Best NCAA Games of All Time

[ufox1810]

Quote: Originally Posted by dopeboy206

I agree NCAA 2002 was the most fun but also the easiest in the series.

You are right, it was very easy, but I think that added to the fun for me. Because it was easy, it was the only version that I didn't use UF as my dynasty team. It was also the only one where I switched schools during dynasty. With NCAA 2002, I started with USF and moved around as the school became too good. That helped me keep it fun for much longer. I wasn't just running through everyone with powerhouses.

[ufox1810]

Quote: Originally Posted by ehh

NCAA '02 was definitely a lot of fun and I agree about the wow-factor of the jump from PS1 to PS2. That game was out my freshman year of college and I had never played the PS2 before but lo and behold my roommate had a PS2 and this game. I was simply blown away, I could not get enough of the game. We played a great three-man dynasty with ACC schools, I was Clemson and won the title the first year behind Woody Dantzler, the kid who owned the PS2 was Georgia Tech and my third roommate (who wasn't all that great at videogames) was Florida State. We played 4-5 full seasons, man that game was definitely fun as hell! The juke move was insane too like you mentioned, the kid using Georgia Tech won the Heisman one year with a recruited RB and he had over 3,000 yards in one season with him.

Dantzler was great in that game. I basically turned every school I coached into an option team in that game. Haha.

[Watson]

[quote=JayBee74;2038531178] I picked up NCAA 2004 for $1.99 at Gamestop (Gamecube Version). quote]

lol.

wasn't as popular as XBOX1, but 06 for the PS2 i played for hours on end.

wasn't too difficult for me (it was my first year to try out AA), and i must of had 4 or 5 complete campus legends and 4 dynastys

[StormJH1]

If pressed, I'd have to say NCAA 2004 (PS2) was the best of the series. It isn't dramatically different in terms of features and gameplay from '03, but I just remember they did a lot of small tweaks and improvements that made it noticeably better. Like how the receiver would look over his shoulder for a deep ball, and how they threw a bunch of new tackling and running animations in there. Also, I think that was the year the introduced the recruiting pitch system, which IMO, made it as complicated as it needed to be.

NCAA '05 - I had really high hopes for that one, and I got some good play out of it, but pretty much everything I liked about it was copied from '04. I think the Hit Stick was new that year, but it never worked as well as it did in Madden. The '05 games were highly focused on defense for both NCAA and Madden. Also, they brought in the pump up the crowd thing, and I wish we still had that thing where you could flip the R stick and check composure and red-to-green player abilties. That was really useful on offense and defense to figure out where the defenders were going to get exploited.

NCAA '06 - Probably the most overrated of the series, but still a very good game. Impact player was more or less broken, and it wasn't really an innovation--players in NCAA had always improved their attributes mid-game if they performed well...Impact player just made that effect way exaggerated to the point where it was unfair. But I remember '06 for being the last noticeable upgrade to the graphics. Race for the Heisman mode was a joke, IMO. It was like a wannabe RPG, but it basically a less fun version of Dynasty mode where you're playing a regular game, but only concerned with one guy's stats. And there was very little outside of the games that was interesting or had a significant impact on your player.

[StormJH1]

[quote=WatsonTiger;2038531214]

Quote: Originally Posted by JayBee74

I picked up NCAA 2004 for $1.99 at Gamestop (Gamecube Version). quote] lol. wasn't as popular as XBOX1, but 06 for the PS2 i played for hours on end. wasn't too difficult for me (it was my first year to try out AA), and i must of had 4 or 5 complete campus legends and 4 dynastys

If, by your statement, you meant that the PS2 version wasn't as popular as the XBox one, I'd strongly disagree with that. XBox was a newer console, and their EA games looked very slightly better on XBox than on PS2, but far more people played those games on PS2, due to the install base and the fact that by July 2005, XBox was already preparing to abandon their 6th gen console in preparation for putting out crappy next-gen titles on the 360.

[Mizzou23]

Quote: Originally Posted by superjames1992

06 was a dropfest too. Both 2005 and 2006 on the Xbox were drop fests IMO. I liked 06, but it's so hard to pass the ball and it drives me insane when my wide open receiver drops a sure TD half the time I throw it to him...

What he said.

'05 and '06 both had excessive drops on the Xbox, as in the ball just hitting the receiver in the chest, and a catch animation never occurred. This was also evident (to a lesser degree, but it was still there) on the Xbox version of NCAA 2004, but I don't think I ever saw it mentioned in these forums. I swear to it though. NCAA 2004 on the PS2 did NOT have this issue (I know this, i owned both) and was clearly the best NCAA incarnation of the Xbox/PS2 generation. I will probably try to pick up the PS2 version of '04 the next time I'm at Gamestop.

'05 had frame rate issues on the Xbox. '06 Xbox had issues with the deep ball being WAY too easy. It was literally easier to chuck it 40 yards downfield than it was to hit a guy on a 3 yard crossing pattern.

That's my $0.02.

[Cardot]

'03 will always have a special place on my shelf. While '04 was a nice incremental improvement, '03 was the one that really blew me away. Pride stickers, D1AA teams, Bowl Patches on jersey's etc.....awesome.

Since then it has been a rough road. I nearly went insane from the momentum on the old gen '07. Current gen '08 was also a frustrating slider fest. I am still on the fence for '09, but it sounds like it has it's share of issues....I am just not up for another season of adjusting settings and making house rules.

[UnderRatedCoast]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cardot

'03 will always have a special place on my shelf. While '04 was a nice incremental improvement, '03 was the one that really blew me away. Pride stickers, D1AA teams, Bowl Patches on jersey's etc.....awesome. Since then it has been a rough road. I nearly went insane from the momentum on the old gen '07. Current gen '08 was also a frustrating slider fest. I am still on the fence for '09, but it sounds like it has it's share of issues....I am just not up for another season of adjusting settings and making house rules.

I also think 03 was my favorite. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Joey was on the cover.
:grin