NCAA Football 2009 – Bonsai for College Football!

If you are as big of a fan of the college football that makes or breaks the season for your favorite team every year, as I am, then you will automatically appreciate a game that is of the caliber of NCAA 09. And once again, the cats over at EA Sports really show that they know exactly what they are doing when it comes to making great sports games, because this is the third in a row that has really rocked my world and popped my eyes! No kidding! I was significantly impressed when I had a first look at the 2007 version of the game for the Xbox 360, which left me whole heartedly addicted and craving for more. And to be honest, the interface of the NCAA franchise—as is delivered by EA—has always rang true to my heart more over Madden’s, even though there are minute differences between the two.

The graphics have undergone a remodel and feature faster frame rates, more detailed player models and highly detailed stadiums. They even spent a little extra time making the people in the crowds seem more realistic, although if you look, you will notice the cliché cut and paste routine that is prevalent in all video game sports crowds. However, the players and the in game play and the play calling is roughly the same, just looks prettier and functions prettier. The Xbox Live play is much smoother as well, and offers that of more superfluous experience when pitting your skills over a broadband server.

Better looking stadiums and mascots will appease die hard college fans. A screwed up BCS ranking system the displays blatant favoritism is the norm in real college and easily carries over to the video game counterpart. They also took some time to add more to the announcing regime and make the play calls look more fluid on the field. You can now challenge and you can now call plays from a multi-button platform instead of the lousy play bluff of yesteryear that really sucked when engaged in a two player battle. Other than that, its business as usual for the NCAA franchise. But thankfully, itâ??s a good business to be in, one that excites me over and over as I take my favorite team to the National Championship each season. Oh yeah, and now you can play a game using all of the mascots for players, but I found this to be both weak and cheesy -- its best overlooked.

â??NCAA 09 is clearly the best and the only decent college football game currently on the market for the next generation video gaming consoles. Brilliant textures and fast frame rates equals a visually stunning game that looks as real as it can possibly get â?? especially if you are using a high definition television set as your playground. From beefed up crowds to realistic stadiums, and the entire foray that goes into the excitement that classically surrounds college football. And of course, they even got the messed and disadvantageous BCS ranking system accurate â?? teams like USC and Ohio State and OU are consistently ranked amongst the top teams, even if they have two losses that year! It does not get any truer to college football than this game, excellent job!â?

My Score: 9.5 out of 10

Check out the Trailer