NCAA Football 2003

"College Football + PS2 + Fun = NCAA football 2003."

Ill admit it right now. I was never a big fan of sports games. I played Madden back in the day of genesis, but I was about 5 years old. I had no clue what I was doing. I always ran the same play with one of my friends on 30 minute quarters, and we had a blast. Button-mashing, no clue type of fun. As we got older, we ran more advanced plays. With me running the offense, and my friend blocking, we always made insane plays.

When I picked this game up, it was more of chance then anything. With Super Mario Sunshine a long ways away, and my bad DSL connection not giving me good reception on Warcraft 3, I decided to pick up a quick game to quench my thirst for gaming till Mario Sunshine came out. I went to my local EB, and scanned the shelves. I saw a few games that I was interested in, but nothing big. I heard a box opening, and saw the guy behind the counter pulling out NCAA Football 2003. I thought to myself for a second, asked him if there was still an un-reserved copy, and ended up buying it.

I took it home, popped it in, and started playing. I immediately went to create a team. I put the name in, sign, and stadium. Then, when it came time to customize the Jerseys, I was dumbfounded. I could do almost anything. I seriously sat there for about 30 minutes messing around with the jerseys. After a long time, I finally found one that looked right. Black and red, with stripes on the pants and helmet. My team name was the Alphas and Omegas (inside joke..), I had some cool greek letter for my sign, and my stadium was a huge, double-decker, blue turf stadium, which reeked of awsomeness.. The name of the College was ''Hidden Valley'', because I thought it sounded cool. The next thing I did was go to create a player to create myself. Again, amazing customization. I contemplated on making myself normal, but then I decided that being a 7 foot tall behemoth who could play any position would be much more fun. So after customizing what my player looked like, I put him on my team as a HB, because Running is more fun.

PROS OF CUSTOMIZATION -
Very easy to learn
Very deep into it, editing little details such as stickers on the helmet or colors of different stripes.
Gives an overall enjoyable Experience.
CONS OF CUSTOMIZATION
None

OVERALL CUSTOMIZATION SCORE -
10/10
Fun, easy, and easy. Sounds like AOL, but it isn't..;)

Next, I decided to go play an exhibition game. I picked my team, rated at ''Middle of the road'', and looked for another team to play against. I settled against a Texas team, who of which the name escapes me of. The captains come up for the coin toss. I pick heads, and the coin lands on heads. Since my Behemoth/Human was on offense, I chose to receive. The kick went high, and I caught the ball…Oh crap. What are the controls? I started running, and press Triangle. I don’t know what the hell my person did, but it looked like some weird-ass dance. I got tacked mid-zulu-dance, and got to the 23 yard line. I looked through the play menu…4-3, 3-4, dime…I have no clue what ANY of this means. I pick Ace-somethingorother, and look for something with my Halfback. I see a play where My QB gives it to him and he runs, so I picked it. I press X, and hike it. My Olympic Athlete/Human gets the ball! I start running…sweet jesus he ran fast. I ran about 50 yards, then I pressed a button and started dancing again. I found the dance amusing, So I kept pressing it. Dance, dance dance…I hit a Touchdown. My dancing Weightlifter/human made it! I wonder what I should do…2 point conversion or a plain Field goal? I decide to do a 2 point conversion, a Fake FG…my old favorite play. I just press X fast to get rid of the little kick guage, and the Kicker gives it to the kick-holder guy. He runs…runs…Touchdown! After about 5 minutes, I got completely used to the controls. I was sacking, passing, running great plays…Easy to learn. Very Easy to learn.

PROS OF CONTROLS
Easy to learn
Simple
Buttons are laid out perfectly.
CONS OF CONTROLS
Even if you get them, you need to get used to it.

OVERALL CONTROL SCORE -
9/10
If I can make football players dance, anyone can.

I played 3 exhibition games. The first one I lost, because in the last daunting seconds, the enemy made a 45 yard FG which screwed me. The second one I won, and so did the third. Each of them had something in common - It was incredibly fun. I learned the controls fast, and I got used to the playing Style. My strategy was to run, run, run. Since my HB was Jesus basically, All I had to do is run. Some may ask why doing the same thing over and over again is fun…My answer? BECAUSE ITS FOOTBALL. Every game, it got more and more fun as I saw my Behemoth run. Fast. Sometimes I passed. The rush of knowing that there is one defensive player ready to sack you. Seeing the ball fly…Then seeing it swatted off, or caught. Each time, it gives the same fun. Each time, it gets more and more fun. As you get better, you can do stupider things, which makes it…more fun. Try passing it backwards, or running with your slowest player for a touchdown. I don’t know why, but it is fun.

PROS OF GAMEPLAY
Its football.
Challenging and fun.
CONS OF GAMEPLAY
Sometimes aggravating.

OVERALL GAMEPLAY SCORE -
10/10
Its football. Its supposed to be fun.

One of the things that I really enjoyed was hearing the commentary. Half the time, he pissed me off, but it was funny. If I tried to run a running play and it screwed up horribly, they would make fun of me. If I ran a beautiful 40 yard play, they would praise me. The commentators do a great job of the Play-by-play in the game. There really are no Cons to it, except sometimes they make fun of my Jesus, even though he always makes great plays. The sounds of crashing, grunts, crunching, and overall football sounds are also very realistic. Everything sounds authentic. But, there is one sound that has been used since the early EA Sports football days. If you can guess it, you are the coolest person ever.

PROS OF SOUND
Everything.
CONS OF SOUND
Nothing…
OVERALL SOUND SCORE -
10/10
Its perfectly Orchestrated.

The graphics, well, I cant judge the graphics. I am an avid PC gamer usually, and Im used to the high-resolution textures and 1280x1024 Resolution. But from what I can tell, the graphics are very nice in this game. They sometimes flicker, even on my good TV, but they are still very good for a PS2 game. The animations are fluent, and there are usually no errors. The only peeve I have is that the graphics are sometimes blocky at some areas. The game runs at a steady 30+ FPS, and never drops.

PROS OF GRAPHICS
30+ FPS steady.
Detailed to the core.
CONS OF GRAPHICS
Sound is sometimes off.
Blocky at times.
Collision detection is off.

OVERALL GRAPHICS SCORE -
10/10
Its crisp, and perfect.

Little extras -
Cheerleaders (Don’t try to look up the skirts, boys. Nothings under there.)
The mascots
200+ Songs to use for your team.
Rivalry, Dynasty, and other modes.
Trophy Room to keep all your trophies.
Cheerleaders
Great AI and challenge
Its football.

OVERALL SCORE OF NCAA FOOTBALL 2003:
10/10

Even a football newbie like me can pick it up and have a complete blast.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/02, Updated 07/01/03