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> Results: NCAA Football 2005
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
Of the many small signals that football season is upon us, the July arrival of EA Sportsﾒ perennial NCAA Football series is the hardcore gridiron fan-favorite. It means that preseason NFL is a few weeks away, it means Madden (and its worthy rivals) are coming soon, and most of all, to purists, it means their favorite school is gearing up for their annual bowl run. Thereﾒs nothing like American Football and the College game is where the diehard fans of the game reside. (In Collegiate ball every stadium has fans as loyal as Green Bay.) This year, just like last year, EAﾒs entry is the only game in town. So youﾒd think theyﾒd just update the rosters and leave it at that, right? Wrong. Developer Tiburon added quite a bit to the already stellar simulation, and almost everything they added feels integrated and necessary. First the little things. They tweaked the already deep and massive dynasty mode. In a nutshell, dynasty mode lets you create or play a coach, and handle the team for a set number of years (provided you arenﾒt ridden out of town on a rail). You can create your own school, your own team, or use an existing squad. This lets you take a bad team and rebuild them into a powerhouse, or take a great team and try to keep them that way. A big-money school to give yourself an advantage, or a smaller one, for added challenge. Itﾒs all up to the player and it can get very addictive. Youﾒre the coach, watch as your decisions affect your job rating. Perform badly enough ﾖ like I did with clock management foregoing an easy field goal for a silly touch down attempt with 6 seconds left in the half ﾖ and you will see your rating take a hit. A coach has to watch his players as well (this is new to the series). If they slip in their grades, they need to be benched. Fudge this too many times and the NCAA gets involved (by revoking scholarships). If youﾒre too hard on your team morale will suffer and youﾒll be out key players for key games. Itﾒs optional, itﾒs not 100% realistic, but itﾒs handled in a clever almost role-playing like manner. True fans love this sort of intricacy in College ball and itﾒs nice to see EA expand beyond simple roster changes when it comes to coaching. As an added reward, theyﾒve teamed with Sports Illustrated to generate fake issues detailing the top teams. Had a great game? Pulled out an amazing win? Broken a few records with your running back? Check out that weekﾒs cover. They added an interesting home-field advantage system to the game. At home, by pressing a button, you can pump up the crowd and cause your opponentﾒs gamepad to rumble and the screen to shake. Also, his players might be rattled, false start, or miss an easy pass. This works very well and does simulate what itﾒs like being at a College stadium when the crowd is into it. Crowd noise overall is excellent, itﾒs wonderful to hear an opposing home team crowd boo them when they miss a field goal, take a sack, or choke during the endgame. Who needs trash talk when the TV is already making your opponent feel like garbage?  The sound is superb and the graphics are too. Aside from some minor clipping issues and weird moments when a tackler sort of gets stuck on the runner, he doesnﾒt wrap up, jitters, and then falls off. The rain effects are great, but mud and snow still donﾒt look right and, for all I know, making on-field effects like that permanent throughout the game is impossible with the current console generation. Presentation is stellar, and the game has you pick your favorite school and then presents the game in that schools colors fight song, and information. The GameCube version doesnﾒt support online play but the PlayStation 2 and, finally, Xbox versions do. On the PS2 you get the usual options, Live is more interesting with support for Optimatch and Quickmatch, and dynamic scoreboards of other games going on. We didnﾒt have access to the Xbox version in time for this review, but online play is reported to be equal to the PS2 version, which we found to be stable and lag free. Whatﾒs that? The gameplay? Itﾒs about the same as last year except that players play with a bit less finesse. This is a good thing, I noticed far fewer luck plays and you canﾒt go pass-wacky, like in Madden, and expect these rookie kids to catch it like Moss or Owens. The running game is king and defensive play is beefed up. Playcalling still wins games here. Oh, and during timeouts, you can pick which part of the line you want to give some extra coaching ﾑoomphﾒ to! That is so cool. If youﾒre a College pigskin fan, this is a game you shouldnﾒt miss, and thatﾒs not just because itﾒs the only game in town. EA Sports has nailed everything you love about the College Football experience, making it equal to, maybe even better, than their flagship Madden. Go Badgers, on Wisconsin! 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.  Reviewerﾒs Recommended Ages: 6+ ESRB: E-Everyone Developer: Tiburon Producer: EA Sports Platforms: Xbox, PS2, GC Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: NCAA Football 2005 |
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