Customer Reviews

Sega Sports NCAA College Basketball 2K3

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I just want to start off and make it clear I have extensively researched both this title and EA's March Madness 2003, released two weeks before. For those looking for an intense, full college atmosphere, look no further. I have talked to and read conversations from people who have played both games and I can realistically say this is a MUST have game.
Not only will you be stunned by the amount of individual courts and individual arenas in this game, but you will literally be stunned by the 300+ Division 1-A teams in such a fine game. Run Loyola Marymount against Drake, and get a fine game while you do it.
This is way much more of a simulation than MM 2003, so if you want to take one guy and try to breakdown an entire team, you may have some success, but you'll get blown out if you play anyone good. This game is around team concept, and using screens, motion, and playing good defense. Throw a full court press at them to generate more turnovers, or play a good solid zone to force them into bad shots. It's real college basketball. There's no 142-131 games or 35 dunks, rather there are EXTENSIVE amounts of layup animations and realistic dunk animations. A 6'0" guy from the WAC won't run in and hammer down a reverse, rather he'll move the ball around and toss in a pretty reverse. Still, big time players will throw down big time dunks. Don't think there aren't fast breaks or this game will play slow, rather it will be very fast paced fitting the college style, yet team play will be what gets you to win.
Right when you start up the game, you can have the game randomly generate names for every player in the game from its name database, and then you can go in and edit the ones you know. That way, the broadcasters will call out every, single players name and give you the licensed ESPN broadcast that you will become awed at.
The Dynasty mode is exactly what a college BBall fan could ask for. Take the school of your choice and run their operations for a length of time. Recruiting is outstanding, and there are even High School All Star Games (6 of them) so that you can actually play with the people you will want to recruit. Revolutionary. If you would rather run a first person dynasty, you can create a coach and edit his styles and find a job and move him up through the ranks to creating his own program at any school.
Wanna have a dynasty with multiple players? You can. At least 4 can have teams in a dynasty, so you and your friends can take your teams into years of play and trade off who is better, etc... That alone will be worth buying this game. Online play? It's included.
The pure amount of features in this game combined with the fast-paced, yet team oriented game play will make you missing something if you don't add this game to your collection. I really believe this could compete for Sports Game of 2002 and even the first half of 2003.

I wrote a review for NCAA March Madness 2003 from EA Sports, and it is a dumb game. But when ya get your hands on Sega Sports' NCAA College Basketball 2K3, you're headin' straight to the no. 1 company that brought us Virtua Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc.

Let's get to the best parts. My favorite part is the engine that plays just like NBA 2K3. It's at its best in Simulation Sports. Sweet moves and dunks really shine in this department. The interaction with the players and the crowd is more sweeter. The coaches also look real.

The intros before the game are realistic and accurate with the announcer saying their names and the coach's names too.

The graphics are 100% better. You get different stadiums with names, while NCAA March Madness 2003 has 3 measly stadiums. The arena floors are beautiful! Also, you get cheerleaders too. That's another plus. The jerseys on the players are lookin' good!

The sound is marvelous, like you hear the crowd cheering for your home team, and they put up the name of the school with every shot you make for your home team. The commentators in this game are like Steele and West in NBA 2K3; for they are better than Dick and Brad in NCAA MM. They call your names, too! I love that feature! The fight songs are cool.

The game modes are great. You got Exhibition mode, Tournament mode, Online mode, Practice mode, etc. Gym Rat is like Street Ball in NBA 2K3, but you play in a gym of the home team. Excellent for honing your skills. Legacy mode is what it shines, and for a good reason: You can import your graduates at the end of every season into the NBA 2K3 game! You heard right, folks! You can import them into NBA 2K3! Now that's what makes this game better than March Madness, and it's "BEYOND AWESOME, BABY!"

My final word: Get this game if you decide between NCAA March Madness 2003 and NCAA 2K3. One answer you'll say is get NCAA 2K3. Looks like EA Sports "Can't buy a bucket" with what they missed.

I have a new slogan for Sega Sports...

"Sega Sports: It's REALLY in the game...for real!"

