NCAA Football 13: Realistic Feel Makes This Edition the Best Yet

If you've ever wanted to see what it would be like if Robert Griffin III played for Alabama—even in a virtual world—now is your chance.

The latest edition of NCAA Football 13 offers a better glimpse into that kind of alternate reality than ever before.

The Heisman Trophy feature is just one of the many new exciting additions to the most recent version of the game, released on July 10. The feature allows you to add any former Heisman Trophy winner to any team of your choosing. So if you want to see what it would be like if Sam Bradford played for Baylor this year, or if RGIII played for Stanford or Oklahoma instead of Baylor, here's your chance.

Even if you want to see what Barry Sanders would've done for this year's national championship-winning Crimson Tide team, you can go right ahead. The possibilities are endless.

And the possibilities are also unique to this version of the game, which is experimenting with adding real athletes to its roster for the first time.

In total, there are 16 former Heisman Trophy winners making cameos in NCAA Football 13, and you are given a list of each athlete's accomplishments during his Heisman campaign before you start playing. The goal is to try to match those accomplishments, whether the athlete in question is playing for his real team or a different one that you choose. 

Though the real-player angle is by far the coolest new feature of the game, it isn't the only improvement. EA Sports has also revamped the passing and catching system to make the overall experience more realistic. It has added pass trajectories that make it easier to track your open receivers, and the game grays out receivers who aren't open so you don't have to waste your time or your downs.

It's also easier than ever to control the ball—where it goes, who it's going to, how far it's going.

It's rare that a game can make such a drastic leap in terms of improvements from one year to the next, but this game seems to have accomplished it. Literally every aspect of the game is more realistic than in previous editions: the fact that the players are real, the fact that the offenses run by each team more closely mimic the more complex offenses these teams run in real life, the fact that you are now able to analyze and assess your quarterback's options before determining where the ball should go. 

It's kind of like being the coach on the sideline and being able to control your own players like they're robots. The true-to-life players, coupled with real mascots and real crowds erupting into real cheers you might hear at a real stadium, all combine to make it feel as though the game itself is happening in real time and you're just watching it. (Or controlling its outcome.)

There's even a feature in which Rece Davis chirps in with audio game breaks to keep the audience up to date on what else is happening in the world of college football. 

It may seem overwhelming, but the overall package delivers an experience that incorporates so many elements of the real-life college football experience—both in terms of what you see when you watch on TV and what you might experience as a player on the field—that there is little left to be desired. 

NCAA Football 13 may not be Madden, but it's definitely the most revolutionary and realistic edition of the game that's ever existed. But if it's a bit too much reality for you, you can always juggle around those Heisman Trophy winners to keep things light.