NCAA Football 07

If you’re the type of person who plays more on your own, the bulk of the gameplay will probably be in the game’s Campus Legend mode. Being a college football sim, EA Sports is also giving an effort to make it a collegiate athlete sim. When you start the mode, the game asks you to create your player, and after you decide on your position as well as your measurements, then they ask what your major is after a little camp that’ll test your abilities in that position. Luckily, you don’t have to choose something as hard as biophysics, so you don’t have to worry about flunking out. You can take something as easy as Football Trivia, and still go through college with a breeze. However, your major affects your attributes depending on what position you are, and the more advanced your major, the higher most of your attributes will go.

From there, you’ll have daily practices to attend, cramming sessions for your academics, and some free time to do whatever you want (in the game, not your free time). You can choose to study, a logical choice, or you can choose to party and be part of the popular squad. Whichever path you choose, you still end up playing football, so don’t even think about people having the mindset of you being a nerd. Time after time, you’ll also be forced to take part in some exams and pop quizzes, and most of the time they’re easy. When you get a satisfactory score, your attributes come up automatically. NCAA veterans are probably thinking, “what is it exactly that’s different?” Well, in the traditional sense, Campus Legend really is no different from last year’s Race to the Heisman mode. In fact, they’re practically the same. And yes, it’s still a bit of a useless mode if you’re playing a position that isn’t quarterback or running back.

What would NCAA Football be without the traditional Dynasty mode? This is where all the diehard NCAA Football fans put all their time in with the game. You have the option of whatever team you want, and you have the chance to lead them to glory. From there, you’re given a squad, and “practices” are held by having a whole bunch of minigames. Every position has something to work on during spring drills, and if they’ve done completed their objectives with success, then you get… you guessed it, development points for your attributes! The new feature with this year’s Dynasty mode is the ability to play in the Spring Game. The Spring Game is the game before the real practices with your squad start. It always takes place a little bit after the NFL Draft so coaches can evaluate the younger guys on their roster, because by now—your stud juniors and your seniors are going to be gone. This is also a necessary tool to find the holes in your team, that way you can easily patch them up during the recruiting process.

The Recruting Process is pretty much the same as it was in NCAA Football 06. You still get to pipeline certain parts of the country to flush out the talent you want. Of course, you’re competing with other schools to get certain guys. If your school is not worth playing for (I’m not going to name names because all sorts of alumni can and will shoot me at first sight.), then you’re going to have to look elsewhere. So your letters and scholarship offers are very important.

Each version of the game is online, and the PS2 and Xbox versions run perfectly well as long your broadband connection isn’t faulty. We experienced no lag whatsoever as our editor-in-chief, Amadeo, got killed by yours truly using the San Jose State Spartans. The Xbox 360 version, on the other hand, has quite a bit of lag time, and its speed is really noticeable, especially if you’re used to playing the single player modes. Even the PSP version is online, but there is some noticeable lag with the game, but it really doesn’t kill the gameplay at all.

Obviously, far and away, the Xbox 360 version of the game looks and sounds the best. The game includes authentic sceneries of each of the top schools in the nation, and the presentation is damn near perfect. While the other versions of the game don’t have that kind of power, everything looks fine. The game does, however, reuse the same tackle animations from last season, but luckily there was a lot of variety and there doesn’t have to be anything new for right now. The PSP version, on the other hand, looks pretty choppy in some areas and there is room for improvement. Not to mention the running game looks absolutely nowhere near realistic.

As stated before, the presentation of the game is damn near perfect, and that also happens to be the case with the game’s audio. The play-by-play commentary is provided by the same guys from last year—Brad Nessler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit. The guys head to the studio every year and say new things, and their commentary is the best out of any video game. Sure, you’ll here some repetitions from time to time, especially from Corso—who just talks too much. But honestly, is there really a way to prevent a piece of audio in a video game to stop saying the same thing? That’ll never happen, because the games aren’t live. So people who complain about a little detail like that have got to lighten up. Of course, when compared to Madden’s commentary, NCAA is just an absolute real game of football.  And to those gamers out there concerned about music that has nothing to do with football, there's no need to fret.  EA Sports didn't put their crappy Trax into play; they unleashed just about all the top college football war songs.  (It just really gets annoying if you overuse or go against USC though.)

It seems like EA Sports is going to keep on chuggin’ when it comes to their NCAA Football series. Time and time again we see them make improvements to the series, and this one proves that they’ve mastered development of this series. Unlike most developers, when EA decides to make changes in their games, they also keep the “favorite” modes in there. From just plain old quick play to the hilarious Mascot mode, everything is in NCAA Football 07. It’ll be hard to think of where EA should start with next year’s game, but here’s to hoping it’s in revamping the franchise mode once again. But in the end, is NCAA Football 07 worth your time? It definitely is, no matter what version of the game you choose. The console versions of the game will keep you busy until next year, or at least until Madden NFL 07 comes out; the Xbox 360 version stands tall among other collegiate sports games on the console; and the PSP version is the perfect way to showcase your school pride on the go.

Games, News, Reviews, Media and More