NCAA Football 14 Ultimate Team - Disappointing

NCAA Football 14 Ultimate Team doesn’t compare to previous UT modes in other games. In fact, this one is pretty disappointing. You would think that it would be close to the same caliber as Madden’s UT but it lacks some of the same features. It can still be an addicting game mode despite EA having left out some things.

Friends/Trading – This is the most disappointing thing in the game mode by far. You don’t have the ability to trade cards or play your friends directly. I could see reasons for not letting people trade cards (people would cheese on getting the collections and undoubtedly stack teams across gamer tags). Why take away being able to challenge your friends? You probably have that one friend that is always bragging about how ultimate is UT team is and now you won’t get to shut him up because you will probably never play him (unless of course you spend hours trying to get into the same game with him) .

Packs – What is with not mixing up the cards included in Gold Starter packs? Just about every single pack opening I’ve seen across YouTube for Gold Packs have the same players. I opened a few myself and you guess it, the SAME players. As if I wanted to play with the same cards that everyone else will have. All-American Packs seem to have the most random cards and it took me about 10+ packs before I finally got an Award Winning Elite (Red) and upgrade some positions.

Collectables – Other than the Heisman Hopeful players many of the collectable seem useless.  Heisman and/or Legendary (blue) cards are used with these collectables to unlock Heisman Trophy winner but don’t seem to serve any other purpose.

Heisman Trophy Winners – To unlock Heisman Trophy Winner you basically have to go through a UT version of the previous Heisman Hopeful mode. The way I understand it you need the Heisman Hopeful and Nickname collectible (both blue). These get consumed into your collections for and Upgraded Heisman Finalist card (blue) as well as unlocking the solo challenge. Beating the solo challenge will earn you the Heisman Trophy collectible card. This card and the finalist card can both be consumed into your collections for the final Heisman Trophy Winner Card (3^rd Upgrade). Yea, like UT isn’t complicated enough.

This game mode appears way more challenging than it really is. If you are looking for specific cards your best bet is to try to find them in auctions (beware of paying too much if you don’t have the coins). The 3-min quarters in head-to-head seasons is a competition of who can cheese the most before game ends (no one seems to punt, ever). Thanks, for making this so annoying that it is addicting enough not to put down because I want to win and truly have an Ultimate Team.

Assassin’s Creed BlackFlag - Early Review

Being a fan of the Assassin’s Creed series, I am more than excited that they have extended the series with a pirate themed game (pretty badass right?).  The E3 Trailer gives you nothing but hype of the possibilities that this game will breathe pure awesomeness and will stand out from the rest of the games in the series (check out the trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cwj1RQbOzM). I was certainly hoping that Assassin’s Creed BlackFlag wouldn’t be the same old Assassin’s Creed game, doing the same old missions, etc. and so far is seems that won’t be the case.

In this game, you will play as Edward Kenway who is a British privateer, who turns pirate, and as we can all guess, joins the Assassin Order. He is said to be Haytham’s Father from AC3.

Gameplay trailers have revealed a whole new world of exciting things, new features, and a few new toys brought to the game. There will be over 50 locations of land and sea to explore as well as the ability to board & capture ships, swim to nearby beaches, and hunt on land (similar to AC3) and harpoon in the water (IGN 2013). Yes, that means you will be able to do a bit of whalin'. They seem to have “increased the size of the sandbox” by making fewer restrictions in the game. Players will have more options to use the environment to their advantage, move around areas, and plan their attacks on targets. The recruiting system doesnt seem to be that much different other than your crew not being able to aid you in combat but you will able to create fleets of ships, among other things.

Also brought into the game is Edward’s ship known as the Jackdaw. The Jackdaw will be upgradable and easy accessible when needed. While traveling at sea, players will have to be aware of other ships and also storms (yes, storms). You will have to learn to navigate through them to avoid damage to your ship and losing crew members. The naval chase system gives you the opportunity take down ships plunder them by boarding and taking the supplies or using it to repair the Jackdaw.