This game is just like college basketball - scoring is much harder than the pros. Forget the EA series of basketball games, where scoring is easy and everyone has nonexistent defense. In this game, the defense sticks to you like glue and the only way to score is to run plays and pass around the ball. After every basket you score, you'll celebrate!

There are 300 (that's right) . . . 300 teams in this game, and each one has its own specific (real) arena. Even the structure of the seats around the court is unique to each arena. You can see in the dome stadiums (like the Syracuse Carrier Dome) where the extra seats were added to convert the stadium to basketball. The players don't look exceptionally lifelike, but the stadiums more than make up for it.

The only knock on the game is that the plays are sort of complex and are hard to follow. It has a scrimmage mode that runs through the plays, but it's pretty confusing. Even if you don't know where the players are supposed to move, the plays will probably open up chances to score anyway.
In summary, this game is almost a pure basketball sim and I rate it highly in light of its few flaws.

After renting March Madness 2003 with hopes of it being a great college game i was quite disappointed. I heard from reading certain reviews across the internet that sega was releasing its own version of college basketball. Ever since i began to play college video games by major companies like EA Sports and 989, there college games always were a significant step below there pro games, until now, with College Basketball 2K3.

To begin with, when you get to the opening menu screen you begin to feel the sensation that your watching ESPN's College Hoops 2nite, the backround set up looks like the ESPN television show and the music is identical to that of what you would here during there college basketball set up.

in roster management i love the fact that you can create your own player and customize him to your liking, sure, your can make him a 100 rating, but when you put him on a team like duke or maryland, he may not even be the leading scorer, because he does what it take to win, and thats really cool. It also has a huge list of first and last names to choose from, so if your name is remotely normal, the annnouncer will say it. you can also go to your favorite team or conference and change the names of your favorite players to there real names so the announcer will say it.

Another awesome feature is that when you scroll through the player rosters is that it has a digital picture of each player on each team, and so far, from what ive seen, is that no two are the same, and they also look really accurate to what the player would look like in real life.

The stadiums are the best part about the game, they were created flawless. when you step inside and arena like Indiana's or Arizona's, if youve ever been in the real arena you see and fell every little detail, like what each national championship banner is placed and says. the floors were done exceptionally well and when the light hits them during a game it projects this awesome, real life projection.

Legacy mode is by far the deepest feature of any basketball game i have ever played. when you first start off you can either choose open mode, where you pick anytime, or the authentic mode where you start at a small school and work your way up the ranks. you also get to choose you coaches setting early on, which is awesome because you have features like fundamentals or flash, and depending on which way you move the meter determines whether your team will work the ball around for the open shot, or throw gravity defying alley oops and break off sick cross overs. when you begin to scout players in week 8 this really excites you, like roster management you can see a picture of what each player looks like, and each week you can scout 3 players, the scouting reports tell you what exactly each player is looking for in his team, his height and wait, and his interest in the program. when you get to week 12 you can begin to play in regional high school allstar games across the country to see if the player your eyeing is worthy and talented enough to be apart of your program, and also to see if a player you arent currently recruiting step it up and intrigues you. In week 18 you can play in the Sega Sports High School All Star Game, which features the best highschool players in the country, the cream of the crop, and it is usually held in a famous arena like the alamo dome, the united center, and the continental arena. the regional games are held in famous arenas around that location, for instance, the west all start game could be held in paully pavillion.

If you had to pick a weakpoint on this game its the actual gameplay, and its still very far from being bad, its just that everything else is at another level. the dribble drive moves are limited and the when a player blocks a shot he barely gets off the ground. it is also very tough a times to drive to the basket, so call screens to get yourslef open. it is also tough to make the inside shot after a rebound, if you dont dunk it, you will often miss like 2 foot shots, which actually makes it realist and prevent you from shooting like 85% from the field like most games. The playbook in the game is also very deep and offers offer 20 offensive and defensive sets, as well as full and half court traps to rattle the other team.

Bottom line is, this is finally a college basketball game that we can only commend, not bad mouth, the options and features in this game out number any other sports game out there, and its a college game, which is awesome. it portrays the real life college atmosphere with awesome graphics and above average gameplay. This game is worth the 50 dollars and would make any basketball fan very happy.

