NCAA Football 2005 [GC]

The July arrival of EA Sports' perennial NCAA Football is a sign of many things. It means that preseason NFL is a few weeks away, Madden NFL and its worthy rivals are coming soon, and purists' favorite school is gearing up for their annual bowl run. In collegiate ball, every stadium has fans as loyal as Green Bay.

Just like last year, EA's entry is the only college game in town. So you'd think they'd just update the rosters and leave it at that, right? Wrong. Developer Tiburon has added much to its already stellar simulation, and almost everything new feels integrated and necessary.

EA has tweaked the already massive dynasty mode, which lets you create or play a coach, and handle the team for a set number of years (provided you aren't ridden out of town on a rail). You can create your own school, your own team, or use an existing squad. This lets you take a bad team and rebuild them into a powerhouse, or take a great team and try to keep them that way. It's all up to the player and it can get very addictive.

As coach, all decisions affect your job rating. Forego an easy field goal for a harebrained touchdown attempt with six seconds left in the half, and you'll see your rating take a hit. As a new feature to the series, coaches must watch their players, too. If they slip in their grades, they'll need to be benched. Fudge this too many times and the NCAA gets involved by revoking scholarships. It's optional and not 100 percent realistic, but it's handled in a clever manner, almost like role-playing.

True fans love this sort of intricacy in college ball and it's nice to see EA expand beyond simple roster changes when it comes to coaching. As an added reward, the company's continued its partnership with Sports Illustrated to generate fake issues detailing the top teams. Had a great game? Pulled out an amazing win? Broken a few records with your running back? Check out that week's cover.

An interesting "home-field advantage" system has also been added to the game. Pumping up the crowd at home games causes your opponent's gamepad to rumble and the screen to shake. Also, his players might be rattled, false start, or miss an easy pass. This works very well and successfully simulates what it's like to be at a college stadium.

Overall, crowd noise is excellent. It's wonderful to hear an opposing crowd boo when their team misses a field goal or chokes during the endgame. Who needs trash talk when the TV is already making your opponent feel like garbage?

The graphics are as good as the audio, but suffer some odd glitches. There are minor clipping issues and some weird moments when a tackler gets "stuck" on the runner. The rain effects are great, but mud and snow still look odd. Once the player picks their favorite team, all of the menus are "skinned" with that team's color scheme.

The GameCube version doesn't support online play but the PlayStation 2 and, finally, Xbox versions do. On the PS2, you get the usual options, but Live is more interesting with support for Optimatch and Quickmatch, and dynamic scoreboards of other games currently taking place.

Gameplay-wise, things are much the same as last year, except players are a little more lacking in finesse. This is a good thing. With fewer luck plays, the running game is king and defensive play is beefed up. Playcalling still wins games here. During timeouts, you can even pick which part of the line you want to give some extra coaching "oomph"! Very cool.

If you're a college pigskin enthusiast, NCAA Football 2005 is a game you shouldn't miss -- and not just because it's the only game of its kind in town. EA Sports has nailed everything fans love about the college football experience, making it equal to their flagship Madden. Time to hit the field!