Top Five NCAA Football Games of All Time

[KISSfreak]

NCAA 2002 on PS2 blew my mind...Not only was I coming off my time with the PS1 but this game made such a large advance for me, I couldn't say enough good things about it...Me and my roommate were blown away by the details of that game and played non-stop for months.

[jdrhammer]

Quote: Originally Posted by KISSfreak

NCAA 2002 on PS2 blew my mind...Not only was I coming off my time with the PS1 but this game made such a large advance for me, I couldn't say enough good things about it...Me and my roommate were blown away by the details of that game and played non-stop for months.

I was such a huge hoops fan, and played in college, and 02 pretty much helped change my perspective. I don't know if College Hoops is even close to 2nd now, that's how big College football has gotten. I literally played the disc so much it wouldn't work properly.

[jdrhammer]

Quote: Originally Posted by radiohead

i have to give it to you adam. you earned my respect for speaking the truth about '05. i have not bought an ncaa game since 2005. it was SO bad that it really soured me on the series. whereas before '05 ncaa was an automatic purchase, after 05 i looked at ncaa with a jaundiced eye. that's just how bad 05 was to me the game was bad independently, but coming on the heels of 04 made it seem that much. worse. i guess there's no way to predict how future games will turn out but i hope that that game is the gold standard for how the game shouldnt be. it' great to see this type of interaction with the hardcore community. however, i also hope that the ncaa team will remember the former hardcore fans like myself who are looking for reasons to come back on board to the series but just haven't found them yet. again, much respect. now on to my top 5: 1. '04 2. '03 3. the one with charles woodson on the cover 4. n/a 5. n/a

I don't remember how the playbooks were, but had it not been for the drops alone, I think 05 would have been right there with 04. I loved playing 05, although I'd eventually get sick of not being able to complete a short pass due to "hearing footsteps." That took the dink & dunk game out of the picture, but had that not been as big a problem, 05 would have been the best sim-style game IMHO. I guess it was due to the drops, but the best dynasty games I've ever played against the CPU was on 05. You had to battle.

1- 04
2- 07 - the game had everything, smooth gameplay, spring game etc.
3- 05 - the drops did suck
4- 06 - chase the rabbit
5- 03

[Mizzou23]

1. NCAA 2004 (ps2) - Everything came together gameplay wise, plus we had entrances, SI covers and a great dynasty mode. For what it's worth, I played 4-5 seasons on the Xbox, then traded it in for the PS2 version since the import function on Madden only worked on the PS2, and still played another 5-6 seasons.

2. NCAA 2003 (ps2/xbox) - I don't even know how many seasons I played of this incarnation of NCAA. It was probably in the 15-20 season range though. I easily logged more time on this one than any of the rest. Basically every hole in the gameplay (weak DB AI to name one) was fixed in the next version.

3. NCAA 2007 (xbox) - This game finally fixed the drops that plagued '05 and made '06 rather annoying to play. This also toned down the easy deep ball that ruined '06. Overall I thought the Jump the Snap was overdone, which prevented this from being a truly great game. Was this also the first game to feature momentum? I didn't care for it either. It was too easy to dominate if you had momentum.

4. NCAA 2002 (ps2) - Not a great game by any means, but visually, I had never been so stunned while seeing a game for the first time. For a first release, it was pretty darned good. And I still get the theme song stuck in my head from time to time.

5. NCAA 2008 (xbox360) - I haven't played the game post-patch, but it did a lot of things right. The turnovers were the biggest problem for me, and in the games where they got out of control, it was just flat out annoying.

[DoomsDayD1978]

My top 5:

5. NCAA '98 - Simply because of the eager anticipation I had for this game on the PS1.

4. NCAA 2002 - The graphical stepup from NCAA 2001 to this game on the PS2 was just unreal!

3. NCAA 2006 - After basically being forced to take a year off from gaming after the absolute trainwreck that was NCAA 2005, this game was like a breath of fresh air. The first installment of "impact" players, but the last installment that didn't include the dreaded "jump the snap" feature that needs to go I might add.

2. NCAA 2004 - Highly anticipated game that lived up to the anticipation. EA nailed it with this one and has yet to recapture the glory. Fondest memory has to be being ranked #2 online in the first couple months of this game behind only some cheeser who EA banned eventually because it turned out that he was playing the game with 2 PS2's online to boost his ranking.

1. NCAA 2000 - This was the 1st title for NCAA that set the stage for the indepth recruiting we now all know and love. This game, HANDS DOWN, got more hours logged into it by me than any other game I've owned since. I had an Ole Miss dynasty going that I was 17 years into before the game crashed. I had more fun with this version of NCAA than I have any others. I remember being at work counting down the hours til I could get back home and resume my dynasty. I would sit at work and get antsy thinking about how I was going to handle my offseason recruiting. No other game has ever had me that committed like this version did.

[TheLastMohican7]

I can't really speak for any games prior to 05 because I didn't get into the game until then. I guess I missed out in 04. NCAA 06 for old Xbox has been my favorite because of girlfriends, the soundtrack (kill your television, me myself and I, etc.), the first heisman mode, impact players, mini games and practice mode were awesome, online was great, lack of jump the snap, nasty playbooks that you could create your own, it was Texas' year, and it was just enjoyable even though it wasn't very realistic (the 5 yard spins, the jukes, ridiculous speed, deep ball's effectiveness, etc.). I also loved when being in the zone meant something even if the broken tackles were a little over the top. I was also a big fan of 07 for old Xbox mainly because of online play. The clans were introduced, and I was top 10 online.

From worst to best:
1)NCAA 05
2)NCAA 08
3)NCAA 07
4) NCAA 06
5) NCAA 09 (I hope)