NCAA '08
Reviewed by Arthur Mansbach

NCAA Football ‘08 continues EA Sports’ dominance as college football’s only video game. With no competing games, EA made very few changes to the NCAA Football ’08 game. But then again, why fix what isn’t broken. The game now in its 15th year and has always been a top seller for EA, just a notch bellow the Madden series. Football fans are able to buy the game a month before the release of Madden, and with the early release, gamers can spend the summer honing their football skills, learning new controls, and playing with a selection of over 200 teams.
           
NCAA ‘08 has made no significant changes from a year ago. The players still run with a fluid motion and all tackles, passes, and catches are usually realistic, except for the occasional no look, over the shoulder touchdown grab. Match-ups also stay true to form. So if Cal’s DeSean Jackson lines up against a Ball State cornerback, he will burn him nine times out of ten. One of the games improvements that will help you gauge these mismatches is the new match-up stick. This new feature can be used when viewing the play before the snap. Each player will have a color circle underneath them. The colors correspond to a chart shown on the bottom of the screen that represents good, average, and poor. The colored circles show up for the offense and defense, so a strategic gamer should be able to easily target mis-matches.
           
Another new feature is “My Skills.” ”My Skills” tracks how well the user controlled players’ play and rewards them with a ratings boost. For example, if I was Louisville and threw five touchdown passes with QB Brian Brohm, then his ratings would go from a 93 points to 98. This is a game changing feature when using the two player mode because by the 4th quarter, the user who has played better will have players whose ratings have increased throughout the game.
           

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