Almost as anticipated as the release of NCAA itself, is the release the coveted roster files. For football realists like myself, there is absolutely NO WAY that we will embark upon a dynasty with QB #7 at the helm.

However, herein lies a very serious problem. How do we fill our time until the rosters are available? There's always exhibition games to learn the new controls, online play to sharpen our gaming and trash talk skills, and of course, the "All New" Campus Legend Mode.

I will be the first to admit, that Campus Legend, and its Madden counterpart (Superstar Mode) have never piqued my interest. To me, the satisfaction in NCAA lies in the Dynasty Mode, which I will contend is the "Granddaddy" of all football gaming. Creating a player (or using an exiting one) and dictating his day-to-day activities seems, at face value, rather menial. However, with little to do while waiting for FK's rosters this season (Thanks and kudos FK, this year's work is outstanding), I decided to embark onto the treacherous journey of Campus Legend mode, with heroically low expectations.

Initially, I was pleasantly surprised, as the best aspect of Campus Legend comes right at its commencement (should you use a created player, rather than an existing athlete). I am speaking of course, of the High School playoffs. Implementing high school football into NCAA was an absolutely brilliant move, and makes Campus Legend mode immediately engaging. While there is only limited accuracy within the playoff brackets, it is close enough to warrant admiration for EA's efforts. Placing the championship game within the local college stadium is also a nice touch.

However, this preliminary stroke of genius was surely not a sign of things to come. It was all downhill from there.

MM's forums have been ripe with criticism of the mode's difficulty. Many have stated that the mode is too easy, and unrealistic. Depending on the settings, I am inclined to agree. The mode is uber-simple on Varsity and All-American levels, and at times, nearly unmanageable on the Heisman setting. The biggest beef I found with the mode, however, was not with its difficulty level, but with its overall fun factor.

There are some glaring detractions from the enjoyment level of Campus Legend mode this time around. The first is the dizzying camera angles. This is rather ironic, as some of the pre-release videos made the unique, personal-perspective camera angles of Legend Mode appear to be one of the mode's strengths. While playing on offense, the angles are tolerable. However, defense is an entirely different story, especially in the defensive backfield.

The general onset of defensive camera angles is solid, as an over-the-shoulder, third person viewpoint is spot-on in terms of realism. However, once the play begins, the angles tend to shift erratically, in a poor attempt to follow the action on the field. More often than not, you may find yourself running the wrong way, as your player has completely disappeared from view. Not so realistic any more, is it? Should your Campus Legend end up on special teams, you will encounter this headache times ten. Attempting to block a gunner on the punt return team may land you in the student section.

Any entertainment level of this mode is heavily dependent upon what position you play. If you're looking to squeeze the most fun out of this stinker as possible, I recommend playing as a QB or RB. This will reduce the amount of time that you are not involved in the action. While some may contest that being uninvolved is part of the mode's realism, I strongly disagree. This would only be true if the gameplay away from the ball were engaging. Rather, it is quite drone-like, and terribly flat. If you are looking to have any fun with this mode, I highly recommend staying away from defense. You may go an entire game without a tackle or a pass thrown in your direction.

Part of the marketed appeal of Campus Legend mode is the day-to-day decision making for your superstar-in-progress. In the simplest of terms, this is lame. Perhaps it was my own twisted sense of humor, but after a while, I actually attempted to make the "wrong" decisions to see what would happen. Nothing interesting ever did. Part of me was hoping that Campus Legend might take an interesting turn and show a seedy underbelly of college football. With the discipline cases in last gen's Dynasty Mode, EA did show some hints of this kind of creativity. My sick sense of humor, paired with the exceptional shenanigans that I witnessed on a particular Big Ten campus (that shall remain nameless) during my collegiate career, made me wish I could somehow make my player hit rock bottom, and be kicked off the team for breaking into fellow students' apartments to steal cell phones and stereo equipment on Unofficial St. Patrick's Day. (This last sentence may have thwarted the attempt to conceal my Alma Mater) It was not to be.

In retrospect, many of these quasi-deranged thoughts of mine were spawned from insufferable boredom, when I realized that Campus Legend is just flat-out monotonous. Although it is a change of pace from the traditional game modes that we have come to know and love, it falls a bit short of what I would consider entertainment. I cannot imagine any longevity in its appeal to casual or hardcore gamers without a major overhaul.

Thankfully however, that magic hour is upon us, when FK's simple website update makes us feel like kids on Christmas morning. Happy Dynasty'ing everyone, we'll see you next week.