A year after the lackluster NCAA Football 07 raised more red flags than a greasy booster donation — missing features and shoddy gameplay, to name a few — EA Tiburon has responded. NCAA Football 08 rights the wrongs of last season and begins its sophomore campaign as one of the most enjoyable football games of the past few years, thanks to a revamped gameplay engine, a deep dynasty mode and one of the most addictive modes in recent memory: Campus Legend.
On the field, you’ll jump in on bruising gang tackles and deliver pain with Hit Stick 2.0, EA’s virtual billy club that lets you aim high or low at opposing ball carriers. Then again, if you want to take out a speedster’s knees, he may just hurdle over you on his way to pay dirt, forever immortalizing you as that guy that can’t tackle. The possibilities are endless, thanks to a new branching animation system that helps a player run, change direction and accelerate more intuitively. In addition, EA added a number of trick plays, like the statue of liberty and hook-and-lateral, which should please football fanatics.
When team leaders perform well, they motivate their teammates, a feature EA dubbed “Lead By Example”. In NCAA 08, this motivation appears as a giant explosion of orange light after a team leader logs a big play, which is painfully awkward. In fact, the whole idea comes as purely cosmetic and feels tacked on.
Thankfully, this doesn’t hurt or hinder the experience much. Instead, direct your attention to Campus Legend, EA’s addictive football role-playing game. Similar to Madden’s Superstar mode, you’ll take control of a defensive player, quarterback, halfback or receiver all the way from the high school playoffs to the BCS Championship game. In between games, you practice and work your way up the depth chart. After class, you hit the town and go to the movies, partake in hot dog eating contests with buddies and study for tests. For anyone that’s played organized football before, it’s an instant joy to jump into the Rose Bowl playing your favorite position from your Pee Wee days. Unless you’re a kicker.
Dynasty takes a step back and puts you in the more traditional role of head coach, responsible for recruiting, calling plays and actually controlling all the on field action. EA fleshed out the recruiting system, allowing you to sell your school to potential recruits in a negotiation mini-game. If you’re playing as Notre Dame, you may want to mention your program history or television exposure as selling points. If you’re Prairie View, you may want to get a new job because you aren’t getting any recruits. Or give out Hummers.
When you do get around to that first conference trophy, you can showcase it in your personal trophy case in what EA calls “My Shrine.” You’ll instantly feel that collection bug kick in and you’ll head out on a mission to grab every rivalry trophy possible. You can also display photos taken from replays, as well as actual video highlights of your greatest moments. From there, take it all online and show it off to your friends. While this feature isn’t exactly revolutionary, EA deserves kudos for bringing NCAA into the Web 2.0 era.
That’s as far as EA is willing to take the online innovation, however. While there is ESPN On Demand video clips and radio highlights, the game lacks an online Dynasty mode. Meeting your friend in the BCS Championship game of an online league would have been amazing, and it’s a shame EA hasn’t yet caught up with 2K Sports in this regard.
As for the visuals, the lighting, models, animations, crowds and stadiums look excellent, and this, perhaps more than anything, helps immerse you in the college game. If you need more, the voices of college football, Brad Nessler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, man the audio booth and provide solid commentary.
NCAA 08, despite its best features needs more polish. You’ll notice occasional lapses in computer artificial intelligence, especially in the realm of clock management. Basically, the CPU loves to hold on to timeouts and refuses to call them, not even when down by a score and you kneeling on the ball. Games played in snow look more like a sheet of blank ice, and you’ll notice occasional collision issues with tackling. However, none of these issues should ruin your experience, and even the casual football fan should have no problem falling in love with NCAA 08.
In the end, NCAA 08 is a solid football game. Just a few minor flaws keep it from true greatness, but it’s clear that EA is right where it needs to be with this venerable franchise. Unlike Nick Saban, this game will stick around for a while.
