Running video games (and consoles) thread

[Bodie_Broadus]

I'm guessing things have slowed down a bit in this thread because we're busy in our respective NCAA 14 threads now. I've had a chance to play it a week or so now, and love the way they re-did the recruiting - much less of a time sink and just more accurate in general now, it seems. The gameplay changes, I can't really tell what they've changed - Some plays seem more effective, and some plays less. I also like the Ultimate Team thing, although I see it as more of something I'll occasionally dabble in when I'm not doing Dynasty stuff.

One option or gameplay mode I wish they would add - Streamlined playing. Meaning, a game option with no replays, no commentary, no running ticker on the bottom of the screen, and none of the presentation stuff. I realize that some of that stuff is in now in order to hide when the game is loading, but I'd honestly rather see a loading icon for a second or two. Just me, or everyone - I normally am tapping X constantly between plays and skipping every sort of presentation thing. I could careless about the "realistic" aspects they throw into the game.

Non-NCAA games, I got my computer back so I've played a couple Civ5 games. Because I have ADD when it comes to games, I'll play a couple turns of that while waiting for NCAA to finish loading / simming. Great stuff. It plays so different from Civ4 that I'm still getting used to things. To those of you with more experience in the game, how far apart should I space cities...? In past games, your "city grid" was always a 5-by-5 grid with the corners cut out, but in this one with the switch to hexes, I can't tell. It's resulted in me inadvertently starting cities that are too far to ever connect to my capital, or so close that they're running into resource problems. I do like though that in general, it's easier to win with a smaller empire as opposed to previous editions, since all of the Wonders you can build have reduced costs.

The recruiting on NCAA is so frustrating but I kinda like that. I won the NC in my second year, Washington Huskies, and I have yet to get a five-star player. I have lost one game in the Pac-12 in two years, Stanford, and am usually 3rd or 4th in the conference in recruiting.

On the old versions, I'd be top 3 in the nation every year after one NC.

It definitely "feels" more realistic in this regard, yeah. I won the NC as Old Dominion in a first-year dynasty, to get that trophy, and only about five 4-star guys were interested in me the next year. I think program prestige gain is capped at one star per year, which is probably part of it. Even with the real-life runs of Boise State, it's not like they've been awash in 5-star recruits since then, so that makes sense.

I have four five-star WR's interested this season, I am chasing two the other two are gonna pick someone else.

 

[sgreenwell]

I'm guessing things have slowed down a bit in this thread because we're busy in our respective NCAA 14 threads now. I've had a chance to play it a week or so now, and love the way they re-did the recruiting - much less of a time sink and just more accurate in general now, it seems. The gameplay changes, I can't really tell what they've changed - Some plays seem more effective, and some plays less. I also like the Ultimate Team thing, although I see it as more of something I'll occasionally dabble in when I'm not doing Dynasty stuff.

One option or gameplay mode I wish they would add - Streamlined playing. Meaning, a game option with no replays, no commentary, no running ticker on the bottom of the screen, and none of the presentation stuff. I realize that some of that stuff is in now in order to hide when the game is loading, but I'd honestly rather see a loading icon for a second or two. Just me, or everyone - I normally am tapping X constantly between plays and skipping every sort of presentation thing. I could careless about the "realistic" aspects they throw into the game.

Non-NCAA games, I got my computer back so I've played a couple Civ5 games. Because I have ADD when it comes to games, I'll play a couple turns of that while waiting for NCAA to finish loading / simming. Great stuff. It plays so different from Civ4 that I'm still getting used to things. To those of you with more experience in the game, how far apart should I space cities...? In past games, your "city grid" was always a 5-by-5 grid with the corners cut out, but in this one with the switch to hexes, I can't tell. It's resulted in me inadvertently starting cities that are too far to ever connect to my capital, or so close that they're running into resource problems. I do like though that in general, it's easier to win with a smaller empire as opposed to previous editions, since all of the Wonders you can build have reduced costs.

The recruiting on NCAA is so frustrating but I kinda like that. I won the NC in my second year, Washington Huskies, and I have yet to get a five-star player. I have lost one game in the Pac-12 in two years, Stanford, and am usually 3rd or 4th in the conference in recruiting.

