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NCAA Football 08

Score: 9.0 / 10

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any college football fan that the University of Southern California, which won the outright title in 2004, is the preseason favorite to win the national college football championship, joined in the top five by traditional powers Michigan, a shared winner in 1997; Texas, 2005; and Florida, last year’s champ. Despite the change in the calendar year, the polls show that the ranks of the college football royalty remain basically unchanging.

That could also be said for this year’s exclusively licensed college football videogame from Electronic Arts, NCAA Football 2008, which despite an enhanced recruiting system that will thrill the hard-core college football gamers, is its traditionally strong self without too much newness.

There’s very little new in NCAA Football 08, and that shouldn’t be seen as a negative, because the game had already been very good, not needing much upgrading after the last two renditions advanced the whole NCAA Football

 

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franchise more than it had been in some time. Despite that lack of freshness to the overall gaming experience, NCAA Football 08 continues to be an exceptional college football game, as the old adage of “don’t fix what isn’t broken” perfectly describes what college football gaming aficionados will find in NCAA Football 08.

Only a few other features received 

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some improvements, and not so much that anybody will really notice, because it’s not on-the-field gameplay that changed at all. Instead, the Dynasty mode recruiting has been modified, so that there’s the ability to focus your recruiting attention to player with specific skills, like a big-armed quarterback or a fleet-of-foot running back. There’s a new Campus Legend mode this year, basically where you put yourself in the shoes of an incoming freshman and try to leave campus as one of the game’s all-time greats, leading your team and school to glory and the championships.

And you can relive those moments of glory with the My Shrine addition, where you can store not only your trophies but also video highlights and photos of your on-the-gridiron glory. Also making the cut is the Leadership Control feature, which does involve your deeds on the field. Basically, it comes down to leading by example: make a big play and you’ll influence players on your team by increasing their personal ratings. The weather has been given attention this year, too: real-time weather reports from The Weather Channel determine the in-game weather when playing online.

That’s basically it for what’s new in NCAA Football 08, nothing one would really consider of game-changing importance. However, what remains from previous versions certainly has created a championship-caliber football game. NCAA Football 08 is still surrounded in the magnificent sensory elements that it has always had that brings the college football game atmosphere right into the living room. The band playing the classic school fight songs, the cheering of the crowd and realistically rendered stadiums combine with the smooth animations that the 60 frames-per second NCAA Football 08 delivers for a magnificent gaming experience, including a perfect balance of solid running and passing controls.

- Lee Cieniawa

lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(August 21, 2007)

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