NCAA Football 12 Demo & Teambuilder Impressions

Before I get into the review I need to let you know that I had to look at this from two angles; one as someone new to the game, and one as a veteran of the NCAA Football series. I am a long time fan of the series, and over the years EA has been dragging its feet in a number of areas (which I will get to a little), so my opinion of the game has been tainted by years of disappointment and flimsy excuses. I tend to frequent the EA forum for the NCAA Football series, so I know what kinds of comments the players make every year and how EA responds, so I had to look at this game from two perspectives to be fair.

The demo was released on June 28th, and the Teambuilder website went live on June 30th, so I've had a few days to fiddle with both. Sadly, and most likely on purpose, EA has not given the demo the instant replay or screen grab functions so I've had to borrow from Operation Sports (www.operationsports.com) and Pasta Padre (pastapadre at Youtube.com) to spruce up this post. The demo is also limited to 2:00 halves, so the games went quickly and I wasn't able to scrutinize the game play as much as I'd hoped.

PRESENTATION

This was no surprise since EA beats us over the head with all of the presentation improvements. I like to call it a new shade of lipstick for the same old pig, and over the years it seems that they spend the bulk of their time and energy on this, and it shows. This year they introduced a number of program specific team entrances, implemented High-Dynamic-Range (HDR) Lighting, and three dimensional grass. Only downside of the entrances is that not all teams have one, but I didn't really expect them to do this. Hopefully they removed the horribly generic and half-baked bands they introduced in '11.

A few team entrances (Thanks to Pasta Padre)

EA has also continued to add more and more equipment for personalization, but they seriously failed in the player customization department. I have to give them credit for adding more helmet, face mask, glove, and miscellaneous equipment options. I can't personally view these options until the game comes out, but I've seen enough pictures to feel comfortable that they are in the game. As for the player models, I think '12 has one of EA's biggest jokes. For years players have wanted hair options back in the game, and many have flooded the forums with requests for hair (the demand for dreadlocks was high), so what did EA do? They gave us dreads, one kind on a single player model. All they did was add a single African American player model with long black dreadlocks, and I can't tell if I should be disappointed or insulted.

Oregon-Texas (Operation Sports)

The majority of the presentation is perfectly fine, the three dimensional grass can only be seen in up close shots and I don't really care about it all that much. The game looks really good, as it has in past years, so I'm mostly happy with this. Score : 9/10.

FEATURES

I really wish they had given us access to some of the features, like custom playbooks, but the only thing you can do in the demo is play an Oregon-Texas or Alabama-Florida State game. The big features they have been touting this year are custom playbooks, custom conferences, and something they are calling the Coaching Carousel.

I'll have to reserve some judgement on these, since I can't give you a first hand account, but I know the fans have been screaming for custom playbooks for years. It looks like we can finally build our own and choose which plays and formations we want to use, which for me is a big deal. I'm pretty lukewarm on the custom conferences because they gave us a half-baked version of it in '11 that left everyone disappointed, and now we get a functional version.* From what I've seen you can build conferences from scratch, assign title games and affiliated bowls, and even toggle AQ status. The Coaching Carousel has "We'll get it right next year" written all over it for me based on the existing information. Apparently you can start in a dynasty as an offensive or defensive coordinator and only have control over your side of the ball (very nice), and as the seasons go on you have the option to move to other schools and take on a head coaching position (also very nice). What hasn't been made clear is whether or not you can hire an OC/DC when you are a head coach, and they haven't said anything about the effect an OC/DC has on recruiting. I'm pretty disappointed here, just see the custom conferences rant below.

* Quick tangent on EA and their incomplete features. They seem to make it a point to add features that don't work properly, or don't function as they should, with the intention that in the future it will work. In '11 you could only swap teams, or replace an existing team with a Teambuilder one. If you replaced a team, the Teambuilder team would inherit the rivals of the team it replaced with no way to reassign them. You were also limited by the existing conference structure, if you wanted to create a new 12 team conference with a title game (like the Pac-12) you would have to dismantle an existing 12 team conference and possibly lose your AQ standing.

