Mammoth Blog

College football doesn't begin its regular season until the beginning of September, but diehard fans of the sport know that it officially begins every July with the release of the NCAA football video game from EA Sports.

The game is so anticipated year after year that Gamestop on Greenville Boulevard held a special midnight opening just so avid gamers could get their hands on NCAA Football '10 as early as possible.

Festivities kicked off at 10 p.m. on July 13 for the event, which included $1 pizza slices from Phat Philly's, college football trivia contests, a chance to play the highly sought after game a little early and even autographs from a dozen or so members of the East Carolina football team.

But is such hoopla over NCAA Football '10 really worth it?

Since the move to next-generation consoles such as the PS3 and Xbox 360 around four years ago, the title failed each passing season to add anything significant in terms of presentation and game play, until last year that is.

In the '09 version of the game, an online dynasty was finally added to the NCAA formula that enabled gamers and up to 11 friends to play up to 60 seasons while recruiting head-to-head and shooting for the ultimate prize of the BCS National Championship.

While online dynasty returns for another round in this year's game, the real story is not one, but two new game modes that push '10 into the conversation of perhaps being the best football game ever made.

Road to Glory takes the place of the now-defunct Road to the Heisman mode, but all the key ingredients that made the former great are still there. In the mode, the user creates a player and takes him from his playoff run as a high school senior all the way up until the conclusion of a successful four-year college campaign.

The biggest revamp of this mode is the addition of ESPN sideline reporter, Erin Andrews, and cameo call-in spots from Kirk Herbstreit. Both Andrews and Herbstreit comment on major milestones and accomplishments through the use of highlights, photographs and statistics.

While Road to the Heisman more or less made one use their imagination when playing throughout a college campaign, Road to Glory leaves less to the mind and more to the presentation aspect -- definitely a major upgrade.

Also new in this year's version of the game is the "Season Showdown" mode, which in a nutshell is a mode that allows a user to take his or her favorite team during the real-life 2009 college football season and play against that week's opponent, either against the CPU or an online user, and earn points to take their team to the top.

A key complaint in the next-gen versions of the game has always been that FCS teams (formerly I-AA) don't appear in the game.

Thanks to the new EA Sports Teambuilder, users can take to the Web to design their favorite team whether it is an FCS, historical or even a high school squad.

Teambuilder is very in depth and not only allows you to create the team, but the logos, colors and even the stadium that goes along with each.

As far as game play goes, '10 doesn't really tinker too much with what was already a good product. Strategic play calling has been added to the mix while game planning allows users to dictate the pace of play by lobbying for an aggressive, balanced or conservative style.

Overall, EA Sports has taken one of its most prestigious game franchises and almost completely overhauled it for the first time in years, from a presentation aspect right down to the onscreen graphics.

It would have been easy for EA to mess around with the game play, a la the '05 version of the game, but this time around, the company doesn't mess with what didn't need fixing.

EA addressed the issues that needed fixing or upgrading and in the end, it's simply, in my opinion, the best football simulation ever released.

That is until Madden '10 drops in August. source>>>