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Platform
Xbox
Genre
Sports
Publisher
Electronic
Arts
Developer
EA
Tiburon
ESRB
E
(Everyone)
Released
Q3
2006
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Great
new Campus Legend Mode enhances the whole “college”
experience – including “social” events and testing: you
actually have to take midterm and final exams
- Gameplay raised to an even higher level of realism with new
game mechanics such as Jump the Snap and Slide Protection
- Spring Drills and Spring Game additions give extra opportunity
to practice your skills and evaluate talent on your team
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Graphics still haven’t improved much from two years ago
- Although it’s innovative, some may not like the third-person
camera angle returning kickoffs and punts
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Review:
NCAA Football 06 (PS2)
Review:
NFL Head Coach (XB)
Review:
Madden NFL 06 (360)
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NCAA
Football 07
Score:
9.5 / 10
It’s
a little difficult for me to get excited for the upcoming college
football season, seeing that I’m an alumnus of Temple University,
one of the worst college football programs in history, which didn’t
even win a single game last year. But while I’m not looking forward
to another inevitable Temple Owls’ losing campaign, the harkening of
a new college football season brings with it another rendition of the
best college football video game, Electronic Arts’ NCAA College
Football 07.
Gameplay remains at the same high level that’s always been with a
few new enhancements that bring even more realism to a game already
soaked in college football realism, as NCAA Football 07 is simply the
best college football video game you can get (even if it’s the only
college football video game around). The upgraded Campus Legend mode
brings to your Xbox the whole college experience – including
partying, studying and taking tests – and another excellent online
option helps NCAA Football 07 once again take home the hardware as the
champion of college football video gaming.
After all these years, EA’s college football has honed its gameplay
to mirror that of the actual game of college ball, so much so that it
even bests the Madden franchise as the most realistic football game
around. Adding to the already near-perfect gameplay choices are a few
new touches that add to that acclaimed gameplay. Most notable is line
adjustments on both sides of the ball.
Offensively, you can use slide protection along the offensive line to
counterbalance a heavy defensive load on one side of the line. Sliding
your protection allows you
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Once
again, NCAA Football 07 has an impeccable control schematic mapped
to your Xbox controller, including using the “A” button for
running with the quarterback. Along with great gameplay, stellar
controls have a large role in creating the outstanding college
football simulation title that is NCAA Football 07.
What I’ve always enjoyed in NCAA Football is how immersed in the
whole college gameday atmosphere your gaming experience is. I love
hearing the school bands playing school songs reverberating
throughout the stadium. While before you could pump up the crowd,
that has been changed slightly this year. You can still excite the
crowd and alter them into a screaming, yelling, cheering mass of
rabid fanatics rooting loudly for their favorite team with the
stadium decibel pulse booster.
The crowd cut-scenes that happen after a big play still aren’t as
good as they could be, but that’s made up for with dead-on
replication of the intensity of the college football frenzied crowd
and the true-to-life stadiums. There’s also a Momentum Meter,
which you swing wildly back and forth depending on turnovers or big
plays. It can establish momentum for one team or take it away from
others, having either an extremely positive or momentously negative
effect on your or your opponent’s final outcome in any particular
contest.
A good way to build up your skills to get that Momentum Meter
swinging in your direction is in the new Spring Drills mode, where
you can practice plays and get used to your on-field personnel by
playing and practicing 11 mini-games. There’s also a new Spring
Game that lets you practice in a “live” game situation.
The Race for the Heisman mode has been transformed into this
year’s Campus Legend mode, where the basic goal is the same:
become a star player while pursuing the Heisman Trophy, lead your
team to a national championship, and get yourself in position to be
an instant millionaire by becoming a NFL first-round draftee. But
NCAA Football 07’s Campus Legend mode augments your college
video-gaming experience.
Now, you can actually enjoy social events or skip the partying and
study for that upcoming midterm or final exam. And yes, you really
must take a real test with actual questions (10 total). I chose U.S.
History, and had to recount my school days to get some of the
questions right. Although the questions aren’t much harder than
what a high school freshman may encounter, don’t think the testing
aspect is just a throw-in feature. If you don’t do well in a test,
you actually become academically ineligible to play in the next
game. Now that’s something no college football game has had before
(and may take off some of the heat from politicians that say video
games have no educational value).
Only one area could NCAA Football 07 stand to improve, and that’s
in the graphics. While it still has a better visual flair than
Madden does, it still looks like NCAA Football 07 is using the same
graphics as were around from two or three years ago. But
graphically, for a soon-to-be-previous-generation title, it
certainly isn’t that bad, just noticeably unimproved from past
renditions.
Although the on-field camera remains unchanged during games from
previous NCAA Football games, one new angle is the third-person
camera that takes effect while you’re returning kickoffs or punts.
Instead of getting a wide camera angle that covers the entire field
of oncoming would-be tacklers, this year’s third-person
perspective puts you more in the shoes of the returner than ever
before.
You don’t have the advantage of seeing the side onrushing
opponents, instead having an almost actual view of the action, just
as if you really were catching the ball on the gridiron. It makes
returning kicks much harder, but much more realistic and even more
satisfying if you can break off a big return by finding daylight in
a gap and head for the end-zone. However, I didn’t really warm to
the whole third-person camera, although I’m sure many gamers will
see it a welcome and innovative new gameplay feature.
Another facet where NCAA Football 07 stands pat from the past that
is actually a very good thing is in its excellent online play. As
with all EA Sports titles, NCAA Football is relatively new to Xbox
Live, but you wouldn’t know it by its magnificent online setup.
Smooth-playing online play has become the norm with EA’s football
titles, and NCAA Football 07 continues in that tradition.
With so many amazingly awesome features and the gold standard of
college football gameplay, NCAA Football 07 is without doubt the
ultimate college football game for the college football fan (even
for a Temple University football “fan”). Online play, new
features, and completely perfect gameplay once again show everybody
why NCAA Football 07 is always considered one of the best sports
video games year in and year out.
- Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com
(August
21, 2006)
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