“Baseball is America’s pastime, football is America’s passion”. Howie Long said that some time ago, and if you look at the prevalence of football games today in the sports genre and what percentage they contribute to overall sales, you can see how right he was. NCAA Football 2005 is another wonderful addition in EA’s long tradition of sports excellence. With enough added features to keep the game fresh, and still enough tried and true classic engine that is what makes the game so popular. Lets get right into the heart of the issue….NEW FEATURES! This is undoubtedly the one thing gamers tend to look for more. NCAA delivers. The biggest and best is the addition of the home field advantage meter. By holding Z and tapping B you can pump up your crowd when your on defense. What does this do aside from make a lot of noise, and if your crowd is really into it, the screen shake? It makes it difficult for the opposing quarterback to call audibles on the line of scrimmage. You can visually see the wide receiver or running back cup their ears as if in an attempt to hear better. This leads to some botched plays where the wide receiver will clearly run the wrong route, or where the quarterback just gets so rattled that he throws a terrible pass. This adds a new dimension of strategy to the game, on both sides of the ball. When you are the away team, having your screen shake when you are trying to check out the opponents defense is a bit of an annoyance to say the least. Oh, and did I mention that your controller vibrates too? This definitely adds to the tension of playing a real away game at the Big House in Michigan, or the Swamp in Gator country. And of course they can’t have the crowd be such a big part of the game and not include them in the game a bit more deeply. You will see fans holding signs (which you can customize in your profile). You will see fans dancing when you are winning (which is annoying if you are the away team and are losing). You will see fans disappointed if you are losing. These animations are the finishing touches to bringing the college football atmosphere to your living room. The Match up stick is the next big new feature added to the game, and is it a nice. By pushing the C stick in a certain direction, you can view different player match ups on the field. Find the cornerback who is rattled and matched up against the receiver who is “in the zone” and you’ve got a big play just waiting to happen. Use it to check their linebackers after (or before) you select a run. If the linebackers on the right side are hot and you are running to the right, and meanwhile the left outside linebacker is shaking like Rick James in rehab, you need to audible your run to the left. This adds just one more great dimension to the play of this game. Game play is much the same as all Madden games, which I believe is a big part of the series success. If you have ever played a EA football game before, you can pick up and play this game with no problem. There are a few notable changes. First is the “hit stick” When on defense, right before making a tackle, you can instead press the C Stick toward the ball carrier. This will deliver a punishing tackle that raises the chance of a fumble or an incomplete pass. Dynasty mode is back and in full swing. They brought back the weekly issues of Sports Illustrated. Viewing your Heisman hopeful on the cover is always uplifting. You will also be able to read a mini-report of the weeks “big upsets” and emerging stars. Top it off by looking at your report card to see whether your in the top 25 in the coaches or AP poll and the realism will almost take your breath away. With the addition of the “home field advantage” comes the addition of “The 25 Toughest Places to Play” ranking. This is just a little extra incentive to keeping your crowd in the game. Its also nice to see your home field ranked up with some of the greats. Recruiting players is much the same, with the added ability of trying to talk your leaving players (whether they are leaving for the NFL or just graduating) to returning to the team for another year. This is a good way to try and hold onto the red shirted sophomore who had a big year and sees NFL dollar signs in his eyes. You will also have to set a budget for your schools upcoming year. One more of the little things that make you feel like you are actually building your dynasty with your own hands. You will also notice that depending on what your school is renown for, you will attract certain types of players. I’ve had the #1 defense in Oregon for 3 straight years. Better believe that every blue chip defensive player wants a chance to play for my team. In fact, its become difficult for me to attract quality offensive players. This is just one more of the little things that make the game that much more fun During dynasty play you will also see the addition of NCAA violations. This is an intriguing aspect to an already deep game. Through out the year your players will commit infractions. Possibly low grades or maybe dorm room rowdiness. Whatever the infraction you will be given the option of dealing with this through suspensions. These range from one quarter to the entire season. Keep in mind that you don’t have to suspend anyone, but the NCAA is watching. Failure to discipline players may result in NCAA sanctions, which means less funding , which leads to less spending, and ultimately an under par football program. This is perhaps the best overall addition to dynasty mode. All the other standard modes of play are still there. Rivalry games, mascot games, and practice are still part of the repertoire. There is the addition of the Pontiac College Classics, which allows you to play through some of the greatest moments in college football history. This mode provides a little more versatility to the game, but the games strength still lies in dynasty mode. All the standard create-a-modes are still here, if little changed for the better. The game sound is still good, but would be a little better if they would get Corso and his cohorts to say a few more phrases. Still, you can’t argue with a game that has the fight music for over 100 NCAA teams. Whether you want to hear “Hail to the Victors” or UAB’s fight song (whatever that may be), its all here. However, its really the little sounds that make the game great. Player grunts, trash talking, and fan banter could have been done a bit better, but for a Gamecube game all in all its not bad. Graphics are probably my biggest complaint about this game. I’m not a big fan of what EA has done over the years (which is little to nothing) anyway. The visuals in this game are choppy during game play. You can’t really look down field during a kickoff without getting a headache (especially if your screen is shaking). Add that to the fact that there are times when collision detection seems to have been completely forgotten in the cut scenes, and it is definitely enough to get on ones nerves. I’m also tired of seeing the same old player models. Basically, the only way to tell players apart in this game is through jersey number and skin color. All the faces look the same. Body types differ slightly, but not enough in my opinion, and facial expressions look like they came straight out of communist birthday party….bland. All in all EA needs to do a graphical update. Granted, this is the Gamecube version of this game, but the graphics are lackluster even for this system, and we all know the Gamecube is capable of producing good graphics. All in all NCAA Football 2005 is step in the right direction. If they would update the graphics and sound a little bit, this could easily go down as the only NCAA franchise to play (which it currently is). However, if Sega decides to get in on the action next year, and EA doesn’t make the necessary graphical updates and change the game play to keep it fresh (which they did a good job of this year), then watch out, for we may quickly see the fall of the mighty number one ranked team to the 1AA school out of Florida.
Well first lemme start out by saying that this is the best football game for the gamecube, and will probably be the only football game ever for the gamecube. I really wish trhey wouldve made the other series for the cube... Read Full Review
NCAA 2005 was the last in the NCAA series for the Gamecube, but it lives up to all expectations, and if you are a person who only owns a Gamecube, pick this up. By now, it's probably 5 dollars in your local bargain bin... Read Full Review
