NCAA Football 13 Critic Reviews

All in all, NCAA Football 13 marks a really enjoyable entry in EA's long-running franchise, and it shows that EA Tiburon still has what it takes to make a fun, exciting football game for fans.

NCAA 13 doesn't take the kind of giant leap forward that will be noticed by the masses, but it's an installment that will be built upon and which we will look back at as a key moment in the franchise's larger history.

Though the undercarriage of the game has not changed, EA has done a tremendous job of adding features, tweaking gameplay, and providing visual touches for NCAA Football 13. Heisman Challenge mode really puts this one over the top, providing a new experience and hours of gameplay outside of the well-known modes of play. Even if you have NCAA Football 12 sitting on your shelf, this is a must-own for any virtual football fanatic.

NCAA Football 13 isn't going to be forever remembered as the year EA shook up virtual college football by any means, but it may be the year that gamers look back to in the future when they realize that EA got everything right.

NCAA Football 13 is a bit of a disappointment as the franchise faces its inevitable confrontation with the law of diminishing returns. Significant advancements in design or gameplay are few, and the ones that are included are flawed in some way. With last year's game available on the cheap, spending 60 bucks on this will feel a lot like buying tickets from a scalper, but you'll ultimately feel fairly satisfied.

A great game -- the changes to the core engine are welcome, challenging and exciting -- but the little stuff adds up. Similar modes, audio inaccuracies and visual missteps make a game that's better than last year's on the technical level but lesser as an overall product.

So my advice would be if you own NCAA 12, there is a good chance you may just want to skip this year, but if you don't own last years game then feel free to purchase NCAA Football 13 with confidence as it is a rock solid gridiron game.

NCAA Football 13 gets so many things right that it is impossible to fault it too much. The problem is that most of the things it fixes and addresses are not things a lot of people will notice. This leaves you feeling like you are paying essentially $60 for last year's game.

Until the time comes for Tiburon to break down the game to its lowest level and rebuild from scratch, NCAA Football is going to keep on looking and feeling like it has for years now. While to us that's not necessarily a bad thing – after all, the last thing anyone should want is a repeat of the NBA Elite debacle – some people will inevitably feel like the franchise is growing stale.

NCAA Football 13 is definitely better than its predecessor, but amidst the upgrades, unfortunate legacy issues and inexcusable bugs prevent this college-pigskin sim from an undisputed championship.

The minor tweaks and abundant features packed into this game make it worth the upgrade, at least for hardcore fans of the sport and those who can't live without seeing their beloved team take it all. The online functionality is still surprisingly vast, and the other modes, though mostly unchanged, will certainly keep you busy until Madden's arrival, and maybe even beyond that

NCAA Football has always struggled to find its own place on the pigskin pecking order. While EA Sports has continued its quantity-over-quality approach with this latest entry, the title still provides a solid college football experience.

There is no denying that NCAA Football 13 is a small step forward for the franchise, especially in comparison to the past few years. However where NCAA Football 13 continues to succeed is in bringing the action we love on Saturdays to life. If you bought last year's game there isn't a huge incentive to go out and pick this one up for full retail price, but if you're looking to get a fix of college football, NCAA Football 13 is an amazing game of football.

Between the playoffs and the inevitable cribbing of Madden 13's bigger features (like Connected Careers), next year's NCAA Football will surely implement some bold changes. But NCAA Football 13 feels more like another effective iteration than a genuinely new, thrilling experience.

The gameplay improvements are fantastic but, in the end, NCAA Football 13 fails to provide enough to warrant an upgrade over last year's title. While it is still an enjoyable game, much more thought will need to go into this purchase if you are a seasoned veteran. But as mentioned previously, if you haven't found yourself on the college gridiron in a while, it is well worth your money.

NCAA Football 13 brings to the table two new features: a bullet time mechanism and an ability to play as past Heisman Trophy winners. Beyond that, it's just the same old solid football game that is sure to please, but not excite.

The improved passing game is the real star here and the other small improvements help sell the overall experience. Heisman is an enjoyable addition, but creates balance problems.

It's a shame there are so few noteworthy changes, because the core gameplay is still well done. But recycling the same content isn't enough to make this worth buying. NCAA Football 13 is another entry in a long-running franchise that desperately needs new ideas.

Make no mistake, Matt Leinart is a Heisman Trophy winner, and USC retired his number for a reason. He was excellent in his college years. But he's not my first pick as an all-time great, and neither is NCAA Football 13.

It has everything you could expect from a college football title and then some, but it just doesn't have a whole lot more than NCAA 12 already had.