NCAA March Madness 2004

[blurredvision]

I just rented this game this morning. The only real reason I picked it up was because it looked to be a good social game, as I'm having a guy's night tonight (drinking, playing videogames, and grilling out). My brother has expressed interest in this game, but I wasn't looking forward to it because of year's past. They had one rental left out of the 10 copies they had, so I figured why not.

I get home, pop in the game, and OH MY! This is one helluva game of basketball! I couldn't be more impressed with this game. Everything comes together nicely. The presentation isn't over the top like previous efforts, the animations are fluid and flow a LOT nicer this year, it's not money everytime driving to the hoop, defense has been cranked up, the crowd is LOUD and gets into the game like a real college hoops event, this game has everything. I am simply amazed by this game. EA has outdone themselves with this franchise, and needless to say, I will be picking this up sometime this coming week.

I just wanted to give a heads up to any possible fans out there that this game is definitely worth a rental for you. Be warned though, you may want to go out and buy it soon afterward.

 

[BigKev]

Thanks a lot for the heads up!! I was really looking at buying this game but one of my main concerns was that the atmosphere wouldn't resemble that of a real college game, like NCAA Football 2004 does. Looks like I will be spending some more hard earned money this week ... oh well ...

 

[wyvrn]

I'm on my third season in NCAA Football 2004 playing the Irish. Working on my third straight mythical national title. The game is really good. I really like the off-season stuff which makes customizing the team to fit a philosophy easy.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: ISO
Thanks a lot for the heads up!! I was really looking at buying this game but one of my main concerns was that the atmosphere wouldn't resemble that of a real college game, like NCAA Football 2004 does. Looks like I will be spending some more hard earned money this week ... oh well ...

The atmosphere is fantastic in this game! Very good, and they don't show an overabundance of the mascots neither (one of my main gripes with EA's NCAA games). The pace is quick in this game, after a foul, sometimes the ball gets passed back in from the sidelines within a second, and if it's a foul shot, they've got the first shot taken within 5 seconds after the foul is whistled. This is just the presentation, though, as the game is decently paced IMO. You can adjust the speed of the game in the settings, although I haven't fooled with it, so I can't comment on how good it works.

My main gripe right now with this game? They left out a LOT of rookies. For example, I am a big Kentucky fan, as I've never lived no more than 45 minutes away from Lexington. In the off season, UK picked up a couple of 7 footers. Where are they in this game? No where to be found! It's quite dissapointing, and I don't want to have create them just to have them. Also, renaming players is a chore, as you have to go into Edit Player, scroll all the way to your team (no R2 or L2 letter switching), edit one player. When you save the name you've put in, it takes you all the way back to the main menu again, wash, rinse and repeat for each player. Long process just renaming one team.

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: wyvrn
I'm on my third season in NCAA Football 2004 playing the Irish. Working on my third straight mythical national title. The game is really good. I really like the off-season stuff which makes customizing the team to fit a philosophy easy.

he's talking about the basketball game...?