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20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 Disappointed Aug 29, 2011
By Black
I have been a fan of NCAA football since the beginning of time, and I was actually excited for this game to come out to see the new improvements made. I liked some of the improvements made such as the new coaching carousel in the dynasty mode and the fact that you can play your whole senior season in the Road to Glory mode. But The AI on the game is unrealistic and running the ball on the Dynasty mode is WAYYYYYYYYYYY to unrealistic, I play on Heisman and everytime either I run the ball or the computer runs the ball its a big play. I have never seen a real college football game where everytime a player runs the ball he breaks a 60 yard run or something of that nature. And the reason why this happens is because when they break these big plays the o-line knocks everyone to the ground thats in front of them which is also unrealistic, I had 1500 yds by game 6 and I was using Michigan and Im a past first type of player, thats RIDICULOUS. There are so many times i have over 200 yds by halftime thats so unheard of. Secondly I hate how the LBs can jump and knock everything down when the pass is supposed to go 25 yds down the fields, there is no way they jump that high to knock passes down, but wont let the manual player's LBs do the same thing. There is no defense to stop the computer from breakin a big run each possession with the ball whether its man or zone, and alot of my friends who have the game complain of the same thing its TERRIBLY unrealistic, NCAA 11 was better off with the running than this yrs copy. Wasnt worse the 60 dollars and EA sports needs to correct the problems. Plus they need to bring Lee Corso back and change up the commentary from yrs past.
172 of 204 found the following review helpful:
 Review of NCAA12 from the largest NCAA specific community forum Sep 15, 2011
By Travis7401
In the wake of Patch #2 for NCAA 12, the moderating staff and community at Utopia (the largest NCAA specific community forum) wish to express our displeasure and frustration in an open letter to EA and the so called "Game Changers" and "Community Sites." EA's NCAA football series served as the catalyst for this site in 2003, and though the Utopia community has evolved to the point that it is no longer centered on EA's game, we still have a common wish for a quality college football video game. This franchise was once unanimously recognized as one of the most enjoyable and innovative sports games on the market, but has now fallen to such depths that virtually everywhere you look, more and more people on forums all across the internet are expressing extreme frustration and displeasure with both the game and the company that makes it. We see three obvious factors that have contributed to the environment that allows such an abject failure of a video game to be released (with good reviews, no less); exclusivity limiting competition, EA's patching methodology, and the "Game Changers" marketing scheme which helps to fracture the community and marginalize legitimate concerns about the game.
Problems caused by exclusivity:
Due to the fact that EA has purchased the exclusive rights to the NFL and NCAA football games, they have effectively pushed out all competition from football gaming. This means that they can release bug-filled games without the risk of losing customers who would buy a more polished football game if one were available. One need look no further than the recent failure of EA's basketball game to see the effect of competition on sub-par and bug filled games. The Madden and NCAA series have been plagued with bugs similar to those that caused NBA Live to be shelved, but without competition the games will continue to be developed with as little effort as possible. The results of the lack of competition speak for themselves. The NCAA series has devolved to the point that gamers can expect even the heavily marketed new features to be completely non-functioning at launch.
For instance, NCAA '09 touted a new roster share feature that was supposed to allow people to create custom rosters and easily share them with their friends. Unfortunately, the roster editor feature of the game contained a glitch so that once a certain number of players were edited, teams started completely disappearing from the game. On top of that, "Wide Open Gameplay" (the tagline for that year) translated into "No Defense At All", and the game quickly turned into a complete joke as it was nearly impossible to stop anybody on defense. On NCAA '10, the game was released with sliders that did not work (i.e. they had no impact on gameplay at all), with rosters that were clearly flawed, and with a new "run commit" feature that was so overpowered it virtually destroyed any gameplay balance (particularly for online play). NCAA 11 touted the new "locomotion system, which effectively broke zone defense, and new web based dynasty interfaces like the "Dynasty Wire," which turned out to be incredibly buggy (frequently crashed or displayed the wrong information) and is still listed as "Beta" on the website.
