Nerd Mentality

REVIEW: NCAA Football 10

Posted July 31st 2009 by Brandon Schmidt.

It's almost that time of year again when the coed masses flock to university campuses across America to drink heavily and cheer on their football team of choice. It's also the time of year when Electronic Arts begins launching their annual entries for their premiere football franchises.  NCAA Football 10 for the Xbox 360 is the latest entry in their college football line.  The game is very deep, so much so that it's difficult to relay all of that information in a concise review.  You really have to play it to get a strong feel for all the modes and all of the options available to you.  Hit the break to read about some of the new features and what makes this game one of the most complete sports packages out there for fans of the junior gridiron.

Dynasty mode is a fan favorite and once again this year you can begin either a local or online dynasty.  Pick your team of choice or start your own and follow that team 365 days a year as you play your games, try to recruit the best athletes in the country, and otherwise attempt to become and remain the premier program in the nation.  Although I can see the benefit of starting your own school and bringing it up to the level of today's college superpowers, I find it fun to simply jump in as an established team and continue to play against the toughest teams and try to win over the prize recruits.

I've followed college recruiting for more than a decade now so the recruiting in the game is one of my favorite features.  You can create your own prospects or let the game do so for you.  Recruiting is a season-long trial as you not only attempt to target the best players, but must also build and maintain strong relationships with them until you can officially sign them.  You do so by scheduling visits and the activities they'll participate in.  You can also call them up to learn about what's most important to them and then sell your school to them based on what you learn.  If you're into all the aspects of developing a football team, the recruiting process can be a lot of fun.  The only thing I don't care for is that there are additional features, such as a recruiting advisor, that you can purchase online.  It's not something that you necessarily need, but it seems like a feature that should've been included for free.  I can understand being charged for downloadable content if it's a special team or extra jerseys.   It just feels like the customer is being nickle-and-dimed here.  Overall though, the recruiting process is a pivotal part of the NCAA experience and the amount of time you can sink into it is reflective of what coaching staffs go through every year.

If you're just the kind of person that can't commit to a full four-quarter match, the game also offers a variety of quick play options.  You can jump into an exhibition match, get in some practice, or play a game of mascots versus mascots.  There are also a variety of mini-games that include a game of H-O-R-S-E via kicking field goals, a special teams mode where the goal is to be the first team to return a kickoff for a touchdown, and a tug-of-war mode where each team swaps back and forth running one offensive play until one of the teams score.  All of these modes support up to four players.  Not all of the mini-games are fantastic, but they do add some variety for when you only feel like playing some football for 10-20 minutes. 

Season Showdown is a new feature that really allows for you to show your school pride.  You commit yourself to representing a school of your choice, and from then on whenever you play a game online or against the computer you earn credits in a number of categories that include your skill playing the game, your skill in game planning, and your sportsmanship.  You actually lose credits from bad sportsmanship.  You can earn points during the preseason to try and give your team an early boost.  As you play each week during the regular season, your opponent will be the same one your school is taking on in the real college football season.  There are a couple of scoring components, though, that require you to go online to an EA site.  One of these additional components is a timed trivia competition that will really test your knowledge of all things pigskin.  At the end of the regular season, the top 32 teams will compete in a single-elimination tournament to be named the champion.  It's a really cool component, but I worry that it may not be a completely fair system.  Not that the real ranking system is all that fair either, but it could really come down to the size of the fanbase for the schools.  It'll be interesting to see how it plays out towards the end of the real regular season.

The TeamBuilder mode allows you to use a web based editor to completely control the look and makeup of your team.  You can edit the logo, change the mascot, modify the uniforms, and more.  It gets really deep with the amount of details you can configure.  For instance you can create home and away uniforms along with alternate versions of each.  You can then post your newly-created team for the online community to use or restrict it for your own personal use.  Although creating a team isn't a new feature for the franchise, the added benefit of being able to use a mouse and keyboard to do the editing allows you to be both creative AND efficient.

As with the Season Showdown and Teambuilder modes, Road to Glory is a new addition to NCAA Football 10 this year.  In Road to Glory, ESPN's Erin Andrews will follow your newly-created player or existing player of choice from high school all the way to superstardom in the college ranks.  Once your player is ready, you start off with your high school playoffs as you try to impress the college scouts.  If you create your own player you have the opportunity to select your hometown, and as a result the teams appearing in your playoff bracket are those you'd find in your home state.  During the actual games, you can either watch each play until its your turn to get into the game, or you can simply skip ahead to that point.  You're given the plays you must run and you can really only control your player, but you can still call audibles.  Do a good enough job impressing the scouts and you'll get to pick from a variety of schools.  The top schools won't just hand you the reins of the team though, as you'll still have to battle your way up the depth chart.  You'll even have to balance practice with academics in order to maintain the necessary grades to stay on the team.  It's a fun mode in that it brings a solo mindset to a team-oriented sport.  Perhaps it's a commentary on the state of sports today, but it's still a nice change-of-pace from the standard modes.  You'll find yourself not only focused on winning the games, but also on making sure that it's your player making the big catch, throwing the deep pass, or making the big hit.