Score : N/A.

GAME PLAY

I didn't play that many games, and the ones I played were limited to 2:00 quarters, but I didn't need long to spot all of the red flags. When it comes to the issue of game play I need to be upfront about my feelings on '11; it was awful. I hated the game play in '11, and as far as I was concerned it was a low point in the franchise. EA refuses to put enough effort into fixing the game play, instead opting for presentation (the new shade of lipstick) and false improvements. In '11 they touting an improved blocking system, which fooled me enough to buy the game, but after hundreds of games (and even more expletives) I realized that all they did was put defenders on rails (more about this later) and make holding legal and frequent. Those who bought the game right away were met with the Route Mirroring fiasco, where defenders in man coverage would run a receiver's route before they did, so you would have receivers following their defender and nowhere to throw the ball.

Despite my previous comments, I was pleasantly surprised with the new upgrades. The biggest game play upgrades this year were improved animations/player interactions and zone coverage. The game has been plagued by "warping" for years, where blockers/receivers will slide or warp into place to make a block or catch a ball. This has been attributed to flaws in the animation sequence, and based on what I have seen so far this may have been fixed. They also made momentum a factor, as in previous years a stationary defender could absolutely destroy a player running at full speed and send him flying backwards. This year the animations look much better, and the momentum improvements look great.

As for zone coverage, I'm a little torn here. Zone coverage in '11 was a joke, just completely useless. Players would drop to their zones, and just stand in the middle of the zone. If you ever used a zone coverage against the CPU it would completely eviscerate you, and it was marginally useful against other players in zone blitzes. Aside from that, I wouldn't be caught dead calling a zone coverage. This year they improved the coverage, but may have gone a little too far (like the Route Mirroring fiasco) from what I've seen. For years EA has failed to understand that a defender in a back pedal, no matter what position, isn't even remotely as fast as a player running forward in a full sprint. This failure remains in '12, and when you add this to the new zone coverage you get a bunch of guys in backpedals in short bursts of perfect man coverage. I've seen a number of clips where a defensive lineman is able to cover a WR effectively in zone coverage, and this makes me extremely wary. In '11 defensive lineman were better in pass coverage than most defensive backs, this included jumping up in the air and battling balls down way over their heads with perfect precision. I like the attempt at making the coverage useful, which I found it in the games I played, but I'm certain that further scrutiny will reveal enormous problems.

Some game footage (Pasta Padre)

It didn't take me long to notice the return of the single biggest problem with game play for me, and it pretty much doomed '12 in my eyes. The defenders are still on rails, a deal breaker for me that signals that the blocking AI is still atrocious. In '11 EA put the defenders on rails, which means that the defensive line and any blitzing linebacker will essentially run a route. These defenders rush to spots on the field, and they will always rush to those spots no matter where you move the defender. If you have two blitzing outside linebackers coming inside the defensive ends, and then decide you want to flex them outside of the ends and pinch down the line, you get this comical situation where your defenders run all the way over to their assigned spots (See diagram below). I hate this, its stupid, its how EA "improved" the blocking schemes in '11.

Defenders on rails.

The CPU also seems to play by a different set of rules yet again. I did like that the pass rush was more realistic, but when I was on defense I was getting absolutely no penetration and my lineman were being held. I wasn't able to get to the QB to see if they fixed the issues with a QB being tackled getting off a perfect pass 20 yards down field, but I'm willing to bet they didn't fix it. My biggest problem with '11 was how bad the defensive AI was, and it seems like nothing has changed aside from the zone coverage.

This pretty much killed '12 for me, especially when I saw my defense was still on rails. Score : 4/10 (as a long time player), 8/10 (new player).

