NCAA Football 06

"NCAA Football 06 delivers a Heisman-like performance"

Introduction:

EA Sports's NCAA Football series has tremendously grown in popularity since its debut in 1998. In recent years, it has been the second best selling football title only to EA's flagship Madden franchise. Every year, new gameplay elements specific to the college game are added to the series, which help to define it as its own full experience. This year, all the focus has been on the highly coveted and hyped Race for the Heisman mode. But can EA deliver a Heisman-like performance with its latest rendition of NCAA Football 06?

Gameplay:

What better place to start than with the biggest addition to the game: the Race for the Heisman. In this mode, you create your own Heisman-hopeful and work your way up the charts of the nations top players in an effort to achieve the obvious goal of winning the Heisman trophy. The mode starts out with a few motivational words, and then puts you to the test in a workout that will launch your college career. Depending on the position of your player, the game will put you through a different workout. The positions are limited to the basic Quarterback, Runningback, and Wide Receiver, as well as Defensive Lineman, Linebacker, and Defensive Back. The positions are sufficient, as after all - the object of the mode is to win as many Heismans as you can, so I think a Punter would be out of the question. For instance, if you're a Quarterback, they'll put you through the Pass Skeleton or an Option Attack depending on if you're a pocket or scrambling QB, whereas a Runningback will go through an Oklahoma drill where the player has to get pass a defender in a confined area. Overall, these workouts are not very in-depth and it would have been nice to see individual skills being tested such as 40-yard sprint times or more detail in the workouts.

Depending on the success of your workouts, you will be offered scholarships by a few different schools. If you choose not to accept them, you can join any school as a walk on. Then it's time to actually create and customize your player, which plays out like any Create-A-Player, except your given mediocre attributes cannot be changed. You'll then be placed in a dorm room, where you can do things such as running through your workout again for practice, view stats on your computer, play scheduled games, or even check out some fan mail. As the season progresses, your Heisman hype will grow which builds up to the rewarding of the Heisman trophy if your player happens to win it. A glaring problem lies in the generated player stats, however, most notably QB completion percentage. At the end of the season, it's not surprising to see 30 or 40 players have a 70% or better completion percentage, some even climbing over 80%, which can be frustrating. The stats for other categories and players were in good proportion though.

Overall, while an exciting addition to this year's installment, the Race for the Heisman mode pales in comparison to the Dynasty Mode as it excludes the ability to do any recruiting or controlling of the team. Also, it only lasts for a mere four seasons after which you have the option to become a coach. Granted, the mode was intended to give players the chance to live out the life of a single player, but it raises some question as to why EA could not have incorporated the Race for the Heisman mode into the Dynasty Mode, which would have created a great experience. While the Race for the Heisman mode is enjoyable, the Dynasty Mode is, after all, still the core of the game.

The actual in-game action remains as solid as ever. The game is well balanced between the pass and the run and everything runs realistically. However, the blocking could still use some improvement and receivers making miraculous catches in triple coverage are not a rare sight. Also, the game does suffer from occasional slowdown that becomes more apparent on kickoffs and during large pileups. Also, the players can tend to feel a bit unresponsive at times.

A new addition to the game is Impact Players. Basically, the top players on each team will be impact players, which can be easily identified in the plays and on the field by white circles around them. When impact players get “in the zone”, their performance will increase and they'll be more likely to make a game-changing play such as breaking a key tackle or forcing a fumble. This is a great addition, as it really separates the great players from the good players and can be a lot of fun to apply. However, the feature was poorly implemented, as the timing of when impact players get in the zone is completely random, or so it seems. You could throw an incomplete pass with your impact QB and then hand the ball of the Runningback and all of the sudden the QB would be in the zone. It would have been much better if getting in the zone was actually based on a series of good plays.

The controls have been revamped in this year's installment. For starters, the QB no longer needs to change gears when scrambling by bringing down the receiver buttons. Instead, the QB scrambles with the X button and his receiver options remain up at all times, making passing on the go a breeze. The running controls with the right analog stick are perfect. Tilting it left and right will make the ball carrier juke in that direction. Tilting up on the right analog stick will make the ball carrier protect the ball and plow through defenders, and tilting down will make the ball carrier take a step back, which if timed right can make the defender fall flat on his face. While having to switch between sprinting with the X button and making a move with the right analog stick appears to be an annoyance at first, it adds to the realism of the game by making you slow down the ball carrier before performing a move. Another notable addition is that EA's main gimmick in Madden NFL 2005, the Hit Stick, has now made its way into the NCAA series. It performs exactly the same as in Madden - when your defender is about to make a tackle, flick the right analog stick in the direction of the ball carrier to perform a truly devastating blow, increasing the chance for a fumble. There's also plenty of risk that the defender will miss if not timed perfectly, and the risk seems to be even greater in this game as there is a noticeable delay between when you flick the stick and when the defender will perform the tackle.

Load times are a little lengthy but aren't too bad. However, a problem in this game is the excessive time it takes to do any kind of simulating, whether it be simulating the other teams' games or recruiting process. Most of these can take several minutes to do. For instance, if you would want to simulate an entire season, it would takes upwards of around 20 minutes. However, it is fully understandable as the game has to simulate over 100 other teams, but the wait time is still a little overdone. You'll even experience some delay just navigating through menus. However, none of these load times take away from the game.

