NCAA Football 13 (Part 2) - Dynasty Mode and a few other things

This is Part 2 of my "review" of NCAA Football 13.  For part 1, go here.

Played through one season on Dynasty mode.  A couple shining stars, but in all reality, it's glitter on a turd made up of a bunch of small things that really take away from a good experience.  Small things, that with a little thought, would really give this game a chance to be played without distraction.  Just some shining examples of laziness and lack of innovation.  This list kept getting longer as I went on:

• Building my coach - these guys still look incredibly unnatural and weird.  Can't EA pull non-football body figures and animations from something else?  Faces should be customizable as well.

• Coach philosophy is still confusing.  Never sure which side to put the slider depending on if I want to run or pass more.  If I slide it towards pass offense, I think it actually makes run offense larger.  And once I get into my dynasty and want to change it, the sliders are different, adding to the confusion.

• Conference realignment.  If I want to dissolve a conference, I should be able to.  Such as the WAC pretty much dissolving after this year.  And EA should have a patch to allow for automatic conference realignment with the moves we know are happening in the future (Boise St and co to Big East, Syracuse and Pitt to ACC).  I tried so hard to get it accurate, but small things like this will not allow me to do it (Sorry San Jose St. and Utah St. - you're still stuck in the WAC).  And it should adopt the playoff beginning in 2014.  Why, when we know how the rules will change in the future, we allow a game to play into the future without making these changes is beyond me.

• On that note, for things we know: If a team is going to be on probation and ineligible for postseason play, build that in.  Make it an option you can set to any team.  In fact, BRING BACK DISCIPLINARY PROBLEMS FOR PLAYERS AND PROBATION FOR SCHOOLS.  This was in previous games!

• Small thing.  When picking your team at the beginning, you can see a team's overall, offense, and defense ratings when they're not selected, but once you highlight it, it only shows you its prestige level, making it a nuisance to have to move it over to the side if you want to see the ratings. Just another UI issue.

• Somehow, without me selecting to, my saved roster with all names was saved over by the default roster, yet still with the save name of my specific roster.  Grrrrr.  At least I realized it very early before even selecting a team in Dynasty mode.

• More UI issues.  Been this way for a few years.  Looking at a roster, the trigger buttons SHOULD switch between positions, but only the right one does.  If you want to go back, you have to hold it down and scroll up.  Used to be you'd just hit the left one.  Instead, the left one is for switching through teams in the same bass-ackward manner.  The shoulder buttons aren't even used here and could be used for switching between teams.  Simple things like this - no thought whatsoever.

• On the schedule when picking games - let me see the date!

• **LOOKS LIKE MARKED IMPROVEMENT ON THE RECRUITING PITCH RATING SYSTEM.  YOUR SCHOOL'S RATINGS MAY ACTUALLY CHANGE BASED ON PERFORMANCE.  EXCITED TO SEE HOW THIS PLAYS OUT.  +1, EA.  +1.**

• And following that, of course, is the coach stability pitch.  Why does every single coach start at 0 years at the school? That's not the case at all!  If you have a problem putting this info in, EA, allow us to change this stat about each coach.  Most of us will given the chance.  Couldn't we change a coach's prestige last year? Doesn't seem like we can this year - and I don't agree w/ some of them.

• Also, the playing style pitch.  Great in theory, but if you play 5-minute quarters (default setting), you'll never get the kind of stats to make you competitive.  Even if your team is in the top 10, you might still find yourself at the bottom of these stats.  And some of the stats are very unclear as to what they actually represent - might be nice to have a little explanation, EA.

• In game, same as with RTG - if I'm a coordinator, let me watch the part of the game I'm not controlling uninterrupted!  Going to a different screen and having to hit a button to watch each play separately really disrupts the flow.

• What I do like is the addition of the studio updates.  Just found out about some big upsets happening on the first Saturday of the season.  However, Rece Davis's lines sound so canned and robotic that even Siri sounds more human and natural.  Also, like I mentioned before, it would be great if it could show video highlights.  All of these simulated games DO have stats, so detailed as to say when certain scores happened.  Why not just show what the play would have been?

