NCAA Football 2006
NCAA Football 2006
- Take Home the Heisman Trophy – Begin your career as a prep star in search of scholarship offers and work your way to becoming one of the nation’s top collegiate players. Continue your post-college career in Madden NFL 06 or coach a Division 1-A program.
- Year-Round Recruiting – Issue official on-campus visits all season long in Dynasty Mode as you track prospects’ interest.
- Impact Players – Game-changing performers single-handedly break games wide open with highlight reel moves and special animations.
- Breakaway Control – New analog controls allow you to pull off special moves and animations like ankle-snapping jukes and QB sidesteps as you break tackles on the way to the end zone.
- Totally Redesigned Graphics – From turf texture to sky color, every detail has been redesigned, including innovative stadium lighting and revolutionary player models.
Impact Player and lead him from high school summer camp all the way to Bowl victories as a collegiate legend. As your blue chipper improves on the field, he’ll become a big man on campus with a decked-out dorm room filled with stacks of fan mail and the past season’s hard-earned awards. With all-new Breakaway Controls, in-game analysis, and studio commentary, this is college football like you’ve never seen or heard. Get your acceptance speech ready – the Heisman Trophy presentation awaits you in NCAA Football 2006.
List Price: $ 9.99
Price: $ 9.90
Many improvements over 2005,
I’ve played this for over a week now, so I’m revising my earlier review. I still say there are some definite improvements.
The CPU can actually play offense now! I was getting quite bored with the complete inability of the CPU to run, and minimal ability to pass. It was fun to rack up the stats, but winning 84-0 even in Heisman mode got old. The CPU receivers can actually catch the ball, and the quarterback actually avoids sacks and scrambles for positive yards on blitzes and draws. In All-American and Heisman difficulty levels, the defense AI manages to catch on to your play calling pattern a lot better than before, so you’re can’t successfully run the same play over and over again as easily as before. There is some benefit though, you can REALLY exploit an over eager defense with the right play action, screen pass (which actually works for positive yards now), or draw plays. It works to your disadvantage on defense though, because if you are not creative and run the same defense on the same formations over and over again, the CPU will burn you. They have also added some new defensive QB Spy plays (e.g. Nickle DE and Nickle OLB Double Spy plays) which work very well against the option.
The best new features by far are the impact players, and “in the zone” modes. Both player and CPU impact players when “in the zone” make some spectacular plays, and fun post play celebrations. Thankfully, the refs are not as trigger happy with the unsportsmanlike conduct flag. The timing of the players going “in the zone” is quite good. It happens at key moments in the game on key plays. Unfortunately, and I may discover this not to be true later, is that you can’t seem to develop an impact player during the course of a season. They are locked in and set for the entire season. If you end up with a linebacker with 60 tackles, a dozen sacks, and a half dozen forced fumbles and interceptions by mid-season, I should think that he is an impact player by any definition.
The Dynasty mode is about the same as 2005, but one REALLY nice feature is season long recruiting. You are shown the potential weaknesses in positions where you would lose seniors, so you are given 12 scholarship bids you can put out and monitor recruit interest and allocate 0-100% of points weekly amongst recruits throughout the year. They have also added academics as a pitch. Unfortunately, (and maybe I just haven’t figured out how yet), you cannot choose the recruiting pitch criteria nor choose to scout. The AI doesn’t do the best job, because let’s say you figure the pitch to use is Program Prestige, the CPU continues to pitch other things. The only time you can choose the pitch is during in campus visits. There is a menu option to select when you can pitch, but it’s always set to campus visits, and I can’t change it even if I disable the recruiting AI assistance. You also get a lot more 5 and 4 star duds with “poor” to “average” potential which was very rare in 2005. Sadly, you are locked in with 12 recruits at the beginning of the season, so you can’t replace any choice, and all you can do is change the priority percentage to 0 and hope he withdraws from contention. You cannot target kickers or punters during the season. Another nice new feature is that you can auto-name the select or complete rosters, so no more of the Position + Jersey Number schemes for the first few seasons. However, in Race for the Heisman mode, you have to do that before you start the campaign, because you absolutely cannot edit the rosters in his mode.
