Last year, the Xbox 360's debut came too late to receive a version of NCAA Football. This year, after some work and a major graphical upgrade, EA's college gridiron game is finally ready for the next generation. Well, sort of.
Gameplay:
This is the staple of any game, especially those of the sports nature. For years, NCAA on the PS2 and Xbox has had some of the best gameplay in football games the world has ever seen. Some say the gameplay was better than Madden. While that might be true on the current gen, on this console, the gameplay definitely took a step backwards.
Let's start on the offensive side of things. Your basic things are back. You have your standard Passing, with option of QB Vision, standard running with the returning juke stick, standard receiving, and standard everything else. That is the problem. This year's NCAA offers nothing new on the offensive side of things besides QB vision which was featured in last years Madden. While the standard offensive abilities are very solid, and sometimes too effective, the gameplay just feels recycled. There is nothing innovative on the offensive side of the ball, and the defensive side is even worse.
Much like the offensive game of the baller, the defense others nothing new itself. In fact, the defending in this game has gotten worse. Tackle timing is off, it is harder to deflect balls, and it seems as though every running back is covered in grease. You will miss tackles left and right and either make big plays, or give up big plays all of the time. When everything is a big play, the game loses its excitement and just becomes incredibly boring.
It seems the only addition to this game is a new way to kick using the right analog stick (which was introduced in EA Sports Arena Football), a momentum meter which does close to nothing to affect the game (even with a full momentum meter I could not stop the other team in certain situations), and the ability to fumble 5 times for a game than you should.
Don't get me wrong. What is in the game mostly works, and the game plays very solidly, but there is no innovation to make the game take a step forward.
Graphics:
This is the shining aspect of this game. Without a doubt there has never been a sports game that looked this good. The players are modeled beautifully and look incredibly realistic. The shine on their helmets, while small is impressive, along with their accumulation of "Big Play" stickers as the year goes on.
About 70 stadiums have been studied vigorously by EA so that they could implement almost every single detail in them and around them, and this really shows. The stadiums are gorgeous and the crowd comes to life like no other. I mean, the FSU fans actually do the tomahawk chop. That's awesome. Even though not every D-1A stadium made it into the game, those that did have been constructed perfectly, and EA should pat themselves on the back.
Just a few griped here. Sometimes the framerate can bog down incredibly. This comes when the camera pans the stadiums crowd. Jaggies can also get very bad. This is annoying, but I don't think it is annoying enough to your enjoyment of the game.
Audio:
This is another high point of the game. The audio is damn good in this game. The hits sound terrible (in a good way), the sound of 22 feet stomping on the turf is great, and the crowd roars wonderfully. This helps the atmosphere in the game a lot as you can often feel like you are in a big rivalry game. I really love the way they did the on field stuff.
The booth is made up of the ESPN trio you should already be used to, and they haven't improved . You will get the same commentary you had in previous games pretty much. I did notice that Lee Corso has gotten crazier in his sayings. I'm not really sure if that us a bad thing or a good thing.
Modes:
The modes are very basic in this game, and that is a little disappointing. You have your standard Quick Game for Exhibitions, online play for some competition, and a Dynasty mode that is very stripped to the bones. The only thing you can do in dynasty is manage your team, play the games, and recruit. Missing is the ability to create your own school, Race for the Heisman mode, and its revamped version, Campus Legend. Why EA could not put these in the game, I don't know, but they really should have as the basic modes do get boring.
Some nice additions are three mini games. You have option dash which is the same as previous years, and that hasn't changed much, but it is still fun. One new addition is Bowling. In this mode you will start at the Ten Yard line. You will have two tries to score a touchdown. Score on the first touchdown and its a strike. It is bowling, except with football, and is very interesting and can get intense. The other game is Tug of War in which you and an opponent will take turns trying to make big plays. First team to score a touchdown wins. Simple, yet addictive. These mini games are great additions to NCAA Football.
Final Verdict:
NCAA Football looks great sounds great, but plays average. EA could have had a real winner here but it is just not innovative enough and there are two few features to keep gamers playing for a long time. You will probably play this until you get all of the achievements and that's it. Nice graphics, but lacking otherwise.
Score: 6.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment