Draft Day Sports: College Football 2021 Reviews

I really wanted to like this one being a simulation fanatic. I bought this thinking I'd be a great fix until the new NCAA comes out and even after watching the tutorial on recruiting it's more of a pain if anything. Control screens were buggy for me and lacking customization as well in terms of display screens. It was a constant battle of just needlessly going back in fourth that felt lacking over in depth. Glad I still have my Xbox 360 in the meantime to play NCAA 14 on Digital. Too bad it's the only reason I refuse to Mod mine.

Don't bother playing a game as the result won't be recorded and you will have to sim past the game. You will waste hours coaching a game just for the result to not be registered, nor will progress be saved and you will have to either completely replay the game and hope the result stays, or you will have to sim past the game and just hope your gameplan works. Such a frustrating ordeal.

Been playing through a number of seasons. Simming and recruiting is ok, not great. Simming can lead to some weird results which isn't particularly surprising. Recruiting can be hard to make sense of, but is somewhat reasonable. But career progression as a coach is basically broken.

This is a good game that has entertained me for hours. The game can also be very challenging, which is where I think some of the negative reviews are coming from. If you do not have top-down continuity, you will not consistently win on hard mode.

I thought I would try this game as it was a highly-rated sports simulation. After playing a couple days, I regret the purchase. Steam won't let me have a refund because I played more than two hours. So instead, I offer this. The in-game play for this simulation is fairly awful. Animations show players on the wrong side of the line of scrimage. Or they will show nonsensical patterns where the RB is where the QB should be. Or the QB doesn't show up at all. Onside kicks are far too successful. Field goal kickers never miss. On the two occasions I did see a missed field goal, they were both blocked. The last straw was losing a game because a run-of-the-mill college field goal kicker hit a 56-yard field goal as time expired. Within the realm of possibility? I guess. But have you actually watched college football kickers? The recruiting system is not even all that fun and feels like a burdensome chore on an Excel spreadsheet. Should I spend 1, 2, 5, or ten recruiting points on a prospect? How am I supposed to know? Most of all, it's really hard to care. I've greatly enjoyed other sports simulation games. This one is a big disappointment.

I wanted to fall in love with this game but it doesnt hit my sports management simulation itch. This review is based purely off of sim dynasty Biggest issues I had was with recruiting. Kept getting all the recruits that I had been working on for multiple turns I was going after at 95+ interest with no offers or limited offers other than my own to see them sign to another team next turn. No real way to see where I rank comparatively to other teams. I had a process that worked for me to find "gems" but was very time consuming, no real way to speed up the process. NCAA made it a little too easy sometimes with finding gems, by giving camp info but I think there definitely needs to be a balance. Rarely saw things like prestige improve even though my team was consistently in the playoffs, I maintained what my starting prestige was. Unclear the impact of OVR's and other stats. Seems like there is plenty of scenarios where its better to start some players with lower OVR if the better OVR player has inbalanced stats. Had a dynasty where I maintained an 84+ avg OVR which was top 5 in the game but I was a middling team in a G5 conference. Not sure I understand player development or its impact in this game. Consistently on my team and CPU, saw very limited development or progression from players since their Freshmen year. Was very stagnant each year. Way too many upsets, or lack of disparity between the teams. Once had a year where my team and two others went undefeated in the SIM, which was the only time I saw an undefeated team. Did a couple ten year sims just for shits and giggles while watching football on TV and this was also the case. Usually with a 4 team playoff you would usually get at least 2+ teams with 2 losses. Probably would say odds are higher that they all have two losses rather than that they all have 1 loss. I get that two loss teams can make the playoffs but seemed WAY too frequent. I think the game does some things well such as accurate sim player stats(Dual Threat QB's can get rushing yards), but all in all it just misses out on too many things and honestly I expected way more customization on the league than what I got. I get that its essentially an indie project, but I don't see this game being a rival to any of the later NCAA games purely from a sim standpoint for another 5 years at least based on what I've seen from Draft Day Sports. I do think they will eventually get there, but count me out until we get to that point.

