NCAA Football 2004 (Xbox)

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With NCAA Football 2004, EA Sports returns to its accomplished franchise and puts players back onto the gridiron of over 160 college football teams.  Including the usual set of game tweaks and subtle additions, NCAA 2004 is an improvement built off a solid foundation rather than a significant departure.  Similar in many ways to last year's solid effort, NCAA 2004 is both helped and handicapped by its distinct similarities to years past.  As always the question is, is there enough new in this latest iteration to justify its purchase?

Presentation

When talking about NCAA 2004, it's worthwhile to immediately take note of the well constructed dynasty mode.  Dynasty mode gives players the option of taking the reigns of programs from Miami to Wisconsin to Tulsa, or doing away with the old and incorporating your own player created team.  The dynasty mode is satisfyingly deep as programs have control over varying elements from scheduling games to trying to convince disenfranchised players to stick it out another year, and, of course, bringing in new talent.  The recruiting mode which sees you putting pressure on fresh high school players from across the nation is cleverly crafted to keep team development engaging and strategic, as you only have so many recruiting points to spend on so many players.  Thus, focusing all your energy on convincing a top tier QB into the program could leave you weak in other positions. 

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With your team fresh into a new season, keep track of your progress through all manner of stat tracking and rankings, much of it presented in a rather creative Sports Illustrated style.  Overachieving against a vastly superior team, seeing your halfback rewarded as Offensive Player of the Week, or even putting your quarterback into position as the leading Heisman candidate could all very well land your team on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a small touch that adds significant depth.

Additionally NCAA 2004 comes with a variety of play modes that give you access to a variety of football gaming styles.  NCAA 101 is a good introduction for new blood or even a useful refresher for veteran college football gamers.  Once properly tutored, the familiar practice mode lets you take your team to the field to try out that triple-option against a range of defenses as presented by your choice of teams.  Now, with your skills firmly honed you could jump into a quick game, relieve a college classic, play a rivalry game - where you'll be treated to a brief history on the rivalry - or even pit Bucky Badger against Goldy Gopher in a Mascot Game.

If there's any notable playstyle missing it is, of course, Xbox Live support.  EA, continuing to protect its own online aspirations, has doggedly refused again to support Microsoft's online component, and its exclusion is expected but disappointing. 

Gameplay

Here is where EA Sports pretty much works off the idea of not fixing what ain't broken.  NCAA 2004 is not much of a gameplay departure for 2003, with only a few notable improvements, and one or two gripes. 

On the positive side the play action in this year's edition is beautifully implemented and makes the calling of such a much more useful tool, particularly when playing against a human opponent.  Instead of simply faking the handoff, the game actually shifts the action briefly to the halfback's decoy progress before bringing the center of attention back to the quarterback already scanning passing routes.  Particularly effective against a defense that's been burned on the run, the brief but crucial fake out will see blitzing linebackers diving at the feet of your halfback and possibly even trick the secondary into reading run as your QB searches for the open man or tucks the ball and picks up his own yards on the ground.

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There also seem to be some tweaks to the running game that make it a more viable option for picking up yards as run blocking feels a bit more solid.  Unfortunately the passing game seems to have taken a step back, as even short and undefended passes seem to be no easier to execute than a deep well covered pass.  Of course, the ability of your receiver plays a significant part, but often a slanting tight end fifteen yards down field or even a wide receiver on a deep post is much more likely to make a reception than an undefended fullback on the checkdown pass or a halfback in the flat. 

Visuals/Sound

Overall, again, there's very little change here.  There is a bit more detail on the sidelines, and bystanders who get caught up in the tackle out of bounds will either avoid the hit or even get knocked down.  The stadiums are accurately detailed, of course, and your prestige and win/loss record will directly affect how many fans you see in the stands.  Largely, though, NCAA 2004 looks a lot like 2003.

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The commentary is solid, though while playing dynasty mode you only get the professional broadcast team during televised games and are left with the stadium announcer otherwise.  The color commentary will keep in mind the development of the game, and running the same play twice in a row, particularly for a loss of yards, will elicit criticism.  Additionally if you've had decent success on third down, or recovering from a failed fourth down conversion, the commentary will bear this in mind on your subsequent offensive series as appropriate.  Naturally, given long enough, the commentary will eventually become repetitive.

Summary

NCAA 2004 is, like its predecessors, an evolution of the series that introduces a few new features.  For the college football fanatic it's a satisfying game with enough depth and new elements to validate its purchase, but unless you simply must have each new year's version there might not be enough here to make an upgrade from 2003 worthwhile.  From a gameplay perspective, 2004 is fundamentally the same game as 2003 with only a notable improvement in play action pass situations.  But, for those without a recent version looking for a strong college football title, NCAA 2004 is an excellent choice with a deep dynasty mode, well polished gameplay, and a ton of little touches to the presentation that immerses the player in the feel of college football.

- Elysium

Comments

I agree with pretty much everything that Ely says, but I think he has left out a few thing worth noting.

First, the defensive back AI is much improved.  They implemented a line-of-sight AI that adds a ton of realism to coverages.  In that same vein, zone coverages are now very effective.  In previous years, zone D would be of minimal use.  Now, zone and zone blitzes make the life of a QB much harder.  I disagree somewhat with Ely in that I find short underneath routes to be much easier to complete than fly routes or even out routes.  The only time a streak consistently works now is if your receiver is covered man-to-man and gets a step on the DB.

The game also does a better job relfecting the disparity between a top 20 school and a middle of the pack school.  It is still possible to pull off an upset, but more often than not it is a one-sided affair (assuming you are playing on one of the two harder difficulty levels).

Flat out, this game is amazing.  If you like college football at all, you owe it to yourself to pick it up.

I had heard some of the praise for the new secondary defense depth, but wasn't as impressed.  Further, as is problematic with previous versions, some plays simply seem to give any competent receiver a step on the deep route and make them virtual 'money play'.  For example, out of the Hail Mary formation with trips right the inside receiver who crosses into the middle before flying upfield is almost always open 30+ yards downfield.  At least that's the case for most of the teams I've played as.

I do agree that the disparity between tier-one schools and lesser teams is accurately significant.

Two questions about your Hail Mary play:  is the defense set in man-to-man, and what difficulty are you playing on?

If the D is in man-to-man, your slot receiver is being covered by a linebacker, and when he does the cross it probably causes the defender to get 'picked', which gives you 2-3 steps on the defender.  Which is one of the reasons why teams actually run so many crossing patterns.  Go into practice mode and try that play agianst a Dime: Cover 3 or a Nickel: Cover 4 and I bet it is nowhere near as effective.

And if you are playing on Jr. Varsity or Varsity it only magnifies what I said above.

It seems to work in both zone and man-to-man.  I'll hit it seven times out of ten against a dime prevent package and the nickle cover 4, and always with the same receiver.  This is with the difficulty set to the default.  I actually did mess around with the play in practice against as many defenses as possible, and consistantly hit the receiver.

It doesn't work with all teams, but I have found a play with each team I played as that, similarly, seems to work against pretty much every defense. 

7-out-of-10 is a damn good percentage.

Mind if I ask what team you use?  Also, the default difficulty is Varsity.  Try ramping it up to All-American and try it.  Also, you can use the AI sliders to fine tune player behavior that bothers you...

Nice review Ely.

You're gonna make a ton of sales for the dynasty mode pitch.  I havent played a football game since N64 Blitz.  I'm not going to go out and buy NCAA 2004 but you make a good case.

Just wait till it's $20 at Blockbuster.

It's worth noting that the Gamecube version does NOT come with the NCAA 101 mode.