Video game review: EA Sports NCAA Football 13

Fans are getting a chance to fully enjoy EA Sports' NCAA Football 13.

By Brendan Sonnone

College football fans jonesing for gridiron action might have to wait until Aug. 30 for the 2012 season to get under way, but NCAA Football 13 might help diehards satiate their cravings until then.

EA Sports? annual college football video game was released Tuesday, offering up improved gameplay and new features that should help fans get through the dog days of summer.

Gameplay

This year?s version is a significant upgrade over NCAA Football 12, which was hampered by unrealistic gameplay and glitches, especially in the passing game. Defenses read throws too easily and linebackers managed to jump what seemed to be 10 feet into the air to knock down passes.

NCAA Football 13 fixes that with an improved, smooth passing system.

Gamers can now put touch on passes, throw with more precision and cannot get away with sloppy footwork or cross-field lobs.? Basically, you have much more control on how good or bad you do through the air.

This feature makes for a more realistic and fun experience.

Gameplay in general is much better in NCAA 13. Players move with more fluidity, the computer seems to respond appropriately and users can effectively adjust wide receivers mid-throw, which wasn?t the case in previous years.

The ability to abort out of a play action pass is also a nice addition.

Overall, it feels more like a college football game.

Heisman Challenge

Every year, EA Sports creates a new feature that it pushes to be its primary promotional tool?It?s a way to convince consumers to buy a relatively similar game annually.

In NCAA Football 13, we have Heisman Challenge.

Really, it?s a fun concept.

Users can exclusively control 16 former Heisman winners throughout a college season and are assigned statistical goals to break during games and throughout the campaign.

So say you?re Barry Sanders, you have to surpass X amount of yards in a season, along with other tasks, in order to win the Heisman Trophy.

Adding to that, there is a Reaction Time component that?for a maximum of 15 seconds with a refillable meter?slows the game down for your player, enabling you to read defenses clearly and perform slightly better.

But perhaps the most interesting part of Heisman Challenge is this: The Heisman winners can play at any school.

How would Tim Tebow look donning garnet and gold for Florida State (two fan bases just gagged simultaneously)? What if Doug Flutie played for Miami and threw the ?Hail Flutie? against Boston College?

Those questions can be answered in Heisman Challenge.

Although this doesn?t carry the game, Heisman Challenge does offer a nice changeup from normal gameplay.

Dynasty Mode

Arguably the game?s most popular feature year after year, Dynasty Mode enables players to take over a school as a head coach (or as defensive or offensive coordinator) and build the program throughout the course of several decades.

Many of the same elements are back, but a noteworthy change is the ability to scout recruits. A certain amount of time is allotted to scouting a prospect in order to see if his overall rating matches up with his star ranking (one to five stars, five making him an elite prospect).

Although this makes the practice of recruiting more time consuming, it does add more depth and gives the user a little more control over their program.

Smaller improvements to recruiting?like the ability to pitch a player on coaching style/position success, or having a chance to break into a player?s top 10 favorite schools with more ease?also make for a better Dynasty experience.

EA Sports also strongly endorsed its ESPN studio update feature. While it provides realistic breaks from the game, it doesn?t provide much mileage as far as entertainment value is concerned.

Road to Glory

Similar to Heisman Challenge, this returning game mode gives the use a chance to play as a high school prospect at a certain position for an entire season.

Depending on what level the player performs through the year, different schools of varying prestige will offer scholarships. Then you can pick what program to attend and work your way up the depth chart and try to establish a legacy ?in college for the next four years.

Although EA Sports attempted to create a better experience through a more tailor-made play calling, Road to Glory falls short yet again. Players seem to have a delayed reaction time and camera angles are disorienting.

The most frustrating aspect of what could be an extremely fun game mode is when you take over a defensive player. The computer will go out of its away to avoid throwing to a user-controlled cornerback. Or the computer will opt to throw an interception rather than take a sack from the use.

This was a problem last year and still persists in NCAA Football 13.

Overall

EA Sports did a fine job with NCAA Football 13. There are some entertaining new game modes, the graphics are clean and?most importantly?the gameplay is much improved, making the game a good way to buy time until Aug. 30 comes around.

Follow me on Twitter: osmattmurschel

Source: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college/2012/07/video-game-review-ncaa-football-13.html

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