General Bugs/Grievances with Dynasty Gameplay (list)

I want to start by saying that I’m a high school football coach who is currently studying mechanical engineering at a tech university in southeast Michigan. I have been a fan of the NCAA/CFB franchise since I was 4-5 years old when I started on NCAA 06 for the PS2. I have played every iteration of the game since that one. I am extremely grateful that after 11 years, EA has brought the franchise back. As someone who has now played 10 iterations of the game, has logged 320+ hours into this one, and has a good depth of football knowledge, I would like to present you a list of gameplay critiques from Dynasty Mode I have. Many critiques are carry-overs from older iterations and from the Madden franchise, and some critiques are unique to this particular game. It’s my hope that these will be considered when patching this game and working on building the next iteration of the franchise. As someone whose first love was football and whose dad has coached high school football for 40 years, the only gaming experience I have ever truly wanted is a close-to-simulation football game. I believe that if the following critiques are addressed now and in future iterations, the CFB franchise will be the best and most accurate football simulation game ever produced:

• Glitch where receiver running hook will turn back towards quarterback and start sprinting instead of sitting down to catch ball
• Receivers do not find holes in zone coverage and slow down or stop in them, especially when quarterback is improvising
• Defensive backs do not respond to quarterback scramble until quarterback has passed line of scrimmage no matter the coverage type
• CPU defensive line auto-sheds
• Throwaway logic is broken … QB will scramble right and throw away across his body out of bounds to the left and vice versa
• A number of gap blocking schemes out of certain formations are broken (i.e. trap, counter, power, buck sweep). On all traps out of shotgun sets where the back is not offset, the aiming point of the back takes him directly into the pulling guard’s back. On buck sweeps against some defensive fronts, three linemen will pull instead of two for some reason, etc.
• When sprinting through a hole and making a cut, the ball carrier will hold the ball so far away from his body that it will get stuck on an offensive lineman and looks incredibly strange
• Gap responsibility for C-gap defenders is seemingly non-existent – off tackle will hit for 6+ yards no matter what technique (inside, outside, head-up) the end is playing most times unless you overplay the formation strength
• User edge defense against zone read needs to be better. You can set the end to contain but he will simply watch the quarterback pull the ball and run by him – In short, default User backside contain needs to be fixed
• Way too much excess player movement after the play is dead. People jumping through piles, sticking to each other, coming face-to-face with one another and still attempting to jog … all looks very strange and takes away from immersion
• CPU QB on Wing-T teams will often keep the ball and then proceed to fake-pitch the ball repeatedly until he is tackled
• Speed/load/triple option (anything with a pitch) glitch where if pitch is late but gets out before QB is tackled, the ball will float downfield and result in a gain for the offense
• Fumble recovery logic is broken. On a pitch that gets fumbled backwards, the pitch man and QB will lose track of the ball and therefore not try to recover … too many instances of people trying to scoop loose balls near a pile – that needs to be dive animations
• QB standing still after completed passes and handoffs (this can break certain plays like some DIY reverses that rely on QB making a block, not to mention it looks strange)
• Lead blockers on plays to the perimeter not blocking most dangerous man (especially true on jet sweep/touch pass and toss sweeps)
• Defenders never getting hands up to swat a pass when they are right in front of QB applying pressure
• CPU defenders in man coverage are many times better than User defenders in man coverage
• Lack of plays and incorrect blocking schemes out of Wishbone and Split T formations (need trap, iso, counter, Michigan pass, QB Sweep, option, backs need to carry out fakes, etc.)
• CPU kickers have a better chance at making a 60-yd FG than a 27-yarder from the hash
• CPU defenders are much quicker to attack receivers short of the sticks once a catch is made than User defenders
• Adjusting gameplay sliders is useless – too many things are tied to each gameplay and penalty slider to ascertain where they should be set for optimal performance. The base product needs to be better on default sliders so people don’t have to alter sliders to get better gameplay
• QB sneak needs to be fixed. QB sneak is a wedge play, all linemen should block a gap inside and QB goes over the center or into an open gap – he would also get a push from his back(s) (which is not included in the game) … currently, the line simply blocks man over (big on big - BOB), often leaving the QB to run into an unblocked 1-technique
• Way too many “big hits” happening in tight spaces on inside/off tackle runs, especially occurring from the side. These plays typically create a pile that gets pushed forward until the play is blown dead and do not end abruptly with a “hit stick” from the side
• I have seen defenders tackle running backs around/through offensive linemen
• User defensive back play recognition/ball-in-air reaction time is usually much worse than CPU
• CPU teams down by more than 28 with less than 5-6 minutes to go should not be running tempo and airing the ball out to try to score (typically, unless that team’s base philosophy is tempo) – they would realistically be subbing 2’s and slowing down to avoid injuries
• Team/platoon/formation subs need more depth
• CPU kick returners should occasionally fair catch/take a knee in the end zone when the ball is kicked sort of the end zone or is kicked fewer than 4 yards deep into the end zone. I have never seen this in the game
• CPU punters will occasionally have games where 50% of their punts are either shanked or are kicked sky-high 20-25 yards down the field
• Some broken plays need to be addressed – in particular, there’s a play out of Gun Empty Quads called Vert Double Under where the vertical route will come open by 20 yards due to a busted assignment vs. 75% of the coverages I tested (even cover 4 drop, palms, match … all failed) … there are a few more plays like this that I cannot think of
• Onside kick recoveries need to be so that the hands team FALLS ON THE BALL … 95% of the time, they try to pick it up and run
• I have seen plays where the CPU QB will throw a ball within arms-reach of a User defender and no play on the ball is made, but when User QB pulls ball to throw slant off RPO defensive end/OLB on line of scrimmage will intercept the pass while falling backwards (this should be next to impossible due to limitations of human reaction time – at most, it would be a swat down, or tipped ball INT) … this has happened 3 times

• Overall, many things point to a lack of physics and logic-based gameplay, and it appears the game is much too heavily reliant on animations. Everything stated above is from memory, and I’m sure if I went in and played a few games right now I could add 2-3 more gameplay bugs/inaccuracies/sore spots. It is my sincere belief that gameplay must be fixed to the best of EA’s abilities first before any efforts are made to add uniform combos/presentation fixes/recruiting fixes/polling fixes/RTG fixes/Ultimate Team features, etc. Gameplay is the backbone of the franchise and it’s what keeps people immersed in the game. Whatever it takes to fix gameplay, whether it’s simple fixes to player logic and physics or an engine overhaul, is necessary if this game is to be a close-to-simulation football game.

I’ve put so much time into playing it not necessarily because it’s fun but because I see the potential for this game to be so much better than it is. Resurrecting this franchise and having to do it with new code must have been no small feat, but there are vast improvements that can be made to gameplay alone that would elevate this game from a an above-average product to a truly elite product.