Launch Station: NCAA Football 13

It is that season again.  Time for all the big sports games to all have their annual release.  First up is NCAA Football 13, which releases tomorrow followed by Madden NFL 13 next month and NHL 13 and FIFA 13 both in September.  Sports fans have a busy couple of months if they are planning to buy each EA Sports release.

Being an annual game, NCAA Football is EA Sports' simulation of the insanely popular sport of college football.  While developed by the same studio as Madden, EA Tiburon, NCAA Football has a few subtle differences that make it play different than EA's football juggernaut.  Much like the subtle differences between college and professional football.  The biggest enhancements to the core game of NCAA Football all surrounds the quarterback position.  EA has added over 420 new animations for the quarterback, 20 new quarterback dropback moves, a new passing system and numerous new sack avoidance moves.  The AI on both sides of the line has been improved.  Wide receivers have better awareness, which comes in the way of a little icon above each receiver that shows the player the level of readiness a receiver has as they look for the ball.  On defence, there are no more blind swats as the blockers will have to see the ball before actually making their move.  NCAA Football 13 also sees improvements to presentation, Dynasty mode and the Road to Glory mode.  EA Tiburon has also added the new Heisman Challenge mode, where players choose a previous Heisman Trophy winner and take part in challenges to match his award-winning performances in order to win the Heisman Trophy again.

I do enjoy sports games from time to time, but I have never been a big enough sports fan, other than wrestling, to pick up the game each and every year.  I do not mind picking past entries of sports game as they are much cheaper and play more or less the same or maybe even better than the current games,  but I am not the target audience for many of these sports games, NCAA Football 13 included.  For the gamers that love buying these games each and every year, NCAA Football 13 will be another solid entry in the NCAA Football series.  It will keep sports gamers tided over until Madden hits store shelves in late August.

E3 2012: EA Press Conference Impressions

E3 2012 had a very bumpy start with a disappointing conference from Microsoft.  As the second conference of the big show, it was Electronic Arts turn to show us their next wave of big games releasing this Fall and early 2013.

Each year EA's Press Conference is one of the most focused out of the bunch.  They get straight to the point and they do not deviate.  This year much like the last two years before, EA showcased 10 games from 10 different developers under the EA banner.  They were all concise and to the point.  It made the conference go by fast and barely drag.  The only thing wrong with EA's conference was that nothing stood out.  No game they showcased really made an impact in my opinion.  It all kind of all blended together.  Dead Space 3 seemed to have an identity crisis as it was more third-person shooter than survival horror.  Madden NFL 13 and FIFA 13 were both a boring list of new features.  Star Wars: The Old Republic had some cool news such as going free-to-play up to level 15.  Medal of Honor: Warfighter was a decent demo of another generic FPS.  Battlefield 3's answer to Call of Duty Elite was revealed in Battlefield 3 Premium, which was less than impressive.  The only things I found really interesting was Need for Speed: Most Wanted demo, which proves why Criterion should only be working on the Need for Speed series and EA's new partnership with UFC (funny how Dana White jumps to the company he said he would never work with when THQ hits hard times).  Also Crysis 3 did have a good little demo to give a satisfying end to the conference.  I believe there were a few missed opportunities such as unveiling the first story-based DLC for Mass Effect 3, giving first gameplay of Overstrike or even unveiling whatever Respawn Entertainment is working on (Riccitiello pointed out both Zampella and West in the crowd, why not reveal something?).

Overall, EA's E3 2012 Press Conference was just okay.  All their games had a good showing and the focus, which Microsoft lacked, was definitely there, but not much that was shown stood out of the humongous crowd of shooters and sports games.

Grade:  C-