NCAA Football 14 Gives Smooth Gameplay with New Ultimate Team Feature

Troy Taormina- USA TODAY Sports

The good folks over at EA Sports recently sent a copy of their newest game NCAA Football 2014 over here to Rant Sports. They also generously provided the special opportunity to speak with Tim Brown, the former Heisman trophy winner. You can check that piece out here, if you are a fan of Touchdown Timmy.

Now, on to the game. In short, the gameplay this year is smooth. EA Sports NCAA Football 2014 uses an intuitive new physics system called the Infinity Engine 2. It accounts for player weight and strength in a way never before seen in college football video games. A friend playing the game remarked that he had never seen a football game so “realistic” in the way players fall, dive, and get tackled. This new force impact system helps make the running game as well as the short passing game much more authentic compared to last year’s version.

Having been a long time player of both EA Sports football series, I can also safely say that this game has the best Dynasty Mode yet. The power recruiting is quick and effective, and the coaching skills tree allows you to develop your head coach while the year goes on. This is quite impressive and creative, because it allows you to hone certain skills to be ready for Bowl Week. It is also nice that the offseason recruiting time consumption has been cut down significantly. As we gamers get older we want to play more and do offseason recruiting less, you know?

The Dynasty mode I played with was two years with Texas A&M, and I had particular success with the Full House Pistol formation out of Clemson’s playbook. The good part about playing with the Aggies? They have lightning fast receivers, and the virtual version of their quarterback isn’t being investigated for being paid to sign autographs, so you know he will play week one of the season. Ouch. Too soon? Moving on.

Ultimate Team Mode is quite fun and worth mentioning as well because you can create a team using over 2,000 former NCAA athletes. This allows the EA franchise to use real names, because the players no longer fall under amateur status. So you can trot out Bo Jackson (for the first time since Tecmo Bowl?) and Doug Flutie with Hall of Famers like touchdown Timmy as well. In UT mode, you can either play solo challenges against the CPU or do a full season of games in the online community, but it is a refreshing change of pace from Dynasty Mode in either respect.

All these different aspects make NCAA Football 2014 quite addictive and entertaining. So if you love college football, a smooth gaming system, and old school players then you may have found a new virtual home.

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