TEAMBUILDER 2012

I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but I am going to say this is a perfect example of how EA revels in its lack of innovation. For the third lackluster year in a row they don't provide a variety of generic stadiums, all you can choose from is a generic bowl style and a generic pro style. Yet again they don't have Ohio State's shoulder stripe template, but they did get Iowa's face mask color right after two years of making them grey. Still no generic mascots, and from what I can tell they only added one new one. The field design options are extremely limited, but they really weren't thinking when they gave us the option to use an existing field for a custom team.** The final straw for me was the same three font choices for the third year in a row, and to make it worse the chest text option is still a steaming pile of crap. You are limited to ten characters and the same three fonts nobody uses. I applaud EA's commitment to a lack of excellence here.

** Ok, sorry for another tangent, but this pissed me off. So people have been demanding more endzone design options, like Tennessee's and Notre Dame's. So what does EA do? They give us the existing fields. I want a checkered endzone, but what the hell am I going to do with Tennessee's field if my team isn't named Tennessee and the school colors aren't orange and white? This is yet another sign that EA doesn't care about improving the game, just making enough changes to market a "new" game. So frustrating.

Score : 2/10 (as a long time player), 6/10 (new player).

FINAL VERDICT

After playing the demo and being horribly disappointed by Teambuilder (yet again), I can confidently say I'm not going to be buying this game or any other NCAA Football game for a few years. I didn't even get into the lack of FCS schools, and I won't, but maybe when the PS5 comes out EA will put out a decent game for once. With that in mind, if you have never played an NCAA Football game before you will probably like it. I'm excited about a number of the features I mentioned, and I like the presentation alot, but I won't be enjoying them.

Overall : 5/10 (as a long time player), 8/10 (new player).

Fantasy Baseball 2011 - 70 Games Down

I doubt anyone cares, I certainly didn't, but you may have noticed that I skipped a few entries. I've spent the past few weeks questioning my will to live, well not really, just my will to go on managing my team. As far as I'm concerned Andrew and I have been eliminated as possible champs, so all we can do is squabble over finishing in the money.

Andrew has fallen farther in the standings and the gap between him and #1 is probably the biggest its been all season. The team in first, who thankfully deposed the benefactor of Trade Gate, has 65 points and Andrew sits at 6th with 48. His problem is clear; hitting. Offensively the Teabaggers aren't hitting aside from Joey Votto, Brian McCann, and Lance Berkman. If you ever talk to Andrew he will gladly give you lecture about how Dan Uggla, Shin-Soo Choo, Kasey McGehee, Billy Butler, and Jason Bay are killing his team. I actually get up on a daily basis and thank the Baseball Gods that Uggla and his .177 average isn't on my team, and it makes it even worse that he has only hit 8HR and driven in 18RBI. At least Andrew's pitching staff remains awesome, so awesome that if it were mine I would be in first.

Seriously, who knew Jason Bay would suck?

My team is currently in the middle of a catastrophic free fall, which I should have known was coming. I'm losing players left and Wright (oh, that was so clever), and my roster is such a fucking mess with regards to position eligibility. If David Wright isn't done for the season and comes off the DL I think my roster will literally burst into flames. I've got Wright, Matt Holliday, Brett Anderson (probably also done for the season), and (gleefully) Derek Jeter on the DL. Add in Mike "I just got sent down to the minors" Aviles and I'm just sick and tired of losing games/at bats.

Killing me slowly (Shown in order of how much I hate them.)

The only upside to my current situation is that I've still got the best offense in the league. I spent most of my draft capital on hitting, so I'm happy things are working out, but my fingers-crossed pitching strategy has produced the 7th best staff... not good. I managed to snag Ryan Vogelsong for Brett Anderson, and I made a deal with the roster devil to get Eric Hosmer for Aviles. So my season is now riding on two youngsters that are all potential. I'm going to go throw up now.

The (frighteningly) young faces of hope.

Current Status
Bert - Nothing is fucked?! The God damn plane has crashed into the mountain!
Andrew - Nothing is fucked?! The God damn plane has crashed into the mountain!

