NCAA 2004 vs NCAA 2003

[shishka55]

I am currently still playing my NCAA 2003 for xbox (even over Madden 03 and 04). I am thinking about getting '04 with all this Christmas money coming in. But I don't know if I want to spend the time on the rosters of if the game is that mich different. I am wondering what the big differences are and why I should spend another 50 on NCAA '04 when I still play '03? THANKS.

[ps2king]

Its like night and day Ncaa 2004 is very much improved GET IT.

[rns]

2003 was a very good game, but the improvements in 2004 are really noticable.
In 2003 pretty much all I did was throw to deep flag routes. It was too easy to complete those and not many other routes seemed to work well. In 2004 passing to the middle was opened up, running after the catch is more possible and passing to flag routes is not as easy.

Maybe the biggest improvement in gameplay is the dynamics in blocking. Defenders get shoved off course and stuff like that. And when clipping gets called you actually see it. Makes the game seem to play a lot more realistic.

The main gameplay downgrade (imo) in 2004 is that defenders make too many breaks on the ball for interceptions (and your own defenders get more picks too). But with practice you can avoid throwing interceptions well enough.

2004 is a lot better.

[Cardot]

I like 2004, and like the previous gentlemen said, there are some improvements. I don't know if I would say it is alot better though. The SI feature is nice. If you really like dynasty mode, you will like it.

One negative that I encountered is that you may need to put some time into sliders. The slider settings that I used ín 2003 weren't even close in the new game, and I had to put in several hours for 2004 to play to my preferences. Maybe you'll have luck with some of the settings that are posted on this board.

If you are still happy with 2003, maybe you should ride it out for 7 more months and then make the jump to 2005. However if 2003 is getting a little stale, 2004 might spice things up. Good luck either way.

[rns]

Personally, I liked that I had to modify my sliders from 2003. Because it meant the gameplay had differences and it wasn't just the exact same old engine.

But that's right.... the 2005 game is only like whatever, 8 months away. Maybe it is a good idea to just wait it out.

I think the gameplay improvements from 2003 to 2004 were pretty substantial for just one year's upgrade. But whether or not it's worth doing rosters all over again at this point, I don't know. I don't do rosters... only just for 1 team... and it's a pain (esp. if you mess around with player ratings too).

[Mizzou23]

Whether or not it's worth doing rosters or not is your choice, I would recommend breaking down and buying an action replay/sharkport and just doing it that way.

I think NCAA '04 is a much better game than its '03 counterpart. The passing game is much more realistic. Last year I was afraid to throw it to a receiver on a hook pattern or a slant because I knew that most of the time, it would be incomplete. This year that has been fixed. Also, the blocking is a huge upgrade even if it is not perfect. When I first got the game, sometimes I wouldn't cut the right way because my guys were making blocks that they would have missed in previous years.

Another difference you'll notice immediately is the tackling animations on defense, much more varied than the year before and there are also more of them. The SI feature in Dynasty mode is awesome too. I can't wait to see how they expand on it next year, if they do at all.

[Cardot]

Quote:

---

Mizzou23 said:
Whether or not it's worth doing rosters or not is your choice, I would recommend breaking down and buying an action replay/sharkport and just doing it that way.

---

Amen. I highly recommend the Action Replay as well for Xbox. In a matter of minutes you can install every single player thanks to the hard work of fellow OSers. I only named a handful of players in 2003, but it really does add to the game to have the real names. If you play any other sports games, you can use it for updates as well. Beyond all this, the AR can serve as a memory card as well.

I don't know anything about the sharkport, but I'll assume it does the same things. Either way, I have found the purchase worth every penny.

[Spear]

Can someone help me out, NCAA 2003 is for 30 bucks Canadian at my local Future Shop or i can order 2004 off the Internet. Im wondering if NCAA 2003 has some of the gameplay features that 04 does like the WRs looking back on a passing play, if there are as many trick plays in 03 as there are in 04, and I would like to know how the atmosphere is from 2003 to 2004 like crowds on the hill etc. I dont care about rosters either if someone can answer my questions that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks