Hands-On: NCAA Football 2000

EA Sports dropped by our offices today to give us a hands on look at NCAA Football 2000. The game is still in development and despite a few obvious collision problems and general bug fixes, the game is near final.

Lots of things have changed since last year's NCAA Football 99 but most impressive are the game's faster frame rate and new animations. The feel of the game is also different thanks to the addition of realistic momentum that makes players move more realistically although is a little difficult to get used to at first since the players take more time to stop and change directions when running.

The game now features different player models for big, small, and medium-sized players. In addition, player models now have nine contact points that determine which way players fall when getting hit in different locations on their body.

Dynasty mode returns from last year's game allowing you to play more seasons after you've beaten the first. We simulated a season and played around with the recruiting feature where you get to recruit randomly generated prospects from schools all around the country. You can also create players, schools, and plays all from scratch.

From what we played today it looks like NCAA Football 2000 is a more in-depth college football game than last year's NCAA game with a good deal of refinements. We'll have to wait till we get the final version of the game though to see if it will really top NCAA Football 99.

A special note to all of you NCAA Football fans in college - check with your school to see if they are one of the 64 colleges participating in EA's NCAA tournament. The game itself has more info on the tournament and some of the schools participating.