NCAA basketball 2k3 is the most accurate simulation basketball game I've ever played. If you're into a realistic basketball game where 5'10" guards don't throw down dunks and you can't just run around to wait for a dunking chance this game might be for you. The game almost requires you to learn set plays and run them because the defense can be tight. Also stronger teams like Duke can easily outmatch the small schools and makes it realistic to the college ranks. Having all 300+ schools is a great bonus too. The graphics are great and the gyms are true. The legacy mode is great where you can build smaller teams into tournament contenders and get job offers from other schools. The recruiting process is step by step and the best HS players will often go to the big name schools like in reality. However there are 3 things that I don't really care for in the game. First, free throws are stupid. You have to try and use the analog sticks to lineup some spazzed out arrows at the hoop. It takes a while to get used to and is annoying. Second, layups are almost impossible. Even on fast breaks players often pull up for a 2 foot jumper and usually miss. Unless you have a dunker near the rim most players couldn't hit water off a boat and keep missing. I have 7 foot centers who can't dunk and can't hit putbacks at all. The last flaw balances out the horrible inside game and pullup, missed 1 foot jumpers. If you have a decent defensive team you can run the full court press all game and get 25 steals a game (no joke) once you learn the computer's inbound patterns. If you're into basketball sims with plays and realism with building up teams, recruiting, dynasty building, and taking better job offers this game is for you. If you're into fast type dunking and turbo basketball games with easier handling, rent this first.

I've had this game for a while; it's an excellent game. The legacy mode is awesome. The only problem with it is the fact that if you just sim through the seasons and recruit in the offseason, even with amazing recruits it is near impossible to do well in the NCAA tournament, let alone win the championship when you are not playing the game. The recruiting process is very realistic and very well done. It's also fun to take mid-major schools and transform them into powerhouses. It takes skill, mind you, to do this.
People have complained of free throws, and yes they are very annoying at first but they DO get easier. They are very easy when you get used to them. Not very easy in the sense that you make every one no problem, but if you are good, you can shoot about 80% from the line, which is quite realistic. Everything about the game is realistic. The graphics aren't that good, but the gameplay makes up for it. Buy this game, it's alot of fun.

This is the best basketball game I've played but it's not perfect. All the teams are here and the players are based on their actual real life counterparts. There are also tons of options, including being able to create your own player and player in high school all-star games.

Most of the game play is fantastic with only a few minor problems. Lay-ups are constantly missed! Unless your guy is going in for the dunk he'll miss it from like 2 feet away from the basket, you'll have better luck pulling off a 15 foot jumper. Forget about blocks too. I can go 3 or 4 games before there is a block shot, either by me or the AI's team. Also fast breaks are rather hard to pull off. No matter how alone a guy is the defense's player always puts on super human speed to get a man back at the last second. Also the simulation of other games you don't play aren't realistic. Duke beat Davidson 22-17, as if this is football! It might seem like I'm bad mouthing the game but besides these things the game play is very smooth.

The real problem is the announcers. The mistakes they make are too much to count. I could fill out a thousand reviews and it won't even scratch the surface of all the ones they make. Just a few examples. Team A has the ball and is down 4 points. The announcer will say "with this possesion team A can take the lead!" Since when does a 5 point play exist? They also often get the team who is leading wrong. For example Pepperdine might be up 10 at the half and at the beginning of the second half they'll go "pepperdine would love to forget the first half but luckily it was only one half". Yeah, ok, I guess they wanted pepperdine to be up by 50 in order to have a good half!

