Customer Reviews

NCAA Football 08

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Like the previous NCAA football games, this one's exceptionally fun to play, but simply built upon the previous titles. The last NCAA game I bought was NCAA 06, and frankly, there are so many similarities between the two, it left me awfully disappointed. When attempting to customize players (faces), the exact same options were available to me. When starting a new game, the exact same commentary are provided by the exact same three guys. Essentially, NCAA 08 is the what it was before, but now with features Madden got years ago. While this game is still great, I suggest trying the next gen versions so that you can fully enjoy the many new features and the graphics that they boast. If you're stuck with a last gen system, then NCAA 08 is still a great buy.

New:
- Slightly smarter AI, they don't just roll over and die for you
- Campus Legend mode attempts to provide the player with some education via the "studying" and "tutoring" you can get in the game.
- Two trick plays? The "Statue" and "Circus" (aka Hook and Ladder). The Hook and Ladder is almost impossible to pull off successfully during a game.
-Better recruiting system
-Many Madden features(a suitable hit/highlight stick, drills to increase stats, defensive hot routes, etc.)
-Motion plays

Old:
-Commentary (word for word the exact same commentary from the past few titles)
-Player celebrations are exactly the same from the past few titles.
-Each game starts off the exact same way as in the previous titles
-Everything else


UPDATE!!
THIS GAME IS FLAWED!!!
When making "Promises" to recruits and players.. some promises carry on forever. Say you make a promise to player A and you fail to keep it. From then on, every year, you will have a player saying you promised him the same thing, even if you didn't really promise him anything at all. So you could have a LOLB saying you promised him the RT position.. and when you don't give it to him, he leaves. It's ridiculous cause it year after year, you will lose a prized recruit for a broken promise you never made.

ALSO, the blocking AI is ridiculous. You can have line men going for safeties rather than going for people right in front of them.

This game is great! It is so good my PS2 could not handle it and died 1 day after I got the game. The little I have played was great. The new promises twist with recruiting and the skills games to improve player stats are great additions. The medical redshirt is also a great thing that took a long time in coming. The only thing left is to include the 1-AA teams and leagues as truly playable options and not just a one for one substitute for a D-1 school.

This is a great game and I still enjoy getting the newer version every year. Over the past two years, not much has changed. I will tell you what has changed... the new stadium flyby at the beginning of the game. The spring drills, similar to the Madden drills that help you boost your player(s) ratings are now featured in the pre-season mode. The in-season recruiting mode has switched to pre-season, to give you a jump start on recruiting. If you make a great play you can go the instant replay feature and take a Polaroid of the big hit, or amazing play, then save it to your memory card by pressing L3. The home field advantage crowd noise feature has upped its pulse to over 120db (the previous game had a ceiling of 120db). The game also has a deke stick move to help the QB avoid a sack, or side-step a sack, same goes for RBs. These are a few of the new features that separate the game from previous years.

If you are looking for something different, I would suggest getting the PS3 version of this game. From what I've seen the graphics and gameplay are incredible.

I've always been a fan of the series and I have quite a few buddies who love to play it. We have one night every week where we sit down to play with each other.

Anyways, the Dynasty mode is great, but be careful with player promises. A few major downfalls:

1. Penalties. Too many of them. I've seen far too many penalties that change the outcome of games. Too many holding calls. Too much roughing the passer by the CPU players on your team.

2. All-American difficulty proves to be entirely too easy and I frequently score 70+ while the computer scores 0. Move it up to Heisman and the computer will start doing the supernatural. Receivers will zip across the field to make catches. Linebackers will soar into the air do intercept your passes and your receivers will drop the ball when they are open.

3.I believe that momentum plays too large of a role in this game. When your opponent's momentum bar is full, you're doomed. When it swings your way, you'll find your players doing outrageous things.

