NCAA Football 2003 comes off the successes of its predecessor, NCAA Football 2002. For 2002, they made the step to the next gen consoles in a way that some people would look and wonder if they made the right choice while also wondering what was next. The game had some good upsides while also having some alarming holes that needed to be done to be good in future games on the next gen consoles at the time (The PS2, soon to have GameCube and XBOX as well.) NCAA Football 2003 also begins the trend to go to the XBOX and GameCube to bring EA Sports into all the next gen consoles, continuing what they had with the PS2 during NCAA Football 2002. This game review will be essentially a comparison to NCAA Football 2002 in which is a good stepping stone. So what is different about NCAA 2003 compared to 2002? That is below!
1. More fluid gameplay- It's not as choppy, it's not as slow, it is more fluid and more quick paced and you enjoy this game more every play. It's a game that also looks more fluid and better so the gameplay engine shouldn't be a surprise when it looks and plays more crisp.
2. Additional commentary lines- When Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso announce your games you will have more commentary lines and not the same limited script they had for the 2002 game. In NCAA 2003, a lot more commentary is provided and given and it makes for a lot better game overall when you are on the regional/national telecast.
3. Regional/National Broadcast- A lot of people may chide at this given the open accessibility of different apps to view games these days but this was 2002/2003, where if you had a satellite dish, you MAY be able to watch games out east, north, west, or south that were regionally based or had one heck of a subscription to your television plan. I actually like the regional/national broadcast and when not that then just a simple on-field announcer. This is just a bit more polished for NCAA 2003 but still something I enjoyed.
4. Recruiting is better than 2002- Not only is the team depth chart there, you have nearly unlimited points if you succeed to recruit cross-country or nearby as much as you want. However the scholarship limit is still there so you will have to deal with that. However one major difference is that you get to see what recruits you signed prior to the next week right away on screen rather than going through a couple of menus to see who signed. Those are good improvements for the future games.
5. Trophies- You can get trophies in this game, from a couple dozen rivalry trophies, to individual trophies such as the Heisman, to the bowl trophies and that includes the National Championship. This is a big step in the right direction to making the game cooler for the player. It's a step that was desperately needed but also desperately good for the franchise as it progressed forward.
6. Full Next Gen Console Gaming- The console wars waged on in the early 2000's, something that continues today, and EA took advantage of this by putting their game on all 3 major consoles at the time. For Nintendo fans, it was the first such college football game by EA to their console since College Football USA 97, which was on the SNES and absolutely atrocious. For XBOX fans, this was the first EA college football game ever, and it was better graphically than the PS2 to be fair. All in all it brought EA to a new spot and they capitalized big time on it.
Other positives:
1. Difficulty- It plays a bit less easy than that of NCAA 2002, and that is a good thing overall. It felt more challenging and more rewarding in recruiting and on the field getting good players and beating good teams. You are also rewarded with that typically in the polls, unless the dreaded BCS hates you.
2. Fresh Intros- This comes typically from on-campus students and being able to have them say the traditional "EA Sports, It's In The Game" and possibly some coaches as well, but this was another way of them interacting with college kids at the time and felt something cool to do.
Negatives:
1. Limited Recruiting- This seems to be a bit better in later game versions but it seemed in the two seasons I did recruiting I seemed to be limited to mainly my region rather than a nationwide thing. Anything past Ohio was seen as rough to get recruits and that was something that sort of frustrated me at Buffalo (whom I used in my worst-to-first dynasty mode.) The game seemed to get better with this for the future but in 2003, it was a bit limited.
2. Mistake prone- It seemed this game while being better and more crisp in its engine made the teams also prone to mistakes? There were plenty of games that made it drag on due to missed assignments, drops, turnovers and worst of all the penalties. I don't know if that was a major ordeal in testing but those things happened for me and the penalty meter was average at best.
Overall Rating:
Overall for NCAA Football 2003, they do a lot different and improve a lot better in a lot of facets. They built upon some stuff from 2002 but made it exponentially better in 2003. I absolutely enjoyed playing through this again and I have a lot of praise for this game. The negatives can be weighed in but they don't deter from the fact EA was definitely going in the right direction again and the fact that they got this game this well done deserves merit. Overall rating: 9 out of 10.
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