I always keep my eye on the NCAA series. Hoping that god proves that he exists and the game is everything it should be. I still play NCAA 06 since it was the last great game. Spring games, SI covers, players who are ineligible players. Solid game play. No idiot defenses. Offensive AI that can challenege you. I recommend everyone pick it up for like a buck(it does not play well on the 360, use PS2 or XBOX).

Well as of 2012 there is still no God. Chris over at operation sports delivered the bad news with terrible bed side manner..

Really a lot of the same bugs are back from prior years. This is maddening.

He has played the game for a few days and it seems to be the same old crap.

Bad

• ...then the studio updates become downright annoying when you hear the same lines twice in a game. Plus there is no way to really keep track of what else is going on within Dynasty mode, I don't know...to me Dynasty mode has tried something really ambitious here but the design of the whole mode doesn't fit what the developers said they wanted to do. It's impossible to know what happened during the week without actually checking things out and sometimes that's really hard to do as a lot of what you want is buried in the menus. The whole presenting Saturday's as a storyline is cool in theory (it was one of my top wishes for this year's game) -- but it needs to be done differently. A complete revamp of the mode is necessary -- at least the menus -- to achieve this.
• Wayyyy too much dead space with commentary, the presentation as a whole is just not up to par with it's peers in our genre although it is better than last year.
• Seriously, it's time to rethink defense. It's just boring and doesn't work how real football defense is played. On top of that, there's nothing to do and it feels just put in -- especially now after a decade of the same old boring thing.
• Apparently, Brent Venables taught the NCAA Football 13 team all about safety play because receivers run right past them into the open field. Vertical routes with fast receivers are nothing but money, it's horrendous.
• What is NCAA Football 13 simulating on the field? Seriously. SOMEONE FIGURE THIS OUT! Are you watching a TV broadcast? A cinematic presentation of college football? Are you watching it as if you were playing in the stadium? You CAN NOT do all three. All of the great games in our genre pick a style and mimick it and their presentations are much better than NCAA's. I just feel like NCAA tries to do everything and as a result does nothing well in presentation.
• The line play isn't all that great once again (surprised? not I). While there is actually a pass rush this year, it doesn't come at the expense of a collapsing pocket but instead it's like the offensive line 'whiffs' at the block and there is a jailbreak to the QB. The problem I see here are there simply aren't enough animations in line play to accurately depict how it works. Seriously, this is becoming a huge problem with the franchise and hurts the rest of the game because developers try to overcompensate in other areas (like QB accuracy and RB ability) in order to make up for what is simply poorly modeled line play.

Ugly

• Sack totals. I've had games on All American where I recorded over 10 sacks. That's not going to fly. Screen passes are especially problematic.
• "There aren't penalties in football except for the occasional holding and offsides!" - Anyone who's only experience with football was through NCAA Football 13.
• There are more plays than just screen plays and deep passes computer AI. Seriously. The A.I. Playcalling is absolutely atrocious from what I'm seeing in the early going. Or maybe it's just the AI's execution? Regardless, the AI seems way off this year when it comes to running an offense.
• Computer running the option...I think there isn't a more ugly thing in the world.
• Heisman FG Logic is still busted. Computer attempted a 58 yarder on me in my lone Heisman foray thus far.
• Still clipping issues, I have players running through each other and such at least once or twice a game. It's 2012.
• Really a lot of the same bugs are back from prior years. This is maddening.

That is just a laundry list of a broken game. For $60 this shouldn't happen. How do they just keep getting worse? Brand new games shouldn't need patches and tuners right out of the box. Not to mention the terrible gimmicks. Howard playing for OSU? Who fuck thinks that is fun? Maybe like a 10 year old. Hell even I at 10 would have thought "this feels dirty".

The last NCAA I bought was NCAA 11. That game was broke as well. I am a dynasty nut so when the recruiting logic of the AI was signing 9 QBs to one class I knew in a few seasons it was going to be donkey dick. And it was. QBs playing TE and RBs playing CB. Oh and the dudes come in so low overall that kickers were missing XP, killing any chance of a close game. Do they not test or sim a dynasty years in advance to see the results of what the AI does? How it recruits? Oh why would they? Suckers buy it anyway... And then the final straw that broke the MY back..

Floyd is average but... Not that Average! Crap like this drives me insane. Why is my corner's heading spinning and barfing pea soup? Why do my dudes run through the goal post? Why can't the AI perform a option play when it does it just fine in 2006? Unacceptable!

I will give you all some great advice. STOP BUYING THIS GAME. I want it to have the same fate as Fight Night and NBA Live. Let it die. They refuse to put a good product on field(yuk yuk)! EA takes a dump in a dvd case and you all pay $60 for it. Go buy NCAA 2006 for cheap or get NFL2K5 which to this day rivals Madden and does things that Madden still hasn't done(It has SportsCenter!). The game play is awesome and challenging as well(I missed the playoffs last season). There are all kinds of penalties and even off setting ones. You can even get updated rosters here. Just get a transfer cable for your X360 and for around $20 you have the best football game ever made. That isn't opinion. Its a fact people.

I hope NCAA at some point dies so 2k can get a shot at it. After playing NFL2k5, their NBA games and College Hoops 2k8(the best college Bball game ever) there is no reason to think they couldn't pull it off. This post is super ranting but screw it. One of my favorite games is pure ass. Tomorrow you have a choice. I hope you all make the right one. Just say NO to NCAA 13