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We
had an interesting
offseason for
football in general.
Lost underneath the
NFL mess is what had
gone on in college
football this year
with conference
shifts. The Pac-10
turned into the
Pac-12, Boise St.
went to the Mountain
West conference,
Nebraska went to the
Big-10, and the
Big-12 almost
disbanded
altogether. College
football had its own
filthy offseason.
Anyway, every year
in July we get to
get back into the
swing of football
with the release of
EA’s
NCAA
Football
franchise. It’s July
and
NCAA
Football 12
is
back with a nice
update and it made
some cool changes to
reflect college
traditions and the
change of the times
too.
Every few years
there’s a big enough
update for this
franchise to feel
like a whole new
experience, but most
of the time the new
release of the game
has some key tweaks
in gameplay,
add-ons, and
graphics and that’s
what we get. It’s
been like that for
about a decade now,
and NCAA Football 12
is one of those
titles. It’s an
update, not a whole
new experience. That
said, if you love
footall games,
you’ll appreciate
this title and want
to pick it up
anyway.
This
franchise has three
main experiences-
playing online or on
console with a
multi-player
experience. That’s
one. The
Road
to Glory
mode where you take
an athlete on a high
school team and turn
him into a campus
legend, that’s two.
The
Dynasty mode
where you take a
coach and take him
through the college
ranks to build an
outstanding program…
that’s three.
Multi-player modes
with NCAA Football
12 are all
outstanding, but
they haven’t been
that updated. You
can play head to
head in exhibition
modes or you can
start an online
dynasty to compete
head to head against
friends or strangers
across the nation.
This is a very fun
game to play with a
multi-player
experience, except
for that guy who
loses to you and
drops the
connection… That’s
not so fun.
The
reason why I love
NCAA
Football 12
is for the one
player modes-
Dynasty
and
Road to Glory.
Road
to Glory
got a giant update
this year and that’s
awesome. Last year
it was basically the
same version as
NCAA
Football 10,
same segways between
weeks with Erin
Andrews and Kirk
Herbstreet-
everything was the
same. This year we
get a huge update
with new a leveling
up system that gives
you things and takes
them away as you
level up and down.
There’s also a boost
system that lets you
bump up things like
speed and agility,
but that doesn’t
work that great with
this update because
they’re a bit too
easy to access and
get your player to
be a stud a little
too fast.
Road
to Glory
is a great mode this
year and it’s a
better experience
than it was with the
last version of the
game.
The
Dynasty
mode
of NCAA Football 12
is the real meat and
potatoes of the
game. It’s a great
mode that implements
a few tweaks to the
franchise to make it
enjoyable. Inside of
the game, the
commentary is
outstanding this
year, it’s a little
repetitive; but not
nearly as much as
it’s been in years
past. That
commentary bundled
with the ESPN
experience being
mixed in with the
game better than
ever make the
presentation of
gameplay in
NCAA
Football 12
its best yet.
Outside of gameplay
Dynasty
is fun on a number
of different levels.
It’s customizable so
you can customize
conferences by
adding and removing
teams. Plus you can
change the BCS to
reflect automatic
BCS bids and more.
The offseason of
college football
clearly had an
impact on the
development of
NCAA
Football 12.
The other big note
with
Dynasty
is all of the new
coaching options.
Instead of choosing
a program to follow,
you create a coach
and then get him a
job as an Offensive
or Defensive
Coordinator, OR a
head coach. You go
through the years
signing contracts
with one school if
you’re fairly loyal
or you can move
around and move on
to bigger programs
if you desire.
There’s a coaching
carousel feature
inside of the game
that lets you try
and get bigger and
better jobs or just
different jobs. It’s
a great idea, it
needs a few tweaks,
but it’s a great
idea and it made the
mode even better.
What’s missing here?
EA needs to make a
playoff system be
incorporated into
NCAA
Football.
Maybe there’s too
much money involved
with bowl games for
college football to
actually go through
with it, but having
that involved with a
simulation of it in
a
Dynasty
mode would be
amazing.
Like
I said,
NCAA
Football 12
is an update version
of the
NCAA
Football
franchise. Even
though there are
some good gameplay
improvements with AI
and tackling, there
are still some of
the same issues, and
it still plays like
the
NCAA
Football
we know and love-
that’s a good thing.
The updates here are
with
Road
to Glory
and with
Dynasty,
and they both are
good updates that
warrant a purchase
of this game if
you’re a fan of the
franchise.
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