Gaming Target - Xbox: NCAA Football 2003

Written by Adam Woolcott on August 23, 2002

Full Review: Scariest image in video game history: NCAA's male cheerleaders.

Slowly but surely, EA Sports' NCAA Football series is gathering a following not unlike its Madden NFL counterpart. The birth of the current generation of consoles has allowed Tiburon and EA to expand and refine the PlayStation series into something much deeper and time consuming Ц something always welcome in a football simulation. NCAA Football 2003 for the Xbox (along with PS2 and GameCube, of course) continues that trend. While this Xbox version really isn't much more than a prettied-up version of the PlayStation 2 version, it packs all the punch of the other versions (plus that handy Xbox hard drive gives you plenty of room to do all kinds of cool things that a memory card probably would hinder). As the absolute deepest football game around (not even Madden has this kind of insane depth), NCAA has enough things to do and see that it'll keep you going until 2004's version is released. Plus, the gameplay is as refined as ever Ц and a major improvement over previous versions. While Madden continues to wage a war against other NFL games, there's little argument that NCAA Football 2003 is the cream of the college football crop.

At first boot-up, NCAA is loaded with so many options that it's possible to get completely confused and even intimidated by the wealth of features. The main one, of course, is the gigantic Dynasty mode. But a lot of the other options can either tie-in to the Dynasty or be enough to keep you occupied if the Dynasty doesn't appeal (but why would you play this game if Dynasty mode didn't appeal to you?). For instance, NCAA features the Rivalry Mode. Rivalry Mode lets you play matchups between some of the biggest college football rivalries, like Auburn-Alabama, Florida-Florida State, Arizona-Arizona State, and USC-UCLA, along with a ton more. Each game carries some memento that carries along with the victor, either trophies, jugs, and even a drum (for the Border War between Kansas and Missouri). Winning the games will add the prize to your profile (all now accessible in the My NCAA option), along with other trophies you might win during seasons, like the Sears Trophy for the National Championship, the Heisman, and various other trophies that accompany bowl games.

Another cool option that's now been separated from the main options is Mascot Game. This is probably the weirdest mode of them all Ц instead of players on the field, you play with your own virtual army of mascots from the biggest schools. Now you can take Otto the Orangeman (a giant orange, if you're not bright enough to figure that out) from Syracuse and take on Testudo (sounds Spanish for Testes, doesn't it?) the Turtle from Maryland. A shame that you can't play as the Stanford mascot Ц don't tell me it wouldn't be funny as hell to play as a giant tree.

Creating a team is back tooЕwhich is always fun. You can create a team and replace them with one of the real teams (it's mean, but I like to remove the Miami Hurricanes and the Nebraska CornsuckersЕerr Cornhuskers and put some created teams in there), and play them in the Dynasty or other modes. Creating a school can be quite time-consuming, because you have control of every facet of your team, from the kind of stadium you play in, to the color of your uniform, and to being able to pick from a ton of logos for the new team. You can even dictate the kind of school it isЕfrom a cupcake team that couldn't even beat Notre Shame to a complete juggernaut program that beats the crap out of everyone in their path, or anywhere in between.

Despite these options, Dynasty is the reason why this game is so incredible and loaded with a disgusting amount of replay value. It sounds as easy as picking a team (or importing one of your created teams) and playing the games, but it's actually much, much more than that. As the coach you have total control of your team, from redshirting players before a season to even altering your schedule, be it changing around opponents or adding a game to your season (it seems that they didn't include some of the NCAA limits for games, but I really didn't try to play with it much). During each season, your goal of course is to make it to one of the many post-season bowl games, most importantly the National Championship game. NCAA tracks all kinds of team-specific statistics during the season, like both the coach's and media's top 25 polls; the BCS bowl system (which is as crappy and incorrect here as in reality), and post-season awards for things like the Heisman and All-American teams. It also has an up-to-date bowl preview screen, letting you see where you stand in one of the games Ц sort of a Уif the season ended nowФ kind of thing. It also lets you see how your coaching is doing, on a special screen that shows you your expectations for your contract duration, and even shows team attendance (which gets higher as you get better, and lower if you get worse) and record on regional and national television broadcasts.

