NCAA Football 2005 Review

Developer	Tiburon
Publisher	EA Sports
Genre	Sports

It’s July again, and the football faithful are gathering at local video game retailers, anticipating what looks to be the most quality-filled gaming lineup of this generation. The slightly sub-par titles in games such as NFL Fever from Microsoft and 989 Sports’ duo of Gameday and Gamebreaker have all been red-shirted this year, leaving the spotlight on the two most prominent sports developers, EA Sports and the rising ESPN Videogames.

Kicking this football season off is EA Sports with their highly touted NCAA Football series. Since its launch on the PS2 in 2002, few have offered any sort of resistance, and what has been there in franchises like Gamebreaker or ESPN’s (which was then Sega) shallow attempt in 2003 have been less than stellar. So that of course brings up the question, how do you improve a game that already dominates the College Football market?

Well, the truth is, fans of the 2004 edition might feel threatened by all of the gameplay alterations. The overall feel of the game is much different than last year, and there is a new learning curve that wasn’t present in previous editions. However, if you’re a College Football fanatic, you already know you’re going to purchase NCAA 2005, regardless of the changes.

Gameplay - The NCAA game engine was initially based off of the 2001 Madden engine with a few tweaks here and there. Since then, EA has done a marvelous job of separating the two games and proving that the NCAA series is not a Madden cleverly dressed with College teams and uniforms. Much like how many prefer the college game to the pros, football gamers across the country and abroad tend to play NCAA over Madden, and the reason is simple: it’s more fun.

Unfortunately, EA decided to tamper with the game engine itself, in hopes of making it more realistic. While they have succeeded on certain levels, NCAA 2005 feels like it’s drifting back over to the Madden-like gameplay. The game’s overall pace, which was a little quick last year, has been slowed to a grand degree. Now the gameplay has dropped to a dead halt, nearly, and already takes away some of the much wanted fun factor.

In the real life sport, going into a place like Death Valley or the Swamp is intimidating and downright nerve wrecking for the away team. Loyal fans willingly do whatever it takes to give their team an advantage, and in NCAA 2005, it’s no different. EA likes to call it “Home Field Advantage”, and when you’re the opposing team, you’ll learn all about it. There are 25 preset stadiums that are ranked on “toughness”, and when the crowd gets rowdy in one of them, the screen begins to shake and the controller starts vibrating.

The stadium gets to such a deafening pitch that it makes calling an audible or adjusting at the line impossible. This is where the HFA really starts to put the pressure on you. When having to go into a place like Tennessee where 100,000+ fans are going insane, it really gets to you. Suppose you have a mismatch at the line and want to call a fly route, but your receiver can’t hear the QB. The ball is snapped, the receiver runs the original pattern while you’re quarterback throws the fly route, the ball is intercepted by the Free Safety and the home team just got a leg up on the game. Realism at its finest.

Also new to the game is the Matchup Stick, which is utilized by the right Analog stick on both the Xbox and PS2. It’s a pretty unique feature that can really be expanded on in future renditions. How it works is this: it informs the user on the talent of a particular group of player vs. the other team (i.e. receivers vs. defensive backs and safeties) by either a red or green color. Red meaning bad, green meaning good. You can view the offensive linemen vs. the defensive line, the aforementioned receivers/defensive backs, and even the backfield vs. the linebackers.

The Matchup Stick also tells of the player’s composure, which matters in this game more than you’ll want to believe. Depending on the composure of the athlete, the player can either make good plays or be embarrassed in front of the country. Over the course of the game, the player’s composure can change. These changes can be caused by successful completions, the home crowd, and basically everything else included in the game. If a receiver is rattled, he’s going to drop the ball. If a defensive back is rattled, he’s going to be burnt deep for a huge gain. Having a composed group of kids against a rattled team can be the difference between a loss and a shocking blowout.

Defensively, NCAA has been much improved. Gone are the days of racking up 600 yards passing in the first half, because the defensive backs are good in this game; I’d say too good. Even on the preset “Varsity” difficulty, once the ball is airborne, five or six players on defense swarm to the ball, all tipping it high into the air at a chance of the interception. When we heard there were going to be tipped passes, naturally we were excited, but it seems EA went overboard.

The problem wouldn’t be as abundant if it weren’t for the lack of catches made by the receivers. USC players could have Mike Williams (who is in the game, by the way, despite not being reinstated to the NCAA just yet), who is a perfect-rated 99 in the game, and he could have full composure, but he’ll drop a wide-open pass. So whenever a DB jumps into the air and spikes the ball up, it’s a frenzy to get to the ball as if they were starving children in a third world country – only none of them can catch, resulting in a mere incomplete pass. This of course drastically hurts the QB’s statistics, and I’ve seen games where even the computer-controlled quarterback went 3/18.

Many argue that the low completion rate is more realistic, and that in NCAA 2005, the passing game is just right. However, any college football fan would know that in real life, skilled QB’s throw above 50% completion consistently game in and game out. Also, while the DB’s swarm the ball, they never seem to catch it, resulting in only a few turnovers here and there. Personally I’m happy to see that passing requires a lot more skill than just chucking it up and praying, but it’s overly complicated for novice gamers. Thankfully, EA offers sliders to improve QB ratings and the Wide outs’ catching ability, as well as other things.

