NCAA Football 13 Review: News and Notes

NCAA Football 13 came out and the reviews are in. Not my review in particular, I have not yet bought the game, but here’s a look at NCAA Football 13 reviews from around the web. News and Notes style.

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The Blast Factor: NCAA Football 13 plays a great game of football, but it’s a game you’ve played year and year out. Yes, there are a few new plays thrown in for good measure, but there’s almost no denying that this year’s game is incredibly similar to last year’s..and the year before. Still, if you’re a fan of video game sports and the college football atmosphere, you could do a lot worse than NCAA Football 13.

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GAME PLAY

As always, the game is beautiful, especially on a large HD monitor.   It overtook Madden as my favorite football game last year and there is no reason to go back on that statement. There have been some tweaks that make the game-play even more realistic though. They added a total control passing more which allows you to lead the receivers more and throw to empty spaces as well as improved QB footwork and quicker play action fakes. The QB footwork mode affects the passing if you throw on the run a lot, so it’s an interesting twist.

You also have new controls for WR’s and a ton of new animations that allow for more spectacular catches. There are also WR icons that light up when the WR is ready for a pass. And for the defensive folks, the read and react D is much improved. There are still some bugs in the overall game-play, such as an OL can’t pick up a LB blitzing right at him, but all in all, the game-play is an improvement over the 2012 version. Like I said, I prefer the college game over Madden now, so it will be interesting to see how Madden steps it up.

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As a whole the game could be best described as mediocre and inoffensive while still offering a respectable amount of depth and variety in modes. Fans of the series will not find much new – unless Heisman Challenge mode provides intrigue – while the lack of advancement elsewhere is immediately evident. Dynasty does come through with some worthwhile additions but the reach there becomes more limited.

Aspects like play action, pass trajectories, screen passes, and non-psychic defensive backs provide the improvement on the field. They represent significant advancements but at the same time it’s hard to get all that excited about those things which should have been addressed long ago. Issues with the gameplay however were quickly identified. Poor safety play might be the most glaring of the bunch but at times deficient offensive line blocking along with the CPU being inept running the option and out of shotgun also stand out.

NCAA Football 13 isn’t a brand new game, but the refinements here do take some getting used to and had me running a much more conservative — and realistic — offense. That’s cool; I enjoyed being challenged in a game I can usually steamroll over.

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But while those nuts and bolts were being tweaked, the outward facing product wasn’t getting spruced up too much. Last year, the franchise introduced a presentation that was simply stunning — the Georgia bulldog on the sideline, Chief Osceola charging the field, and War Damn Eagle in the air. It made me feel like I was watching a Saturday game on ESPN. NCAA Football 13 still has that and improves it in a number of ways, but it also mixes in some old and new issues that detract from the fun.

NCAA Football 13 is a great game — the changes to the core engine are welcome, challenging and exciting — but the little stuff adds up. Similar modes, audio inaccuracies and visual missteps make a game that’s better than last year’s on the technical level but lesser as an overall product

Sounds like it’s not much of an improvement on previous versions and might not be worth coughin up full price if you have the 2012 version.