4. ONLINE PLAY: Garbage. Don't expect to play an actual game of football. 95% of all online players will use a team like Oregon or West Virginia and scramble out of the pocket and throw a deep pass that will be caught regardless of coverage. Anytime you run the hurry up and try to call a hot route, you'll get a false start...EVERYTIME. During Ranked games(games which count towards your online ranking), you'll find that the difficulty is turned down to All-American rather than Heisman. Due to this, Cornerback play is ABYSMAL. Triple cover a guy and he'll catch it and run right by all three defenders. Let a runningback hit the outside corner and everyone begins taking a J shaped pursuit angle that lets the running back break the big one.

All in all, NCAA 08 is a great game. But the terrible online play drops my rating drastically. It's a good game to sit around and play with friends or run through a dynasty. EA Sports has got to sit down and tinker with the gameplay for online mode, otherwise it will always be a cheese-fest.

-Randy

Having played a few hundred games of NCAA Football 08, I feel qualified to write a review.
I love this game, and it is fun! I play it almost every day. I have been a college football fan since 1967 (O.J. Simpson was a junior at USC that year). Yes, I am old. These games sure beat what was available back then!
I agree with the other reviews, this game has its bugs and glitches, and the AI can be frustratingly stupid. But, it doesn't ruin the game that much. I lowered the scale on penalties down to 10%, and interceptions to zero for both sides (no adjust for fumbles). The complaint of to many penalties and turnovers can be fixed reasonably.
The game controls do have a much more positive feel than the Madden NFL games.
There is good attention to detail. The uniforms, helmet logos are well done. The stadiums pretty much look like the real stadiums. The computer keeps track of your stats for you. The ESPN crew is a good touch, if not for repeating the same phrases game to game, and Lee Corso's comments can get annoying (you can turn them off).
The game manual is just about worthless, it explains only basic game controls. You have to figure things out over time as you play the game.
It's also easy to cheat, by adjusting game settings or player ratings in your favor, and playing the bonus pennants, you can take a "rag bag" program like New Mexico State or Baylor in the DYNASTY mode, and have them playing for the national championship in a few seasons.
I have had a lot of fun in the CAMPUS LEGEND mode by making a DT 7 feet tall and 415 lbs. Actually, you can make any player you choose 7 feet tall and 415 lbs. (not very realistic). It doesn't mean they are harder to tackle or block though. Making them tall makes them better at going up for passes or knocking down the ball.
It also helps playing this game to have a good prior knowledge of formations and plays.
If you love college football this is a great game. I'd give it 5 stars if not for the annoying glitches and bugs that EA Sports doesn't seem to want to fix each year.

To those of you who are familiar with the NCAA series, you will notice subtle differences. The defense is more aggressive this year. Ball carriers are more prone to fumbles. Also, defenders are more prone to pick off passes. The playbooks are pretty good also. There are a few trick plays sprinkled in the game. Many of the new plays are not so much trick plays, but more miss direction plays.

Where this game loses marks is in the graphics department. The game's engine is starting to show its age. A lot of the cut scenes that you saw in 07 are back. The presentation really isn't anything special. If you want something fancy, you'll have to look on the next gen systems for that.

From a game play aspect, two areas which need work are the passing game and the blocking. The receivers really don't stretch out for passes in this game. The passing game isn't as crisp as in 07. Also, due to the poor blocking, you'll constantly feel pressure throughout the game regardless of the quality of your linemen. Factor in the game's increased fumble rate and things can get bad really fast. This is surprising because the blocking in Madden 08 is far improved over previous years.

One criticism of NCAA Football 07 was that its momentum system was a bit too unbalanced. If you fell behind and the other team gained some momentum, it was pretty hard to stop it. This has been tweaked this year. If you break a long run, now your linemen, tight ends, and running backs get a boost instead of the whole team. On the other side, if you pick off a pass, the secondary will receive a similar boost. The more proactive you are in causing the play, the bigger the boost.

