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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Sport Developer: EA Sports Publisher: Electronic Arts |
Last year was the first year that any “NCAA Football” games debuted on the Xbox 360, and players who were looking for an evolution of
the college football experience on a more powerful, next generation console were disappointed with what they got. The title was
missing a lot of features that were found on the Xbox versions of the game. Though the game looked nice, there were a lot of issues
that flawed the overall presentation of the game. However, because last year’s game wasn’t very good, this year’s release is able to be
a lot better because of it.
The first change that has been made to the game is the loss of the momentum system for a new motivation system. This allows
players to take control of a specific player on the field and perform individual actions with them, such as user catches, tackles or picks
on the field to boost their motivation levels and get players in the zone. Once the player is in the zone, they have the opportunity to make
a big play and further inspire the players around them on the field. The new system is quite interesting because it forces players to rely
on specific actions to bring about these game changing moments.
The presentation of the game has also been changes; mostly thanks to the inclusion of The Weather Channel feed function, which
provides the current weather situations that are occurring at each specific stadium in real time. This means that if it is raining in a
certain city on the day that you are playing in that city in the game, it will be wet game.
When players are ready to move away from the minor excitement of the game and into the meat of it, this year’s Dynasty mode will suit
player’s needs. This year’s Dynasty mode is much deeper than it has ever been with game from the past years. Coaches will not only
be able to manipulate the season schedules and their depth charts, but they will be able to create a prospective player and redshirt
athletes to allow them more time to develop on the team. However, one of the largest changes that have been made this year is the
recruiting mechanics which players will use to build up their team for the future. Players will choose a number of athletes that are
needed to fill spots on the team in order to have a full team for the following season. This is done by contacting any perspective players,
which have been radically changed thanks to the new Recruiting Central feature. Players will have the ability to use a new prospect
search engine in order to track down certain players with a number of parameters, including caliber ratings and commitment status.
While it is much more complex than it was last year, there are still some issues within the Dynasty mode. Usually, players that are
hard to convince to come join a team that they are not particularly interested in will get annoyed with recruiters or turn them away to the
possibility of coming to the school at all. However, every once in a while, players will find that a player that isn’t interested in something
like academics or campus life at all will receive a hard pitch and they’ll be extremely enthusiastic for that and other uninteresting topics
for a while. Players will find that they have complete control over some of the elements in the dynasty. There is no medical redshirting
of players in this build, nor can they run players through training drills in order to control progress and continue to improve the team and
individual development. As a result, players will be given a random amount of statistical improvements, which makes player’s control
over their program seem like they don’t have complete control, that it is all somewhat restricted.
The online play is still very strong, although it is still fairly disappointing that there aren’t any online season options for players to join in
and play. Players are still reduced to ranked or unranked games, but that is pretty much all that they have to do online besides the lobby
system. The ESPN license which was not used to its full potential in last year’s game, is still lacking in this year’s game. While a most
ESPN.com feature is used for the Dynasty mode news and there is ESPN Demand and EPSN Radio updates that join the ticker,
however there is still very little content that gets provided to the game, leaving players wanting a little more than what is offered. Some of
the news updates and video clips on the game menu aren’t updated very often so players could see the same ones for weeks, which
mean that some very important stories from the world of sporting are being missed. The entire ESPN thing really needs to be improved
in the game or is should be eliminated from the game all together.
This game is a great advancement upon last year’s game. “NCAA Football 08” is easily improved over a weak effort that was delivered
last season for the next generation console. It is close to being a great game with the inclusion of a deeper Dynasty mode and the
inclusion of Campus Legend mode that helps add to the replayability of the game. However, the game still features a number of
technical and control issues that keep it from being a top rated football game. However, football fans won’t be disappointed with the
game, but this also cannot yet be considered a touchdown of a game.
the college football experience on a more powerful, next generation console were disappointed with what they got. The title was
missing a lot of features that were found on the Xbox versions of the game. Though the game looked nice, there were a lot of issues
that flawed the overall presentation of the game. However, because last year’s game wasn’t very good, this year’s release is able to be
a lot better because of it.
The first change that has been made to the game is the loss of the momentum system for a new motivation system. This allows
players to take control of a specific player on the field and perform individual actions with them, such as user catches, tackles or picks
on the field to boost their motivation levels and get players in the zone. Once the player is in the zone, they have the opportunity to make
a big play and further inspire the players around them on the field. The new system is quite interesting because it forces players to rely
on specific actions to bring about these game changing moments.
The presentation of the game has also been changes; mostly thanks to the inclusion of The Weather Channel feed function, which
provides the current weather situations that are occurring at each specific stadium in real time. This means that if it is raining in a
certain city on the day that you are playing in that city in the game, it will be wet game.
When players are ready to move away from the minor excitement of the game and into the meat of it, this year’s Dynasty mode will suit
player’s needs. This year’s Dynasty mode is much deeper than it has ever been with game from the past years. Coaches will not only
be able to manipulate the season schedules and their depth charts, but they will be able to create a prospective player and redshirt
athletes to allow them more time to develop on the team. However, one of the largest changes that have been made this year is the
recruiting mechanics which players will use to build up their team for the future. Players will choose a number of athletes that are
needed to fill spots on the team in order to have a full team for the following season. This is done by contacting any perspective players,
which have been radically changed thanks to the new Recruiting Central feature. Players will have the ability to use a new prospect
search engine in order to track down certain players with a number of parameters, including caliber ratings and commitment status.
While it is much more complex than it was last year, there are still some issues within the Dynasty mode. Usually, players that are
hard to convince to come join a team that they are not particularly interested in will get annoyed with recruiters or turn them away to the
possibility of coming to the school at all. However, every once in a while, players will find that a player that isn’t interested in something
like academics or campus life at all will receive a hard pitch and they’ll be extremely enthusiastic for that and other uninteresting topics
for a while. Players will find that they have complete control over some of the elements in the dynasty. There is no medical redshirting
of players in this build, nor can they run players through training drills in order to control progress and continue to improve the team and
individual development. As a result, players will be given a random amount of statistical improvements, which makes player’s control
over their program seem like they don’t have complete control, that it is all somewhat restricted.
The online play is still very strong, although it is still fairly disappointing that there aren’t any online season options for players to join in
and play. Players are still reduced to ranked or unranked games, but that is pretty much all that they have to do online besides the lobby
system. The ESPN license which was not used to its full potential in last year’s game, is still lacking in this year’s game. While a most
ESPN.com feature is used for the Dynasty mode news and there is ESPN Demand and EPSN Radio updates that join the ticker,
however there is still very little content that gets provided to the game, leaving players wanting a little more than what is offered. Some of
the news updates and video clips on the game menu aren’t updated very often so players could see the same ones for weeks, which
mean that some very important stories from the world of sporting are being missed. The entire ESPN thing really needs to be improved
in the game or is should be eliminated from the game all together.
This game is a great advancement upon last year’s game. “NCAA Football 08” is easily improved over a weak effort that was delivered
last season for the next generation console. It is close to being a great game with the inclusion of a deeper Dynasty mode and the
inclusion of Campus Legend mode that helps add to the replayability of the game. However, the game still features a number of
technical and control issues that keep it from being a top rated football game. However, football fans won’t be disappointed with the
game, but this also cannot yet be considered a touchdown of a game.
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