Xbox

NCAA Football 2005

With brand-spanking-new online support, NCAA Football 2005 is the college game worth betting on. Excellence is simply expected with EA Sports? college-football series, and like the sun rising in the east each morning, NCAA Football 2005 shines brightly on the gridiron once again. Along with some razor-sharp tuning of last year?s little flaws, this year?s powerhouse posts big numbers with new features that bring home-field advantage to life, add a layer of depth to Dynasty mode, and even add a touch of humor with customizable signs for fans in the stands.

I was disappointed in last year's NCAA for a few reasons. The main one was that I felt that the game artificially created too many big plays in an attempt to replicate the feel of college ball. Ironically, this title is all about creating that same atmosphere, and I couldn't be happier about how NCAA goes about doing it.

The July arrival of EA Sports' perennial NCAA Football is a sign of many things. It means that preseason NFL is a few weeks away, Madden NFL and its worthy rivals are coming soon, and purists' favorite school is gearing up for their annual bowl run. In collegiate ball, every stadium has fans as loyal as Green Bay.

When EA announced that they would be supporting Xbox Live online play at this year's E3, many gamers immediately started brushing up on their pigskin skills in anticipation of the release of NCAA Football 2005. The venerable series has always been the game of choice for most college football fans, thanks to its deep Dynasty mode and wide variety of options for creating the school, team, or player you've always dreamed about. While it's the first EA game to be playable online on Microsoft's big black box, it's the game's other additions that really make it stand out from the pack.

NCAA Football 2005 is a bit of a conundrum. The series has always been great -- in fact, it's been my favorite football game the past three years -- but it's never managed to be superior in graphics., sound, or gameplay compared to Sega's 2K series or EA's own Madden. It's never better on technical merits, but always seems more fun. That tradition looks to continue this year as NCAA Football 2005, despite some nice feature additions, remains Madden's little brother. Though it will provide endless hours of fun, the series is beginning to show its age.

I loved last year's edition of NCAA Football and with all these minor improvements I love the 2005 version even more. Even though the graphics were a little disappointing it can be forgiven on account of all the gameplay improvements. If you're a fan of last years (or any previous versions) stop reading this and go buy it right now. If you're a fan of football at all, I highly recommend a purchase.

One of the fundamental facets of any sport, whether it’s before, during or after a season is the constant drive to improve and innovate play to the next level. Whether that’s dominating your opponents, creating groundbreaking styles that revolutionize the activity, or redefining the presentation of the game, success only comes from a thorough desire to get better. The same can be said of sports games, where only those titles that consistently change the face of the game stand tall.

To some, it may come as a surprise that EA's Tiburon Studios, the developers of NCAA Football 2005, chose to make so many interesting tweaks and changes to its game in spite of the fact that their only potential competition, NCAA Gamebreaker 2005, was cancelled. To me, it’s surprising that anyone would consider the Gamebreaker series competition at all, as EA’s series has totally dominated the college football scene for a few years now. What’s less surprising is that the tweaks and changes made to NCAA Football 2005 are well-integrated, subtle and effective.

Summer has barely gotten into full swing, and Electronic Arts has already released its newest college football game, NCAA Football 2005, out of the gates. The developers at EA's Tiburon studio have added a number of interesting new features to NCAA Football 2005 that help distinguish the game from Madden. Unfortunately, the added effects these new features have are tempered by the fact that the game has failed to evolve in other important areas--namely presentation. The Xbox version in particular is also plagued by some noticeable technical problems. All in all, NCAA Football 2005 is still a great college football game, but longtime fans will have trouble shaking the feeling that the series isn't quite living up to its awesome potential.