NCAA 2005 // Xbox
It's in the game

// The skinny: Play any team in any venue. Heck you can even play as mascots. Brings all of the excitement of college football to your console.

// Review: This is a slight update from an already outstanding game. New features include crowd noise (affects accurate audibling), ball wrenching big hits, and a deeper recruiting system. For years Madden has gotten all of the acclaim. While its franchise mode is much more complex than NCAA's recruiting mode, there is just something pure about playing your alma matter verses your hometown pro team. I just can't get enough of pounding OU, because living vicariously through LSU and USC just doesn't cut it.

/ Dynasty mode really shines. You can play your dynasty concurrently with others. It builds a lot of anticipation while waiting for them to play their games so the week will advance and new rankings come out. The recruiting is really a game within the game. It is surprisingly deep and you get a budget for recruiting players and success is determined by using the right pitch in combination with your school's success on different levels like prestige and coaching style. I was so addicted to it that I turned it into a science, which became a faq.

/ Techincally this game is great. The sounds are real and they have all of the schools' fight songs. The controllers are very responsive and even vibrate when you take a jarring hit or try to audible in unfriendly turf. The biggest downside is that the graphics are very dated. There has been little improvement over the last 3 years. Industry domination breeds complacency. Another annoyance is that players can drop wide open passes and then make ones the have no business of pulling in.

// Wrap up: Highly addictive. Playing head to head against a friend or in dynasty mode gives this game an enormous amount of replayability.

Entertainment rating: 5