This is the first NCAA basketball game I have waited for the release and it ended up being one among many recent NCAA sports games that delivered up to my expectations as a sports gamer.

The immediate thing that needs to be mentioned and is often overlooked is the wait screen that allows shooting baskets or practice your inside play alone. When the game loads there is a loan basketball player in street clothes in a half court situation with a few balls lying on the court. Pretty cool that you can instantly play a game without trying to find out how to play a quick game and also if you are in between screens you have something to do. There is a small attachment to this feature before games that allows you to compete for “game intensity meter” going into a game. (i.e. score 15 points in 40 seconds) As the load times get less and less apparent, of course there will be less need for the instant shoot around but it’s something I always thought would be nice to have in order to break up the action.

Game Modes
This year there are 4 modes of gameplay; Dynasty Mode, NCAA Tournament, Maui Invitational Tournament and NIT Season TipOff. The last two tournaments are the usual preseason tourneys and there isn’t much difference between the two aside from the Maui allows for 8 teams and the NIT gives you the option of 16. Seems like they needed to fill some gaps if you ask me and this is going to be the least played spot of the game. NCAA Tournament is nice if you aren’t into the dynasty or season modes and just want the action of the 64 team extravaganza. Most obvious of all the game modes is the Dynasty Mode which has so much to it that it will impossible to describe all of the tiny features. Like most of the EA college games there are a ton of activities to go through almost ensuring that you will either A: get fed up with doing menial tasks or B: try and get a job as an athletic director at a local college.


If you aren’t used to NCAA sports games then you have to realize that in dynasty mode the most important thing is recruiting. If you don’t pay attention to the recruiting then the alumni get pissed and you will not be well liked. Just like Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame but I will move on. Keep winning and at the same time keep sending messages to the top guys and inviting them out to campus for a “Johnnie Be Good” orgy to keep them interested and all is good. It sucks after a while but the more you do it early on in the season the less you have to at the end.

Within Dynasty there is a School Pride feature that will allow you to unlock special facilities for your team by completing tasks laid out by the administration. Kind of lame but if you like the game and plan on sticking with it you will end up liking it, trust me. In this feature it will also give you the option to name the streets within your campus which will provide at least brief spots of laughter while you look at recent upgrades to your site.

Probably the best small feature and probably will go unnoticed by a lot of gamers is the ability to change the appearance of your entire team. If you are unhappy that your team has only numbers instead of names or that you just want to have a team of guys that look just like your couch potato self, then go to town and spend some time playing god in Roster Management/Edit Player.


GamePlay
If you aren’t familiar with college basketball or maybe have seen some games here and there please don’t shy away from this game because you not only will learn a lot about the way its played, but find that it’s one of the most exciting sports in America today. I bet there will be some people who try this game for the first time and who may be in shock when they see players playing press defense ¾ of the way down the court. I know if I didn’t watch college basketball I wouldn’t expect this, but that is exactly the way college players act in real life. First off the college game is only played in 2 – 20 minute halfs making it 8 full minutes shorter than an NBA game so players are able to spend extra energy with intense defense. No EA is not cheating like usual, it’s real and if anything they cheat less in NCAA games so rest easy.


The whole idea behind college basketball is in a different galaxy than the NBA game. You cannot isolate players and expect to find an easy open lane to the hoop, it just won’t happen unless you are playing West Valley Junior College. EA pays extreme attention to detail in their games (if you don’t already know this) and in particular they do in this game. The defense will crash the lane and swarm on anything that moves in the paint so ball movement is key. You will have to move the ball around the edges until you find someone one on one posted up or if you are smart enough to use the playbook feature you can create an advantage with a pick or a screen.

To access this during your offensive set just get the ball to your Point Guard (recommendation) or a Shooting Guard and press up on the D-Pad. After this you will get the option of 3 plays to run and a visual of how those plays setup. (You can change these selected plays by accessing them in the “playbook” area of “team management” in the start menu) There are two keys to kicking ass in this game and using the plays is one of them. Sure you can dribble around like a mad man but you will get picked, cause a charging foul or send up a shot similar to George Costanza (the chucker). You can survive playing individual basketball in this game at the lower difficulty levels but once you get up near All-American you will get smoked.