This year, one of the most heavily marketed new features in NCAA12 was custom playbooks, something Utopians have been asking for since the feature was dropped with the move to next-gen systems. As many have come to expect from EA, the custom playbooks feature was completely broken at launch. It contained a glitch which would cause the playcall screen to go blank and would result in players standing around in a huddle over the football rather than lining up in the correct formation. In addition to the custom playbook glitch, the new custom conferences feature was also broken at launch, containing massive scheduling errors that rendered it unusable. In addition to problems with new features, there were also numerous instability problems that caused the game to freeze or crash, as well as several glitches that affected online dynasty mode, such as dynasties not being able to be advanced properly and wins not being correctly recorded. At this point, the game is so bug filled that you are lucky to finish a game without a crash or disconnection. Even if you do finish the game, the result may have been recorded incorrectly, making your efforts futile. It is like clockwork; every new feature will be completely broken at launch and features that worked in the past will have new and crippling bugs.
We acknowledge that all video games are released with some bugs, but we feel that the lack of competition due to exclusivity has allowed EA to release football games that have more numerous and game-killing bugs than any other title. NCAA12 is the least stable console game that we have ever played. If EA had true competition in the football gaming world, they would be forced to either shelve the game, like NBA Live, or go back to the drawing board and dedicate more resources to releasing a quality game, like the FIFA series.
Problems Caused by EA's Patching Methodology:
In general, the ability to patch games has been both a blessing and a curse for gamers. While a good patch can save a game that would be otherwise derailed by a small bug, it also allows developers to release games that are basically unfinished, counting on patches to tie up all the loose ends. Nowhere is this practice more prevalent than in sports games, with their rushed yearly development cycle.
With the NCAA series, EA manages to take the "release an incomplete game and patch it" model to an incredible new low. Not only do they release obviously unfinished games, but in an effort to patch problems, they introduce new and bigger problems. For instance, last year EA released a patch that was supposed to address some problems with defensive AI and overpowered man to man coverage, and it instead resulted in a new glitch were the QB could pump fake backwards (towards his own goal line), and cause all of the defenders to immediately abandon their assignments and run towards the line of scrimmage.
While there is a long, well documented history of these issues, NCAA12 has taken things to a completely different level. This year, after waiting for nearly two months, EA released a patch that was supposed to correct some of the problems with custom playbooks, online dynasties and system stability. Producer Ben Haumiller closed his blog about the title 2 update with "Thank you again for your patience for the arrival of this second Title Update. I trust you will find that it has been well worth the wait." To put it bluntly, Ben, It was not "worth the wait." The patch not only failed to fix the majority of the problems it claimed to fix, but it also caused new problems that affected the no-huddle (a prominent feature for NCAA 11) , completely removed some formations from the game, and caused a host of new issues with the few custom playbooks and online dynasties that had the good fortune to work before the patch. Not only did EA release an extremely flawed product for sale at retail in July, but it took almost 2 months to release a patch, and the patch turned out to cause numerous new problems. At this point, it is obvious that the development team for NCAA football cannot even patch their own game without introducing a cornucopia of new glitches and bugs.
Problems caused by EA hijacking "The Community."
Over the past few years EA has gone to great lengths to improve their faltering reputation with "The NCAA Community." Whether it came in the form of sending EA representatives to forums, the "Community Leaders" program, or the Game Changers" program; EA has shown that they value having a positive image in "The NCAA Community." While this all sounds great, we find their efforts to be entirely disingenuous.
Before they even try to reach out to "The NCAA Community," EA attempts to define "The NCAA Community" in a way that eliminates those who are openly critical of their product. For instance, Utopia is notably absent from EA's list of "Community Sites," despite the fact that we are the largest NCAA specific community. The only interaction we've had with EA this year was a Cease and Desist letter in response to our April Fool's prank, proving that they not only read the site, but they also did not find our prank nearly as funny as we did (in retrospect, our April Fools descriptions of the game were actually far more accurate than the glowing reviews found on other sites). We acknowledge that EA attempts to avoid interaction with us because we are uncouth, drunk, and/or overly hostile; but that doesn't mean we aren't part of the community!
