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> Results: NCAA Football 2004
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If youﾒre a football fan your heart beats a little quicker this time of year. Itﾒs still summer, in fact in some states itﾒs the worst days of summer, but youﾒre aware that in various hotspots giants are sparring against each other. The football gods are chortling (a shout out to ESPNs TMQ there) and the analysts are analyzing, as fans wait and watch for each successive sign that football is about to begin anew. For some itﾒs the end of the NFL draft, for others itﾒs the first preseason game, for a few more itﾒs the appearance of Madden on store shelvesﾅ for me itﾒs when EA releases NCAA Football. NCAA Football is a robust game that, compared to Madden, is very much like its real-world counterpart. College football is for purists. The coaches adhere to the earliest stratagems in the game, the rules are simplified, and the superhuman athletes are fewer and farther between. The College game is different was well in that you canﾒt depend so much on key players, itﾒs key strategy that wins the game. Thereﾒs so many schools, so many teams, and the result is a fanbase more rabid than even the Green Bay Packers. How dominant is EAﾒs series? NCAA sold so well last year, upstart NCAA 2K3 from Sega doesnﾒt have a sequel this year. This is very bad news for multiplayer fans with the Xbox, as EA doesnﾒt support Xbox Live (Sega did). Itﾒs more than just market dominance however, NCAAﾒs team is experienced and the game has been tweaked into something nearly sublime. Football is a sport where a 30 year old is much better than a 21 year old, because experience counts a great deal. And NCAA 2004 plays the game like a Senior ready for the NFL draft. The hits are hard, the AI is sharp, and the controls are responsive. When your game is all but perfect, as NCAA 2003 was, what do you do? You add stuff. To that end NCAA 2004 has 150 new teams to the 200 present last year. Yeah, 250 total teams now. There are 36 new Division 1-AA teams and 100 classic teams from the past. Theyﾒve added the ability to play classic situations from recent history (and the past) and added a gimmick where, if you play well in Dynasty mode, you get your mug on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  The playbooks are expanded, with more than a few clever trick plays to choose from. The kind of plays that can help you win big or blow up in your face. The Dynasty mode is much deeper, almost a game unto itself, and theyﾒve added all kinds of great new options to create your own team. From logo, to uniforms, to fight songs and even the things the crowd does at your games. Once again you can create players, play them through College and then use Madden to draft them into the big league. The graphics remain sharp but are pretty much the same as last year, while the audio seems enhanced to include more grunts, groans, whaps, and booms, and more marvelous marching band music for Half-Time. Is NCAA the best College pigskin classic available? Yes, but itﾒs also the only one available. Thankfully, itﾒs a team you can feel comfortable backing for years to come. Kid Factor GamerDad believes sports games are among the best to play with kids. Competition and complexity intertwine beautifully in video-Football and EA Sports does everything possible to teach the game to new players. Parent and child can even play co-op versus friends or the AI, and bond throughout a long season of play. Which Version? There is no PC version, which is a shame, but the three consoles offer their own pros and cons. The PS2 version has multiplayer but needs the extra multi-tap for 3 or 4 player play, the Xbox version has better resolutions, lets you save information to the Hard Drive, and has four controller ports, the GameCube also has four ports, but the controller just isnﾒt good for sports games. Especially games like footballﾅ too many weird buttons.  Ages: 6+ ESRB: E-Everyone Developer: Tiburon Producer: EA Sports 
If youﾒre a football fan your heart beats a little quicker this time of year. Itﾒs still summer, in fact in some states itﾒs the worst days of summer, but youﾒre aware that in various hotspots giants are sparring against each other. The football gods are chortling (a shout out to ESPNs TMQ there) and the analysts are analyzing, as fans wait and watch for each successive sign that football is about to begin anew. For some itﾒs the end of the NFL draft, for others itﾒs the first preseason game, for a few more itﾒs the appearance of Madden on store shelvesﾅ for me itﾒs when EA releases NCAA Football.
Kid Factor by Andrew Bub
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