It’s that time of year again, where the fans and alumni from rival schools around the country are getting fired up for the upcoming season. No its not College Football season yet, but it is time for EA Sports to release their annual NCAA Football series. NCAA Football 12 is the copulation from 5 years of football games from EA Sports and Tiburon team on the Xbox 360. This year’s game is the Gold at the end of the rainbow for College Football fans as NCAA Football 12 looks to knock out any thought fans may have about buying the game annually. The first and most evident sign of NCAA Football 12 is the graphical upgrade given to this year’s game. This starts with presentation on the field such as the all new traditions for over 20 different schools. EA Sports went the extra mile to listen to the community’s request with authentic team tradition entrances as their taking the field. So whether you’re a Texas Longhorn fan with “Bevo” running out in front of the team or an Auburn Tiger fan of “Spirit” the eagle fling down from the sky, EA Sports has heard your cries to get it “In the Game”. The second most evident sign of this year’s graphical upgrade is during the replays. This may not sound like a big deal to most, but this year’s all new ESPN replay integrations is something that you should take the time to appreciate. After certain plays, the game will show the replay in the ESPN Broadcast style that you see every Saturday. In years past, I would just tap the A button as fast as I could to skip the replays, but this year the new 3D grass is stunning even without a 3D television.
I will go on record right now and say, while viewing the game through the replays during the game or by viewing from the pause menu; EA Sports NCAA Football 12 has the Best Looking Graphics of any sports game this generation. After taking in the new stunning graphical upgrades, it was time I dug into the “meat & potatoes” of NCAA Football 12, the Game Play. This year EA Sports addressed one the biggest issues that have plagued both the NCAA and Madden football franchises, suction tackling. Suction Tackling has been a problem in football games this entire system generation. The time of pressing the tackle button or “Hit Stick” and sliding to tackle the ball carrier are now things of the past. This year the team at Tiburon developed a momentum based system that benefits the Offense and Defense to open up the field more for big plays. On Offense the momentum helps open up the running game more by giving the ball carrier a fluid motion that enables last second burst to the outside and quick cutbacks to the middle. The Defense benefits from the momentum based system by being to jar the ball loose from receivers as their trying to make a catch is you time the hit at the right time. The Zone Defense also on NCAA Football 12 has also been completely revamped this year. When I say revamped, I mean that the Zone actually works like it should instead of being weakness compared to past years.
To start, lets say an Offensive player comes into a Defensive player’s zone, the defender will pick the receiver up as they cross his zone and also let him go as he crosses out of his zone responsibility. With that being said, the Defense is NCAA Football 12 is much tougher than years past and a lot of players will have to relearn how they play the game on both sides of the ball. What has to be the most anticipated new feature of NCAA Football 12 for the hardcore college football crowd goes by the name Custom Playbooks. I know this was my most sought out feature that has been lacking from this system generation. The Custom Playbook feature allows players to create 30 Playbooks, or 15 playbooks on each side of the ball. Your Custom Playbooks are limited to 40 formations and 375 plays per Playbook, but believe me this is more than enough formations and plays to make a potent Offense and Defense. The Custom Playbooks can be used in Offline and Online Dynasties, any Play Now games, and in Ranked Online games. For those of you out there that want to minimize what you run in each Playbook, EA Sports allows each Playbook to be cut down to just 50 plays if that’s what you prefer. Will you be able to make the Playbook that makes you the Gus Malzahn of College Football, or will you create the Playbook that makes you the Steve Spurrier of the NFL? One last note, the Custom Playbook feature does not allow you to make your own plays; they have to come out what’s in the existing Playbooks.
This feature review concludes on the next page, please click Page 2 below to see our final thoughts on EA Sports' NCAA Football 12.
