NCAA Football 07

"College football is off on the right foot on the 360"

College football has arrived on the Xbox 360. Although it's not the first football game on the 360(that distinction goes to Madden 06), it is the first ‘complete' football game as it isn't as stripped down as Madden was. It's got a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing going on as one minute you'll love playing it and the next you want to throw your controller through the TV screen and shout obscenities.

PRESENTATION

I'm not really a big fan of how the menus are set up this year. It's different and can be a bit of a hassle to find out where you're going. A nice thing they added is the quick save, which is brought up by hitting the left thumbstick and gives you the option of what you'd like to save be it your profile, dynasty, etc. The ability to have ‘real world' scores on the ESPN ticker is awesome, but for paying $15 million a year or whatever, they don't seem to be getting much out of the license like 2K Sports was. The score line on the bottom of the screen gives you all the necessary vitals for the game and shows you which team has the momentum at the current time. The playbook can be seen as difficult, although they have an ‘Ask Corso' option where he suggests five plays for you to run.

8/10

GRAPHICS

The graphics in this game are great. Although they haven't tapped the true potential of the 360, they still did a good job. Players look great and the animations are done well. It's some of the little things that set it off such as defensive backs jumping over players after they've been tackled instead of just walking through them or something strange. The stadiums are done nicely with the sky transition effect, where if you start a game at dusk it'll be night before the game is through. I haven't played a game in rain or snow yet, but it looks good from the screenshots I've seen. One problem would be that it freezes for a few seconds every once in a while.

8.5/10

SOUND

The sound in this game, as with the graphics, is done well. My only real gripe is how they have no soundtracks for the game as in previous versions I liked many of the bands and ended up buying some of their stuff. You can still put in your own stuff via the 360's custom soundtracks, but it's always cool to be exposed to new bands. The menu features fight songs from which ever school you pick as your favorite and some other ones tossed in too. The crowds are done nicely as in dynasty I was playing against the #10 team and beat them and towards the end of the 4th quarter they chanted ‘Overrated!'. The announcing in the game is pretty much the same as last year's with some more tidbits here and there. One problem is that if you have the ‘Ask Corso' option sometimes he'll tell you why to use that play and it'll overlap with the commentary.

9/10

GAMEPLAY

Here is where the game gets interesting. This is a good game at the core but has some problems in my eyes. It may be that my offensive line was bad, but it seemed my QB got sacked way too often. If I tried to get rid of the ball it'd get batted down or picked off. Another problem is open field tackling. It may just be me, but if I'm controlling a defender (mostly on punts) if I guy gets out in the open I try to make a bee line for him, but I rarely can tackle him. Also when I was playing one game the QB was plowing over my guys in route to a 15+ yard run. I can understand if he was juking or spinning, but he was just shaking off my defenders. Besides the sacks and tackling problems the gameplay is done well. Passing is nice when you're not getting sacked and it's not quite as easy to get away from defenders with spins and such as it was last year, which makes it more challenging.

7/10

LASTING APPEAL

There are about 40 achievements to unlock which will keep you busy for some time, although some are easy while some are hard. I believe the Dynasty is never ending, but I know it goes for at least 60 years as that is one of the achievements. EA has added some mini-games with bowling, tug of war, and an option one. The tug of war one is cool in that each team takes turn running one play. Play starts at the 50, so if you run it for 13 yards you're opponent will start at the 37. It goes on until someone scores. I haven't played online yet, but I browsed a bit and it seemed to be the typical online sports game with leader boards and such. One thing that is missing those is leagues, although I'm not big on them I know those who are and may be disappointed.

8/10

Although the game is missing some of the features that the PS2 and Xbox versions offer, it is still a fun game. Although the gameplay has a few issues, it is still playable and is a good start for future 360 college football games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/21/06