2014 football video game
2013 video game
NCAA Football 14 is an American football video game published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. Part of the NCAA Football series, it is the successor to NCAA Football 13. Despite the game's positive critical and commercial reception, no sequel was produced the following year. Due to legal issues surrounding the game's use of college player likenesses, NCAA Football 2014 was the last installment of the NCAA Football series. As the most recent entry in the dormant series, the game continues to be played, with unofficial roster updates being released reflecting subsequent seasons.[1]
Development
NCAA Football 14 is part of Electronic Arts's NCAA Football video game series. Part of the game's development focused on improving its user interface and presentation, with a mantra to "keep things fast" and "keep things moving". The changes included a streamlined main menu (replacing a graphically intensive menu design modeled upon the ESPN College Football graphics package), a shorter pre-game segment, more varied in-game vignettes, and a new halftime show with ESPN's Rece Davis and David Pollack. The game featured Kirk Herbstreit and Brad Nessler as commentators.[2]
On March 10, 2013, it was announced that former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson would be the cover athlete for the game.[3] A fan vote beginning on December 5, 2012, allowed fans to choose what teams would be represented on the cover. After it was narrowed down to 32, a second round of voting narrowed it down to 16. A third round reduced it to 8 teams with players. Players also vying for the cover were Eddie Lacy, Kenjon Barner, Jarvis Jones, EJ Manuel, Ryan Swope, Andre Ware, John Simon, and Tyler Eifert.[4]
Reception
NCAA Football 14 has an aggregate score for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions on Metacritic of 77. The aggregate score on Gamerankings for the PS3 version is 77.27%, and for Xbox 360 it is 78.42%.
The game received mixed reviews. GameSpot gave the game a 6/10, praising the on-field action but criticizing the unnecessary experience system, the recruiting process, and the lack of significant changes from NCAA Football 13. IGN, who gave the game a 7.4/10, had similar comments, praising the fun running game and improvements to Dynasty Mode, but criticizing online servers, the dated visuals, and the "generic" feel to the game.[6]
NCAA Football 14 was a commercial success, selling over 1 million copies.[1]
New features
On July 5, 2013, the new features for the game were announced.[7]
- Acceleration Burst
- Ball Hawk Pass Defense Assist
- New combo moves
- Force impact ball carrier moves
- Force impact tackling
- Hard Cuts
- New hurdle interactions
- Revamped option types
- Nike Skills Trainer
- New run blocking AI
- New stamina system
- Stumble recovery
- New camera angles
- Ultimate Team
- Power Recruiting
- Neutral site games
- Coach Skills
- Coach Contracts
- 2013 Season Mode
- New Commentary, Pregame and Halftime Show
- Streamlined Menus
- New chants, fight songs, and Iowa wave
New teams
Three new NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams were added to NCAA Football 14: Georgia State, Old Dominion, and South Alabama. South Alabama joined the FBS in 2012 but had been left out of NCAA Football 13.[8] Georgia State and South Alabama joined the Sun Belt while Old Dominion was soon to join Conference USA. This brought the total number of teams in the game up from 123 to 126.
Future of series
As of 2024, NCAA Football 2014 is the most recent installment of EA Sports NCAA series. The main reason behind the decision was the ongoing debate on whether NCAA athletes should receive payment. Many players argued the game series used their likeness, yet they saw no compensation.[9] Despite the series stagnation, dedicated fans have been putting in a collective effort to keep the rosters updated to the best of the game's allowed capabilities via online roster updates and sports forums.[10]
College Football Revamped is a mod for NCAA Football 14 created by fans, it includes updated rosters, team logos, fields, and the College Football Playoff, for NCAA Football 14 was released in the BCS era.[11]
College Football Revamped has an overhauled menu screen, better graphics and lighting and it has updated team rankings.
College Football Revamped adds all new FBS teams when they join the subdivision, except Liberty. The following teams were removed from the game to add the new teams for the mod:
Idaho to Appalachian State
UConn to Charlotte
New Mexico State to Coastal Carolina
UMass to Georgia Southern
FIU to James Madison
On February 2, 2021, EA Sports announced via Twitter that the NCAA Football video game series will be returning in the near future for next generation consoles, in an iteration called EA Sports College Football.[12]
