Are you ready for some football?
Power walkers at Lincoln's Westfield Shoppingtown Gateway watched the amassing crowd with wonder.
Blocking the path in front of Software Etc. were 20 to 30 unshaven, hat-wearing young people.
The same crowd that hadn't scheduled a college class before noon was at Gateway before 9 a.m. one morning last week.
"What are you all waiting for?" one silver-haired walker asked, the swish of his jogging pants stalling long enough for a misunderstood reply. "Must be a convention."
The answer he heard: "NCAA Football 2005," EA Sports' latest version of the second-best-selling sports game in the United States had arrived a day early.
There are times when video gaming actually looks mainstream, when it seems to have shed its geek image for a broader brush.
Last week wasn't one of them.
As the rest of Husker Nation dreamt of bowl games and the coming forward pass, several of its most devout young citizens were waiting, sweaty palmed, for a fix.
In two lines that grew to nearly 50 people by the store's 9 a.m. opening stood only one woman.
After paying for reserved copies or pleading for extras, customers exited the store with wide-eyed grins at paces approaching a jog.
The reason: "NCAA Football" eats summer vacations like little else.
While other pigskin games have better graphics, sounds or controls, few spend more time in gamers' systems each year than Electronic Arts' revision of "NCAA Football."
This year's version promised genuine changes, something rare in the slap-a-new-athlete-on-the-cover, update-the-rosters and call-it-a-new-game culture.
EA Sports delivered. The question is whether the changes are good or bad for the school you want to dominate the gridiron.
Among the changes:
n Home-field advantage. A sticking point for people who previously played multiple seasons, recruiting players and scheduling tough games, fans finally get their say. Generic stadium noises that sounded the same at Louisiana-Monroe as at the University of Florida's Swamp are gone. In their place is a system that rewards schools with notable fan followings.
Nebraska's 77,000-plus Memorial Stadium fans will shake the screen as a University of Colorado quarterback approaches the line of scrimmage, limiting his line-of-scrimmage audibles, even rendering them useless. Wins on the road mean something now, and the challenge is real, even for veteran players. One warning: This also makes it tougher to beat the big boys, so if Troy State is your team, be prepared to work.
n The Match-Up Stick. A side effect of the increased role of fans, the Match-Up Stick allows experienced players to exploit nervous, often younger opponents. Underclassmen playing in a big game on the road - or a big one even at home - might be more prone to mistakes. This feature will show you where they stand. All players' performances tend to improve or decline depending on their in-game performances. Slumps and hot-streaks await. This adds a lot of strategy to the game, and it makes would-be recruiters think twice about yank-ing scholarships from less-talented seniors for blue-chip recruits.
n More Division I-AA schools. Several conferences of the smaller schools that make college sports so fun are included, as again is the option to move Western Illinois from Division I-AA's Gateway Conference to Division I-A's Mid-American Conference. The reason: Nebraska gets credit for a bigger win.
n Graphics. "NCAA" still seems to be a year behind "Madden," but improvements include different player animations, better lighting, shadows and facial details. Several stadiums also seem more detailed. Memorial Stadium now has the banner proclaiming its number of Academic All-Americans, and its fan entrances and eaves look more like game days in Lincoln. New crowd animations are great, as is the chance to design a sign for your crowd to taunt opponents with. The Xbox and GameCube versions look the best this year, but the PlayStation 2 remains solid.
n Control. Passing is much more difficult, as all but the game's best receivers got a dose of butterfingers. This helps to make the game more realistic - no more 600-yard passing days - but might frustrate fans of lesser passing teams, including the Cornhuskers. The PlayStation 2 version controls the best and seems to suffer least from the dropped-ball blues.
n Sounds. The addition of home-field advantage makes a huge difference in the sound department. Bands play louder. Crowds cheer louder and for the correct game situations. Mess up at home, you'll get booed. The play-by-play seems nearly identical to previous years', but that's fine.