• Just tried running the option.  Good thing it was against a terrible team - I meant to pitch it.  Years of muscle memory have taught me to hit a certain button to pitch it.  However, that easily accessible button is changed to accommodate the Heisman/RTG mode's slow-down-time feature.  Who makes a button only usable for one specific game mode?  Missed tackle resulted in a TD.  Lucky me.

• Video freeze/framerate issues at the beginning of each game.  This isn't major - could actually just be my xbox.  But it wasn't like this with previous versions.  If this is widespread, does a developer see this happening but say, "Hey, maybe nobody will notice? Or if they do, they'll let it slide?"  

• Instant replay review.  Ref's mouth still doesn't even remotely sync with what he says.  He continues moving his mouth a few seconds after finishing what he's saying.  Also, during the replay, everyone was running pretty much on their ankles - the grass doesn't correspond too well with where the actual player models interact with the ground, so their feet are running on something below the top of the grass.  Just like with the above, how is this ok? I remember going to a movie when I was young - a DuckTales movie - and the audio was all messed up and couldn't sync to the video.  Everyone was pissed, and the theater gave everyone a rain check.  Never ended up going back and seeing the movie, though - I think my parents probably used the raincheck for a date night.  Why can't we all get pissed when a game isn't up to par?  It's a small part of the game, yes, but a distracting one.

• Just a thought: if you're a head coach in dynasty mode, maybe at some point you should be able to vote in the coaches' poll.  Would be a fun little thing to add.

• Coaching carousel:  let me see ALL jobs that are opening up instead of just a couple at a time.  I may be holding out for a specific job (Florida), but get other offers before it.  I'd like to know if it will actually be opening up (sadly due to a firing because UF gets no love in this game this season).  Really, it's annoying to get offered a job, and you take it, but then you find out another one opened up that you more than likely would have been offered that you would have preferred more.

• More coaching carousel.  When I'm offered a contract, and I can see the roster, don't show me players that won't be there when I take the job.  Those seniors are graduating.  Don't try and lure me with players that won't be there.  Also, let me see the school's grades on things.  No coach would should walk into a job without knowing the full situation.

• Coaches who aren't hired after being fired should be retained in a pool for future years (depending on age).  See: Mike Leach, Terry Bowden.  These generic coaches that start popping up are just meh.  Also, it should be able to have old players turn into coaches - ones that maybe didn't get drafted can become an OC or DC after a few years.

• Coaches with different styles shouldn't be that common like it is here.  I run more of a pro-style offense.  I utilize a lot of running to set up the pass.  Don't offer me the OC job for an air-raid offense head coach.  We will not mesh.

• In game, I'm seeing some terrible coaching decisions with clock management.  If I'm working to run out the clock, the opponent has no timeouts, and now the AI is in charge of special teams on the punt, why did it snap the ball with 25 seconds still on the play clock? That could have cost us the game!

• Off season, it shows when players get drafted now.  That's cool, especially because it affects your Pro Potential grade.  Same problem with playing style, and with having any players eligible for awards: it's based on stats.  This means, if you play all the games, and don't do full 15 minute quarters (who has time for that?!?), you won't get anyone drafted high (or at all...).  Example: I just had an 87 OVR QB at ULL.  We went 11-1.  He set the record for QB rating (195 or so).  But his total number of passing yards, completions, TDs, etc - far less than anyone else at his position.  So my playing style for a passing QB is still a D.  And he went undrafted.  Will Blaine Gautier actually go undrafted?  We shall see - perhaps he is one of those college QBs that could never pass muster in the NFL.

• Whoops!  When setting up an on-campus visit, everything's all nice and color coded to help you choose the right activities.  During the off season, when you're setting up in-home visits, it doesn't match this year's style - still has last year's layout.  LAZY!!

Seriously - that's a lot of things that could be better.  Maybe some aren't feasible - but I think if someone just put in a little extra thought, they could plan for these things when putting in new features.  A lot of new stuff gets added, but it doesn't make it much better when things still don't make a lot of sense.