Where NCAA's deepness shines through is in the post-season, however. This is where your team prestige comes into play. Team prestige is a six-star meter that's all over the game for you to see, along with the other 116 Division 1 teams. Have a season that's much better than the norm for the team, and your prestige level rises. Play poorly and the level dropsЕsomething that actually is a part of keeping your job, since all schools demand to keep the prestige of the program at the level it was at when you took the position. It even interacts with Madden Ц you can save a departing draft class to the hard drive and import it into Madden 2003 for a perfect mix of pro and college ball, to see just how your old college stars fare in the big time.

The higher the prestige level, the better chance you have at grabbing the top prospects in the off-season more consistently. One good season isn't enoughЕyou need to prove that you're building into a powerhouse program to nab some of the top 100 blue chip prospects. Thus, if you're a 6-star team like Florida State, the newcomers trip over themselves to play on your team, but if you're a 2 or 3 star team, getting better players is a little tougher Ц though usually when your prestige rating raises after a season, the prospects get better, just not as plentiful.

When in the recruiting phase, it lets you take so many angles that it can be a different experience each time. It lets you hop from state to state, looking at the big prospects (as well as CanadaЕnot that Canada is a hotbed for American football or anything). Or you can take a glance at the top 100 national prospects and their desired schools. The smart thing though is to just recruit the guys who are already interested in your school Ц for one; even a 1 star prospect (they range from 1 to 5) has a chance to be a mega-star (as I found out personally), plus since you're listed as one of their top 3 schools, active recruiting will nab them fairly easily. Sometimes though, a player will start off with your school as their top pick, but by the end of the recruiting week (5 total weeks plus signing day), they might not even be interested anymoreЕsomething you don't have control of Ц it just happens. Sometimes you can take a gamble on a player not interested and he'll sign, but it's a rare thing. It's all very random, but it's a lot of fun to recruit the players and see just who signs with your team. If you don't fill your open scholarships, they're used on walk-on players after signing day Ц some of those can turn out to be big stars too.

After recruiting, there's a training phase that lets you see how your old players are doing. Some have breakthrough training and get a much higher rating, while others disappoint and don't improve much at all. Using this is important to decide who gets cut and who doesn't before the season starts. Whatever you do, don't let the computer cut players so you're down to 55 on the roster Ц they're apt to take away your best players (something I noticed when simming a few seasons for fun). Just dump the lowest rated players until you get down to 55. Once that's done, you're repeating the process of the season, over and over until you get sick of it.

Honestly, the Dynasty is so deep that you could play years without actually playing a game; just simulating seasons and tackling new challenges, such as changing teams and trying to build another school, or taking an old powerhouse and making them a big-time program again. Or you could just stay at your current school until you no longer have a powerhouse (it can happen sometimes if your players don't pan out). Thankfully, the game is actually such a blast to play that you'll be able to mix both the off the field happenings in with the gameplay to create a college experience like nothing else out there.

If you've played old Madden or NCAA games in the past on other consoles (or Madden 2002 on Xbox), you pretty much know what to expect from the gameplay Ц only it's now been tweaked to feel a lot better. In past versions (especially NCAA 2002 on the PlayStation 2), the momentum and feel of the game was quite sluggish and overdone. The game felt quite slippery because of it and got mighty frustrating when you couldn't run an out play and be able to turn upfield and run off. Thankfully Tiburon tweaked the momentum down and turned up the speed a notch (just like they did for Madden 2003), so now the game feels much better and less sluggish.

Running the football has been enhanced a lot, thanks to the removal of the old bumper cars style of running. As was in NFL 2K2 (only not as exaggerated here), RB's will Уget skinnyФ and run sideways through a narrow hole for some extra yards. Each back is differentЕpower backs can shake off tons of tackles in route to a big gain, while speedy backs go down faster, but you have to catch them first. It all feels better here Ц like you have complete control of your running backs and can actually split defenders and change paths, thanks to the change in momentum. Breaking big gains is much easier because it's easier to run around defendersЕbut not too easy.

The passing game hasn't been enhanced much, besides the already mentioned momentum downturn. Making a catch on a slant play so you can turn up the field is more natural and possible Ц instead of running half a mile in your current position and then turning, you can start turning upfield within a second or so, as it should be. The receivers are still apt to drop passes even when wide open, and are prone to dropping a few after a particularly hard hit, which can be annoying but it's actually part of the game. The only thing I found troublesome is how often the receivers will stray from their routes and cause some trouble when I needed a deep pass. It's all about ratings though; a lower rated QB won't be too good at getting the ball to the receivers anyway, or just throw stupid interceptions.

