Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: NCAA College Basketball 2K3

Written by Adam Woolcott on October 11, 2002

First Impressions: Rule #1 of college basketball: remember, Duke sucks.

While the yearly debate for NBA basketball prominence is kicking into high gear on the PlayStation 2 with EA and Sega dueling it out with their excellent hoops games, the college basketball side of things has mostly been just that, a side(show). Sure, EA Sports put out the best Genesis b-ball game out there, the legendary(?) Coach K College Basketball, and the latter editions of the March Madness series were pretty fun games for the PlayStation 1, but the simulations of the college game are usually few and far between (forgetting the wretched College Slam for just a few minutes, but that was NBA Jam anyway). EA themselves showed either laziness or lack of interest in the first PS2 incarnation of March Madness, shipping without either a dynasty or season mode, just a basic Final Four tournament that takes all of 6 games to complete. 989 Sports has tried, and loaded up the games with tons of options, but the gameplay has never stacked up. With that in mind, it's easy to see that unlike the NBA side of things, the market for a deep game of college basketball is anyone's to take.

Given that Sega tends to be a very opportunistic company, it's not surprising that finally, Sega and Visual Concepts are working on their first college hoops game Ц NCAA College Basketball 2K3. Complete with loads of teams, an insanely detailed Legacy mode, and even online play, it seems that Sega is going to dominate the college hoops market right off the bat unless EA gets their collective rears in gear and gives them some competition (and it appears to be that way, thankfully). Given that Sega's college football counterpart was not at the level of the excellent NFL 2K3, there's definitely some concern, but from the looks of things, NCAA College Basketball 2K3 will avoid this, and not only come up with a game that gives it's own NBA game a run for it's money, but perhaps wind up a completely different beast entirely.

College hoops fans will definitely find the Legacy mode to be the perfect way to spend time with this game Ц and why not. There's 2 different ways to play the Legacy mode: Either pick a one of the 300(!!) plus teams from all the division 1 conferences (including obscure conferences like the SWAC, Patriot League, and the MEAC) and play multiple seasons with the team, leading them to the NCAA Tournament and as far as the Final Four. The other half is more detailed Ц a career aspect that makes the game even deeper. In this mode (very similar to NCAA GameBreaker from 989), you start off on the bottom of the totem pole, landing a coaching position from a bottom feeder. As your team improves and does well, more opportunities arise to coach a different team that's a bit more prestigious. By the time you're done, you possibly could be the next coach at a big-time program like North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, Kentucky, Kansas and the rest of the usual suspects. Certainly it's more involved than the standard Legacy mode, and looks to be the most entertaining part as well.

Within Legacy mode, the most important thing is recruiting. Visual Concepts takes the process to a different level, even surpassing NCAA Football 2003 (despite it being a football game) in many ways. At a set point in the season, you can begin to scout incoming recruits, and seeing how they perform and how they'd fit in with your school. You can only visit a recruit once, so picking wisely is a good strategy. What's cooler is after a few more weeks, you can actually play as the high school kids in one of the 6 regional HS All-American games (think McDonald's All-American game), to see how they perform. Then after the season, you can get more aggressive in your recruiting to land the players you want or need. Thankfully (or unfortunately?), there's no under the table dealing, so no offering a wad of cash or new cars or even a new house for momma, or even a damn 99 cent Big Mac at Mickey D's.

Within the actual season, NCAA 2K3 will have the usual top 25 polls to see where you stand, as well as the RPI index that calculates your true overall record. Also, in the later weeks of the season you'll be able to see which awards your players are up for contention (please, please, please have All-Conference teams), and check out which teams are on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. Simply put, Sega and VC are on to something exceptional here with their Legacy mode, one that's sure to appease a college b-ball fan.

Expect the actual gameplay to compare to NBA 2K3, but tuned up a bit more to better simulate the faster-paced college game. The college game is much more wide-open, with more outside shooting, more fast breaks chances, and generally just a faster pace of play. Not arcade-style, mind you, just a bit looser and intense. It will be interesting to see how the NBA 2K3 engine stacks up when there's a bit more juice behind it.

The included online play will make for some intense online battles Ц imagine if you will, a Sega Sports sponsored NCAA Tournament online, with all 65 teams (adding in the extra game for some dumb reason) represented by the top 65 ranked players overall, to decide not only who the online National Champion is, but who's the NCAA 2K3 champion across the PS2 or Xbox (probably not both combined, but 2 separate tournaments). I fully expect Sega to do something like this Ц it would be great publicity (and God knows Sega needs some publicity). Besides that, just being able to carry on some of the best rivalries in college hoops is a treat that should translate into many wasted hours for college dorms all around (ignoring the Уgetting wastedФ thing college kids are known for).

Given that the game uses the NBA 2K3 engine, it's not surprising that NCAA College Basketball 2K3 looks very similar to that game. The ESPN license is in full effect here, and given ESPN's coverage of the college game, I'd hope many tie-ins are included to create a more authentic game (Big Monday would be a great touch). The other trademarks of the college game are here, with crazier crowds and smaller arenas Ц over 50 different arenas will be rendered for the bigger teams, and the rest use a more generic one (300 unique stadiums would probably be way too much programming hassle). Expect some regular NBA-like arenas, a few domes (such as the Carrier Dome in Syracuse), and small fieldhouses like Cameron Indoor Stadium and Duke. All in all, the early looks of this game are sharp, and it should replicate the atmosphere of the college game perfectly.

Also looking (or should I say sounding) good is the other part of the college atmosphere, the crowd sounds. Every team will have a specific chant or taunt, as well as 100 or more unique fight songs from the higher-prestige teams. The crowd also will taunt opposing players when they shoot a brick of the dreadful airball, and if they manage to sneak in the routine down at Duke, where the stadium goes dead quiet for Blue Devil free throws, it will be the most amazing audio experience in a basketball game ever.