NCAA Football 2004: Small Price to Pay for Greatness!

Trying to decide whether or not to shell out the $50 on NCAA Football 2004? Stop thinking. If you have ever liked any EA Sports football game or even just like sports games in general you will NOT regret buying this game. Here's why...

EA Sports has done a remarkable job putting this game together. It is so in-depth that it's almost hard to imagine that a single CD can contain so many great features (I'll get into those throughout the review). NCAA Football should be the bar at which all sports games, especially college sports, should base their production on. I have NCAA March Madness Basketball 2003 for the PS2 and I really liked it and although it was missing some flare compared to NCAA Football's 2003 version I still would play it from time to time when I needed a break from football. Now I can't even bare to put it in the machine--NCAA Football 2004 is that good--you'll be hooked on it. Here's a detailed analysis:

GRAPHICS (A)

Smooth graphics with extremely detailed settings and players. The stadiums look true to life--even the smaller schools'. The jerseys and accessories are perfect right down to the black shoes and taped ankles or the NCAA patches on the shirts and pride stickers on the helmets (which accumulate through the season as in real life). You can even see the holes in the mesh style uniforms. When game are on grass surfaces players will accumulate dirt stains on their jerseys and mud when it's raining. Player's faces are also terrific. You can customize them as well just by going to the rosters section--you can also change around their accessories like wrist bands and eye pant or nose tape. The graphics for this game are top notch.

GAMEPLAY (A+)

It might take some time to get used to the controls to the point where you can master the game but if you've played any Madden games or any older NCAA Football game you'll get the hang of it in no time.

It's a challenging game which increases its replay value a lot. The difficulty is also customizable so you really fine tune the way the game plays. There are 4 difficulty settings to start with (I play on the second hardest--I find it easy enough to actually makes some plays and have fun but at the same time if you play poorly you could lose a game to a more talented team). The custom part is the "sliders", they adjust the opponents intelligence for a number of areas such as QB accuracy, RB ability, pass blocking ability, interception frequency, etc. This is one of the best parts about the gameplay because once you get really good at the game you can always increase the skill of the opponent a little bit more to match yourself.

Dynasty Mode is amazing. You go through the years as a head coach (who you can name and make look like yourself). You can choose to have contracts on which I love--it means you as the coach can sign with a team for a contract and if you fulfill the expectations they'll offer you an extension. Recruiting takes place at the end of each season where you go out and target certain prospects and offer them visits and phone calls from the coaching staff. They also have a new thing where you choose what kind of "pitch" you want to use to get certain players to choose your school like location, playing time, school prestige, or your coaching style. You can't fool potential players either. For instance, they use the stats from your past year to evaluate your coaching style so if you pass the ball for 450 yard a game and only run for 50, the top running backs might decide to pass on you while the top QBs or WRs would love to join the team. Same with team defensive numbers. If you have one of the best rushing defenses in the country you should get interest from top D-Linemen and linebackers. You can also create prospects before you start recruiting and they will be available to recruit for the upcoming season. But remember, just because you create them doesn't mean they come to your school! It's so in-depth that the off-season could be the most fun of the whole game. While playing the games in dynasty mode they have certain games each week which are televised (regionally or nationally) and others which are not. If you have a televised game you get the audio commentary and if it's not you only get the stadium announcer. Big time schools like Michigan will have most games televised and smaller conference schools or schools with poor records won't have many if any. That's just one more realistic feature of this game.

The visual appeal and presentation make the game a lot of fun to play. The replays and after play close-up cut sequences are great to watch and rarely get boring since there are so many of them. The players look so real and move in realistic life-like ways. You get to see players flex over top of the quarterback after a sack or wave the "I don't think so" finger at the crowd after breaking up a pass on defense or one of many end-zone celebrations after a big TD. Can't forget about the school specific entrance sequences either. Such as Notre Dame's famous touching of the "Play like a champion today" sign before leaving the tunnel.

The in-game player motion is fantastic. Players make spins and cuts while running that is very realistic and the game has newer tackling schemes like better missed tackles where a player will get dragged along the ground for a couple of yards before he slips off. Receivers who are wrapped up by a defender will even crawl and stretch for the extra yards.

The sound is great too and adds to the fun. Not many sports games can really say that their sound was a key factor in how good the game is. I think this one can say that with confidence, here's why...

EXTRAS (A+)

There's a trophy room to hold all of your individual or team acheivments like the Hiesman trophy or a conference or bowl championship, some of many possible awards.

There are many teams that you can play from past glory years and many more you can win through completing tasks in the game and buying pennants to win new stadiums and old teams.

Create-a-player is great with a lot of choice and you can edit any player already on a team to make them however you want.

In dynasty mode each player has a profile that you can view which lists their stats and ratings (like most games) but in this game each player also has a bio which lists their awards they've won over their career. I love this new feature.

There's a record book with school records and NCAA records for season, single game, or career. There's even user vs. user records and personal best records. In the game it announces and makes a big deal when a record is broken.

SOUND (A)

The commentary is very good--the best of any game I have ever played, and I've played pretty much every sports game out there. They can be repetitive but they are so in sync with what's going it's scary. For example, in dynasty mode if a player in the game is a Hiesman candidate they will comment on how he is doing in the voting. If you are close to breaking a record in the game they'll make a big deal about how the player only needs one more of the stat. They also talk about bowl rankings during the game and rivalries specific to certain teams, as well as players that should be leaving school early for the pros. It really makes for a complete realistic experience.

The feild noise and crowd sounds are also great in adding to the experience. Crowds chant to support or make fun of teams in the game and you can hear players screaming signals and grunting.

REPLAY VALUE (A+)

With the dynasty/career mode and all of the extras you will not get tired of this game very soon.

CONCLUSION

My favourite game of all time. I couldn't imagine playing Playstation without having this game in my collection. It's amazing!