From what I have seen so far they have given an all new look to Assassin’s Creed by changing the experience and opening new things that weren’t in the game before. I am eager to sail the high seas, hijack ships, and experience this new world. Who wouldnt want to play as a pirate assassin?  If I were giving an early review score of the game it would at least be a 4/5 (will upgrade that score if it plays as good as the videos look). I will certainly be looking forward to playing it when it releases on October 29^th.

For More Info:

Check out this gameplay trailer video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICemupWG56U

"Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Game Reveal Interview". IGN.com. March 4, 2013. Retrieved July 26, 2013.

1st Dynasty Mode - NCAA Football 14

Dynasty Mode is still my favorite game mode in NCAA Football 14. You get to take on the coaching responsibilities of any team, recruit players, and most importantly create and execute your game plan on game day. I have spent hours in this game mode already and I will probably start another offline and online dynasty now that I am more aware of some minor mistakes Ive made. I am going to go over my first season journey with the Oregon Ducks.

First are the coach skills. The different coach skills can have impacts on how your season turns out through recruiting and player performance on the field. Starting from the bottom, I decided to focus many of my earned XP on recruiting and it certainly helped. I had minimal trouble earning enough XP per game to gain the coach skills I wanted faster. Paying attention to the coach XP goals is important to gaining your coach skills. Whatever skills you end up choosing should fit whatever play-style you decided to run. Oregon is a pretty great program already and my coach skill decisions for OC/DC became vital assets in the bigger ranked games. Checking out future opponents and planned recruiting moves really helped me when I became a bit indecisive.

Next is recruiting. Recruiting is the most addictive part of Dynasty Mode and really takes some planning (Check out my previous post on Power Recruiting basics). By seasons end I was able to land two 5-star recruits, a 4 star and handful of 3s, 2s, and 1s. I was overwhelmed by the CPU moves by seasons end. No matter how hard I tried I ended up wasting resources because some programs were able to allocate more points than I could offer and maxed out the bonuses (this is why the coach skills are important). For some reason many recruits did not want to play too far from home (bout 80%) and eventually was the critical deal breaker in recruiting battles. I ended up having to scramble at the end of the season to meet the teams needs as I horribly lost many recruiting battles after it seemed like other schools were getting significant bonuses I couldn’t match (I honestly thought that schools were secretly offering cars or something). I made attempts to gameplan for the recruit visit bonuses but some games were unpredictable thus I lost out on those points. I had a Top CB visit when my secondary a decent game but had he visited a week early when they pulled off 4 INTs, he probably would have committed to Oregon.  I will say that handing out scholarships early, targeting recruits near you state (pipeline states), and the bonuses off visits (significant if you plan well) help. It is tough to gain ground on recruits that seem disinterested from week 1, but allocating enough points, bonuses from recruit priorities will help but realize when you maybe wasting time.

I managed to go undefeated and win the BCS championship barely escaping Ohio State. I don’t think I would’ve been in the title game had I not made my schedule tougher and had some luck with Alabama choking against Georgia. My players won many awards but no Heisman and I sent 5+ guys to the NFL.

I would have liked better luck at recruiting than I did (wasnt terrible but I had Oregon, don’t need many guys) as it seemed like the CPU cheeses with getting some players. Damage control and proper planning allowed me to keep minor missteps from becoming negative impacts to my squad. Hopefully this post aids you in your dynasty. I might decide to upload a journey through dynasty mode via YouTube in the future so you can actually see these things.

Madden 25 Expectations

After playing quite a bit of NCAA Football 14, I have some expectations for the new Madden 25. Madden 13 proved to be a minor improvement of previous installments but I was kind of disappointed. An overlook of what Madden 25 is going to contain seems to ease the annoying, disappointing or lack of things in the previous installment. You know how when you get a painful bruise and you put ice on it to make it feel better but afterwards the bruised area is still sore? Well I am hoping the difference between my Madden 13 disappointment (said bruise) and Madden 25 (the ice) isn’t like that. I took some time to overlook some of the features and hype of Madden 25 and I am pretty excited about what they have already revealed.

