I was out of town from Wed-Sun, so I picked up the game on my way home. I drove the majority of our overnight, 12 hour trip, so I was only able to manage 1 game yesterday. Heck, I kept falling asleep while trying to edit the names of the OSU players.
I played OSU vs PSU in the Horseshoe, All American and 5 min quarters.
The first thing I noticed was that they revamped the kicking game. Not the actual kicking part, but rather the downfield pursuit and return aspects. It was more difficult for me to weave my would-be tackler through their blockers. This basically means that the blocking has been improved. Also, when returning, the kickoff coverage is much better. I was still able to manage some decent returns, but it looks as though it's going to be much more difficult to return kicks for TDs. Same thing with punt returns, as it's more difficult to elude the coverage guys. This is a good thing.
I was on defense first, so the next thing I noticed is that I'm going to have to change the way I play defense and pay more attention to what plays I call.
They changed the way you control the DL players. Pulling down on the right stick is now a bull rush, moving it left and right will perform spin and swim moves, and moving it up will have your player jumping to swat a pass. The blocking is much improved so I had to keep playing with this aspect. I've read some complaints about a lack of a pass rush, but I didn't think it was too bad.
I was able to register sacks with both Gibson and Heyward. For Gibson I used a speed rush around a LT and Heyward's was a power move that might have also been a bit of a coverage sack. Worthington also got a sack when I ran a line stunt and both of the OL went to block Gibson (me) which freed up Worthington (CPU) and he swallowed up the QB.
I was still able to be disruptive on run plays. It's more difficult to blow up plays, but I could still force the RB to run inside or string him out towards the sideline. I'll also add that calling blitzes and stunts seem to have more impact this year (as they should). It's also important to note that this works both ways, so if you don't see a blitzing corner early, then your QB is going to go down. So I found the overall DL play to be more challenging and the overall defensive play to be much more realistic.
And while I like the improved line play, I've got to work on my pass defense. I didn't have a single INT (and this is a good, more realistic thing). I did blow a huge opportunity on a deeply thrown duck on 3rd down where I switched to my defender and moved him out of the way of a sure INT and the CPU thusly had a huge gain. So instead of getting the INT, or at least forcing a punt, they made me pay for it by punching it in against me in the next few plays.
For the day, Clark lit up my defense. He passed for 4 TDs and 0 INTs. He must have had 250+ yds. Also, when he ran the no-huddle as time was running out, it was tough to defend. They get to the line much quicker now and he didn't have any problem finding the holes in my zone defense. I wouldn't say it was a robo QB scenario, just that I failed to adjust my coverage and he picked it apart.
I've also read about some complaints/mixed reviews concerning the running game and the new camera angle. I think the running game is pretty smooth. I was able to find holes to the inside and even get outside a few times. The biggest difference is that it seems as though you have to set up your blocks. There were a couple of times where the CPU blitzed LBs to where I was supposed to run, so I tried to let a blocker get on them before I tried to run by them. Sometimes that meant having to abandon the original hole and finding the next best option.
Herron was my leading rusher. I forgot to look at his stats before I exited the game, but he had to be close to 100 yds on the day. He even broke off a 24 yd TD run towards the end of the game on a pitch play where he was able to get outside and break an arm tackle or two.
EA's talk of forming a pocket this year is no joke. Neither are the blitzes. I didn't see a couple of blitzes and they got good pressure on me a number of times. Also, if you hold the ball too long and wait to throw until there is a defender in your face, then you are going to throw a lot of ugly passes. I threw one INT in a hail mary scenario, but I got lucky on a number of ducks that I threw.
The camera angle wasn't terrible, but I can see where it's going to take some time to get used to it. There seem to be some awkward slow-downs when it is transitioning from a closer view to a wider view. Either that or their might be some slow-down, suction effect that kicks in on short passes.
Overall I found the game to be much more realistic than past versions. I won 31-28 with the CPU scoring a TD in the last few seconds of the game. Now I can't wait for fully named rosters.
IronBuckI;1497420; said:
Injuries again. I couldn't check on injury status during the game in any exhibition. If I can't do this in a dynasty, and injuries are this prevalent, then I'll likely just turn injuries off, until we find out WTF is up.
What do you mean you couldn't check on the status during the game?
I played an exhibition game yesterday and I was able to find the injury report section just like last year.
