NCAA Football 12 Retraction

Falcon123

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Aug 9, 2009
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The only thing I saw that was incredibly inaccurate was that he said the juking function had been removed when it hadn't (I watched the review right after watching my friend play and was utterly shocked that he'd made that mistake). I suppose a couple features were also ignored such as the revamped Road to Glory and Dynasty modes, but I had just assumed that that had just meant they weren't significant enough to merit a mention.

Anyway, my tip of the hat goes to Russ Pitts for maintaining the integrity of the site by pulling a flawed article. Thank you for restoring my faith in this wonderful website.
 

millertime059

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Jan 7, 2011
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I would like to throw my hat into wanting to know what was wrong ring. Like others have said, Russ, big respect to admit error publicly. I watched the video review and saw nothing wrong so to speak. The only thing I can guess is something to do with instruction manuals, as that was by far the most negative aspect of the review. If that's the case letting us know what the difference i.e. the error, is would help those who were interested get a more accurate picture. You guys do excellent reviews, and Greg has earned my trust as a fair reviewer in the past.
 

GrizzlerBorno

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Sep 2, 2010
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Oh I hope no one gets fired for this (I didn't see the review, so I don't know who "dun' goofed").

It's just another stupid American Football game (I'm not American; Football is it's own thing). It was respectable of you to post a retraction, but please don't sack anyone!

Silver Lining: Now that you've technically reviewed one of these games you never, ever, ever have to review another one. :)
 

Crazed_Puppeteer

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Jan 15, 2011
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It takes more than a botched review to lose respect in my opinion, and in this case it seems as if the review got retracted before many people got to read it. Also, this game already has a set audience that is going to buy this game no matter what. Even though that isn't an excuse to write inaccurate reviews, at least it wasn't a game that needed good reviews to begin with.

With that said, I had a thought come to mind. Read me out...

In two recent Editor's Notes ("Connecting the Dots for Fun and Profit" and "Open Letter to Duke Nukem PR"), there has been an interesting connection made between the readers and the publishers of Escapist. The former article gives us the bombshell news that readers are going to be given the opportunity to submit articles for the Escapist (which sounds like a great opportunity), while the later article talks about the importance of "transparency and trust" between review sites, such as the Escapist, and video game companies, such as 2K Games and EA Sports.

With these articles and the retraction in mind, could there be an article showing us what goes into an Escapist video game review/article?

I'm well aware of the Extra Credits episode about how to be a video game reviewer, but I think that an article showing us what goes into these articles from someone such as a Russ Pitts, Greg Tito, Susan Arendt, etc., could shed some light on how to write quality articles for future issues of the Escapist so that we can submit articles that meet the Escapist's standards and not worry about our articles/reviews getting retracted. This magazine doens't need to do anything to try and win my trust back, but I wouldn't mind knowing a little bit more about the new transparency there is between the readers and the magazine.

Hope this helps.
 

Yvl9921

Our Sweet Prince
Apr 4, 2009
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Man, I wish I had seen the review... now I'm curious what was wrong with it, and who it was that posted it (though I can kinda guess who it was.) Was it really just the removal of the game mode mentioned earlier in the thread?
 

Dellaudis

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Jan 20, 2011
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I'm sure with some clever Google caching or somesuch you could find the article again.

As for this, I gotta say, The Escapist never fails to maintain my respect for it.
 

bchampnd

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Apr 12, 2011
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Having been able to read the original review, I can say that there were a number of errors.
(Tip: Anyone in Publisher's Club can probably find the full written review if they use an RSS feed)

Based on the written review, you would think that the reviewer hasn't played a football game since around 2003. The controls in all EA football games has stayed the same since it introduced the right stick controls for juking (they were then modified about 5 years ago to include the "truck stick" by pushing up on the right stick and the Reggie Bush back juke by pressing down). I will say that the effectiveness of a normal juke has been reduced but it's because it more accurately reflects player momentum and ratings and you can't stop on a dime and make a defender miss by 2 yards unless you really set it up well. Of course, the spin move is overpowered but that's another issue entirely.

In the written review, the reviewer wrote the following: "The choice of plays is streamlined, with only three options for any given situation on both offense and defense." This is flat out wrong. Any play in the entire playbook is open to you at any time if you are playing a normal game. It's just a matter of changing the play selection menu from the coach's advice or whatever they're calling it this year to plays by formation or plays by type.

In Road to Glory, you are restricted in terms of playcalling. When you arrive on campus. you're given one play. No option to change it, flip at line of scrimmage, call a hot route or audible at the line. As you gain coach's trust, you gain these abilities. I'm doing my Road to Glory as a QB so I have these options but I'm not sure if other positions are allowed to change the plays.