We also aren't the only ones to be excluded from EA's community program. Several other critical community members, including those who belong to TheSimStandard YouTube group (many of whom have provided incredibly detailed documentation to show problems with the game and ways to solve them) are also shunned by EA. This, despite the fact that they reach far more people than many of the "Community" sites that are included. For example, videos uploaded by TheSimStandard channel contributors have combined for a total of 713,955 views and they have well over 20,000 subscribers, while several of the sites that are included in the program appear to reach fewer than 100 members and are rarely updated with new NCAA related content. The simple fact is that EA has systematically worked to prevent anybody who is openly critical of their game from receiving any official recognition for their efforts. Instead, they choose to define "The community" as those sites, regardless of size/exposure, who will toe the EA company line.
The "Game Changers" program, much like the "Community Leaders" program before it, is a complete farce. As much as EA talks about incorporating community feedback into the game, it is increasingly evident that EA does nothing of the sort, and these programs are simply an extension of EA's marketing strategy. Simply put, we do not see any substantial in-game results from the "Game Changers" program, but we do consistently see a ton of pre-release hype along with glowing reviews. To be fair, we do not fault the "Game Changers" in this. We truly believe that most of them have the best intentions and that they have put in a lot of work attempting to make this a better game. The problem lies entirely in the fact that EA simply can't (or won't) make most of the changes suggested by the "Game Changers." The game engine itself is so archaic, bug-filled, and ad-hoc at this point that most of the common and recurring issues cannot be solved without a significant commitment of resources from EA, which is a commitment they won't make. Instead, EA will take input from the game changers and promise grandiose changes like "Custom Playbooks" and "Pattern Matching Coverage," while the actual implementation of those "features" will be nothing but ham-fisted tweaks to an aging game.
Beyond being simply ineffective, we believe that the "Game Changers" and other EA sponsored "Community" programs fracture the true gaming community and create a divisive environment that allows EA to release such buggy games without the proper amount of community outcry. This is due to the fact that EA places the "Game Changers" in the unenviable position of answering to angry gamers for all of EA's fumbles. These "Game Changers" serve as the only link between the average frustrated gamer and the NCAA football developers. They become de-facto customer service representatives, without the paycheck. The frustrated gamers and the frustrated "Game Changers," who now must put up with misguided personal attacks, end up divided. Instead of directing the frustrations and anger at the proper target, the community bickers between themselves.
We are therefore extending an olive branch to the "Game Changers." We don't hate you, we just lash out in frustration because EA has forced you to play customer service representative for a terrible product. We even apologize for directing our anger and frustrations at you, when EA is clearly the culprit. Please join us in calling EA out for the incredible levels of failure that are present in NCAA12 and Patch #2.
Signed-
The Utopia moderating staff and frustrated NCAA gamers elsewhere
12 of 14 found the following review helpful:
 very good game but technical glitches ruined it Aug 04, 2011
By hahaguy
I played NCAA 12 nonstop but then a week later the game froze up on me 3 times. I had no choice but return it. Thanks a lot EA for releasing a game that wasn't finished.
40 of 53 found the following review helpful:
 Solid Showing, but not much that's new Jul 15, 2011
By Michaelbrazell
You've probably read better reviews elsewhere, but, nevertheless:
NCAA '12 is a solid game, through and through, but it doesn't introduce very many new exciting "back of the box features," though it does improve on the core gameplay, Dynasty, and Road to Glory modes from NCAA '11. Without a doubt, the game is MUCH better "shipped" than NCAA '11 was -- which had recruiting glitches, tuner necessities, patches, and all sorts of stuff before it even became playable. NCAA '12 is solid out of the box.
The changes to Dynasty mode are appreciated, mostly, the Coaching Carousel enhancement which really let's you live out as a certain type of coach -- working your way up from a coordinator where you only control half of the on-field action, all the way to a head coach. The mode isn't completely flushed out, but it's fun and rewarded, with a 'goal oriented' design that rewards you not just for long term success, but for small in-season successes. Perhaps next year it can be improved with micro-enhancements within each game, like rewarding your team for playing with good sportsmanship, spreading the ball around, or bringing in other players into the offense. Additionally, full conference editing is a great addition, which will allow history junkies to recreate conferences and matchups from year's past, or replicate future changes. Conveniently, this also allows for better custom team integration.