In closing, this is the best NCAA Football game in my opinion. While it does have its flaws, there are several strengths which outweigh them. The fast paced style seems far superior to the much slower action on the next gen systems. If you bought 07, you can skip this game. If you haven't, get this. Avoid NCAA 09 and 10. They have taken out many of the mini games which teach you so much about football.

Pros:
1. This is one of the few games where if you use precise passing and do something called a back-side shoulder throw to the receiver he adjusts to the ball. All other NCAA games you throw behind the receiver intentionally and he just keeps running just for the cornerback to come back and pick it off.

2. You can mix and match your own play books. I like this, I dont like every play so I pick a play book that suits my needs. Unfortunately, I still cant swap plays out of a play book or create my own plays.

3. Heisman is very hard if you try to play it right and make good reads. (And no I am not talking about rolling out of the pocket and throwing for 40 yards..which is lame).

Cons:
1. Holy terrible pass blocking Batman. Even recruiting lineman with 90+ Strength and 99 pass blocking they still cant pass block. In fact, I had a left tackle that ended on his butt 85% of the time against a far inferior pass rushing DE. I recruited 5 star pass blocking lineman to allow me more time to pass. Yet I have no chance in the pocket and get sacked 50 times a season despite nearly making instant throws and reads.

2. Defenses lack variety in the play books. Boy are these the least creative defensive play books I ever saw. If it's zone its zone if its man its man. This makes the defense too easy to read. The worst part is a man blitzing scheme makes the Saftey drop down to cover the wide out makes it a big "duh" that it's going to be a blitz and usually man coverage.

3. Too many dropped passes even when the receiver has 96 rating on hands (5 drops per game...way too much).

4. Cannot create and design your own plays.

5. Run blocking is rather horrible. No true reads on the option plays.

6. How come their arent receiver option routes?

On [...] I gave this game a low rating. When I first played this game there was alot of load issues. After getting a new game the old game was the problem. Guess the disc had issues. Great game. Like the part of creating your whole team, school and all. Great game play also.

I got hooked on the NCAA Football games with NCAA 2005. I played it over and over for hours until I had to force myself to get something new. With NCAA Football 2008, I appreciated some upgrades (better recruiting system, faster loading, graphics slightly improved, more controls) so I was now hooked on this game. A few minor criticisms: There are not many options for player details, mainly face shapes and facial hair. The commentary does get a little old because it's the same from the previous couple years. The pre-game commentary is also the same for every game. Like I said these are minor, so don't weigh too heavily on my opinion of the game.

This game can certainly get frustrating at times. Do you ever have the feeling that a game is cheating? This game gives me that feeling. I have never, never, never been so sure that a game has been cheating than when I get 10 holding calls IN A ROW. Come to think of it there are too many penalty calls in general, even when I have them set on very low. I like a sports game with penalties involved to keep some realism in it, but it gets ridiculous. Also the momentum feature can get a little out of control. If the computer stops a run or sacks the Quarterback, they will suddenly have a magically superior defense that can blitz through anything to keep getting those hits, no matter what play you have or how good you have been playing up to that point. I'll laugh when I see all of my offensive linemen winning awards at the end of the year and wonder how they could be so good if they were allowing so many hits and sacks.

Those occasional frustrations aside, it's a very good game, and very addicting. I hear 09 and 10 don't have much new to offer so I'll likely stick to this game. I plan on renting 10 to see if the penalties feature is a little more reasonable...

Game play changes are not always for the better, but not necessarily for the worse. There are some minor changes to the default settings, like the strip button is now R2 instead of R/L 1 and tapping up in the R analog stick is supposed to perform a highlight or breakaway move but overall the control configuration is consistent. The AI for defensive back coverage appears to have been improved because passing seems to be harder. Linemen AI seems better because running between the tackles is a bit harder, but running outside is easier. Maybe the coverage improvements created problems with run defense in the secondary. Overall a fun game, but it is possible that LSU is too good this time around - I haven't not won by less than 20 points yet (including a 49 - 10 shelling of #1 USC).