NCAA Football 13: First Impressions

For the first time in years, I was unable to pick up a copy of the latest NCAA Football video game at midnight. However, after I clocked out at my actual job, about an hour later, I dive right in to NCAA Football 13. So was it worth the wait? Though, a better question, was it worth the price?

Let’s start with the marquee new feature. The Heisman Challenge. Initially I was going to put Tebow in crimson, but for some reason, the game isn’t allowing me to download the add-on that contains Tim Tebow. So instead, I tried Robert Griffin III. Pretty much you’re trying to top that Heisman winner’s numbers with a different team. Though, I must say, it is a nice feature.

After you snap the ball, you can use “Reaction Time” to slow down the play. For example, with RG3, it let’s you oncoming defenders and find receivers you may not have seen in real-time. However, the appeal to this game mode is just the “what if” factor. What if Barry Sanders chose Stanford? What if RG3 stayed committed to Houston?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool addition to the game. Though, it’s not a groundbreaking feature. Also, get used to seeing Nissan a lot. Anyway, as a long time NCAA Football fan, I’d much rather have the classic games back, where you try to recreate legendary games. I just really don’t see myself playing this mode very often.

One mode I do see myself playing, though, is Dynasty. Not much has changed, but the recruiting has improved significantly. And also, who doesn’t want to play with Texas State, who just moved up to FBS status. Also, the UTSA Roadrunners are available, practically a program straight out of TeamBuilder. Custom conferences are still available, but not much is different about Dynasty.

However, let’s talk about gameplay. Some are saying there isn’t much of a difference from last year, but I beg to differ. Maybe it’s just me, but there were some catches made that are just were so unrealistic in past games. That looks like a problem EA fixed. The secondary seems much improved. Also, tackling seems a lot more realistic this year.

And NCAA Football 13 should be about the game play. I feel like it is worth getting, especially with the roster update. From an OU standpoint, Dominique Whaley is now the starting tailback for the Sooners. Also, Kenny Stills seems unstoppable as the new number-one guy.

So if you already got the game, how are you liking it? I played it for a few hours, but I am patiently awaiting the custom rosters before I get too deep in to the game. I’ll have some more in-depth stuff about the game in the weeks to come. I feel like it would be unfair to judge the newest installment of the NCAA series on its launch, but maybe with future patches, it could pan out to be the best of the franchise. It’s just too early to tell.