Other than that, Dynasty mode hasn't dramatically changed, which isn't a bad thing -- NCAA 11's dynasty mode was the most addictive that the series has ever had.
Road to Glory is fine, but still lame... it's not "Road to the Show," from MLB The Show series, but it's not bad either. It takes very little work to quickly become the best at your position, and so the challenge really isn't there, but at the same time, you never quite feel like you're "grinding" like you do in the expansive, but tedious, Road to the Show.
Unfortunately, some modes got completely left out. Online play is identical, Online Dynasty is relatively unchanged except for the additions made to offline -- and the only new additions to online dynasty itself are either locked until August 1st (lame?) or sit behind a pay wall, which is similarly lame. Adding new features but making you pay small amounts for them is really not okay, because consumers are still paying $60 each year -- it's not like we're only paying $4 here and there for new features like Coaching Carousel, and not paying ~$50 for the features that remain the same from NCAA '11. I'd appreciate it if EA thought about this mentality more: IF they're going to charge additionally (on top of the $60) for "enhancements" and "new features," then it would be consistent for them to NOT charge for the features that stay the same. I understand they're trying to maximize profits in unique ways, especially in a down economy, but, c'mon, stop nickle and dimming the hardcore customers.
To casual players, gameplay won't feel changed, but to those who have played these games a lot, you'll notice key differences. A new tackling engine removes suction tackling, which is a great addition that pays immediate dividends for the game: The game feels more organic than it ever has, which is really nice. Still, this engine makes for a few new 'skating' animations, where players see a burst of speed breaking free from a tackle. It's not the end of the world, but it's noticeable occasionally. Other than the tackling, the defense has been balanced so you'll need to mix up zone and man coverage, as opposed to NCAA '11 where zone coverage was completely useless, so you could play a Cover 2 for the entire game. Zone coverage works and it's refreshing. The defensive line pressure is effective, the most effective perhaps in the history of Tiburon-engine football games, so you see far more d-line sacks, which is really refreshing. Offense hasn't wholly changed, but everything feels good... QB's aren't as accurate, but at the same time, DBs don't mirror routes anymore.
Playcalling is still EA's broken playcall philosophy where the CPU has psychic abilities to read your plays, and then randomly chooses their play based off of what you pick. This is still obvious in any fake situation, any goal line run or pass, and any situation where you're trying to 'trick' the CPU with a clever playcall. It's all psychic playcalling with built in randomized "mistake" generators, which is lame. But, this is par for the course with EA games and if it's never bothered you before, it won't bother you now.
Graphics are excellent. This is the best looking football game ever, probably. Improvements to grass, replies, presentation, and everything else, are much appreciated.
The sound is, still, terrible. Stadiums sound good, crowds are nice although mostly unchanged, but the commentary is the same that it has been since the PS2 era, and it's basically identical to what it was last year. The same canned remarks, the same lousy analysis of plays, the same things you've come to hear thousands of times. If you've never played one of these games, you'd think that the commentary is fresh and great. But if you've played any NCAA Football game in the last 5 years, you'll hear lines recorded from 5+ years ago just recycled ad nauseam.
I'm hitting some negatives in this review, but honestly, the game is an improvement over NCAA '11, which was the best NCAA Football game -- perhaps -- ever released, and the best football game from last year. It's still an EA engine game and it's still got some of the same frustrations that have plagued these games, but really, its an improvement on an already solid product, and so if you've liked these games before, you'll still really like NCAA Football '12.
10 of 12 found the following review helpful:
I really want to like this game more than I do! Jul 22, 2011
By klopas
"Keith"
Each and every year I have this internal debate about whether I will buy the latest NCAA football game. I have this same struggle when deciding to buy the yearly Madden. The last NCAA football game I bought right away was the 2009 version, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even with its flaws. I've since played full versions of 2010 and 2011, and wasn't wholly impressed enough to take the plunge and buy them outright.