Fantasy Baseball 2011 - 40 Games Down

Oh the mighty Baseball Gods have not been kind these past few weeks. They shower us with gifts and then kick us in the teeth, but it hurts so good. There hasn't been too much change in the overall standings as I float between first and second, and Andrew remains mired in fifth. Unfortunately the benefactor of the dubious trade has climbed into third, and I couldn't be more upset.

Based on some of our conversations I'm not sure if Andrew will live past the end of May. I've been trying to tell him the season is just 1/4th over, but his standards of play are so high it might as well be October. Andrew just got Victor Martinez off and Zach Greinke off the DL, so he should have some hitting and pitching help on the way. I don't think it matters since he hit the lottery with the free agent additions of Michael Pineda (5-2, 52K, 2.45ERA, 1.01WHIP) and the streaking Anibal Sanchez, but Andrew lost Dallas Braden for the season. His deep pitching staff is struggling, headed by his beloved Chris Carpenter (1-4, 4.88ERA), and the now-mortal Jered Weaver and Dan Haren. His hitting has slowed as well, but with a number of studs having bad starts (Dan Uggla, Shin-Soo Choo, Billy Butler) he should be in for an upswing. If it weren't for Jose Bautista's monstrous start he would have the best player in baseball, Joey Votto, so he shouldn't be in 5th for too long.

Maybe next year.

I can't complain all that much since I've stayed in the Top 3 all year, but I actually have a serious problem brewing. David Wright's season is over, well, they haven't said that yet but I'm assuming it is. Wright has been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back, which I read as "broken back" followed by cursing at the Baseball Gods. This is just like last season when I lost Kevin Youkilis, a four stat stud, but this time its a five stat stud. This all comes off the merry-go-round I have at 2B/SS, which is causing me heartburn. I (finally) dropped Sean Rodriguez, simply because he wasn't starting, and added Mike Aviles only to see him drop into the role of a spot starter. I assumed Aviles would be a starter, since he is listed as one on the Royals depth chart, but he seems to start every other game.

I was too lazy to photoshop in Rodriguez and Aviles, but you get the idea.

At least I can pat myself on the back a little over the Roy Oswalt DL situation. I knew Oswalt would only be out a week, so I managed to avoid the temptation of adding Alexi Ogando or Zach Britton. Ogando and Britton would only start once that week, also because of our waiver rules when Oswalt came back I would make those two available to the rest of the league, so I went for Jhoulys Chacin of the Rockies. Chacin is currently leading the Rockies in Wins, Ks, and ERA, plus he had two starts that week away from Coors Field. In both starts (Padres and Mets) he faced toothless teams in pitchers parks and went 1-0 with 11K, 4ER, and 8BB in 12IP, not bad. In that same week Ogando (1-0, 5K, ER, BB) and Britton (5K CG Shutout) both pitched well, so at least I didn't serve them up for everyone else. Not the league-winning stroke of managerial genius I had hoped for, but at least I made the right choice.

Its pronounced "Yo-lease"

Current Status
Bert - There's no ransom if you don't have a fucking hostage. That's what ransom is. Those are the fucking rules.
Andrew - Nothing is fucked?! The God damn plane has crashed into the mountain!

Fantasy Baseball 2011 - 30 Games Down

What the Baseball Gods giveth, the Baseball Gods taketh away. Thus is the tale of the past week, and luckily they took a little bit more away from Andrew than they did from me. I have to admit that is a short term view of the situation, but I'm feeling a little better about the long term.

From the ashes of my riskiest selections rise two pitching performances to put me at ease for a few days. First Max Scherzer showed why people have been so high on him by tossing a gem (8IP, 4H, BB, 9K and the W), and then Yovani Gallardo tried to prove to me that he isn't shit by just barely missing a no-no (8IP, H, 4BB, 6K and a much needed W) and extending his stay on my team. Also, it makes me a little sick to say it, but... Derek Jeter finally had a great day. I feel dirty. He went 4/6 with 2HR, raising his season total to 2 and making me hate him just a little bit less.

