The Greatest Football Game Ever?

Where to begin? Well first off I'd have to say that NCAA Football 2003 was the best sports game I had played in my life. I'd gotten the most out of this game more than any other sports title since NBA Live 95' (My friends and I still play that and have a blast). When I first got NCAA Football 2003 it was supposed to be a warm-up for Madden 2003, and I was just planning on playing a couple season then importing the individual draft classes one by one when Madden came out. So I get Madden and I play it, and low and behold I just can't put NCAA 2003 down. Around February I had stopped playing Madden altogether but I'd still continue to play NCAA Football 2003 up until the release of what is now in my opinion the greatest sports game ever, NCAA Football 2004(Note: I don't have Madden 2004...yet). With all of that said lets check out why NCAA Football 2004 was without a doubt the best football game ever before Madden 2004.

Presentation
When you pop in the disc you are greeted just like you were in the last game. With certain student alumni and mascots straight out acting the fool. Whethers it's the girls step dancing or some justgetting straight out flattened by the UCLA Bruin it's all hear and it is all better. usually when this opening video for a game comes on, I don't feel like sitting through the damn thing I just want to get to the game. However I find myself amused whenever I turn the game on and I see some jackazz fly over a crowd of people(in one case a into a pool), tackle a mascot, are just straight up doing a funky chicken type of dance, my friends and I can get a pretty nice laugh before putting on the gameface and getting ready for some gridiron action...Of Course with money on the line, that brings out the best in you.
The Menus in this game haven't change that much since 2003. Everything is pretty much simple, even though you are greeted by some in game footage on the intro menu, and you get the Sports Illustrated cover in the Dynasty Mode.
Now time to start the game and this game emulates college football to a T. From the hype your players get walking down the tunnel up until the explosion from the crowd when they see their friendly college colors bursting into the scene and onto the field. The cheerleaders, Mascot and coach are all their to add to the realism. Not to mention the fight songs. Even the pre-game commentary is accurate, even though sometimes you will get a bum back-up quarter back and he has to start due to an unfortunate injury to the starter and Lee Corso still thinks this guy is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Another nice touch they added on in addition to your mascots reactions to plays and touchdowns, when you score at home, either your male cheerleaders run out onto the field hoisting your school flag running in the endzone then running off the field, or your male cheerleaders set off a cannon if you school has one.

Graphics
When It comes to graphics EA Sports rules supreme over any and all sports franchises. NCAA Football 2004 is no different. The only graphic glitch is when you know off someone's helmet and the facemask mysteriously disappears, but I look at it this way. The guy got hit some damn hard his facemask was force to go at a mach 3 speed right out of the stadium, and unlike in 2003 when the wimpiest hit would knock off a helmet, in this game you really have to lay the wood to a fool to send his helmet flying. When I first played the game it was with the old Texas team and my friend has an old Florida State squad. Man was I happy when I handed off the ball to Ricky Williams and the dreads started to fly. This adds a great touch as finally we have a long hairstyle.
When you come running out of the tunnel it is just a sight to see, as you feel you are in the tunnel and are one of the players. They even included Notre Dame's signature entracne in which the players bang on the "Play Like a Champion" plaque.
The classic teams are also rendered perfectly. From the old School helmets to the plain and blue-collar jerseys it's all there. The only thing that could have made this better is a bloody nose when you jam your modern helmet into a leather helmet wearing opponents unprotected mug...Ok maybe that was a sick thought but hey, thats realism.
The new animations are amazing. I really like the ones in which a defender just lunges out at you in an attempt to push you outof bounds which is very realistic. When you are watching a game on TV when I guy is near the out of bounds line he usually goes out or is pushed out. When you are playing a game usually you want every last yard and you let yourself get smack, which is really usrealistic. Here the defender simply pushes you out while you stumble but stay on your feet just like in real life. Also when you are a big running back you are rarely knocked on your @ss. You big backs and aggresive back with fight for every yard sometimes carrying defenders. The facial animations have also been improved so when your guy gets injured and he leaves the field clutching his wrist it looks like he really is in pain with a face of pure anguish. On the flipside, when you celebrate using one of the 8 manual celebrations you get to see the joy and happiness, esp. after he goes up and jams the ball home on the goalpost, turns around and yells right into the camera. Another great animation that may be overlooked by some is the blocking animation. If a guy is running at you and your lead blocker has an angle but not really a clear block, in the past the blocked would have "bumped" him causing a pinball effect. Either the defender bounce towards you are made the tackle. Your blocker bounced into you and either knocks you out of bounds, right into the defender or even worst bumps into you turning you around completly. Here now the Blocker will kind of reach out and shove or push the defender either overwhelming him with momentum so he has no other option but to "fly by" you and stumble and fall, or the block just kind of knocks him off balance giving you a change to blow by him. Of course occasionally the blocker send him right into you leading him straight into you full of momentum and smashing your guy.
Other subtle changes like the playaction camera and rollout camera really come in handy. When you are rolling out instead of being blind to the other side of the field, the camera tilts giving you a better view of what is going on everywhere on the field leading to better decisions. Also when you use the playaction you can really fool someone. When the QB fakes the handoff the camera just follows the running back for about a half second, which can really make your opponent if human really change he focus and crush the RB, then the view returns to normal as your opponent is like "F!ck, he don't got the ball", just like a linebacker or defensive lineman would be like in real life if fooled by the playaction.

