All NCAA teams from Divisions 1A and 1AA
There's No Place Like Home
The fresh-cut FieldTurf, the sea of (home team's color here) and the
roar of the crowd: It's gotta be college football Saturday! EA takes you
deep into college football with the addition of Home Field Advantage in
NCAA Football 2005.
EA rated the toughest places to play in the
country. When you enter into hotbeds like Tennessee's top-rated Neyland
Stadium, be warned: It's going to get loud! So loud that sometimes the
crowd forces the visitors to false-start or call a time out. Outside of
the noise factor, the Controllers vibrate as the crowd gets louder.
Less obvious but perhaps even more importantly, the crowd can affect the
mindset of the hapless visitors. You find this out through the new
Match-Up Stick. When you come to the line on offense or defense, move
the C Stick either to the left, right or down. You will see how your
players rank against the student-athletes on the other side of the ball.
One of the measurements shows whether your opponent is composed or
rattled. So if you're a Wake Forest Demon Deacon wading into Clemson's
notorious Death Valley, try not to let the crowd get to you, young man.
Get the Axe. But We Mean that in a Nice Way.
The rest of
the game is a sight to behold. The big hits are bigger. The defenses are
more tenacious than Jack Black's band. The play-action is more
deceptive. EA loaded up NCAA Football 2005 with all sorts of gameplay
modes. If you're not willing to commit to the ultra-deep Dynasty Mode
(where recruiting is king), play a game against a school's biggest
rivals. You might just win Floyd of Rosedale, the Little Brown Jug, Paul
Bunyan's Axe or whatever other trophies Minnesota plays for. (For the
record: Minnesota plays Iowa for Floyd, a pig; Michigan for the jug and
Wisconsin for the axe.)
As you might guess, each team has its own
playbook. Each user can create his or her own playbook or make
adjustments to an existing playbook. When you create your own playbook,
you choose nine offensive sets from a possible 49. The nice thing about
the college game is all the formations you won't see in the pros, such
as the Wishbone, Maryland I, Power T and Flexbone. You can save one
custom playbook per user profile. Every team has the same set of
defensive fronts.
NCAA Football 2005 lets you customize virtually
every feature in the game, including length of quarter, the refs'
strictness and your team's vulnerability to injuries. You can even make
your own sign for the crowd to hold up. (No, an Ivy League team can't
boost its home-field advantage with by brandishing signs with
Shakespeare quotes.) Also, you can adjust how well your players perform.
You can make quarterbacks more or less accurate, but you may have to
compensate by making your linemen worse blockers.
Here, There's No Offseason
The Dynasty Mode is deeper than
ever. You can create your own college and put it in a conference or play
as any Division IA or IAA school. (You have to move your IAA school up
to Division IA in order to play Dynasty Mode.) Set your non-conference
schedule and begin your quest for the national title. Each week, games
of stature are "televised" nationally or regionally. If USC is playing
Troy State, odds are that game isn't televised. If you're not playing on
TV, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Brad Nessler won't call your game
(not always a bad thing depending on your opinion of Coach Corso).
You'll have to make do with the PA announcer, and the crowd of course.
In the off-season, the mad rush of recruiting begins. You get five weeks to
convince all the blue-chip recruits to come to your school. Throughout
the season, be sure to keep your team disciplined. If you wind up on
probation, you'll lose scholarships. Of course, you don't have to play a
single game or recruit for even one week. Choose the simulation option
and put your management skills to the test.
Invest in one of a new Memory Card 1019. Dynasty Mode requires a
memory-hogging 281 blocks.
The teams more or less follow their real-life strengths and weaknesses,
so there's slim chance that Central Michigan Chippewas can take down
Ohio State. Still, it's unfortunate that NCAA rules forbid naming
players, even in classic teams. When you recruit new players, the game
gives them fictional names, but otherwise you're saddled with the
colorless likes of "QB#12." If you have lots of time on your hands, you
can go through and edit each player's name on current and historic
rosters.
Blasts from the Past
Instead of investing in a full game,
try a classic. Replay the final seconds of the 1982 Cal/Stanford Big
Game, when the Cal Golden Bears returned the last kick of the game
through the Cardinals' prematurely celebrating band for the winning
score. Can you throw that Hail Mary for Boston College and beat Miami in
1984? NCAA Football 2005 lets you unlock other classic college games as
well.
During gameplay, the game rewards you with credits. For 25 credits, you
can purchase a randomly selected Pennant. These Pennants unlock all-time
teams, stadiums, college classics, game cheats and team-ranking boosts.
Bottom Line
The hits are big, the crowds are loud, but most of all, the game is fun.
You and a buddy can battle game after game and never get tired of the
action. Unless, of course, he's beaten you 12 straight times. That might
get old, but that's not the game's fault.
Contributed by Evil Ryu (31675) on Aug 12, 2005.
