'NCAA' delivers No. 1 football action for '98

True, collegiate football action has finally made its way to the Playstation. Where NCAA Gamebreaker dropped the ball, NCAA Football '98 from Electronic Arts has picked it up and run. All 112 NCAA Div. I-A teams have made the journey to this CD, and they even brought their stadiums with them!

REVIEW
	NCAA Football '98 Electronic Arts Playstation

The game is based on the current rosters from this college season, which means that you get to throw touchdowns with Peyton Manning, crush tacklers with Curtis Enis and return kicks with University of Michigan's own Charles Woodson. There is a plethora of options and game modes, so you can customize the game to your style of play.

But let's get down to the nitty-gritty. How good is the game? In a word, spectacular! The gameplay - which, by the way, was my main beef with Gamebreaker - is excellent. Concise play control allows you to smoothly duke your way to a 15-yard gain, or to weave your way through blockers to make a game-saving tackle. The computer's Artifical Intelligence has been beefed up to really give you heartaches and disappointments. (In fact, if you really want to spend some time pulling your hair out, try playing on the All-American level.) The players actually do a good job blocking for you on the run, which can help you to get that critical first down. In the past (especially with Electronic Arts's games), the players just kind of stood and watched or ran away - when they weren't getting in your way, that is.

The main problem with the game is that there is still that one play that seems to work on the computer 95 percent of the time - an EA trademark. The end zone celebrations leave quite a bit to be desired, and at times look a bit pixeled. The game takes quite some time to move to the pause menu; it takes an eternity to save or load a season; and there just aren't enough bone-jarring hits to get fired-up about. The game also fills up an entire regular memory card, taking up a whopping 13 blocks for a season alone! If you want to save a season or anything else, looks like you'll have to get two memory cards.

On the positive side, the mind-boggling amount of game-setup options are enough to make you forgive and forget the flaws. Aside from exhibition and season play, you can replay some of the greatest match-ups of all time or take on your favorite school's arch-enemy in rival mode.

You can perfect your timing on pass routes or get better on defense in practice mode. There is also a dynasty mode, one of the most innovative ideas to hit sports gaming in a while. In this mode, you will play your way through four seasons in which your players improve and/or graduate! You get to fill vacancies left by graduates by "recruiting" freshman that fit into the type of team that you want to build.

You can even create your own players and watch them improve. Which brings me to yet another feature that makes this game pretty innovative: You can "draft" your created players from NCAA '98 into EA's Madden '98 and watch their domination continue in the pros.

Without a doubt, I would quickly recommend this one to any football fanatic with a PSX. NCAA '98 is a clear cut No. 1 in the polls.

11-13-97