The other thing that makes this game cool is the passing icons. Use them! If you don’t use the passing icons you are left with a spray and pray pass option that 80% of the time will get stolen on its way to the targeted teammate. To bring up this option during the offensive set use the RB (right bumper) and hold it down as you dribble up the court. It sounds like it would be hard to do while keeping the ball away from the opponent but you get used to it. Using the passing icons will help get the ball to a guy streaking down the lane or someone wide open on the outside for a sure three pointer.


If all else fails and you find yourself wanting to go one on one and put the ball on the floor, then you hit the right stick one way or the other and showcase the skills. It works ok but you run the chance of over dribbling and causing a turnover. You can also do the same on defense with what they call the lock down stick. If you are trying to hold up a player working the post you can get up close and lock them up to play stronger D and hold your position on the floor.

The last addition to this game is the intensity and composure meters. Throughout the game you have the option to use this feature to pump up the players and taunt the opponents or crowd. This can have positive or negative effects on your team and the outcome but I have played a ton and rarely use this only because it detracts from the gameplay a bit. I just never found that it made that much of a difference.



Visuals
%#$^ing outstanding. No better sports game out right now and they finally nailed what I thought basketball should look like in a game. The players look great and the courts look amazing. There is even this shirtless guy in the front row that is painted in school colors and you can see chest hair. Ok after I wrote that I just realized this is probably an area where great graphics are not needed. The stadiums really make this game fun to watch over and over again.

The lines are very smooth and nothing looks pixilated at all. I have this running in 720p off of an Optoma projector onto a 92” screen and it looks like a crystal clear television. Nothing is lost even with the size of the image and like most sports images, the bigger the better. I was watching Clemson vs. Duke on my other TV and decided to switch over to see a comparison and honestly the game holds up visually to live action. Obviously it’s not exactly live television in HiDef but damn good if you ask me. Have no fear of the graphics in this game……they will live up to your standards if not blow them away.

Other Stuff
When you first start up the game select ESPN and turn on the notices. Great feature that updates you when you are aren’t playing in a game on all daily sports action and news features. If you are connected to live you can also get clips from ESPN motion including shows like NFL live and Cold Pizza. Check out all of the daily news stories and you will see its just like browsing the ESPN.com website and watching their videos.

The music in this game absolutely sucks and maybe EA just realizes that everyone uses their own music anyway and doesn’t want to invest in real artists. In this game they have school bands performing such classics as “Funky Town”. Yeah tell me about it……it sucks! Just throw on your favorite TOOL album and have a ball with your own palatable audio.



Technical Details
-HDTV 720p and 1080i
-Xbox Live Compatible
-Co-Op 2 to 4 players


The BAD and seriously in need of work
Fouls - There are a lot of fouls called but you can tone this down a bit in the settings. It’s not ridiculous but it can be annoying when you get down low and almost every touchy foul is called. Get used to shooting free throws. Fouls are just a part of the game and if you watch any basketball you will notice how often they get called…..even the ticky tack ones.

Computer AI – Not half as bad as what I have read on other sites about this game but they are computer controlled and there is only so much you can expect. Sometimes it seems like there is complete chaos but it doesn’t happen all the time. To be honest it can be cleaned up next year along with the fouls and it would take care of 80% of the problems with this game.



Overall
I think sports games have increasingly missed the mark by trying to overcomplicate things too much and have too many extra game modes, all this while ignoring a major factor which is fun. I have played both NBA games on Xbox and in addition I played the recent College Hoops 2007 which was an absolute embarrassment of a game. So far this is the best game out of all the basketball games considering all the deliverables. While it does have its bad spots that can be worked on next year, I found this was the only one I wanted to play a full dynasty with and keep for an extended period of time. From what I can tell the simplicity and spirit of College Sports have not only taken over in real life but now have started making their push in gaming.

Its hard for me to ever say that you should buy a sports game and only a few would get that recommendation but this is definitely a great rental and top of the list right now in your Gamefly Que.