The interface at the line of scrimmage can be clunky if you're not used to playing Madden or NCAA. If you've played these games in the past 5-10 years you'll be right at home. Hit square (or X), up on right stick for quick pass, down for run, right for deep pass, left for playaction pass. The face buttons all map to different plays. You can actually see what these are IN GAME if you press the right stick in - which is a useful tip for anyone with problems with the presnap adjustments in general because it will show you the presnap controls without having to go to the menu.

Pointing out that you have to have good timing and know you're receivers routes to have an effective passing game isn't a bad thing, as the reviewer seemed to indicate - it's something anyone who appreciates the sport will find to be an improvement. (Of course, the amount of dropped passes by computer controlled receivers, especially by your receivers in Road to Glory can be frustrating since the ball will often hit them in the helmet or they won't even put their hands up and it will go right past them.)

I watched the video review a few days after reading the written review and will say that the video review was much less offensive and painted a better picture of the game.

The conclusion for any review of NCAA Football 12 should basically be - if you've liked NCAA football in the past, you'll like it again this year. Don't expect any major improvements but you'll appreciate the enhancements. And beware of bugs because there are a number of them.

I was absolutely shocked when I saw that The Escapist retracted the review but I applaud it for having the integrity to admit its mistakes. While everyone is entitled to their opinion about a game, making mistakes about the content of the game or the control scheme such, as the purported inability to juke or use a stiff arm, means that the game was not given a fair evaluation.
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
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Crazed_Puppeteer said:
I wouldn't mind knowing a little bit more about the new transparency there is between the readers and the magazine.
With regard to our feature articles, the process goes like this: you pitch an idea, and if it's accepted, you write a feature. We don't just accept every idea that's sent our way, of course - there has to be something special about your pitch. Once you write it up, it's reviewed and edited. If the editor (that'd be me) thinks it's up to snuff, it moves on to fact checking and proofreading. If it isn't, it's sent back to the author for further work. If it's so off base that it simply can't be fixed, it's "killed," and not published. (That's pretty standard for most publication, by the way.) If after ALL of that, something turns up to be incorrect, we fix it. Depending on the severity of the inaccuracy, we may also issue an apology, though to my knowledge, we've never had to do that. We have had to fix people's titles, things like that, but that's about it.

If you want to know more about our submission process, go to the Features tab and scroll down to "Write for The Escapist."
 

Kross

World Breaker
Sep 27, 2004
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Sgt. Sykes said:
I thought the Escapist doesn't give number scores?
We give number scores almost purely for the benefit of aggregation sites like Meta Critic - while we would prefer people read the whole review and form an opinion, that type of metric doesn't show up very nicely on game publisher PR data sheets. Which has an end result of a lot of publishing houses not being interested in the impact of our reviews (which effects how much access we get to games to review in a timely manner). As well as some other sites not linking to us because we don't provide a score. :(

This explains it much better then I ever could: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/7148-Why-Were-Using-Review-Scores
 

Mouse_Crouse

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Apr 28, 2010
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Sgt. Sykes said:
I thought the Escapist doesn't give number scores?
They use to just give reviews with a "who will like this" and "who won't" but here a while ago that changed to a star rating system, and that makes me sad. I used to talk up the escapist to my friends because they didn't use them. And quite frankly I think this whole Metacritic response only points out why it's a problem. Not only do you give people a over-simpliified meter to judge how "good" a game is without them relying on facts. Now you have given a score to a game that you acknowledge is incorrect, and you can't take it back.
 

Crazed_Puppeteer

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Jan 15, 2011
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@Susan_Arendt - This is actually very helpful. Thanks for the the advice (and for exponentially increasing my respect for the Escapist). Continue the great work.
 

Celtic_Kerr

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May 21, 2010
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Russ Pitts said:
NCAA Football 12 Retraction

After due consideration, we have pulled our NCAA 12 review.

Read Full Article
Congrats to Russ and the Escapist staff for stepping up and taking this into such consideration, and also doing what they felt was right.
 

Gamer234

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Jun 3, 2011
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Celtic_Kerr said:
Congrats to Russ and the Escapist staff for stepping up and taking this into such consideration, and also doing what they felt was right.
I agree. I think it says a lot about this company and the content that they stand by. We can be more assured that they will only release content that they believe in. I actually think NCAA Football 12 is a great game. I'm addicted to it. The graphics are amazing and the crowds sound awesome on my speakers [http://www.klipsch.com/]. I can see why some might not like the game as much, but that's not me!
 

MadTonyB

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Aug 19, 2011
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This game has been a real let-down. Everyone knows that within about one hour of picking up a controller.

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