...which yes, will put you in a college experience, but will also require you to take 2 Asprins every time you play. Every menu you enter will have those fight songs. Enough is enough with the headaches.
But hey, enough complaining. Although the game has it's faults, and there are a lot of them. It is still a solid game. This game has kept my attention for quite a long time, and I have been playing almost non-stop in my free time after work. The reason? If you are patient enough, you will get used to the game's gameplay faults, and it will start to pull you in like a typical football title. I just really hope that these gameplay and content shortcomings will NOT be seen in Madden. My fear is that fact that it is EA Sports, and it is very likely to occur!!