The Dynasty Mode is better than ever, with a new in-season recruiting feature that allows you to spend points to recruit players and check up on their status throughout the season. The mode features the basic Sports Illustrated, which will update you on standings, Heisman hopefuls, national polls, and stories from around the nation. Records, greatest games, trophies, campus challenges, and all those goodies are included as well. After the season is over, a series of off-season features are available from setting the school budget to recruiting players from around the nation.

Another fun mode added to the game is called the Spring Drills, which were introduced in the Race for the Heisman mode as well. The mode features four drills: Option Attack, Oklahoma drill, Pass Skeleton, and Rushing Attack, which are all basically mini games where you try to earn a high score. In the Option Attack, you simply run the option play against a few defenders. In the Oklahoma drill, the ball carrier will try to get pass the defender in an enclosed space. Pass Skeleton allows you to throw to receivers without the pressure of the Defensive Linemen or Linebackers. Finally, in Rushing Attack you simply run wild in the open field with just two defenders and a blocker to try to score a touchdown. Each mini game will give you about 10 reps and score you based on various things related to the task.

EA has really outdone itself with the rosters, including in this year's version Division 1 AA rosters as well as historic rosters. The basic Create-A-School, Player, and Sign are there as well. Rivalry game, practice mode, online mode, and the always hilarious mascot game round out the features. For those of who have online, the online mode suffers from many flaws, including plenty of lag. Also, EA has not yet sorted all of the bugs. For instance, you can get a loss if someone disconnects on you. Hopefully, the online experience will get better with time. However, they now charge a small two dollar fee for playing online, or you can choose to bypass that if you agree to let ESPN sponsor you and receive promotions and such.

Gameplay score: 8

Graphics:

The graphics in this game have been greatly revamped to help capture the atmosphere of gameday. All of the player models look great and are very sharp, from the referees to the cheerleaders. The lightning looks very real from afternoon to evening games, making you feel the time of day. The stadium lights during night games look great as well.

The most impressive enhancement, however, is by far the massive amount of new animations added in this year's game, which are incredible and add so much to the realism. This particularly refers to the tackle animations, which extend far beyond the Hit Stick. There are so many ways a player can be brought down, especially QBs when they are getting sacked. Some of them are so lifelike that you'll find yourself viewing the replay over and over. Some feature the ball carrier being pulled and dragged down while realistically keeping his momentum, and in one the defender and ball carrier collide and push for five or six seconds before the Runningback gains a yard falling forward. The passing animations look great as well and aren't glitchy at all, and receiver and Cornerback catch animations are also eye catching. And did I mention those cheerleaders? Overall, the stadiums look great and the crowd seems very lifelike, although they don't feature any fancy animations as one would find in a NCAA hoops game.

The in-game presentation also adds to the full broadcast experience. A short little pregame show with Lee Corso and the gang will introduce the game. During the game, menus and stats will pop up that all look great and everything displayed on-screen including the play selection window looks sharp. It's amazing how many things appear on the screen, including the many wanderers along the sidelines, which more than make up for any graphical limitations of the Playstation2.

Graphics score: 9

Sound:

The sound in this game matches the detail of the graphics. The commentary of Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso are all very fluid. It features tons of variety and does a good job addressing the happenings on the field. In terms of sound, no sports title puts you more into the game and creates an atmosphere like NCAA Football 06. The crowd noise can be deafening load and responds to any good play and boos any bad calls. Everything from the in-game commentary to the crowd noise to the sound effects of the players are top notch. The only downside is the music while you navigate the menus. The songs really feature no big names, and EA could not have picked a worse set of songs to be featured in a football title. Luckily, you have the option to play band music instead, which is a much better option and features the sounds of all of the schools.

Sound score: 9

Replayability:

NCAA Football 06 just might feature the deepest franchise mode of any sports game in its Dynasty Mode, from its incredibly deep recruiting to its many extras. And then the Race for the Heisman mode gets added in, which any player will play through at least once. The Spring Drills are pretty addicting as well. With all of that plus the mascot and rivalry games, the Create-A-School, Player, and Sign, Division 1A and AA rosters as well as historic rosters, and online play, this game probably has the highest replay value of any sports title available.

Replayability score: 10

Conclusion:

EA once again shows why its NCAA Football series has become so popular and is a distinctly full experience of its own apart from Madden. Although a few of its additions have many shortcomings, including the Race for the Heisman and Impact Players as well as some excessive load times and slowdown, it doesn't take away from what the game has to offer. The graphics, animations, and sound create an unmatched atmosphere and the gameplay remains as fun as ever. The NCAA series has always been great, and NCAA Football 06 is a definite must-have for football fans. If you can't decide between this and the upcoming Madden NFL 2006, however, and can only get one, it might be best to wait a month as Madden's Superstar Mode and QB Vision Cone should deliver the full experience that the Race for the Heisman and Impact Players weren't. Still, NCAA Football 06 remains the best and only college football title available.

Final score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/05