"NCAA Football '07" (PS2) Review

It's finally here! Every July, when this game comes out, that means two things: 1) I have an updated way of enjoying college football until the season begins and 2) The season is almost here!

When this game comes out, when I can see it on the shelves, when I pick the dang thing up, and when I play it, I can smell football in the air. I can see the leaves changing colors and falling off the trees. I can smell and feel that pleasant mildness, where summer fades and winter is around the corner. That's especially appetizing considering it was 107 degrees here yesterday, 115+ according to the heat index. So, bring on those 50s, 60s, and 70s, with the falling leaves, and the pigskin!

It'd take a lot for me not to ever like a "NCAA Football" game that was composed for any year. It'd take a great deal of effort on their (the makers) part for me not to enjoy the game. The same was true of this year's work.

It's quite amazing how satisfying the original "NCAA Football" product was, and yet, every single year, the folks over at EA find some way to improve the game and give the fans yet another reason to be interested in that year's updated version and buy the thing. As usual, this year is no exception to that trend.

I've only had the game for two days now, but have checked out all the different options and have played it a few times, enough so, that I think I can write a decent review, where I won't be turning back five weeks from now, saying, "Oh no, I should've written that" or changing my mind about something.

For starters, the game's graphics are slightly improved, the controls seem slightly improved, and the sound (Nessler, Kirk, and Coach) is the same, but as usual, has a couple new lines by the guys. The stadiums seem to be updated a bit and I don't know if it's just me or not, but I didn't notice seeing the bands play in past versions. I have seen them in this one. Also, the game is much quicker, especially when it comes to the wondrous task of simulating: Simulating a week's worth of action, simulating an entire season's worth of action, and simulating in the recruiting part of the year. Overall, the game runs very smoothly, quickly, and while tackling those more important components of the game, is also a good piece of eye candy.

As for changes, most of them are pretty positive, but one could use a little improvement. Last year, they added the "Race to the Heisman" option, where you could make a player, select a team, and play through the season(s), attempting to win the coveted Heisman Trophy. I was a dual-threat quarterback at LSU and even though I had a great freshman year, not enough word had gotten out about me to be a serious contender for the award. I did win it my sophomore and junior years, though, and then proceeded to head on to the NFL after my junior season. That option has been updated this year and goes by the title, "Create a Legend." Just like in last year's game, you can choose your player's name, what they look like, and what position they'll play, but there's more to it this time around. Depending upon the position of your player, you will then go through some spring drills destined for players of your position. Quarterbacks will have to go through drills that test: Their arm strength, arm accuracy, speed, and awareness. Receivers go through drills that test: Their speed, catching ability, route running ability, and return ability. Halfbacks go through drills that test: Their speed, running ability, catching ability, and return ability. Those are the only three positions I've messed around with thus far. For every drill that you complete, you earn a certain number of bonus attribute points and when you've completed all your drills, you'll then be able to use those points to improve your attributes, which all begin at 50 (out of 99), excluding stamina and injury. Those numbers begin at 70 (out of 99). After you've completed that, it'll show the caliber of recruit you were (1 out of 5 stars) and show a list of all the teams that are interested. If you're a 4-star player or higher, then chances are, every team, from one on down, will be on that list. Then afterwards, you're in your dorm room like last year's version, with: Fan mail, a calendar, a newsletter, a closet, a computer, a trophy crate, and a progress report. Yeah, that's right, a progress report. Then, on the calendar, the next date that means anything to you will be the date when your major is chosen. There are three lists of majors: Easy, Moderate, and Difficult. From Monday through Friday, there are classes to attend, a practice, and a night activity. You get to pick what to do in an evening: Study, meet with a tutor, practice, position drills, and social activity. The social activities aid in one becoming popular on campus, but a grade point average is kept track of in the progress report and you, the player, have to take a mid-term and final exam during the course of the semester. Not much studying will need to be done for the easy majors, which include knowing Division 1-A Team Nicknames, but acing the mid-term and/or final exams won't boost up your attributes very much either. The same trend follows for the moderate and difficult majors. While more studying will be needed, attributes will increase higher with success in that particular major. As I simulated until the mid-term and final exams without studying, just to check it out, I should note everyone that the tests are comprised of ten multiple choice questions. When you choose to study in an evening, all that happens is you're given a possible question on the test and the answer that goes along with that question. At the mid-way point and at the end of the semester, ten of these will be asked and before the final exam, you'll be updated on what you need to score in order to be eligible for the bowl game. But, if you're not going bowling that year, then perhaps you've lucked out some, test-taking wise anyway. I thought all of these updates were pretty cool. Not only do you have the ability to create a player, you actually earn your way through several drills to play on certain teams. The student-athlete portion of the experience is neat, as well. It feels more genuine and it's amusing to see some of the majors they've chosen, anywhere from school mascots to geography to chemistry. One thing I missed about the dorm set-up was the picture of your girlfriend. I thought that was amusing in last year's game, especially during the senior season, when you'd have four or five different girlfriends throughout the season. I thought it was amusing, but perhaps those at EA felt differently. I'm only in my first season, so I've yet to see if or how much your dorm room improves in between seasons. I liked that part of it in last year's game too, so I hope they haven't changed that or, if anything, have improved it some.