First thing that jumps out me is the usage of the Ignite 2 engine and True-Player Motions. If the physics are anything compared to NCAA 14, then I would be content. I have had a lot of fun with the way players move and the improved ball carrier cuts in NCAA 14 and I hope Madden  25 has a similar feel.

Another thing they mentioned is “definition visuals”. Which seems kind of useless as you wont really see this during gameplay. It is great to have the players look like the actual players but most of us just care about the gameplay. This brings me to AI improvements. I don’t know how many times I have played Madden and the AI doesn’t execute football common sense (slider adjustments help but don’t eliminate bone-head plays by the CPU). My experience in NCAA 14 has led to me believe that this system is slightly improved. I also stumbled upon a video talking about .  The Defense Gameplay Trailer restores some faith in this mentioning improved blocking and player intelligence (read & react) being better but I want to see it in action in the demo.

New Features & Modes that I am excited about:

Connected Franchise/Owner Mode – They have brought back and improved owner mode that is full of new options online/offline. From stadium, merchandise, and ticket management to scouting, it all looks intriguing. One new thing that seems cool is being able to respond to fans & media as owner. Also Fantasy Draft is back. You have the option of drafting teams from scratch before starting a franchise. I glad they are bringing this back because this was one of the cool and fun things that you could do in previous Maddens.

Ultimate Team Features – New Ultimate Team features look awesome. Chemistry is now a factor on how you form a team via your play style. I really like this idea but I doubt it will prevent people from tying to cheese online. The Head-to-Head Seasons will prove to be interesting as you will be able to take your teams against other players to compete for an All-Madden Super Bowl Championship.

Madden Share – Madden share is by far the best thing they have added this year. Now you will be able to share content with fellow members of the Madden Community. Some of the content you can share is custom playbooks, slider configurations, and hopefully rosters. If this is anything like how 2KShare is then the possibilities are almost endless.
 
Madden 25 is a big step in new generation of “the best” Maddens. Will Madden 25 be the best?

NCAA Football 14 – Power Recruiting Tips

NCAA Football 14 has brought a new Power Recruiting system to Dynasty Mode. This uses a point system for week to week to gain a recruits interest in your school. You can check your recruiting board to allocate points to each recruit per week. You start out with 5,000 points as a base with a 500 point player cap per week (10,000 points are given in the off season without a player cap). Other things like scouting and offering scholarships also use points so managing them is important. Checking the feedback on each recruit will help you decide how to allocate your resources and plan for things like visits.

This may seem like recruiting will be easy but it isn’t. It can be difficult to keep track of the progress or lack of progress you are making on your recruits. Here are some tips I found that might be helpful:

Coach Skills – Recruiting coach skills may help you gain more points to allocate each week. Games can also help you gain bonus points based on player performances so adjusting your game plan may be key.

Point Allocation – Focusing more attention on big recruits early may help you sign them or keep you in the running. Allocate points to top recruits (one in which your school isn’t on their radar) early and often may help you gain ground in signing them. Offer scholarships to your top 10 or so recruits early.

Bonuses – Bonus points make a difference.  Current player performances (ex. WR catches), same play-style, and visits all can gain you point points for your recruits be mindful of these.

Deal Breakers – Be aware of deal breakers that may cause a recruit to lose interest in your school quickly. Dump guys you are not gaining ground on unless you want to waste resources to make up drastic differences, you may miss out on other recruits though.

Visits – These are important. Recruits only visit 5 schools. Bonus points can be earned through complementary visits (ex. QB & T vising on the same day rather than a QB & QB as this will lose you points) and great current-player performances on that gameday. Plan out when guys will visit and game plan for bonus points.

Think like the CPU – It will seem like the CPU is cheesing by maxing out the number of points they can on top recruits per week or through bonuses. You can do the same.

Hopefully these things will help you recruit players that you need for team in NCAA Football 14. It does take a bit of planning and time but have fun with it. For some more in-depth information on this game mode check out:  http://www.easports.com/ncaa-football/news-updates-gameplay