NCAA Football 12 has now been on shelves for a little over the month and it's millions of fans have now had the opportunity to fully digest the game. Every year there are tweaks to EA's college football game and the 2012 edition is no different. There were not many negative changes, which is always good, but there were a few minor changes that make NCAA 12 an even more complete game than the previous versions.
5 Best Improvements in NCAA Football 12: Replay Cameras
One of the coolest recent features in the NCAA Football series is the ability to record a highlight from a game and either keep it on your hard drive to admire or send it out in the internet for everyone to see. The problem with the previous versions is that the best version of the highlight is usually the instant replay after the play has happened but you've never been able to use that version of the highlight to save to your hard drive.
Instead the options for recording the highlights are simply generic cameras from different sides of the field. Normally there is at least one angle where the highlight is pretty good but it rarely matches the instant replay of the highlight. Now users can choose to record the instant replay version of the highlight. Another nice addition is that sometimes the instant replay camera will view the play from above the stadium looking down. This is particularly a great view during plays in which the player with the ball evades a lot of tackles or finds his blockers and hits the right holes.
5 Best Improvements in NCAA Football 12: Recruiting
EA continues to tweak the recruiting system, which is one of the features that makes this a better game than big brother Madden. This time around when the user is recruiting players he can look at a list of potential schools for a recruit and the list will show how many points behind each of the following schools are. Then during the recruiting process the user can try to boost his own school's score while simultaneously hurting the other team's score.
For example, in one season I was playing as the Florida Gators and was second behind Central Florida in pursuing a recruit. UCF had about a 200 point lead on me in the recruiting. The recruit was high on Proximity to Home but since both programs are in Florida that wasn't going to help me. His second highest category was conference prestige. Florida has a A+ in this category while Central Florida has a C+. So I compared my school to Central Florida in that category and it resulted in +64 points for myself and -54 points for Central Florida and like that I close the gap by 118 points.
5 Best Improvements in NCAA Football 12: Hurry Up Offense
One of the reasons I love SEC Football and my favorite NFL team is the Pittsburgh Steelers is because I admire defense. I can't lie though, it's fun to score points in video games. Ever since the early days of arcade games video gamers have been programmed that points = good. I like to run a hurry up offense and score as many points as possible but in previous versions of the game when the user chooses to run the hurry up offense they hurry back to the line of scrimmage ready to run the same play and then if the user wants to change the play they have to call an audible or hot route or some other time consuming procedure.
In NCAA Football 12 when a user decides to run the hurry up offense the offense will scramble to the line of scrimmage like usual, but the plays for that formation will pop up like normal. That way the user can choose a new play as long as the play is in the same formation as the previous play. This addition is one hundred percent minor and yet it makes all the difference in the world.
5 Best Improvements in NCAA Football 12: Holding and Face Masks
Easily the most frustrating aspect of NCAA Football 11 was the insane amount of holding and face mask penalties that are called in the course of a game. In the options there is a slider menu that allows you to decide how frequently or how rare a penalty is called. There was one game in NCAA Football 11 when I turned face mask and holding penalties down to 0 on the slider menu and still got called for those two penalties twelve times in one game.
What's most frustrating about these calls is that they aren't even penalties that the user controls. Pass interference occurs because the player hits the receiver. Offsides usually occurs because the user runs across the plain. Users don't have much control over how they tackle a player so face masks are pretty random and users almost never control linemen so holding penalties are just random computer decisions. In NCAA Football 12 these penalties are not called very often. After a few weeks of playing, my team has been called for a handful of holding penalties but not a single face mask penalty.
5 Best Improvements in NCAA Football 12: Custom Conferences
One of the major stories in college football is expansion. The latest rumors are that Texas A M; is going to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC or another conference. This comes on the heels of Nebraska moving to the Big 12 and Colorado and Utah heading to the new Pac-12. For gamers that don't buy every version of NCAA Football it could be frustrating to play NCAA Football 12 a few years from now and several teams are in the wrong conference.
That is where Custom Conferences comes into play. When starting a new dynasty mode the gamer will have a choice of moving around the teams in each conference. Do you want to move Texas A M; to the SEC before it's official? Go ahead. Do you wish that Boise State played in the Pac-12 where they would play some real compeition? That can be done. Do you want to force Notre Dame to join the Big Ten or Big East instead of getting special treatment? Send those Fighting Irish wherever you want. For more such reviews, keys, codes and guides click here.
More From This Author:
Can Video Games Affect Your Child's Sportsmanship?
Downloadable Video Game Content: What Should Be Free and What Should We Pay For?
Will Red Box Succeed at Renting Video Games?