Also added this year was the momentum factor. Momentum plays a huge role in sports and the same now holds true for this game. There is now a momentum bar at the top left of the screen that displays the two team name abbreviations in their team's colors with a flashing light going one direction or the other. The max momentum one team can have during the course of a game is +5. When this momentum is reached, it'll play a big factor. If you're on defense and reach this momentum, you'll get to the quarterback more, hit receivers so hard that the ball is dropped, and the opponent will fumble more often. On offense, you'll break more tackles, make great catches, and make something out of nothing on some plays. It also depends on your impact players. If your impact player is a receiver and you have +5 momentum, he'll make some unbelievable catches (especially if his name is Calvin Johnson and wears #21 at Georgia Tech!).

Another neat added feature is a spring game you can play after recruiting. In this game, you play as the first or second team and play on offense or defense for a 5-minute half and then go to the other side for the second half. Points are tallied based on first downs, turnovers, and touchdowns. At the end of the game, you can check to see who played well, who should potentially start, and who might be let go, and, if in dynasty mode, you can then choose two impact players for the following season (one on offense and one on defense). But, you're not limited to those two. When my friends and I tinkered around with Notre Dame, we selected an outside linebacker and a running back as our impact players, but there was also a receiver selected as one.

There are also many more options in this game than in others. For example, on field goals and punts, if you believe the opponent will block the kick, you can press L2, which enables you to then fake the kick and pass the ball. There are also many more plays to choose from, especially in the kicking game. In the past, I can only remember a couple of fakes for field goals and punts, one being a run and the other being a pass. There are now some crazy fakes that you can call, including a shovel pass, an option, and a play called a rooskie, I believe. When I tried this, the center snapped it to my fullback and he moved up a couple yards and handed it off to my free safety. I would not mess around with these too greatly in game mode, unless you've gotten a good feel from them first in practice mode. That's the best place to play around with these new plays.

A couple other changes to make note of also deal with the special teams aspect of the game. On kicks and returns, you can press the triangle button, which will give you a third-person perspective on the play. Blocked kicks are actually possible in this version of the game, believe it or not! So, if you're going in to block a kick, you can see the play from your player's perspective. This is also true on returns, which makes it more difficult, yet more realistic. The only problem with this is on the returns, because your peripheral vision is nil. A return option is the reverse or the fake reverse, but when I attempted this, I couldn't see my teammate coming at me, so I didn't hand the ball off to him. It's a cool feature, but an improvement could be made, either to improve the peripheral view a little bit, or to follow the eyes of your player, so if you turned to run the reverse, you could actually see the guy come right at you. But, that is my only true complaint of the game. Kicking is slightly different this year, as you kick with the right analog stick, but, after a couple tries, it becomes easier than using that darn x button. There are also some updates on options at the line of scrimmage, but I have not tackled all of these just yet.

Most everything else is the same. The match-up button option is still available at the line of scrimmage. You can still pump the crowd up and there's actually an updated decibel system on this year's game that is pretty nifty. There is still in-season recruiting. There are still rivalry and mascot games. The only thing I'm disappointed in here is the fact recruiting hasn't been altered from last year to this year. For the past I don't know how many years, it seems that EA has improved recruiting some. Perhaps they feel that there's nothing to be improved upon and who knows, maybe they're right, but I love the recruiting portion of the game, so I like to see even the slightest bit of improvements every year if I could.

There you have it. Outside of that slight complaint on returns and the slight disappointment with there being no changes made in recruiting, I couldn't be happier with this game. While it's not "perfect," it's slowly reaching that impossible goal. "NFL Head Coach" was fun for a little while, but now it'll be collecting dust, because this is definitely the better and the more fun of the two. I look forward to this game every year, and as usual, I come away very impressed with the final results.

Overall grade: 9.5/10