Xbox 360 Review: NCAA Football 07
Published July 24, 2006
When Madden 06 arrived on the 360, it was slightly easy to forgive its glaring lack of features. With an extra year to play with, it's become inexcusable for something like NCAA 07. This stripped down, lacking, and completely disappointing effort should have been held back to finish it before release.
Missing from the other versions of this title is the Campus Legend mode, one of the few detailed new additions. In fact, any sort of career mode is missing. Single player begins and ends with dynasty play. The unique and exclusive mini-games are throw-aways aside from tug-of war. Here, there's one play to move the ball up, and then the offense switches over to the other team who then makes progress from that spot, "tugging" the opposing team away from their own end zone. The first team to score wins.
That's apparently all this generation can do for us. The new playbook layout is awful. Text is a poorly chosen font, and at times can be hard to read. It's too many pages crammed into a half of the screen, while space is wasted on a between-play camera. This would make sense if anything actually happened between plays.
That leads to this editions biggest issue. It doesn't feel like college football. There are no cinematics between plays, no halftime shows, no close-up of fans, the ESPN license is used sparingly at best, and the ESPN Radio feature is absent entirely. The fully polygonal crowd supposedly does specific motions (the Gator Chop in Florida), but you'll never actually see it. Worse, small schools are given generic stadiums. Bowling Green has been given a new 60,000-seat stadium that would dwarf the entire campus, let alone the real field.
Gameplay additions are few and far between here. The momentum meter is here, supposedly changing the tide of the game. Its impact is sloppily implemented. If a team has full momentum, throws an interception, which is returned for a touchdown, the momentum barely shifts. The team with the meter in their favor is supposed to have increased stats, though aside from breaking an extra tackle or two, the effect is minimal.
Matt Paprocki is the reviews editor for Digital Press, a video game website with an appreciation for the retro side of the industry. The deep game collection which spans nearly 30 systems and 2,000 games line his walls for research purposes. Matt strives to bring credibility to video game journalism, and take it in a new direction to aid the industry in becoming respected with all forms entertainment media.
- Xbox 360 Review: NCAA Football 07
- Published: July 24, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Gaming
- Filed Under: Gaming: Xbox 360
- Writer: Matt Paprocki
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Comments on this articleComments
What's worse is that they have pics of the real stadium in the background while browsing menus.
What about online play? I couldn't careless about single player options. Playing online is all that matters. The marketplace and online features make the extra $10 well worth it.
This game is horrible. The worst of the series. There are few if any customization of players or anything else. As stripped as possible. DO NOT GET THIS GAME.
You can take NCAA 07 online with the original Xbox, and you don't need to wait for new jerseys. They're already on the disc.
the game is not that bad,but it also is not that good, it's kinda in the middle for me i could care less about all the silly mini games,i like the dynasty mode the graphics should be way better for a next generation game,no current generation game should be better than next generation but EA has figured out that they can add more each year so people can spend their money on a "new game" every year
I really tried to dedicate myself to like this game since i've been a fan of the series for about 5 years now... but i just cant. There's no fooling myself, all the features they have been building up over the years are gone just like that so they can bring them back slowly again as "new features" later on. on 360 doing a dynasty with 2 players is really troublesome with all the separate loading you have to do and the skill level doesn't save. You get the authentic feeling of playing a bug version, an unfinished product when playing this game. It even has a glitch when you change a TE to a WR after a season in dynasty mode they will either get 100 speed or 100 strength. And i must say even disregarding the missing minigames, in game audibles, features from dynasty mode, formation subs, and STRIP BUTTON... the worst thing about this game and it will be evident after just a couple games played if you know anything about football "physics"... THE DEFENSIVE ENDS ARE HORRIBLE IN THIS GAME! if you have a QB with at least 70 speed, then ALL THIS GAME IS ABOUT is rolling out and having all day to throw the ball or run it because the DE's in this game DO NOT CONTAIN AT ALL. just wait a second after the snap and it is as though they get stuck to the O line and cannot get off for nothing...everytime. It just totally kills the game. This game was rushed. EA is getting LAZY, if i worked there I'd be kicking ass on how crappy this game is. To end on a good note yeah the graphics are good, it's 360, what else do you expect when going to next gen? it's like they just depended on the graphics...and the running animation is bad too, might as well kept last year's. they run bowl legged and stiff with no bounce in their step. i give this game a 2 out of 5
I wish the Ncaa series would go back to how it was in 06 it was so much better and wat happened too the two players on 1 team it might have it but can some 1 help me [Personal contact info deleted] plz ooo yea and they took out the race for the heisman im preety dissapointed so i give it a 2-5
Wow! The more and more I play this game the more and more pissed off I become. There are so many things I could write a book. Particularly in Dynasty Mode. First of all, recruiting is next to impossible. I AM in a 3 person dynasty, but we rarely recruit the same players. On offense, running any corner route is money, every time, doesn't matter. Having a left handed QB is horrible. The game is so "type-casted" in so many aspects. If you have a bad QB, no matter where it hits an opposing DB there is a great chance it will get picked. Better QB same situation....drop. Thats so stupid. Defensive pass rush is a joke. "Y" works, I would say, 20% of the time. Don't kid yourself guys, you know you have all experienced this. I play with Iowa and I am currently in my third season. I have underachieved defensively since I've been there. By the numbers, I have great players, but I have to control them to do everything. It's insane! Like I said recruiting is ridiculous. When the makers made the recruiting feature I'm sure they made a list of teams regardless how bad they are, that get a ton of 5 star recruits. UF, FSU, USC, Texas, ND, VT, Miami. Ridiculous. I wish I had kept my PS2. If anyone wants to get up with me my AIM is Wudog96. Peace
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Not only does BGSU have a gigantic generic stadium, they call it Doyt Perry Stadium. I'm sorry, but the 75 overpass would not even fit!
I am sure some corners had to be cut because of the nmber of schools, but it doesn't take two seconds of a Google search to see how big The Doyt is.