PixlBit

As I sit here, trying to get my latest installment of my CD collection blog, I thought I’d take a break and go with another game themed blog for this week. After all this is a video game website right? Oh Hello Pixlbit! It’s summer, it’s humid, and for the past couple of days the weather on the local news website has been described as “smoke.” There’s a couple of pesky wildfires around the area.

For this week’s what I’ve been playing, I’ve decided to do a Good, Bad, Ugly on NCAA Football 14. I’ve had a good block of time to play it and I can give my first impressions on it.

 

Good

Cutting: The cutting while running has been improved. I enjoy running the ball a whole lot more without trying to spin and juke my way up the field

 

Recruiting: Recruiting is so easy and quick now. Before it took forever and I dreaded it. Now you assign points and let it go. It tells you how far back/in front of other schools, and if there is a battle for a recruit.

 

TeamBuilder: I love this feature because you can stick any design you want in the game. Want to play with your High School, favorite TV/Movie team, fantasy sports teams? Just upload the logo, and play with the uniform designs and stadium, and you’re ready to go. Madden REALLY needs this.

 

 

Ultimate Team: This was my first exposure to this feature and I do like the concept. It’s Fantasy Football meets college football. I got sucked into buying a couple of packs because the level of competition was so lopsided in the weekly challenges. Thanks to the Target Pre Order, I got the ACC pack which had some players from the ACC along with some bonus card. This was my entertainment until the named rosters were released.

 

Customized Soundtrack: I still love this feature. Updating the songs is one thing I need to do, but so far I do like how it’s presented

 

Neutral Sites: I heard this was in the game, and I like this. It adds more realism.

Option: The Option is fun, and it works really well now. I played a little of the Option playbook, and like that there are more plays.

Ultimate Teams: I’ve never tried this before, and I like it. In fact I suckered myself into using a couple of bucks to buy packs.

 

Upgrading coaches: I like this feature much more than that School Pride feature they had a while back. Basically you earn XP during games, and once you hit a certain number you are awarded an upgrade for the Head Coach, and same can be done with the Offensive and Defensive Coordinators. These upgrades effect how your players play and makes the game much more enjoyable instead of getting deducted points because you want to drop 100 on your rival, even if the game thinks you’re running it up

 

Bad

Opening Sequence: It’s terrible. EA should have just kept with the College Gameday intro. You know what I miss? The full motion video enterances (go check out games like GameDay 98)

 

Teambuilder is back: EA is really lazy. It’s the same features for two straight years. There have been new jersey templates, improvements to helmets, and yet they just roll out the same stuff (teams like Idaho still have WAC patches even if they’re independent). Oh and the helmet at midfield at Qualcomm stadium is terrible. Did you use a high school intern?

 

Windows Tile Look: I like the simplicity of the layout, but I think there could have been a better design to the buttons. Overall I do like this but the buttons are bit boring.

 

Custom Conferences: I added this on Bad because I want to be able to get rid of conferences. I’m trying to follow what I think will happen in college football in the next five years (4-5 Major Conferences of 16 teams each, picking and choosing teams from the “lower” conferences to fill it’s ranks) I don’t need a four-team C-USA.

 

Option: As much as I like the option, I do see people abusing this going with the Oregon Fast Paced Read Option.

 

Ugly

TeamBuilder: Second straight year TeamBuilder has made all three sections. Why oh why are you lazy with this feature EA? This is by far the best feature in the game if you would just update it to remain current with NCAA Football.

 

EA is lazy: Let’s face it, this isn’t EA’s big cash cow, so they don’t put a lot of effort into it. I’m glad they lost the exclusive license to it. Hopefully it’s awarded to a 2K or someone like it, who will improve on gameplay, and keep the present features (or create something similar).

 

Overall I like this year’s game. I get why people call it the uniform/roster update of XX, but I am enjoying it. I just got the named roster so I’ve started my Dynasty. I’m 6-0 heading into a tough conference game (I think I’m playing Air Force next). At the end of this season I’m going to move SDSU, Boise, and maybe one or two other teams to the Big XII, and switching Louisville from the ACC to the Big XII, and moving West Virginia to the ACC. The game has some problems, but overall I am happy with the product. I give NCAA Football 14 a B+

 

*I forgot to mention if you want the named rosters my PSN: GoAztecs. I got the file from the good folks of Operation Sports.

 

 

 

A couple of days ago while browsing the PSN Store on the Vita, I bought the Motor Storm RC Deluxe Cross Play. I think it was the same price ($8?) as the Vita version. Here’s the kicker, I checked it out on the PS3 PSN Store and it was $12 bucks. Yeah I bought it on the Vita.

 

The game is quirky fun, kind of like the RC game on the NES, or the Micro Machine games on the PS2. It’s a little wonky to drive at first but after a while you get used to it. I see some of my PSN Friends are really good at this game (shakes fist at your skills) It’s good to see where I can upgrade my routes by watching their moves during the games.

 

The one thing I HATED about this game is that I have to download each individual car. There are something like maybe 30 cars total for one game. I had to do that twice, once for the Vita, and for the PS3. What really sucked is that at times PSN Store wouldn’t let me download, so I would have to restart it, and do it again. Yeah it would have been nice if they were all bundled together. I think I’m still missing one or two cars from the Vita, but whatever, I’ll figure out which ones I’m missing later and get them.

 

**Warning, if you buy this uber deluxe version be prepared to download each car.**

 

 

What Else Am I Playing?

I’ve been playing a little bit of Mortal Kombat. I can’t say I’ve jumped into this game because it’s basically the same game I’ve played for years. I tried a couple of games with a certain Sony character

 

This matchup broke my heart. Two of my favorite characters fighting each other.

 

I also tried out Tekken Revolution. I do like this free to play for fighting games, and if you want to throw some cash at the developers to speed up the upgrading of your characters you can. I’m a casual player, so that won’t be happening but every once in a while I’ll play a little bit.

 

It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about Simpsons Tapped Out. They have added some upgrades which is nice, and it kind of sucked me back into the game. I decided to create another Springfield (three in total) and I am having fun again.

Having Rainier Wolfcastle aka McBain in the game is comedy

I do like how everyone changes the subject when Abraham Lincoln talks about after his Presidency he wants to retire on an Alpaca Farm.

 

After having another successful CD Saturday, I found some really cool albums

 

And one of them is game related

 

I found the DJ Hero Renegade Edition soundtrack

 

It was a little steep in price ($16) but I never see this album so it was a must buy. Discs are in perfect shape, case is a little beat up (a couple of bent corners) but the cover art is still awesome, and the booklet looks brand new. 

 

Well I should get back to updating my CD blog…maybe I’ll hold it over for next week, again.

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris