NCAA 2004: Now online, and better than ever

Fall is back
Finally, expectations of fall are beginning to arise in the minds of sports fans everywhere. We can see it in the changes in temperature, as brutal heat slowly turns to more mild warmth. We see it in the faces of children everywhere, as the gloom of back to school shopping begins to take form. And most importantly, we can almost taste the tailgating cookouts, we can almost hear the marching bands play, and we can almost feel the intense roar that dominates a crowd of 60,000 as the home team completes a magical scoring strike. Yes, college football will return to the hearts of millions soon enough. And while we can’t tailgate or scream our lungs out in our stadiums yet, EA has come back once again with their famous “NCAA Football” series to wipe away the salivation of the masses until the “real season” starts. Last year, the now famed football title NCAA Football 2003 received incredible praise for its realistic approach to the sport, its “never sleep again” deep dynasty mode, and its near perfect gameplay engine. And with NCAA Football 2004 on shelves now, our friends at EA hope to turn near perfection into sheer perfection with this year’s college football jewel. So, should sports gamers get out their jerseys and prepare to spend hours on end with controller in hand? Or has their favorite football game team lost their “prestige”? Read in to find out…

Gameplay
As those of you that follow my work would already know, one of the main selling points in any sports game are its list of game modes, and in this regard, NCAA 2004 is no slouch. For starters, there is the two most basic game modes, the season and exhibition mode. The season mode definitely isn’t the most complex game mode in comparison being as though you only take your team of choice through one year of college football action. Set your depth charts, watch your stats, and go for the national title. The exhibition mode is more or less the same story. Pick your two clashing teams of choice, customize the game to fit your interests, and play through 4 quarters of grueling football. Along with that though, NCAA Football 2004 also features a brand new college classics mode. This option allows gamers to play through some of the greatest games ever in college football, with the chance to re-write history. Among the games included in this feature are “the game”, “wide right I and II”, and my most personally infamous sports game ever, the “Michigan Miracle”, when Colorado “got lucky” against my Wolverines. That very game still fuels my hate for the Buffaloes, Kordell Stewart, and the entire of state of Colorado. And that my friends, is what college football is all about.

Although all of the game modes are great, the dynasty mode is really where the bulk of NCAA 2004 lies. At the start of the dynasty mode, you are able to pick a school, real or created, and customize your coach. From there, you assume the day to day coaching duties, including setting up and customizing schedules, redshirting players, and assigning your depth chart. After all of that is complete, you then go through the course of the entire season. From opening game, to in-conference rivalries, to your prestigious bowl game, you have the choice of whether to play or simulate. After you take your school of choice from rags to riches, from greatness to mediocrity, or something in-between, the real fun starts. The truth of the matter is, the most complex and even entertaining portion of your college football experience just may lie in the offseason.

Directly after a season is over, you are expected to get right to business. First, you are able to view a list of your own team’s graduating players. A real upgrade in this year’s effort though is that you are now able to “convince” underclassman(juniors and sophomores) that choose to declare for the draft to stay in college. By using recruiting points and making underground deals(I kid), you may just be able to keep Junior Quarterback and heisman trophy winner Eric Pavona with your school. If he stays, you’re school will be that much better in the next year, if he leaves though, you’ve just wasted valuable recruiting points, which come next. Directly after graduation, the recruiting starts, and it's one hell of a time. The recruiting portion of this game may be the deepest and most detailed minor attribute that the game sports. You begin by checking the available players in your respective state. Once you finish with them, you can choose to view other prospects that are interested in your school, the national top 100, or a list of all prospects in the nation. But here's where it gets a little complicated. After each year, your school is evaluated based on its prestige level. The more prestige you have, the more recruiting points and chance of attractive top players you have. And this year, you can even try to change prospects minds by bringing up your schools prestige, your coaching style, or even the possibility of early playing time. The great fun of sending out coaches on visits and making phone calls last 5 strenuous sessions. When you're all done, you can view your recruits, the top recruiting classes in the nation, and finalize all recruiting. After all of that is finished with, you realize that you have loads of work to do. View player-training results, cut players, set up your depth chart, and lastly, start your season.

The aforementioned game modes and features are great, but almost all of them(save for the college classics) did also appear in last year’s installment. Luckily, there is also a fair share of new modes and options in 2004 that should convince past NCAA owners to purchase this year’s game. First and foremost, PS2 gamers can now experience NCAA online with their network adapters. Play against your friends or strangers in an exhibition game with your choice options. Along with this, you can talk to your opponents through EA Sports talk(broadband only), track all kinds of stats, and even view the online top 100. There’s really no reason to leave your house anymore. Along with that is the all new EA sports bio, which will track all of your EA sports game accomplishments via memory card and level players based on the time they’ve put into EA sports titles. If that isn’t enough, there is also a slew of new mascots available for mascot game play, over 100 new division IAA and classic teams, and even sports illustrated covers for your dynasty mode.

Many new features have also found their way into the already impressive NCAA gameplay engine. Along with all of the great college football plays seen in 2003, NCAA 2004 also includes some insane new trick plays, like QB screens and WR tosses. Along with that you also get all new rollout and play action camera angles which bring more realism into the game, new user controlled celebrations, and improved coverage options. All of that combined with an impressive list of new animation clearly crowns NCAA 2004 as the king of college football simulations.

Graphics
Graphically, this game is sheer top quality. Essentially, it’s the game’s attention to detail that is most beautiful. For example, in day times games you can see the light reflecting off of each and every helmet on the field. Along the same lines, the field and the jerseys will wear and tear as a game in rain presses on. The weather and lighting effects as a whole also come together with brilliance. The play animation too is greatness. The player's even sport various face types and emotions, showing you how they feel moment by moment. The game even features minute details, such as the Michigan State Spartans new jerseys for 2004. For the sake of the comparison, the Xbox and Gamecube versions run slightly faster than the PS2 version, both in simulating games, and in real time gameplay, but it won’t be a big issue for PS2 gamers. In any event, you’ll see slight slowdown in any of the versions, but its rare, and it doesn’t effect the gameplay. And, since the game supports progressive scan modes, we’ll forgive them for the slowdown anyway.

Audio
The game’s audio is quite above average. The commentary, given by the super team of Corso, Herbstreit, and Nesler has been upgraded with a quite a few new sayings and remarks. Regardless, the commentary will become slightly repetitive as the dozens of hours kick in, which is natural for any sports game. Aside from that though, the rest of the audio experience is excellent. The bams and booms of football action have never sounded so exciting, or real for that matter. Also, this game includes fight songs and crowd chants for over 115 college football teams, so you can rest assured that your old college will sound just as it did 10 years ago, if you were sober enough to remember it anyway. Lastly, this game sounds great when hooked up in full Dobly Surround sound.

Overall: 9.6/10
About this time last year, I crowned NCAA Football 2003 the greatest college football game ever. Sadly, that game can no longer hold that title. Happily, 2004 can, and does. With the addition of some college football pageantry and the magic that is online gaming, the PS2 version of NCAA is the only way to go. Sure, gamecube and xbox gamers will get a great game too, but the online play is the real selling point here. Yes, the game has a few shortcomings. The PS2 version could be difficult for newbies, and saving takes a long time and a lot of blocks, but regardless, all football fans should own this game. It’s sports gaming as its greatest, using the simple formula of fun+replay value=success. Now excuse me as I go back into simulated college football hibernation. Thanks for reading,
-Pav