n Owners of Microsoft's Xbox gaming system can play online for the first time ever on an EASports game, joining their brethren who prefer Sony's PlayStation 2. Nintendo GameCube owners still can't.
n Online play. New this year for the uninitiated is the option to cede defeat. The serious nature of some online players had pushed several would-be players back to the real world, because 55-0 second-quarter poundings are hard on the ego. EA paid attention, and now, provided the person you're playing allows it, players have the option of acknowledging defeat, taking the loss and seeking a player closer to their online abilities.
n Trouble. Players get into off-field trouble during Dynasty Mode, forcing you to take action as a coach or risk developing discipline problems that could spill over into NCAA sanctions. It forces players to decide whether to be Joe Paterno clones or more like Bobby Bowden.
n Off-season budgets. Once a Dynasty Mode season has ended, coaches must decide how much of their budgets to spend on recruiting, discipline or training.
n Plays. Nebraska no longer exclusively features the option, although the option remains. Several teams seemed to have similar playbooks, despite some updates. At least a few team-exclusive plays disappeared. Still, the game offers team-specific playbooks, and experienced players can tell the difference between Wisconsin's power running attack and Texas Tech's 40-passes-per-game offense.
n Position changes. Ever had a dynasty year where you had great luck recruiting cornerbacks but no luck at wide receiver? Curious what your five-star corner could do as a slot wideout? Why not pull a Bob Stoops and rearrange your roster? In this year's game, after each dynasty season, you can.
All in all, "NCAA Football 2005" added quite a bit to the gameplay for an annual update, but this is a game most fans would buy for roster upgrades alone.
The college game continues to distance itself from Sega's "ESPN" series and EA Sports' own "Madden National Football League" franchise, but it's still football at its core.
People who can afford only one pigskin game might wait to see what "ESPN NFL Football" and "Madden 2005" offer and compare.
But those who prefer football Fridays and Saturdays to Sundays and Mondays have one choice. Lucky them: This year, as before, that choice is one heck of a game.
Grade: A (PlayStation 2, Xbox), A- (GameCube)
Reach Aaron Sanderford at 473-7225 or asanderford@;journalstar.com.
Blocking the path in front of Software Etc. were 20 to 30 unshaven, hat-wearing young people.
The same crowd that hadn't scheduled a college class before noon was at Gateway before 9 a.m. one morning last week.
"What are you all waiting for?" one silver-haired walker asked, the swish of his jogging pants stalling long enough for a misunderstood reply. "Must be a convention."
The answer he heard: "NCAA Football 2005," EA Sports' latest version of the second-best-selling sports game in the United States had arrived a day early.
There are times when video gaming actually looks mainstream, when it seems to have shed its geek image for a broader brush.
Last week wasn't one of them.
As the rest of Husker Nation dreamt of bowl games and the coming forward pass, several of its most devout young citizens were waiting, sweaty palmed, for a fix.
In two lines that grew to nearly 50 people by the store's 9 a.m. opening stood only one woman.
After paying for reserved copies or pleading for extras, customers exited the store with wide-eyed grins at paces approaching a jog.
The reason: "NCAA Football" eats summer vacations like little else.
While other pigskin games have better graphics, sounds or controls, few spend more time in gamers' systems each year than Electronic Arts' revision of "NCAA Football."
This year's version promised genuine changes, something rare in the slap-a-new-athlete-on-the-cover, update-the-rosters and call-it-a-new-game culture.
EA Sports delivered. The question is whether the changes are good or bad for the school you want to dominate the gridiron.
Among the changes:
n Home-field advantage. A sticking point for people who previously played multiple seasons, recruiting players and scheduling tough games, fans finally get their say. Generic stadium noises that sounded the same at Louisiana-Monroe as at the University of Florida's Swamp are gone. In their place is a system that rewards schools with notable fan followings.