Players from last year should automatically recall reading “User Pick” whenever the user-controlled player intercepted a pass, and while it was a simple feature, it provided a sentiment of accomplishment. EA decided to throw a few more “User” plays, such as “User Catch”, “User Hit For Loss”, and the most notable, “User Big Hit”. By using the same button as the Home Field Advantage after the snap with a defensive player, an opportunity for a big hit is offered, and it does not disappoint. While the hits could be a little “harder”, they provide plenty of enjoyment.

The game modes in NCAA 2005 are pretty much identical to those found last year, with minor upgrades in a few of the categories. The College Classics are back under the alias “Pontiac College Classics”, but unfortunately, they’re all the same games in 2004. It would be nice if EA could have added a few new games, or even a few classics from last season, but they did nothing of the sort. If you beat them last year, don’t even bother recreating these classic games again.

The beef of NCAA 2005, as it always has been, is the renowned Dynasty mode. Sports gamers have come to know the NCAA series as the standard in this department, but with the exception of Disciplinary problems, it remains unchanged. How this works is, whenever a player cuts a class or misses a practice, or even cheats on a test, it is up to you to penalize the player. If you do little or nothing to fix the problem, the NCAA slowly catches onto you, and before you know it, you’re under Investigation. This would be a lot more novel if it didn’t seem random whenever a player messes up, and if it didn’t happen every other week.

PS2 gamers last year with both broadband and narrowband Internet connections could enjoy online play, and this year, EA has decided to bring the NCAA series to Xbox Live. For many multi-console gamers who went with PS2 last year due to online play, this would seem like good news. However, it seems as if EA didn’t work out connectivity issues with EA Sports and Xbox Live. The problem is slowly starting to be erected, but the first few days were less than stellar, with many people finding connecting impossible, and even if they did, the friends list would malfunction and cause the game to freeze. Good job, EA. On the PS2, however, we haven’t found any problems. Gamecube fans, I’m sorry to report that there is no online compatibility again. Might have to look elsewhere.

Graphics - There seems to be major differences between the Xbox and PS2 versions this year, and while many are going to opt for the ‘Box thinking of aesthetics first, they’re going to be extremely disappointed. You see kids, though the Xbox version features much crisper stadiums, better player models, and more vibrant colors, it suffers from terrible slowdown. Nearly every running play causes the game to slowdown to a crawl, and if there were a hole created, your opponent would have seen you coming for five minutes and would have adjusted his players accordingly. So while the Xbox gamers have luscious eye candy, they have to deal with horrendous framerate issues. I’ve heard stories of people who were so fed up with the Xbox version they returned it and bought the game on PS2. One would think EA could do better, especially given the hardware capabilities.

On the PS2, NCAA 2005 looks virtually identical to last year’s edition with the exception of the uniform upgrades and new menu design (a much darker creation, available on all three systems). The player models have been upgrades slightly, but the Xbox absolutely dwarfs it in every aspect. Fortunately for PS2 gamers, if they’re not worried about the visuals, they can enjoy seamless football action. The Gamecube gets a very respectable second place over the PS2, but with the lack of online play, I regret to say that many people are going to look over this version. And while there are certain improvements, the game still looks dangerously close to what it did in its inaugural year back in 2002. It’s really becoming outdated looking.

Sound - In the commentary booth, Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso return to form the excellent duo found in previous versions, only not too much has been added. The biggest problem in the sound area is hearing the same thing over and over. Sure, if you take the time to dissect the amount of lines and phrases, the game contains an awful lot of commentary, but it’s the same thing we’ve been hearing since NCAA 2002 with a few nifty comments here and there. This certainly has to be improved upon next year, or else hearing Corso say, “I haven’t seen moves like that since my high school prom, sweet heart” any more will lead to insanity.

NCAA 2005, with the Home Field Advantage, delivers probably the most realistic recreation of a sport in a game today, at least from a fan’s standpoint. They say that football is one thing, but football in the south is another. Well if you’ve ever been to a college football game period of any importance, you’ll understand the importance of a home crowd and how loud they really can get. I, fortunately, have had the privilege of going into a place like Tennessee and Florida and watch high-intensity clashes, and NCAA 2005 perfectly displays the excitement and atmosphere better than any game in the past. Great work here.

Bottom Line - In the end, NCAA 2005 plays and feels a lot better than 2004, and for some of you, that might be a bad thing. Taking the time to adjust to the new mechanics, mainly the passing game, will leave some frustrated out of their minds. The game certainly has a more authentic feel to it, especially with the Home Field Advantage and Matchup Stick, but it may be a little too tough for the casual gamer.

The hardest part of all is choosing which console to buy for, in my opinion. All three feature the same gameplay and sound, but when you throw in problems like the framerate on Xbox, it makes it seem almost unplayable. If EA can mend the problems with Xbox Live, and the framerate doesn’t bother you, then enjoy the better-looking game – not necessarily the best gameplay wise. However, regardless of your decision, NCAA 2005 is the only College Football title available this year, and with all of the new features, it’s one hell of a game to be overlooked. While I can’t help but be disappointed with the Xbox version, overall, NCAA 2005 remains the most realistic football game around – and still the most enjoyable.

Review by Brian Williams