NCAA Football 2005

"Better than the last game"

NCAA Football 2004 to me, was a complete failure on EA Sports' part. They didn't do their best on a game that could ahve been great. Sure it had updated graphics and new rosters, but it was missing that same "Hmmmph" 2003 had back in the day. NCAA Football 2004 left me me disappointed making me want something more. I skipped buying it and decided to rely on next year. Here is the review of NCAA Football 2005.

Gameplay (8) A very lacking Gameplay. While the game is much more exciting than last year with the new snazy Home Field Advantage feature. It actually makes you have an advantage while palying at home and have a disadvantage while playing away. The new Match-Up Stick is really cool too, you can see which players are good and if they are confident, or rattled. Nice new features plus a very well done Running Game. Everything about the gameplay is good, except for a few things.

The Passing Game. It's been mutilated and destroyed since 2004 and I was incredibly disappointed. One thing I like about College Football is you can stick with your strength and smash it down your opponents throat. Unfortunantely your strenght better be running or as Corso would say, "You're in Big Trouble." Receivers drop wide open balls, they act as if they are in High School. It's really pathetic. Then to make it worse, the Quarterback's accuracy is off as well. I highly suggest you max out the QB Accuracy Skill and Catching Ability when playing on All-American or Heisman due to the fact that when maxed, you'll get a more accurate amount of catches, although it's still a little off, not in your favor.

The final problem with Gameplay is Slowdown. It's really bad in the X-Box version and even switching the format to standard instead of Widescreen doesn't help. EA needs to learn that the X-Box is the more powerful system, build from the X-Box then import over to PS2. They are too damn lazy to do it though. Sega realized that they should build from the X-Box version and that's why ESPN is going too look better than any EA Sport game. EA, if you want to have better grpahics than that "other" football company, you better learn from them.

Also another disappointment is the kicking game, it's much harder than last year, but isn't a constant problem. It takes you upping the Kicking accuracy and Strength 1 or 2 notches to get more accurate stats for kicking and punting is just horrendeous. You miss the little gold filled spot on the Kicking meter just barely and your kick will go flying into the stands. Not a very good thing.

Defense is really good except for the fact that stopping the run is a little too easy. This makes online play horrible because passing is a bad idea and you can't fix sliders, so you are stuck with running the ball constantly which means the defense has a much better shot at taking you down because stopping the run is easy. See what I mean? Other than that Defense is good.

Graphics (8) They haven't been improved at all. It's the same exact graphics from 2004. You look at the Madden Graphics and then NCAA and you will see a HUGE difference. EA is slouching off because they have no competition.

Aniamations (9) Suprisingly they are good in an EA game. They all flow pretty well together. I was really impressed with the tackling animations and the new Agile Running animations. Very Nice EA, I tip my hat off to you.

Online (7) This is where all the fun and joy from palying this game turns into anger and hate. First of all, not letting Microsoft manage the servers was a horrible idea. As of right now, you have trouble signing in, the friends list is just awful, and disconnections happen all the time. I tried palying a game online, it was terrible. If yo uare getting this game only because of online, skip it. You will be disappointed.

Sound (9) The crowd screaming and yelling and having the controller vibrate because of Home Field Advantage is enough to get your adrenaline flowing. The sound of this game is awesome excpet for one nagging injury EA seems to never get the point to fix. The Announcing. They think every year they can throw in 10 new lines and that will make us happy. It doesn't hearing Corso say "You gotta run between the Tackles!" every single year is enough to piss me off and turn the sound off and crank up some Metallica and Linkin Park. Speaking of other soundtracks, why the hell can't you import music? Come on EA!

Dynasty Mode (10) NCAA Football 2005's strongest point. Dynasty mode offers it all. Incredibly good and fun recruiting, Budget Managing, Sports Illustrated (No swimsuit Edition Boys), a new feature being Player Discipline, and more. EA knows how to make good Franchise/Dynasty modes, but they lack on gameplay. Quit caring so much about the Dynasty mode and care about the actual game.

Controls (10) Easy controls, it's just like any other football game. Very simple and easy to learn.

Extras (9.5) Very good extras in this game with Classical Games to choose from and pointless Pennants. You need betetr pennants to get, maybe classical teams instead of the All Star Version of Michigan, or USC. Get better pennants EA.

Overall: 8 (Not an Average!)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/07