by: Billy Kirk

January 13, 2008

When the news hit the wire that Electronic Arts had obtained exclusive rights over the NFL/NCAA license for use in all video games for the next several years, there were mixed reactions. Some believed EA was the right entity to gain such a privilege, while others were perturbed over the possibility of a company that would sit on their cornered market, eat cake, and generally grow fat, lazy and content in their dominance.

Unfortunately, after two years it seems to have been some of the former and a greater deal of the latter. While NCAA 07 for the Xbox 360 presents an evolved graphics engine and an even more faithful representation of the teams and stadiums that comprise much of what college football is all about, it is still far from perfect in those two capacities, and ridiculously lacking in a number of other key areas.

Those familiar at all with past entries in the vaunted series know what to expect when picking up the controller for the first time. Those switching over from the 2K Sports (formerly SEGA Sports) brand will find that the game puts a bit more emphasis on offense as opposed to defense; in general, it’s slightly harder to pull off key defensive plays – and specifically open field tackles – in NCAA than in the 2K Sports brand, and likewise a bit easier to go for the deep bomb downfield. Those not acclimated with the college game will also quickly discover the importance of the option package; mastery of these play types will make or break a gamer in NCAA, as well it should.




Control overall in the game is intuitive, and mostly unchanged from past iterations. You’ll select your play, either by formation or by play type, and head to the line (although you can always “Ask Corso” if you’re a little overwhelmed and need a helping hand). “A” hikes the ball, and any of the face buttons and the “RB” (right bumper button) will pass to specific receivers. Basic running plays, whether a handoff to your running back or full back, occur automatically following your hike. Option plays are run by pitching the ball to your running back, which can now be pulled off any time via the left trigger button. When sprinting up field with the ball, the right trigger provides the always-needed speed boost, while the face buttons pull off numerous moves, such as a spin move, juke, and stiff arm. These can also be pulled off automatically via the right thumbstick, the “Impact Stick” as it is referred to in-game. Before the ball is hiked, players can call audibles or “flip” running plays with a simple nudge of the right stick.

On the defensive side of the ball, gamers switch between their on-field players with a click of the “B” button, and can call audibles and perform line shifts prior to the snap by pressing the “Y” button and perusing the options within – however, there are no defensive hot routes this year. When making a play on the aired-out ball, players have the option of batting the ball away, going for the big interception, or simply drilling their man with a particularly nasty hit, which can be pulled off via the “Hit Stick” (again, the right thumbstick). All of these controls make sense and work well within the game.

Gameplay in general is addictive. There’s nothing like hopping in as your favorite – or even school – team, and dishing out some major damage to real-life rivals and the like. As previously mentioned, NCAA is heavy on offense, and in this way reflects the college game accurately, although the frequency of deep 50 yard touchdown Hail Mary plays may be a bit skewed at times, but certainly no less fun than it should be. The option, too, is more potent than it should be; although in real life it is a difficult play to defend, on normal difficulty in NCAA this reviewer can select two option plays, and only run those two plays during an entire drive and score a touchdown. This can be repeated on each drive throughout a game’s duration, if need be. The game is largely bug-free, but there is an annoying glitch that can crop up regarding the running of the option. Every once in a while (and sometimes more than once a game), the quarterback will fail to make the simple pitch to the running back, even when not making any contact with another player and even when the running back is only a couple feet away and the path is unobstructed. This is a flaw that should’ve been eliminated more completely a couple years back, and thus its existence is fairly unacceptable. Despite these minor disappointments however, players won’t find themselves faulting the game’s mechanics often, and instead will be too busy enjoying leading their team to victory.

Graphics in the game are pretty, if not fantastic. While an obvious improvement over other versions, one can tell that EA still didn’t use all of what the 360 can currently offer. While player cut-scenes look fairly exemplary and clear, the on field graphics are serviceable and nothing more, mostly because the game suffers from noticeable aliasing issues. While the aliasing issues in the pre-game menus (which make the text difficult to read) can be fixed by tweaking the video options on your television set, the on-field aliasing issues are not solvable. EA’s game still features somewhat unrealistic, almost steroid-induced player models (“Wait, was that Barry Bonds making the grab?!”), and there are occasional hitches in frame-rate at the end of plays, although these never present a problem. Animation is mostly right on the mark, but rarely a tackle or particularly a sack on a quarterback will occur when it shouldn’t; in other words, a quarterback will hit the ground even though the defender was two feet away from him, trying to make the tackle. This is some ugly collision detection, but fortunately doesn’t happen often. Aside from this the animation soars, even if gang tackles are conspicuously absent.




The presentation in the game is a wildly mixed bag. While the menus look nice and reflect a collegiate feel (when you can read them), the lack of any real ESPN presence is absurd. After two years with the license, EA has managed to integrate an ESPN ticker at the bottom of the screen, and absolutely nothing more. No ESPN flashy highlights, no personalities like Chris Berman or Trey Wingo, no pre-game, halftime, post-game, or week-ending season highlight shows….nothing. No basic ESPN overlays during the game – EA is still using their own. When all of these features were in a certain game two and in some cases three years ago (and yes, I am making that comparison, so deal with it), this is a very big problem.