There are a lot of good ideas here, but there also doesn't seem to be a lot of forward progress on issues that have bogged down games of a similar nature for the past 2+ decades. Recruiting is cumbersome and time consuming, but entirely formulaic and un-fun, if you're attempting to take control of it for yourself (which you will have to do in order to guard against the randomness of the AI's signings). Program prestige seems to move too quickly for non-Power 5's and at a glacial pace for Power 5 schools who don't reach the national title game. (I seriously booked 4 consecutive 10-win seasons, 3 of which came when my boosters weren't expecting them, and the program prestige never budged). Game simulations appear to be much too balanced, allowing for a wide degree of randomness to creep in to overall seasons and hosts of 2- and 3-loss conference champions. Being able to take in-game control of which offensive and defensive plays are called is a boost, but there's not enough information given to make meaningful in-game adjustments, nor is there a way to substitute players on the fly in the game outside of your pre-set package configurations and depth charts. Ultimately though, the game play problem here is the same as with all other football games to date -- certain plays simply work consistently better than others and, once identified, can be employed and overused without apparent penalty or meaningful reaction from the opposition. And if you're a rankings watcher, I assure you the top 25 bounces around in this game to the same annoying level it does in so many other college football sims. While this isn't a TERRIBLE game...I certainly don't feel like I was cheated out of my money...it also isn't the football game folks have been waiting for to breathe new life and excitement into the genre. Management freaks can find (and likely own) less-clunky products that allow them better reward in team performance for their efforts at recruiting that 5-star class. Strategists will find games with better graphics and more hands-on elements to allow them a greater level of in-game control. This game demonstrates the danger of trying to walk the middle line between both worlds while nailing neither of them. If you're a football hard-core sort and you need your fix or you just want to take over your favorite college team to salvage the program, you can certainly do worse than this game. If you've tried similar products in the past though and found yourself disappointed by them, then my advice is to keep walking because the odds are very strong that whatever bothered you previously has not been addressed to your satisfaction here.

Well I was able to put up with the bugginess and the joke of an in-game animation attempt, but now I'm stuck at the end of season 4 and cannot simulate through the bowl week and my dynasty is effectively stuck in time. Even greater, Steam doesn't refund your purchase for a game that bugs out after only 2+ hours (fitting for this company though honestly). Overall, the recruiting process and game planning are fun, but everything else could be much better for a "simulator". From losing games 40-10 to zero-win teams to losing recruits inexplicably with 99 interest, this game is all over the place.

First night playing, very fun so far. I like the in depth recruiting a lot, and calling the plays in game play is great as well. Top 25 rankings seem pretty broken so far, so hopefully that will be fixed soon. #12 Penn St beat #3 LSU, the next week LSU unranked and Penn St dropped to #17. Michigan St was #13 won both games and fell out of top 25. Oklahoma st was unranked and lost game then next week were ranked #13. First day of public early access so I've got no doubt it'll be fixed soon . Overall seems like great in depth game.

I was looking for a college football simulation game that would allow me to enjoy a career mode type play session, and I'm glad to say that Draft Day Sports: College Football 2021 scratched the itch I've had since EA shuttered their NCAA Football game. I've looked at past versions of the game, yet found the reviews and forum posts to leave me a little nervous, so I put it off. This time around it seemed like what I was reading showed that it was on track, and after playing it for a couple weeks I've found that the good it has definitely outweighs the bad. The bad things I've experienced so far, have only been small information glitches, like the QB's history showed up on a DLineman's once, and there is an annoying little Quality of Life/UI bug on the recruiting screen that they've said will be fixed in the 5.0.2 patch. I only used the call a game feature bit once, and found it wasn't for me. Instead, I enjoy the recruiting, roster management, training, and game planning parts. I could see where the game definitely isn't for everyone, however, if you've held off on giving it a go, it very well may be time to snatch it up. I'm not regretting it so far, and thus my being comfortable in recommending it to others.