I did not photoshop his eyes. He actually has two different color eyes.

These things were nice, but I have my share of pain on the way. After dicking around with Carlos Ruiz for a week the Phillies finally put him on the DL, so I'll finally get a warm body in at Catcher. I'm also facing another week, and possibly more, without Roy Oswalt. Oswalt took off a week to attend to his family in Mississippi, which is fine, but now he is headed for the DL with back problems. I'm not looking forward to playing the DL game, but as long as its not my best players I'm ok.

Andrew has not had a good week. Jered Weaver proved to be mortal in a loss to Boston, and then followed that up with a loss to Cleveland. Weaver allowed 7 runs in two games after only allowing 5 in his first six (all wins), not to mention only six strikeouts (0 against Cleveland). Weaver's ERA has exploded, going from .99 to a humiliating 1.87, and his spot in the Angels rotation is at risk. If he allows any more runs he could get sent down to AAA before the end of May. In actuality that is the worst thing to happen aside from falling to 5th in the standings, which is the equivalent of death to him. Lance Berkman continues to destroy the league, he added the studly Michael Pineda and Brandon Beachy (DL add for Dallas Braden) who are pitching like Aces, Dan Haren is back to being Dan Haren, and Joey Votto continues his campaign to knock off Albert Pujols as baseball's top player.

Current Status
Bert - Well they can fucking unpost it!
Andrew - Nothing is fucked?! The God damn plane has crashed into the mountain!

Fantasy Baseball 2011 - 20 Games Down

Ah, what a season so far. Nothing earth shattering has happened, but at the current rate Andrew and I might be very pleased by the end of the season. We had our first trade of the season in the league, and Andrew and I are still trying to get over how bad it was. You can't have a good season without some controversy.

Andrew is busy at the moment building a monument to Jered Weaver. Weaver is 6-0 in 6 starts with 49K, an ERA of .99, and a .79 WHIP. You might say that he is having a good start to the season, and I would say that I'm annoyed that I wasn't more aggressive in bidding for him.

For the Baseball Gods so loved the world...

I wish I has someone to harp about on my team, but with Matt Kemp coming down to earth a bit I'm stuck just hoping Yovani Gallardo and Max Scherzer don't screw me over on a weekly basis. In the time it took me to start this post and get to this sentence Scherzer went from 5 shutout innings and 7K to 7IP and 5ER. Its going to be a long season for me... again. At least Matt Holliday is hitting .423 and looking fatter than ever.

Now for the trade. It was bad, it started out much worse, but after a league wide outcry it was watered down from complete shit to just flat our crap. The first form of the trade was Tim Lincecum and Wandy Rodriguez for Francisco Liriano and Gavin Floyd. Why you would give up Lincecum for a shit sandwich is beyond me, and we blocked it. Sadly it came back and was begrudgingly approved as Lincecum, Rodriguez, and Joba Chamberlain for Liriano, Floyd, and Ricky Nolasco. So now one team has Roy Halladay, Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw, and Justin Verlander. This trade makes no sense no matter how I look at it.

Current Status
Bert - That rug really tied the room together, did it not?
Andrew - Way to go Donny!

Nike Finally Gets Something (Mostly) Right

After years of violating our visual senses, it looks like Nike has come up with something good. I'm hoping this spreads to other schools, but I'm not going to hold my breath hoping for something good at Oregon, Miami, or Virginia Tech. Nike's Pro Combat designs have been flat out horrible, and the three people that read this blog know how I feel about them. Nike seems to have broken away from the Pro Combat looks in creating Arizona States new uniforms, and I am delightfully surprised.

The 2010 edition. Horrible.

ASU had one of the worst uniform sets last year, mainly the maroon-on-maroon home look that makes me bleed internally. Nike has gone with a complete overhaul of the current look and added a black uniform set. They ditched the golden yellow piping, and most interestingly they dumped Sparky their long time logo/mascot. This is an obvious, and effective, attempt by Nike and ASU to bring a little more attention to their football program. If you google "Arizona State University" images you will quickly realize what the school is known for, and it isn't football.

