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)
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).