I was a huge fan of Sega's NBA 2k2, and I bought this expecting the same thing with college hoops. Instead, what I got was a prettier game with gameplay that seemed to have been from an outdated version. First, the good points. The choices of colleges and the depiction of the stadiums are excellent. Dunks and layups, when they (rarely) occur are well animated and extravagant. Apparently college players dunk better than the players in NBA Street! Even this is sort of a problem as players doing routine fast break layups often do random spins, causing them to lose the ball or commit charges. Also, as I said before, players rarely dunk or do layups, preferring to take pull-up jumpers from two feet from the basket, which they usually miss. Field goal percentage in this game is laughable, with players missing around 50% of wide open layups. However, this isn't anywhere near as bad as the sheer ineffectivness of the rest of the offensive scheme in this game. As in NBA 2k2, defense is best played by intercepting passes, which is fine if it requires skill. However, in the NCAA version, passes are so slow and interceptions are so fast that passing the ball more than two feet almost always leads to a steal. Also, Sega has eliminated the simple icon passing used in their previous games, and even in EA's versions, forcing the player to try to use the highly inaccurate directional passing. Often (certianly 3 or more times a game) trying to pass to an open wingman leads to chucking the ball back over the halfcourt line for an over-and-back violation. The level of individual control on players is reduced as well. While you can post-up and execute drop steps, Sega has apparently decided that no one needs to be able to indicate the direction of the drop-step, which is now chosen seemingly at random, often resulting in dumb steps on the boundry lines, when stepping the other way would have lead to an easy bucket. The same thing occurs with the crossover moves. These gameplay problems, added to a fairly useless commentary and extremly long load times seems to indicate an old version of the game. Putting last year's game in afterwards seemed like a revelation, with the exception of slightly reduced graphics. Overall, I was obviously highly disappointed with this game, and I regret the purchase greatly. The biggest regret I have is that we still don't have a good NCAA basketball game on the market today, as EA's version is also plagued with irritating gameplay (though if taken as an arcade game it is better than the Sega version, just don't expect realism). If Sega would just take the framework of their NBA 2k2 game and simply import college characters and venues, I would heartily recommend it. Instead, I guess I will have to wait another year to finally get a worthwhile version of the best form of basketball, college hoops.

At first I thought this game was the greatest college basketball game ever made. Now, after i've had it for a month i've all but lost interest in it. The games too easy. I can't lose anymore. The amount of turnovers the computer has is absolutely riduculous. I was playing in the championship game and the computer had 57 turnovers. You can always tell where the computer is going to pass and then just stand there and grab the ball. Players miss layups all the time, but it seems like as long as you can get the ball in to one of your big guys in the paint he'll dunk it. I just wish that you could adjust all of settings to make it harder. This is one thing i like about EA games. Based on reviews here i decided to purchase this instead of the EA college basketball game becasue people said it was unrealistic and too easy. Now i wish I would of bought the EA games just because you adjust all the settings.

If you want great looking arenas, buy a poster. If you want great gameplay, buy EA MM 2003. That's the primary difference between the two...arenas vs. gameplay. It's the same story as what we all discovered with Live vs. NBA 2K3. EA is more fun to play, plain and simple, and yes you can make it as realistic as you want by changing the levels and actually running plays instead of just driving all the time. Yes, yes, yes people Sega has better looking arenas, but that's it. And don't be fooled by thinking those are all that great either, they aren't all that accurate. In some arenas, the players are sitting on the wrong end of the court...don't believe me? Look at Sega's own website where in the screenshots Purdue is sitting at Assembly Hall, on the right side of the desk? Hello? Great banners but how could you miss a detail like that? The uniforms are also old. EA's are updated. EA players actually run down the court, they don't slide like Sega. The players and crowd actually look 3 dimensional in EA, not like paper dolls repeated every other seat in Sega. EA plyers on the bench act like players on the bench. You will see them in the background waving towel, doing things they ought to be doing. Sega, what good is a mascot standing on the sideline if the only thing it moves is one arm flailing up and down in sync with the crowd? It looks ridiculous. That kind of stuff bugs me more than where the banners are located, or what the upper deck looks like. Sega is still b-ball on ice, unbelievable missed layups, dunks, passes, etc. Trust me, I would rather hit an unbelievable number of shots (like on EA) than miss an unbelievable number of dunks (like Sega). So I can only speak for myself, but for my money, I prefer fun games...I can buy arena posters and imagine players names being announced any time. EA MM 2003 is not perfect by any stretch (for example where's the online play EA?! where are the refs EA?! where are the coaches on the sideline EA?! You only see coaches and refs on the player cut scenes) but it's definitely more fun to play than 2K3. If you want to... sacrifice gameplay, accurate uniforms, better anumations, etc., so you can have a reasonable representation of your team's arena go for it. I'd rather spend time on... EA's MM, have fun playing, and just get a poster.