Online play supports both ranked and unranked matches.  There's a skill level system based on how well you play and how good the players are that you either beat or lose to.  A nice touch is that the game keeps track of what percentage of games a player doesn't finish by which I mean they either quit or were disconnected.  This will let you know who the cheap players are so that you can avoid them.  You can also get a look at your opponents' connection strength before joining a game.  Another feature I like is that there is a Beginners Room that allows new players to chat and play against one another.  It is restricted to skill levels between one and five so advanced players can't just lurk in there and beat up on everyone.  On the flipside, there's also an Advanced Room that will certainly be a proving ground for big players and big egos.

Graphically the game looks really good.  The character models are sharp and animate well.  With an established franchise like this, though, it's usually a matter of slight improvements and tweaks here and there.  Where the game really shines is in the details of the stadiums, the sidelines, and the crowds.  Everything looks authentic and even details such as where the visiting fans sit is accurately captured.  It's the little things that make the difference, and seeing Century Tower in the backdrop of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on the University of Florida campus reinforced to me the attention that EA's development team put into this game.  Seeing the stands clear in the 4th quarter of a blowout is yet another prime example.  All of that being said, there are still the occasional clipping issues, but these usually occur between plays.  Players animate well and physically respond to hits and blocks the way you'd expect them to.

The audio in the game is largely what you'd expect from an EA Sports game.  Brad Nessler handles the play-by-play with Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso back again to provide color commentary.  This year there's also the addition of Erin Andrews on the sideline for injury updates.  Their remarks are a mix of insightful points and inane chatter.  There are still occasions where the comments don't make sense in the context of the game.  This happens particularly often at the end of games.  There's also a lot of commentary that's rehashed from previous versions.  Some of Corso's quotes I still recognize from all the way back in the 2003 version.  On a more positive note, the sound effects in the game are a nice treat.  Not only do you get the typical fight songs for teams in the game, you also get some team-specific cheers between plays.  It seems like every year EA adds more and more team-centric audio cues to the pool.  A great addition are the real ESPN audio news bulletins that are streamed in while you navigate the system menus which is nice for sports junkies like myself.  It's like listening to Sportscenter while you get everything set up.

As with the audio, the controls for the game are typical of the genre, which might be part of the problem I have with the game.  These sports games are not for the casual player.  Depending on whether you're on offense or defense, running the ball or passing, on special teams, there's a different list of actions assigned to the controls.  Unless you're a series veteran, it will take hours upon hours to finally get the hang of playing every facet of a football game without having to keep a copy of the manual at your side at all times.  It's nothing you can't get acclimated to, it just makes the prospect of playing on the higher difficulty levels or taking on opponents online all the more daunting.  Unfortunately, there's really no alternative considering the number of actions required of football players.  EA offers the Family Play control setting, but I've always felt that that oversimplifies things too much.  For instance, instead of picking a specific receiver to throw the ball to, the press of a button will throw it to the receiver who is the most open on the play.  Prior to this year's iteration of NCAA, the last football game I played was Madden 07 on Wii which utilized motion control.  It was nice having that alternative input method and I felt more immersed in that game because of it.  It will be interesting to see what future incarnations will be like on the 360 once Project Natal is commercially available.

It's always difficult to formulate a final opinion on whether a particular EA Sports game is good, great, or bad because each iteration tends to build on the last rather than really revolutionize.  There are things I love about NCAA Football 10 like the attention to detail in the teams and traditions.  There are things I absolutely hate like the fact that the ball can hit your defensive players square in the numbers and they still can't make a pick, but the computer will routinely make acrobatic one-handed interceptions.  It's really a love/hate story with this game as always seems to be the case with the EA Sports franchises.  This makes it difficult to recommend the game to anyone who's purchased an NCAA game in the last couple of years.  Sure you'll be getting the requisite roster updates, but in the end it's basically the same game you already have.  If, on the other hand, you've been waiting to jump into the world of digital college football, there are some unique new features this year like the Season Showdown that might sway you towards finally making the purchase.  With the variety of local and online multiplayer options, as well as the various career modes, there's enough staying power to keep you entertained all the way through your doctorate, or at least until next year's edition.

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Tags: Xbox 360

Posted in: Reviews, Gaming

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