Playing defense is still as great as past NCAA games have been Ц even if the computer AI is a little cheap at times. Primarily, sticking to nickel and dime sets are the way to go here, unless you're playing a team that runs the option a lot, or just pounds the ball on the ground. Sacking the QB is possible if you have a very fierce lineman to attack the QB with, and shutting down the run is easy if you guess the play right. Tackling still can feel like ping-pong with flying players bouncing off runners, but once you learn that tackling is more efficient when you run into the player to make the tackle, it gets a little better.

Stopping the pass is actually the challenge here, which is why I recommended the dime and nickel sets on a consistent basis. The computer has a huge knack for finding a wide-open running back for a big pass, or threading the needle to make a big throw (of course this doesn't matter in multiplayer). The idea is to get there and bat the ball down if you can select the right guy fast enough to do it.

When playing against the computer, it puts up a good fight, and really doesn't cheat too much. On occasion they'll carve up your D pretty fast for a touchdown or 2, but rarely do they overpower you with cheap stuff, nor is the famous EA Screw in effect here. They do have a habit of burning you on special teams (as I found out when playing the National Championship game), so keep your eye on them and don't get fancy with a tackle, just knock their asses down. On defence, they're pretty smart and will shut you down if you keep running the same plays. Sometimes you can get away with running a play a couple times in a row, but mixing it up will prevent them from really figuring you out. They're very tough on the passing game though, especially if you're playing as a poor quarterback. Being able to at least be decent in both facets (or having a killer defense) is the key to winning, so you should practice plays whenever you can to learn how each one works. Money plays do exist here, but they only work every once in a while, so don't depend on them in a tight spot. Oddly, EA's famous trademark of making the worst teams more of a challenge than the harder teams (explaining why I demolished Colorado but barely beat Tulsa) is here again Ц so if you think a game is going to be a cakewalk, you might be in for a surprise.

For Xbox, NCAA 2003's graphics won't blow you away, but they do an excellent job. They're cleaned up quite a bit from the PS2 version that it's based on, with well detailed players that look less like little kids and more like college kids, and huge stadiums full of life. Of course when the team sucks the stadium is completely empty and feels like Уnobody nightФ, like that one minor league baseball promotion a while back. The animation of the players is nicely done and pretty varied Ц not as loaded as NFL 2K3, but not bad in its own right. Little touches like a slowly wearing-away field is nowhere to be found (Madden '03 happens to have this touch), but player uniforms do get dirty in a muddy football game. Extra things like mascots watching the game and reacting to plays, and even cheerleaders on the sidelines cheering you on are here and add to the authenticity of the game.

The game looks its best depending on the environment though. On a clear day the game casts some great shadows against the sun, and at night the stadium lights make the field bright and visible against the slowly setting sun. Some stadiums are on campus, and you can actually see the campus in the background or nearby. Other buildings are too big for this (like the Big House up in Ann Arbor), but for the smaller stadiums, the background detail is excellent.

NCAA's sounds and effects are top-notch and very authentic to real college football. On the menu screens the booming sounds of almost every major college fight song are abound, and of course add a ton to the feeling of the game. These fight songs are played consistently during games too, after every score and after a particularly big play too. Other times the band will play another tune that is used as a motivational tool for the team. The crowd is of course very positive for the home team and cheer wildly for them, and boos the hell out of the visitors. When playing a neutral site game, the cheers are much more even, as it should be.

On some games NCAA features commentary by some of ESPN's bigger college faces (I find it very strange that even if Sega has the ESPN licenseЕEA still gets ESPN announcers, and even Madden and Al Michaels who work for ABC, which Disney owns along with ESPN. Mind boggling, I swear!), including Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit, and the ultimate college troll, Lee Corso. Only on televised games (shown by a TV on the weekly schedule) will you hear themЕthe other times you get a public address announcer (no longer Rose Bowl PA guy Chuck White, he only does Madden now apparently) to call the game for you. When you do get the announcers, they do a good job and even change with your team. For instance if you make a really crappy team good, they actually look at them as a contender in that season instead of thinking they'll get demolished. It's pretty cool to see that your play will dictate how they announce the game. It does get repetitive, and Corso is a modern-day moron, but on the whole it works well, and when you get a televised game when playing as a crappy team, it's a mark of accomplishment.