NCAA Football 2004

"Better than ESPN? No. Madden? No. Nothing? Oh hell yeah."

Unless you've been living under a rock, you may know that Sega and Visual Concepts (a.k.a. ESPN Videogames) have permanently sacked their NCAA College Football 2K series, and 989 Sports is removing its NCAA Gamebreaker series indefinitely. So, where does that leave EA and its fabled NCAA Football series? Without competition, that's where. While we can't really look forward to EA actually putting effort into this series any longer, we can still play a game that reminds us of when hard work paid off: NCAA Football 2004.

Step-by-step, the rundown:

Gameplay

If you've played Madden already, then you know what NCAA's going to be like. Madden's classic playcalling system is back (select a formation, then choose a play with A, Y, or X). You can call audibles at the line of scrimmage by pressing B and then a direction on the D-pad (each direction corresponding to a different play). On defense, you adjust the defensive lineman and linebackers, respectively, by holding the L or R buttons and moving the control stick in the direction you want them to move. One thing different: The Ask Madden feature (which has now been renamed Ask Corso) is only available on offense, so you'll have to call from the other side of the ball yourself.
8/10

Graphics
The presentation for this game is exciting the first time around. The home team coming out of the tunnel, the crowd booing the visitors, Corso talking about how your team is awesome and how the other team is gonna "lose this one, big"... it's all very exciting. That is, until, you start to play more games... and watch the same opening... over and over... You start to just skip the opening altogether, wondering why EA didn't just put even two different opening scenes in there.

And as for the actual graphics, well, we'll get into that now. The player models are great and the jerseys are fully detailed (however, since no NCAA student is allowed to place his or her name or image on any NCAA products, the Eli Manning in the game hardly looks like his real-life counterpart). The stadiums are fully detailed also, especially for the major teams, but other teams' stadiums look oddly similar (anyone notice how the stadiums for Idaho State and East Tenn State look exactly the same?). And part of the sky is GREEN, man. I don't care how much time you have to test the game, just don't leave the sky GREEN, alright?
8/10

Game Modes
This is where EA really came through. There are so many game modes in here you probably won't even use a few of them. Obviously, Dynasty mode is the shining point of this section, but EA's put in a new College Classics mode, which lets you recreate some of the biggest bowl game plays from 1980 to 2002. Miami's Hail Mary play? It's in there. Cal's 5-lateral kick return against Stanford? You got it. What's better, after you complete a play, you'll be able to save it to your EA Sports Bio (a feature that saves your accomplishments on all EA Sports' 2004 games). This mode should keep college football enthusiasts busy for a while. [Sure, that's all fine and dandy, but will EA put the Raiders' Heidi Bowl comeback in Madden? Noooo!]

Also, there's the Mascot Game mode. If I need to explain that to you, you really need to get your brain checked.
9/10

Sound
Oh God, now I have to talk about what's easily the worst part of the game. I was never really fond of band music, but I never hated it. Until now, that is. It's playing all the friggin' time (yes, EA couldn't even put EA Trax in this game). What's worse is the commentary. Lee Corso has to have THE single most annoying voice in video game commentating history. The other two guys are tolerable, but they're not enough to save the sinking ship that is this game's sound.
So bad it doesn't get a rating/10

Overview
So let's skim through it now. It's got good gameplay, alright graphics, some great game modes, and downright awful sound. So, two 8's, a 9, and less than a 1... hold on, let me add this up...
*opens calculator*
*averages it out*

It's 8.25! Which [insert squiggly equal sign here] 8!

Overall, I'd recommend this only to severe college football fans. I'm not one of them, but I had fifteen bucks burning a hole in my wallet and it was dirt cheap at GameSquare.

*closes calculator*

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/04