Nebraska's 77,000-plus Memorial Stadium fans will shake the screen as a University of Colorado quarterback approaches the line of scrimmage, limiting his line-of-scrimmage audibles, even rendering them useless. Wins on the road mean something now, and the challenge is real, even for veteran players. One warning: This also makes it tougher to beat the big boys, so if Troy State is your team, be prepared to work.
n The Match-Up Stick. A side effect of the increased role of fans, the Match-Up Stick allows experienced players to exploit nervous, often younger opponents. Underclassmen playing in a big game on the road - or a big one even at home - might be more prone to mistakes. This feature will show you where they stand. All players' performances tend to improve or decline depending on their in-game performances. Slumps and hot-streaks await. This adds a lot of strategy to the game, and it makes would-be recruiters think twice about yank-ing scholarships from less-talented seniors for blue-chip recruits.
n More Division I-AA schools. Several conferences of the smaller schools that make college sports so fun are included, as again is the option to move Western Illinois from Division I-AA's Gateway Conference to Division I-A's Mid-American Conference. The reason: Nebraska gets credit for a bigger win.
n Graphics. "NCAA" still seems to be a year behind "Madden," but improvements include different player animations, better lighting, shadows and facial details. Several stadiums also seem more detailed. Memorial Stadium now has the banner proclaiming its number of Academic All-Americans, and its fan entrances and eaves look more like game days in Lincoln. New crowd animations are great, as is the chance to design a sign for your crowd to taunt opponents with. The Xbox and GameCube versions look the best this year, but the PlayStation 2 remains solid.
n Control. Passing is much more difficult, as all but the game's best receivers got a dose of butterfingers. This helps to make the game more realistic - no more 600-yard passing days - but might frustrate fans of lesser passing teams, including the Cornhuskers. The PlayStation 2 version controls the best and seems to suffer least from the dropped-ball blues.
n Sounds. The addition of home-field advantage makes a huge difference in the sound department. Bands play louder. Crowds cheer louder and for the correct game situations. Mess up at home, you'll get booed. The play-by-play seems nearly identical to previous years', but that's fine.
n Owners of Microsoft's Xbox gaming system can play online for the first time ever on an EASports game, joining their brethren who prefer Sony's PlayStation 2. Nintendo GameCube owners still can't.
n Online play. New this year for the uninitiated is the option to cede defeat. The serious nature of some online players had pushed several would-be players back to the real world, because 55-0 second-quarter poundings are hard on the ego. EA paid attention, and now, provided the person you're playing allows it, players have the option of acknowledging defeat, taking the loss and seeking a player closer to their online abilities.
n Trouble. Players get into off-field trouble during Dynasty Mode, forcing you to take action as a coach or risk developing discipline problems that could spill over into NCAA sanctions. It forces players to decide whether to be Joe Paterno clones or more like Bobby Bowden.
n Off-season budgets. Once a Dynasty Mode season has ended, coaches must decide how much of their budgets to spend on recruiting, discipline or training.
n Plays. Nebraska no longer exclusively features the option, although the option remains. Several teams seemed to have similar playbooks, despite some updates. At least a few team-exclusive plays disappeared. Still, the game offers team-specific playbooks, and experienced players can tell the difference between Wisconsin's power running attack and Texas Tech's 40-passes-per-game offense.
n Position changes. Ever had a dynasty year where you had great luck recruiting cornerbacks but no luck at wide receiver? Curious what your five-star corner could do as a slot wideout? Why not pull a Bob Stoops and rearrange your roster? In this year's game, after each dynasty season, you can.
All in all, "NCAA Football 2005" added quite a bit to the gameplay for an annual update, but this is a game most fans would buy for roster upgrades alone.
The college game continues to distance itself from Sega's "ESPN" series and EA Sports' own "Madden National Football League" franchise, but it's still football at its core.
People who can afford only one pigskin game might wait to see what "ESPN NFL Football" and "Madden 2005" offer and compare.
But those who prefer football Fridays and Saturdays to Sundays and Mondays have one choice. Lucky them: This year, as before, that choice is one heck of a game.
Grade: A (PlayStation 2, Xbox), A- (GameCube)
Reach Aaron Sanderford at 473-7225 or asanderford@;journalstar.com.
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