Sounds
The sounds in this game are mind boggling. When I first broke one open and my man was running down the field at full speed the crowd went absolutely f!cking nuts. The crowd is so much better this time around. When you are the lowly Idaho Vandals and you beat up on #3 Ohio State the crowd really lets the Buckeyes have it with "Overrated" chants and the like. You also really feel it when you are on fourth down and you only have about 1 or 2 yard to go and you either decide to punt the ball or kick a field goal. The crowd lets you have it with a massive heave of boos. They also have other team specific chants whether its the crowd giving the warcry for FSU or cheer on Florida with "Go Florida, Gooo", you feel like you are at home or away depending on who you are rather than having a stale game in which every game feels the same.
The Three Man commentary does a great job most of the time, but they do stumble occasionally, and most of the script is exactly the same as last years game, but no biggie. It is kind of annoying when Herbstreit(?) says something like "Great Play by the cornerback, he was all over the reciever giving him no chance to catch the ball", when the cornerback was burned and the reciever just drops the ball with no one around him in a 20 yard radius.

Game Play
In this game the computer plays much more life-like. A Free-Safety wont just stand back and watch as his fellow Cornerback is toasted by a Wide Receiver. Instead of watching he will break on the play as soon as the ball is in the air and most likely just deliver a moster hit to the unsuspecting WR. The inclusion of a button just solely knock the ball down, and one to intercept really comes in handy. However, I find myself getting greedy and going for the pick just to watch the opposing Wide Receiver strut down the field towards the endzone while I sit hopelessly thinking "Damn! I should have just knocked it down!".
Also the addition of many more trick plays adds to the college atmosphere where Options rule supreme. There are all types of reverses from double WR reverse passes to double options in which you are set up in a shotgun with the RB or one side and the FB on the other side of the QB. The ball gets snapped, the QB has the option of handing off to the RB or running with it. If he hands it to the RB then he runs with the FB trailing so the RB has the option of keepin or pitching to the FB.

Lasting Appeal
The Dynasty Mode is what will keep you playing until next August. The first thing I did fresh off of watching Drumline, was create Atlanta A&T. Man I was able to create a pretty nice looking team from the uniform to the mascot to the logos. Of course I made them a cupcake squad to get squashed over. I lost my first few games which were against the likes of Virginia Tech, Miami and the almighty power that is Air Force. After every game I would go to the Sports Illustrated feature salivating hoping to see if one of my players cracked the cover or at least got an article on his which it was the Top 25 Poll, Heisman Hopefull, Conference Outlook, Bowl Rankings or any other of Type of Positional Award they have.
The offseason is really where this game will keep you playing and playing for approximatly one year. Now this time around you can attempt to talk some of you good underclassmen into staying all four years even though some still prefere to play on Sunday's. On guy told me "I had a dream last night of playing football on Sundays, That was the deciding factor". Watch out though if you spend too many points trying to keep people from leaving, then you wont have enough points to muster up a food freshman class. Also now you have four different recruiting pitches to choose from "Location, Coaching Style, Playing Time & Prestige". So if you are 1 star Temple don't go after the top blue chip player in the country bragging about your prestige. You WILL embarass yourself. This game will most definitly keep me playing until 2005.
The College Classics mode is also pretty fun to try and relive the 20 greatest college football finishes of all-time, and offers a chance to change history.

Final Thoughts
Lasr year NCAA told Sega Sports to Fall Back, and guess what, Sega did. Without any competition it would have been easy for EA to release a game without many improvements and get away with that. However, the minds at EA know that we the fans wouldn't appreciate that and they gave us this great game. This game a must buy for any football fan even if you aren't really into College football. From creating school to recruiting that stud named "DeShon Hooper", to the Sports Illustrated feature everything in this game is great.

I guess I will continue playing this game until the next one comes out. After hearing that you can't bring your draft classes into Madden on the X-Box version I was really let down. I was anticipating the legendary Antione Hackett running his cleats all over the NFL big boys, but now that dream can't come true.