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				Graphics: 8.4 Gameplay: 8.0 Sound: 8.4 Control: 8.3 Replay Value: 7.0 Live play: 7.5 Rating: 8.0 Publisher:  EA Developer:  EA Sports Number Of Players:  1-2 (online)
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For some, NCAA Football’s annual July release is just a way to pass time until August, when Madden hits the scene. That number appears to be shrinking as many people are now buying the game on its own merit – deep dynasty modes, extensive playbooks, and a great re-creation of the college football atmosphere. After getting off to a rocky start on the Xbox 360 with the underwhelming Madden 06, people have been anxious to see how EA would bounce back with NCAA Football 07.

First the good. NCAA 07 plays great. The controls are tight, and even with some of the 360’s detailed animation, they’re responsive. There are a few instances when the computer seems to take over control of the ball-carrier, but it’s usually when you’re fighting your way up the middle, and it looks so cool, you really don’t care that you’re basically watching. Veterans of the series, or really, anyone who has played Madden, will find the Varsity difficulty quite easy, but the game is plenty challenging on the All-American and Heisman settings.

You’d think that with the game so light on features, EA wouldn’t waste time totally revamping the kicking system, but that’s just what they’ve done. Now kicks are performed by pulling down and then pushing up on the right analog stick, a la the Tiger Woods series. This doesn’t change the feel of the game much at all, but for whatever reason, 40 plus yard field goals are now pretty difficult.

Also new this year is “momentum”. The game displays a meter on screen, that shows which team is building momentum. When you fill the meter, a cool Monday Night Football style animation of two helmets butting together plays, your players get fired up, and the crowd starts rocking. Unfortunately, that’s about all there is to it. There aren’t any attribute boosts for the team with momentum and the screen doesn’t shake for your opponent, so other than looking cool it’s really rather pointless. It’s also difficult to regain momentum once you’ve lost it. Whoever scores the first touchdown generally gets the meter full, but it takes a couple of scores for the other team just to get it back down to zero, so in this way it’s a good thing that the whole thing is meaningless.

Despite having plenty of time in development, NCAA is missing several features. You can’t create-a-school, there’s no race for the Heisman, campus legend, drills, spring game, or ESPN the magazine. NCAA 07 on the Xbox 360 features aren’t just worse than 07 on the current Xbox, but they’re worse than last year’s Xbox game. Dynasty mode involves little more than navigating boring menus recruiting players, making your schedule, playing games, and then a few more menus to ask players to stay in school or change positions. There are some end of the season awards, including the Heisman, and the full complement of licensed bowl games is also here, but it’s still underwhelming when compared to the Xbox and PS2 versions of the game. The ESPN ticker, which connects to the internet to display real-time scores is cool, but even that is missing the ESPN Radio feature found on the Xbox.

Online play is pretty basic, supporting only head to head play. There are no leagues, nor are you able to play the mini-games over Live. It’s disappointing, but not unexpected. One thing the 360 version of the game has that others don’t is three mini-games: Bowling, Tug-of-War and Option Dash. Bowling has you trying to score from the ten-yard line, giving you a strike if you score in one play. Tug-of-war is a field position battle where you and the computer alternate possession after each play, and option dash has you running the option over and over, trying to gain as many yards you can in a set amount of time. They’re all pretty entertaining, but they don’t make up for all of the other missing features.

NCAA Football’s achievements range from “extremely easy” to “way too much work”. Many of them can be earned in just one game, but some of them, like playing through 60 years of dynasty mode are only going to be earned by the most hardcore of achievement whores.

The only area in which NCAA Football truly bests current-gen offerings is aesthetics. EA rendered nearly X stadiums in a staggering amount of detail usually only reserved for baseball stadiums. From realistically rendered student sections to press boxes with real people in them, the fields look fantastic. The great player models are really only shown off in the cut-scenes, of which there aren’t enough. You’ll see the same pre-snap scene of your team headed to the line over and over again. At this point, player animation has reached the point where it’s tough to see improvement from one year to the next, but there are a few new animations worth mentioning, the most noteworthy being a running back lowering his shoulder, twisting, and fighting for just a few more yards. Players react realistically with one another, even jumping over fallen players rather than walking over or through them as in previous years.

Not everything is great from a visual standpoint – there are a few noticeable flaws. The stadiums and fans look great, and the occasional view of the mascot is cool, but where are the cheerleaders? If you look close in the stands you can see what’s supposed to be a marching band, but there aren’t ever any close-ups, nor are there and close-up views of fans. No bare-chested students that painted the school’s name on their chests, no fans that came up with a clever acronym for ESPN – there’s nothing.

Brad Nessler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit call the action from the booth, and as usual, they’re outstanding. Some of Corso’s ramblings are so long that they run well into the next play, but minor quibbles aside, the commentary is great. As has been the case for years, the game’s music is comprised almost entirely of schools’ fight songs, with the occasional marching band staple thrown in for good measure, though a few more tunes would have been nice.

If you’re comparing NCAA Football 07 to its PS2 and Xbox counterparts, it obviously looks much better, but is woefully lacking in terms of game modes. Comparing it with Madden 06 is a much kinder approach as NCAA has some mini-games, and is far more polished and playable than EA’s first foray into football on the 360.

8/30/2006  Aaron Thomas