So what led me to buy NCAA Football 12 right off the bat? I can't explain the reasoning behind it. I just had the itch to fully immerse myself in a college football game. I'm a lifelong Texas Longhorns fan and they had an abysmal showing last year. What better year could there be to buy this game and capture a sense of redemption through a dynasty or a "road to victory" character?
As for the review, now that I've played it for over a week I feel as though I can personally provide a decent review. In all fairness to the overall experience of the game, I'm sure I haven't delved as deeply as most have. In light of this fact, my review will focus on the online matches and the "road to victory" mode.
There are several options available when trying to play online. Most notably is the online dynasty mode. I did not play this mode, but it looks promising and rewarding if you have several friends who want to league play with you. I stuck to the online ranked and unranked matches.
The gameplay mechanics are much the same as past versions of the game. In fact, the controls might as well be exactly identical. Why fix something that's not broken? Yes, the controls are fine. The gameplay itself could use some work. Even on the hardest difficulty, you can throw hailmary bombs with ease into double coverage as long as you position your receiver in such a way that allows him to get under it and do a straight-up vertical jump for the catch. That's just plain clunky and ridiculous. And when I say you need to position your receiver, here's the thing - most of the time your quarterback will underthrow the longball so you have to stop and do a vertical jump to catch it. Very rarely will you catch your receiver in stride unless you make the pass extra early. Why is it so difficult to fix this mechanic once and for all?
The online play itself is also pretty much the same as it always has been. You pick a team, your opponent picks a team, and generally the team with the better rating will have the advantage. I see a lot of Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State (pre-suspension/terminations) users hitting the top of the ranked match statistics. The gameplay experience is hit-or-miss. At times you'll be paired off with somebody who seems to be from Zimbabwe, seeing that the lag is atrocious. At other times, it'll be smooth as butter. Overall, it's an average experience, not great, not poor.
How about that "Road to Victory" mode? This was a mode that caught my attention in NCAA 09, though I believe it was called something different back then. I thought it was pretty cool to simulate the college (unrealistic) experience - it's very RPG'ish in that aspect. I'm halfway through my sophomore year and I've found that this mode is less addictive than it was in previous versions.
One cool yet unpolished feature is the ability to play through your very own high school career. At the same time, Electronic Arts is pushing downloadable content that automatically makes your "road to victory" player a 5-star caliber recruit. This DLC essentially makes your high school career pointless as you can sim through the whole thing and still walk-on to any school and be accepted. If you opt for the high school experience, you pick three schools at the beginning that you would like to play for. Then you simply play 10 or so easy mode games before starting your college career. You earn points while playing and your star caliber rating will go up each time you perform well. While doing this, colleges will eventually offer scholarships to you. Random schools will start trying to recruit you. It's kind of cutesy, but you can tell it's a pretty hollow feature overall.
Once you pick a college team, you then have to earn the coach's trust, beat out a starter for their position, and earn points to put towards improving your player. You do so initially by performing well at practices. Then you beat out the starter for their position (which is very stupidly implemented by the way). To top it off, I don't know if this was the same as last year's "road to glory", but I find the player enchancement mechanics to be dumbed down. No longer do you have to run drills to improve certain skills/abilities. Instead, you go to practice and run plays and earn the coach's trust, as well as experience points that you can randomly spend for permanent or single game enhancements. The skills you can get vary from week-to-week and sometimes there are discounts placed on some skills. I found it arbitrary and lazy of the game's developers to have random stat enhancements to choose from, some of which will make your player a permanent 99 overall rating within the first 5-6 weeks of his freshmen year.
It's a rinse and repeat game mode with very little depth. I definitely liked previous years because there had to be some skill involved with "leveling" your player by doing drills.
Despite the shortcomings, I can't help but like this game. There's no better feeling than juking or just plain steamrolling a human-controlled player. In the future, I plan on building an offline dynasty with downloaded real life rosters. The recruiting aspect in dynasty games are usually top notch, so hopefully this NCAA 12 isn't the exception to the rule. If you are looking for a perfect football game, this is far from it. However, it is fun, and you will get your monies' worth if you enjoy football games in general.
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