A quick search for "Arizona State" yielded this, its the tamest one that came up.

The Good : I'm so happy they stuck with the traditional golden yellow and maroon colors, not a huge fan of maroon but considering the game of color hot potato they have been playing up in Eugene this is a plus. I don't have anything against Sparky, but the new helmet logo is great. I didn't come up with this, and if I could remember where I heard it I'd give them credit, but Sparky kinda looks like Walt Disney in a devil costume. The new trident logo is simple, relates to Sparky, and works really well as a helmet logo.

Sparky vs. new trident logo and ASU text.

I'm also happy they simplified the jersey and pants, getting rid of all piping and pants stripes. The addition of the trident shoulder striping is also a great move. Its similar to USC's shoulder stripes, which are a classic look, but with a modern twist. I'm not a huge fan of black uniforms if black isn't one of your school colors, but whatever. I'd feel better if they only used the black helmet and pants together with the white or maroon jersey, but I'm sure they will mix and match like Oregon. Also, I like the change to a Florida State style number font.

The 2011 edition. Very nice.

Bonus points for the tasteful Pat Tillman tribute on the collar. The marketing photos make the logo seem extremely prominent, but when you look at the players wearing them its very subtle.

The Almost Bad : My biggest gripe is with the ASU text on the shoulders. They just don't seem to fit in, I'm not sure if I can explain it. They look like Nike panicked because the uniforms look so different from previous years, so they needed something to let you know its Arizona State. I would have gone with numbers here like USC. I also have a long standing hatred for gradient numbers, which you see on the black jerseys.

Gradient numbers, my mortal enemy.

Overall this is a big win for Nike and Arizona State. Worst case scenario I go on to hate the ASU on the shoulders and best case scenario it helps the people of Tempe forget that their team sucks.

Fantasy Baseball 2011 - 10 Games Down

The season is well under way, and I'm going to try and make this short. I'd love to spend alot of time rehashing the first 10 games, but there are 152 left and its useless to freak out. If you had told me that Team A would be 10-4 and Team B would be 3-10 to start the season, and asked me to predict their seasons I would stare at you blankly. Just for the record, Team A is the Kansas City Royals and Team B is the Boston Red Sox. Do we really think KC will be that much better than Boston? No, lets all relax.

After a draft day meltdown Andrew is feeling much better. With the way Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, and Tommy Hanson have started the season he could be feeling good for a while. Hanson has been pretty good, but Weaver and Haren have won 6 of their 7 combined starts. Andrew is so lucky that Haren actually picked up a win in an epic 14 inning game where he came in and pitched a single inning. Weaver currently leads the majors in K's, so things are looking up for the defending champ. Andrew's biggest concern is Matt Thornton, who just can't save a game to save his life. The guy blew four consecutive saves, and may not get another chance.

Looks like one apple fell really far from the tree.

I'm trying to relax, but I have two very serious concerns on my team. I am getting murdered by Sean Rodriguez and Ben Zobrist of the Rays. Both guys are hitting under .200, and Rodriguez has been displaced by flavor-of-the-month Sam Fuld. If that wasn't bad enough Fuld went to Stanfurd! I'm even more annoyed because I have been firmly perched in the Top 3 (enjoying some time at the top) despite these clowns. My team would be awesome without them, but whatever. My team is freakishly piling up walks and my "worst buy", Matt Kemp, is fucking destroying the league. Kemp is hitting .440 at the moment, his 8 SB are leading the majors, and he looks to be on track for a 20+ homer season. I realize these will change, at this pace he would steal 86 bases, but its nice to have someone playing well.

Apparently breaking up with Rihanna makes you hit over .400

Current Status
Bert - The Dude abides.
Andrew - No, he's a sex offender. With a record.