{"id":3574,"date":"2011-07-13T07:41:50","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T11:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/?p=3574"},"modified":"2011-07-13T07:41:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-13T11:41:50","slug":"ncaa-football-12-%e2%80%93-very-first-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2011\/07\/13\/ncaa-football-12-%e2%80%93-very-first-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Football 12 \u2013 Very First Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After skipping NCAA Football for the last couple of years, I didn\u2019t really know what to expect, but I was semi-excited.  Not \u201cI\u2019m about to get laid\u201d excited; let\u2019s call it curiously enthusiastic.<\/p>\n<p>This is going to sound awful, but my first thoughts while beating down the dreaded bumblebees from Tech 35-14: \u201cThe game has not progressed; at its roots, this is still the same NCAA Football that I stopped playing due to discontent in the game\u2019s direction.\u201d  I gave up on the franchise a couple of years ago because I thought it had been on a downward spiral since the glory days of NCAA 2000-2001, never really captivating me during the PS2 days and of course somewhat lackluster PS3 offerings.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I just expected too much.  Maybe as a former reviewer I stopped appreciating fun, always concentrating on little flaws and gameplay defects.  Maybe NCAA Football gave up on me, its core audience from the original PlayStation days.<\/p>\n<p>So here I was last night listening to the same stale and forgettable (dare I say terrible?) commentary that seems to be impossible for the development team to improve.  The in-game presentation does not at all seem fresh; far from an ESPN Game Day experience.  Did I just see frame-rate stuttering as the players ran to the line of scrimmage?  I know I did not just see one of those crazy-ass superhuman, no way that could happen in real life, CPU ball carriers speeding up, skipping multiple frame rates, just to make a first down.  Say it\u2019s not true \u2026<\/p>\n<p>I know I am only a few games in, but what\u2019s the point of sportsmanship points when the game\u2019s AI doesn\u2019t seem to understand the concept?  As an example, my beloved Dawgs were trashing the fighting chickens of South Carolina (hey, I can dream of future days), 38-0 deep in the 4th QTR; I did a quick out play \u2026 mainly because I was still learning the playbook and wanted to practice the play to get the timing down.  I got docked -75 sportsmanship points.  A few plays later, as time was running out, I kicked a FG, just because I could and I am all for knocking the Gamecocks\u2019 in the teeth.  Guess what?  +12 sportsmanship points.  That makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>I am sure (probably) that as I play more, I am going to uncover actual gameplay elements that make me looked bemused \u2013 wow, the gameplay is really improved.  Look at those attack angles, look at the closing distance; those DBs are really playing zone defense correctly.  Or maybe not; such is the life of a jaded, former reviewer.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully under the covers, I will actually discover some fun.  The greatest compliment to this game will be me falling in love enough to start a Chronicles series, and maybe, just maybe pass up Madden 12.<\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\nif(wpa2a)wpa2a.script_load();\n\/\/--><\/script>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After skipping NCAA Football for the last couple of years, I didn\u2019t really know what to expect, but I was semi-excited. Not \u201cI\u2019m about to get laid\u201d excited; let\u2019s call it curiously enthusiastic. This is going to sound awful, but my first thoughts while beating down the dreaded bumblebees from Tech 35-14: \u201cThe game has &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2011\/07\/13\/ncaa-football-12-%e2%80%93-very-first-impressions\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">NCAA Football 12 \u2013 Very First Impressions<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,9],"class_list":["post-3574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-football","tag-ps3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3575,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions\/3575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}