NCAA College Basketball 2K3

"Not quite up to the standard set by Visual Concepts' own NBA 2K series"

Sega's Visual Concepts has been delivering a great basketball experience to gamers everywhere for four years now. Their NBA2K series has taken the b-ball throne away from all competitors, including the mighty sports giant Electronic Arts. But, despite all their achievements in developing a perfect NBA basketball sim they had not attempted to infuse the same high quality gameplay elements into a college hoops game... that is until now. This year Sega is releasing the first in what will most likely be a long line of NCAA basketball games, catering to those college fans that had been ignored for the past 3 years. So has the wait been worth it? Read on...

Gameplay

The gameplay in NCAA Basketball 2K3 is based on a slightly modified version of last year's NBA 2K2 engine. This has both good and bad points. The good news is that last year's gameplay engine was very solid and still is. The bad news is that the same issues that plagued NBA 2K2, like too much goaltending and not enough fouls, are apparent in NCAA 2K3. NBA 2K3 fixed many of these issues, so it's too bad we'll have to wait for next year's college game to reap the benefits. Still, the old engine was good enough to propel NBA 2K2 above all competitors last year, so it certainly is more of good thing than a bad one.

There have been a few tweaks to the gameplay to make the game more true to college hoops. Things like zone defenses, different dunk animations and less-effective crossovers and spin moves are all new additions for the game by Visual Concepts. For the most part, these are
good, but I don't quite understand why the crossovers are toned-down. I know that NBA stars like Allen Iverson and Kobe are much better one-on-one players than most college hoops kids, but then again, the NBA defenses are much tougher than those in the NCAA. I'd like to see crossovers and spins to be more effective in next year's game.

Graphics

The graphics are sharp, but lack a certain amount of polish. One of the great things about the NBA 2K series is the attention to detail placed on the faces of all the NBA players. Of course, that is not seen in this game because players' likenesses cannot be used. This is understandable, but why the heck didn't Sega include more options to edit players' appearances? Yes, you can enter in the names for the rosters, but if Visual Concepts made the player have dumb looking glasses or a wrong hairdo, you just have to deal with it. They should have taken notes from EA's NCAA Football 2003 which allows you to edit EVERYTHING about the players: numbers, school year, height, weight, hair, stats... you name it. This lack of freedom given to gamers who want to create realistic rosters is a major flaw in the game and takes away from the game's overall worth significantly.

The stadiums in the game are modeled accurately for the most part. Considering Sega had hundreds of arenas to model, they did a smashing job. The player's jerseys are sometimes slightly wrong, but hopefully that will be cleaned up next year. Staying on the subject of jerseys, it seems about time for somebody to make REAL b-ball uniforms. All the unis in the game look like they have been over-starched. I want to see shorts sway and move with realistic physics like we see with the girls' hair in DOA3.

Audio

The game's sound is a mixed bag. Crowd chants, band songs and other general sound effects are all extremely crisp and realistic, but the commentary is very lackluster. It's a shame that Sega bought the ESPN license but has failed to sign any big name announcers. It's seems like the announcers get too excited in weird, sporadic spurts. One minute one announcer will be talking about some mundane stat, then they will yell, ''He steals the ball!!'' Then half a second later he goes back to a calm description of the action. I think Sega did this to try and capture the ''energy'' of college hoops, but the transitions are just not smooth enough to work. Sega really needs to go back to the drawing board with the color commentary and play-by-play for next year's release.

Closing Comments

Overall, Sega's NCAA Basketball 2K3 is one of the best college hoops games around, but it doesn't really have enough competition for that to mean much. The gameplay, which is based on last year's NBA 2K2 engine, is easily the game's biggest asset. Plenty of options and a deep legacy mode will also please hoops fans. The lack of freedom in editing players is a serious flaw with the game and means truly accurate rosters cannot be reproduced. This and the sub-par commentary are the game's biggest issues, but hopefully they will be addressed in NCAA Basketball 2K4. College b-ball fanatics will certainly find much to enjoy with this game, but mainstream sports fans (or even mainstream basketball fans) may be better off purchasing NBA 2K3.

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Review Recap
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Gameplay: 9 – Has the same great gameplay that we've seen in NBA2K2. While that's good for the most part, it also means that there are some minor issues with goaltending that need to be cleaned up.
Visuals: 7 – Pretty good, but the player faces look cheesy and inaccurate. Also, some arenas are modeled incorrectly.
Sound: 6 – The general sound effects are well done, but the commentary is fairly poor.
Music: 8 – ESPN theme is great and gets you in the mood for some college basketball.
Lasting Appeal: 8 – Dynasty mode is addictive and playing online via Xbox LIVE will keep you coming back for awhile.
Fun Factor: 7 – The game is entertaining, but lack of player customization is a turn off.

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Final Score: 7.6 (rounded up to 8 for GameFAQs)
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Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/03, Updated 06/25/03