On the old versions, I'd be top 3 in the nation every year after one NC.

It definitely "feels" more realistic in this regard, yeah. I won the NC as Old Dominion in a first-year dynasty, to get that trophy, and only about five 4-star guys were interested in me the next year. I think program prestige gain is capped at one star per year, which is probably part of it. Even with the real-life runs of Boise State, it's not like they've been awash in 5-star recruits since then, so that makes sense.

I have four five-star WR's interested this season, I am chasing two the other two are gonna pick someone else.

I do wish they would "fix" the recruiting to have more of a mix of positions. Every year I still have waayyyyy too many athletic skill position guys - HB, WR, QB and CB - interested in my skill. It seems like the game makes way more players in those categories as opposed to other ones.

 

[sgreenwell]

Sgreenwell and other Civ 5ers: What difficulty do you play on?

I normally just play on settler, to keep things simple. I'll probably start to branch out to other difficulties though, because I'm a sucker for achievements / trophies, whether on Steam or the PSN Network. If you wanna add me on Steam, my ID is the same as here, although Civ5 is the only game I have on there so far.

 

[amraeder]

Sgreenwell and other Civ 5ers: What difficulty do you play on?

I normally just play on settler, to keep things simple. I'll probably start to branch out to other difficulties though, because I'm a sucker for achievements / trophies, whether on Steam or the PSN Network. If you wanna add me on Steam, my ID is the same as here, although Civ5 is the only game I have on there so far.

There's two sgreenwells on steam (different caps) are you the sgreenwell with the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend as your profile pic?

 

[amraeder]

I'll add, Re: keeping civ simple, I think it stays fairly simple up through prince. Your millage obviously may vary, but my guess is you can feel fairly comfortable bumping it up.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I vary the level on Civ5 based on my mood. If I'm wanting to just mess around, I'll play a quick game on settler. If I want to kick my tail kicked, I crank it all the way up and set resources to scarce.

 

[sgreenwell]

Sgreenwell and other Civ 5ers: What difficulty do you play on?

I normally just play on settler, to keep things simple. I'll probably start to branch out to other difficulties though, because I'm a sucker for achievements / trophies, whether on Steam or the PSN Network. If you wanna add me on Steam, my ID is the same as here, although Civ5 is the only game I have on there so far.

There's two sgreenwells on steam (different caps) are you the sgreenwell with the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend as your profile pic?

Ah, I didn't realize it let people have the same name! Yeah, I'm that one, haha.

 

[Bodie_Broadus]

Has anyone seen the CPU miss a FG on NCAA 14?

 

[amraeder]

Has anyone seen the CPU miss a FG on NCAA 14?

Yeah, I've had a couple of long ones from the CPU come up short.

 

[Matt Stephens]

Has anyone seen the CPU miss a FG on NCAA 14?

I dropped the CPU FGA to 40 and have only seen it miss one, which was from 45+.

 

[sgreenwell]

Has anyone seen the CPU miss a FG on NCAA 14?

I've seen it miss a couple. More curious to me - I'm playing with the default sliders and I've had exactly one penalty call in about 30 games so far. However, when I super sim, my defense does seem to pick up holds, offsides and pass interference calls at a relatively normal rate, so I'm guessing it's something not syncing up with the sim engine vs. the play engine. (I just made both of those terms up.)

 

[KYSportsWriter]

Has anyone seen the CPU miss a FG on NCAA 14?

I've seen it miss a couple. More curious to me - I'm playing with the default sliders and I've had exactly one penalty call in about 30 games so far. However, when I super sim, my defense does seem to pick up holds, offsides and pass interference calls at a relatively normal rate, so I'm guessing it's something not syncing up with the sim engine vs. the play engine. (I just made both of those terms up.)

I've noticed that, too.

I suck at defense in this game, and that's sad because that was always my strongest point in older versions, so I'll sim every play on defense and take over after getting the ball back. I've seen a lot more penalties called when I sim than when I actually do play defense for an extended period of time. Not sure what's up with that.