The most spectacular feature which makes this game far superior to 2005 is the Heisman Race mode. You select a player position, and run drills for college scouts. Depending on how well you perform, you get scholarship offers from various schools which you can choose to accept, or go in as a walk-on to any school you select. It would seem the ability scores and the number and quality of offers are directly correlated to how well you do in the drill. My first run through with an RB, I only scored 3 touchdowns in 10 tries, and got offers from three schools ranging in rank from #51 to #58 in addition to walk-on. I ran through it again, scored 7/10 times, and this time I got some offers from top-25 teams. This also sets the ability scores which cannot be modified. The gameplay, as I mentioned, is spectacular, and the games when teams are close in level, are exceptionally close. There are some caveats to this mode. It might seem that you have no control over rosters and recruiting in this mode. You also have no access to the pennant collection, and cannot edit rosters (names, equipment, etc.), and can only set the depth chart during the game, and it does not carry over to the next game. You can play pennants during the game, but to cash in points and enter codes, you have to exit Heisman and go to Dynasty mode. Having said that, I think Pennants are irrelevant…
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|Much improved over last years edition,
Well, I picked it up yesterday (7/11/05) and I can say, the passing has been much improved. My star catchers are more likely to catch the ball than drop it. There are still dropped passes, but it’s more realistic now and not as frustrating. In fact, when my big star does miss a catch, it’s usually because I didn’t throw it well or I’m throwing into double or triple coverage. However, I have seen him make the catch when he’s “in the zone”, a new feature that is pretty cool. Basically, your star player(s) will eventually get into a groove, which means they are more apt to make the big play when you control them. If they do, the game will zoom into slo-motion video to show the big play they made and then zooms back out as the play continues.
The ability to easily scramble your QB is great. No longer do you have to “shut off” the passing icons. On the Xbox, hitting the A button turns off the icons, makes your QB tuck the ball and sprint. As long as you haven’t crossed the LOS, you can let go and you are immediately back into the passing mode. Very simple change that makes scrambling a lot easier and less frustrating.
Juking is all done with the right analog stick, as is swimming on defense. Also, the right analog stick acts as the “Big Hit” control, just like in Madden and unlike last years NCAA game. Still no play-maker-style controls, though.
Presentation is not bad, but it’s still EA-ish and not as spectacular as the ESPN games were (like ESPN NFL 2k5 and MLB 2k5). Hopefully, next year they can revamp all that, especially on the new consoles. The commentary is new, but it repeats itself quickly, but I’m pretty engrossed in the game at hand, so it’s not that annoying. Still, it’s nice that Nessler, Herbstreit and Corso recorded new commentary that is still fun to listen to.
The only other minor quibble I have with this game is the collision detection. I’ve seen my players walk through refs or other players as they get up after a play. It looks pretty weird and I wish they’d fix this. This was present in the 2005 version as well. Still, it’s not a show stopper, but it makes the game feel as if it could be a lot more polished than it is.
I’ve only played a few games, including the Run For the Heisman mode, which is pretty cool as you play as a recruit for up to 4 years in persuit of the trophy. You name your player and then have your choice of how you want your stud player to be: pocket QB, scrambling QB, running back, wide receiver, defense. Which choice you choose then puts you into a “mini-game” to rack up as many points as possible to impress the college scouts. Your stats will be based on how well you perform. This will also give you a list of the top 3 schools that want to recruit you. However, you don’t have to go there and can choose to walk-on any campus you wish. At that point, you go to your dorm room and your off! You don’t have much control over the off-the-field activities in this mode, though. Still, this mode is a really fun mode to play in as you play the character you created and watch him attempt to garner the Heisman Trophy.
I haven’t played dynasty yet, as I’m still playing exhibition games in order to get a handle on the game. You can do recruiting year round, and from what I’ve seen so far, this year’s edition is definitely a big improvement over the previous edition.
I didn’t get a chance to play online games yet. I did log on, and the interface for Xbox Live is revamped and looks pretty good. Only about 12 people were on-board, but none were quite ready to challenge me (nor was I ready to be challenged yet).
