 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | EA Tiburon |
| Publisher: | EA Sports | |
| Genre: | Sports | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Once again, fall is upon us and millions are preparing for the upcoming NCAA football season. Much like Saturdays spent on the couch screaming at the TV, EA’s NCAA Football series is a mainstay for college football fans. In what looks to be the last widely played iteration of the series for the PS2 and Xbox, EA brings the hit series in for its annual installment with a few new additions. However, don’t fool yourself into thinking this is a brand new game. This game is still running off of the same engine, and as a result still faces the same limitations as its predecessors.
The first noticeable change in the gameplay is the new special teams system. Following the trend it has generally taken for its sports games, EA put its main focus on one side of the ball. In this case, they completely revamped how special teams works in every situation and it actually makes special teams feel like a viable part of your team’s strategy.
The standard EA kicking meter is finally dead. NCAA 07 put the nails in its coffin, and introduces a new kicking system that is much easier to deal with. Instead of it being an obnoxious timing system, kicking is controlled by the right stick. Pressing back on the right stick starts the power meter, and pressing the stick forward starts the kick. If you want to kick the ball in a direction, push forward in that direction. On top of that, you can pull back kicks in case your line breaks or you want to make a heads-up fake. (ed: this kicking system also made its way into Madden 07).
If you’re like many of the people out there, you’re saying: “Who cares about kicking?” Well, they made changes to the return game as well. When the ball is up in the air, the camera shifts into a 3rd person viewpoint behind the kick returner. It may not sound like much, but this vastly improves the returning game. It allows you to clearly see the holes and blocking downfield and break huge runs. You can also take this camera view when you’re attempting to block a kick. This isn’t quite as helpful in that situation, but still makes blocks a viable option.
The biggest improvement on defense concerns jumping the snap-count. If you control a defensive lineman and press A (or X on the PS2) right as the ball is snapped, your lineman will jump off the line and try to blow past the offensive lineman. If you don’t time this right, you can jump offsides or too late (meaning you’re likely not getting penetration). Outside of this improvement, I think playing defense has actually gotten worse. Linebackers are STILL grossly ineffective, and the secondary is either grossly inept or flying around at 100 mph with giant arms that knock everything down. Goal-line defense is a complete and total joke, although this stems almost entirely from the game's engine. Without having gang-tackles and the ability to have more than one player attempting a tackle, you see things like a speed back get through 5 defenders in a run up the middle because the 350 lb. DT decided to grab him and swing him over the line (be it first down or touchdown).
The offense is pretty much the same as it’s been the last few years. The only big addition is team specific playbooks. For example, you can use Spurrier’s playbook if you pick South Carolina. Really though, the playbooks are more or less generic outside of a few notable exceptions. Sure, they’re tailored to the team’s strengths, but it isn’t really a huge selling point in my opinion.
Posted: 2006-09-02 08:32:15 PST