Product Description

NCAA '08 FootballPS3 Lead by Example! Lead by example to boost your Skill Performance ratings as you make key plays and take control of the game in NCAA Football 08. The all-new Campus Legend mode and a completely enhanced Dynasty Moderecruiting system put your coaching prowess and integrity to the ultimate test. Can you put your heart, hustle, and toughness on the line and lead your program all the way to the BCS National Championship Game? With the all-new My Shrine, plus exciting new plays like the Statue of Liberty and Hook and Ladder, NCAA Football 08 is everything that's great about college football.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6102 in Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 15782841
• Released on: 2007-07-17
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .50" h x 5.25" w x 6.50" l, .25 pounds

Features

• Create and manage your team - Take control and make the play
• Relive Highlights
• Home Field Advantage, composure ratings, and an all-new fatigue system, plus new trick plays like th
• Auto Motion Plays - Sounds simple enough, before the QB snaps the ball a receiver will go in motion
• Trick Plays - If the auto motion plays aren't enough to catch your opponent off guard, then the new

Customer Reviews

First impressions after several hours of play
I've been enjoying this franchise on PS2 for many seasons, so I've been looking forward to the PS3 version all year.

This game is really a ground-up redesign. Some major changes:

*Only one camera is available for actually playing, although several are available for intant replays. The game camera is similar to the default angle for the previous games in the series, but with slightly better down-field vision. Personally, I always played the overhead camera before, so I was a bit distraught on losing it. The downfield vision on this camera is just good enough that I'm not totally angry.

*The controller has been reconfigured, but it's completely customizable if you want to change it.

*The play clock is 25 seconds, and it starts REALLY soon. There is just no time for any preplay strategizing. In my opinion, this is a flaw. Perhaps when I find all the plays I want my pace will speed up enough, but at this point, I never get to the line with more than 5 - 8 seconds left, so hot routes and motion are just a fantasy. In previous versions, I enjoyed playing around with motion to get a look at coverages, etc, but I've got no time now to send a guy in motion, much less bring him back to where he started before getting flagged.

*The recruiting engine is now awesome. Even in past seasons, recruiting was my favorite part of the dynasty process, but EA has really taken this to new heights. The database for finding recruits is more work than before, and you can't just click "Interested Recruits". You have to really comb the database for the guys you want, and they have a targeted list you add them to. But when the recruiting gets started, you actually simulate phone conversations with these players in real time. This is so revolutionary, I just couldn't believe it worked as well as it did. I actually got butterflies picking the pitches in these "conversations" and reading the mood of the recruit. Talk to much about the wrong thing, and they will get mad and slam the phone on you. Talk about pressure!

*(SEE COMMENT ON THE STATUS OF THIS ISSUE)One big weird bug with respect to rosters: I usually spend a few hours after purchase setting up my favorite team's roster with names, along with stars on the other teams in the conference. This worked fine. I even used a USB keyboard to enter the names. I saved the roster several times and once again at the end. When I began the dynasty, it ported in the roster, no problem. After playing in the dynasty for a while, I came back out to the main menu to play some mini games, and guess what? All the rosters were reset and my saved roster was nowhere to be found. I went back to the dynasty, and everything was still in order, thank goodness, but the main roster for the game is wiped. HUGE bug, but since I'm mostly in it for the dynasty, I'm not despondent.

The game has its bugs, which I guess we should expect for a clean sheet redesign, but the leaps EA has made in graphics, recruiting, and gameplay still merited the 4 stars, possibly even 5.

Disappointing... but good
As an avid player of the previous EA Sports NCAA Football titles to say I was greatly anticipating this release would be an understatement. The day of release I went and bought it on my lunch break, anxiously awaiting the time to go home and play.

Upon turning on the game I noticed major differences. Most importantly, there are now only 32 teams to use. This means there are NO All-Time teams, or even Dynasty teams from specific years past. There is also no Random-Select in the team selection screen. My friends and I utilized this every time we played so people would not use the same team over and over, it added variety to the game. Whether these All-Time and Dynasty teams will be able to be downloaded later as add-ons from the internet is beyond my knowledge.

The gameplay is good, graphics are amazing... but other small things with the game seem to be lacking. Play selection is now Madden-esque in style and annoying to say the least. They have gotten rid of the pennant collection, which for me was incentive to play, to unlock various teams. I never was a fan of the Dynasty Mode where you create a player and take a team throughout many seasons. I played merely single games against friends. So this lack of earning points and teams is a slight let-down.

On the plus side the stadiums are impressively designed and each home team has special little things you notice unique to that school. For example, at Penn State you here the "We Are... Penn State" cheer and the Nittany Lion does his one-armed pushups. Also, with the Weather Channel Live Feed you get the weather for that exact location at the exact time you are playing. Subtle things like this make the game worthwhile.

Overall if you are a former EA NCAA Football fan it is a definite must have, just for the sheer point of getting the newest technology and up-to-date teams. However, do NOT expect it to be a revolutionizing game. Many things could be worked on, and hopefully will be with downloadable updates.

Still waiting for EA to get this game right...
Much of what I liked or disliked about this release has already been well covered in earlier reviews. I continue to be baffled as to why EA gives the PS3 version the inferior treatment with 720p and 30fps graphics. The last version I bought was NCAA 06 for the Xbox, and I went back to it about a week after playing this PS3 version.

The player model quality is stunning save for the observation that every lineman is hideously obese. My biggest complaint is the feel of the game. The players run around like Mech Warriors or Imperial Walkers. They just don't seem to be moving like humans. I wager the PS3 30fps rate has something to do with this. The sounds don't feel realistic either. Almost every contact sounds like a basketball hitting the floor. The dynamics of the crowd noise doesn't feel right either. They also took the college atmosphere out of the game by removing the cheerleaders and more notably the on-field officials. Having the official occasionally get in the way of a defender or messing up your runner was actually strangely enjoyable albeit frustrating and added to the realism of the game.

The play selection method just flat wore me out. I must be really slow on the take because I would end up getting at least a dozen delay of game penalties or pick the first available play on the screen to avoid getting a penalty as I was running out of time. I am also disappointed that they removed the pennant collection. I didn't use it much in 06 except for the "tough as nails" pennant after getting sacked for the 10th time despite having an offensive line with an average rating of 95+ at Heisman level. it was just nice to have options to level the playing field when I felt the AI was "cheating" too much. The game play sliders help some, but not quite as much as the pennants would.

On the plus side, I *loved* the new recruiting system. It probably mimics the actual experience better than any previous version and it is infinitely deeper. The game play is actually quite nice. The passing game is much improved and the running game is much more realistic and challenging so I was unlikely to have a 2,000 yard rusher every other season. The kicking method which was first introduced in 07 is also much more challenging and pretty much guarantees my kicker won't win the Groza award every season or kick a dozen 60 yard field goals every season.

I am hoping against hope that EA will stop treating the PS3 platform like the red headed step child. I also wish they would stop making the NCAA game more and more like Madden in look & feel, but that's not realistic either because I'm guessing they're trying to minimize their development costs by maximizing base code overlap. I wish EA would go back and dig up the NCAA 06 code, fix the passing game so your 99 rated tight end doesn't have a perfectly thrown ball bounce off of his chest 9/10 times or the ball bounce off of your wide open clutch receiver's helmet, tweak the defensive secondary AI to play at their rated level instead of 65 rated players jumping 5 feet in the air or dive 15 yards to bat down passes or make one handed interceptions while doing a back flip, tone down the defensive impact players tackling the AI player by the face mask a half dozen times a game, use the 08 recruiting system and keep every other feature intact. I think that would be a winner.