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CNET editors' rating:
3.5 stars
Very good
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Product summary
NCAA College Football 2K3 is an all-around solid game, and any college football fan would undoubtedly have a good time with it.
Specifications: ESRB: Everyone; Genre: Sim; Elements: Football Sim; See full specs
Price range: $5.66
Gamespot editors' review
- Reviewed on: 09/12/2002
- Released on: 09/09/2002
Sega's NCAA College Football 2K3 makes a valiant effort at trying to capture the college football experience, complete with fight songs and a legacy mode in which you can build an entire college program by scouting talent around the country. The game also features the all-new ESPN presentation as well as some solid play-by-play and color commentary. But ultimately, the gameplay has a few minor flaws, and the available modes aren't quite as deep as those found in other college football games that are available on the market.
The ESPN style and presentation have been integrated into NCAA 2K3.
College Football 2K3 basically offers the same types of modes found in previous installments in the series. For instance, there's a practice option that allows you to pick a team and then run through some of the basic gameplay mechanics. If you want to work on some running skills (such as jukes, stiff-arms, or spins), then you can select the option to run around openly on the field. Likewise, if you want to familiarize yourself with a particular school's playbook, you can run plays without any defense, which is helpful for learning how to run an option play. After you've learned the different facets of the game, you can choose the full scrimmage option and play against a full defense, though you never have to worry about losing possession. The exhibition mode lets you select two teams and jump right into a game. In the game's tournament mode, you can basically create your own brackets. So, for example, you can have an entire tournament featuring only Pac-10 teams. The season option gives you the chance to play through a single college season, in which you can attempt to earn an invitation to a bowl game or earn the prestigious Heisman Trophy for one of your players.
You can run all of the classic college plays and formations such as the power-I.
But the real heart of NCAA College Football 2K3 is the legacy mode, which is the equivalent of EA Sports' dynasty mode, but not nearly as deep. In the legacy mode, you select a team and take it through a season. At the end of the season, the game will tell you which players are leaving (either due to graduation or progression into the pros), indicating that you need to fill these positions through recruiting. The recruiting aspect of NCAA 2K3 is really straightforward--you'll get a list of prospective players, along with their position, rating, and the schools they're currently interested in.
Obviously, if you're not one of the schools that a player is currently considering, then you have a much lower chance of successfully recruiting that player. But you can attempt to persuade him by making visits during each of the five recruiting weeks. Similarly, players who are interested in your school can be brought on quickly if you make two or three visits. When you're done with recruiting, you can decide which players you want to keep and which players you want to cut, and from there, you can start the training process, which is interestingly executed. You'll have several different training categories that you can put training points into--the more training points you put into a particular exercise, the more training those specific players will receive. For example, if you want your quarterback and receivers to receive higher ratings, then you can sink all your training points into the passing drill. When you're all done, you can start another season and try to get to another bowl game.
Generally, the modes of play in NCAA 2K3 are pretty basic--in addition to practice, exhibition, and legacy, there's also a create-a-team option that lets you put together your alma mater's team, if it's not in the game's default lineup already. Yet while the selection of modes in NCAA 2K3 doesn't offer the variety of the NCAA 2003 selection, the actual gameplay is still really good. As it is in the actual sport, the passing game can be quite difficult to use effectively in NCAA 2K3. The defensive backs generally do an excellent job of covering the receivers, forcing you to really look hard for an open man, or at least a receiver who has a step on his defender. In addition, the speed of passes really plays a critical role. If you're throwing over the middle to a receiver running a short route, you can try to throw a bullet pass to get the ball to him quickly, but by doing so, you won't put much of an arc on the ball, so a linebacker or a defensive back has a much greater chance of swatting the ball down while it's en route. But you can change the speed and the arc of the pass by simply tapping the pass button, which causes the ball to float through the air. Obviously, you run a greater risk of having the ball intercepted, but since the AI has the tendency to swat down a majority of your bullet passes anyway, it's probably the best approach. It seems unforgiving at times, but you'll start to adjust once you learn to read defenses.
The game still looks good even though it's built on an older engine.
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Where to buy
NCAA College Football 2K3 (GameCube):
$5.66
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$5.66 | Yes |
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