Overall, this is definitely one to get if you love college football. The graphics were tweaked, but they are still nothing to really gush about. They did tone down the “steroid” look so that the players look more like college players. But overall, the graphics tweaks are not what make this the must-buy college game. It’s the actual gameplay tweaks/revamps that were done that have made this one of the best NCAA football games yet.
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|Almost there…,
Like the last game I reviewed, Need for Speed: Underground 2, I really didn’t want to purchase this game, but another family member (my borther this time) brought it home anyway. At first, I was distracted with a rental of mine: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. But after getting frustrated with the final mission (actually, I wasn’t frustrated, but I was too lazy to go through the entire level to get to the point where I failed), I decided to pop in NCAA 2006 and see what it was like.
When I first entered the game, I decided to try out the new flagship mode of the game, Race for the Heisman Mode. In the beginning, you are at a college scouting session picking which position you will play (they’re all specialty positions, leaving out the underappreciated O-Line). When you pick your position, you will enter immediately into the spring drill which best suits your position (Oklahomas, Pass Skeleton, etc.). When you are done with your drill, you are then immediately given the choice of three schools (their strength depending on your success rating at your drill) or you can choose to walk-on to any school you like.
Once you are in you dorm room, you have the option of doing several things, one being playing your games (or simming them). Other things you can do is look at your achievements and awards over the years, look at fan mail (I never knew that college football phenoms only got one letter every several weeks talking about their career choices… interesting), and look at a picture at an really ugly-looking girl on your computer (when you are a freshman, at least).
When you play a game in RFTH mode, I expected it to be as I just playing as myself throughout the game and resting when on defense. But what I got was pretty much a game that I could’ve played with the Quick Start option. I control any player on field on my team, I control offense and defense, I control playcalling, etc. This is extremely dissapointing in my mind. Once again, this is supposed to be about me controlling my player and bringing him to glory . Controlling the entire team destroys the illusion that I am slaving to bring my custom player to glory.
A few more gripes about RFTH mode is that no matter what team you play for, you will always start off the bat, no matter who you are replacing. Once again, this is very unrealistic. Also, about controlling your personal player, you do not control his actions off the field. I would’ve liked to see at the very least an answer based thing which allows us to shape the character of our player. I have only gone to my sophomore year (with no Heisman trophies), but I beginning to feel that RFTH mode is just a worthless novelty mode brought in to garner in the feel of the game. Hopefully, this mode will be improved upon in 2007.
Onto the actual gameplay, it seems to be more “Offense-friendly” than seasons past. Recievers and halfbacks drop fewer passes than last year (thankful for this), the kicking meter is slower on All-American than last year, and it is much easier to bust big gains on the ground with a few well-placed jukes. Another thing that may contribute to this is the fact that the defensive controls have been unfairly altered from last year (player change and sprint on defense have been switched, which results in confusion and sometimes frustration). There is this new feature in the game called Impact Player and at random times, Impact players will be “In The Zone”. Besides this, no other new features in the gameplay.
For it’s flagship Dynasty mode, It is pretty much the same Dynasty mode as last year with a tune-up to make it better for the current year. Several things new to the mode include an Athlon Sports preview of the upcoming season (nothing new inside, though), pipeline states to have an easier time recruiting (you need at least 5 players on your team in a state to have it considered as a “pipeline” state), and a key new feature called In-Season recruiting, which allows you to recruit hot prospects in-season, as the title suggests.
The graphics have been relatively unchanged from last year, except for the fact that the heads have been pretty much “inflated” to a weird level. The collision detection bugs after the play seem to be gone, as I have seen none as of yet.
The Create-A-School, player, sign, etc. options remain unchanged from last year.
At the beginning of the game, NCAA takes a page from ESPN NFL 2K5 and has 3D renditions of Brad Nessler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit. Unfortunately, these previews get repetitive really quick. Here’s the basic skeleton of these intros: Brad introduces the broadcasting game, he adresses the weather, the home team comes out, the away team comes out, Brad makes his prediction, Kirk makes his prediction and his key player to watch for, Lee makes his prediction with some helmet or mascot head of the team he is favoring. I feel ashamed the way that…
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