Running video games (and consoles) thread

You can't do that with the 360...? I only have a PS3, which lets you purchase most games from the store. Since Microsoft is normally ahead of the game when it comes to the online stuff, that surprises me.

 

If you have the EA Sports Pass (or whatever it's called), you get early release of NCAA/Madden, etc. and can download it 3-4 days early.

 

Yeah, that's $25 in addition to the $60 for the game. Fuck that, I'll find a Best Buy around here.

 

But what I'm saying is if you don't have Xbox live like I don't, you can't buy the games online.

 

Good point on the extra cost of the EA package. Forgot about that. I've never actually got the game that way either. Just knew it could be done.


Small clarification, kysw, you do have XBL. It's just Silver and not Gold. You need the gold to play people online, but silver members can download some things, IIRC.

 

Anyone other than sgreenwell get NCAA 13? Still haven't pulled the trigger on it. Was just over at amazon contemplating it and noticed that the reviews weren't good (averaged 3 stars. More 1-star reviews than any other category. But I don't often look at amazon reviews. So, I don't know if they skew low.)

Someone in the reviews also complained their game froze in the middle of dynasty seasons a lot.

 

Whoops - forgot to post about more of my thoughts! Here goes...

- The freezing and general slowness is a problem. I haven't had the game freeze completely on me, but I think the problem stems from how connected to the Internet the game is. Even if you're not playing online, the game checks constantly for a connection for things like the Season Showdown (or whatever it's called). At my parent's house when I was housesitting, with their shitty Internet, everything went slower, even if I disabled the PS3's online connection. At my house with a direct ethernet connection to the PS3, everything is faster, and there is much less menu slowdown.

- The recruiting is better than I initially thought, although still easy to exploit. One of the "promises" you can make is playing a game in their home state, and conference games count, so it's easy to pick up an easy 150 to 250 points just from that. Also, a welcome change is that the "priorities" / recruiting pitches are now ordered by how receptive the prospect is, which makes for a nice timesaver if you recruit manually. (Which is how you should recruit, by the way, since the quick recruiting isn't really that effective.) In contrast, players will now transfer more frequently if you don't play them or redshirt them, which is annoying, but a sign of more realism to me. I've played and simmed through about five seasons now, and I had at least one transfer away from my team each season, with a high mark of four.

- The ratings for players are pretty good. By that, I mean that you can immediately notice the difference if you have a 70 RB vs. an 80 RB. Overall, the difficulty strikes me as a bit better in this year's edition. You don't have the crazy LB interceptions, but the pass defense in general is pretty good. Passes I easily made - meaning all of them - in 10 and 11 are now swatted away easily by DB. The animations for tackling are much improved as well, although defenders still don't always tackle that well. (I'm not sure if this is because the game is nerfed though, or if it's because I'm simply playing as a bad team in an iffy conference, since I am playing as Idaho.)

 

I think I'm going to wait until '14 comes out ... I assume they'll have an option for the playoff built into the game by that point. Everything I'm hearing is that '13 is not a significant upgrade over '12, so I'll probably pass. I appreciate the detailed reviews, though. Thanks.

 

I think that's a correct assessment, and yeah, as far as I know, there isn't any option for a playoff.

 

I think I'm gonna skip on it as well. Reviews I've read -- here and elsewhere -- haven't been that great.

 

Don't you get to play as some of the greats like Barry Sanders, etc. this year?

That might be the only enticing reason to buy it. But it's probably not enough of an enticement though.

 

You do. 16 of them.