Hyped Up

Your race for the Heisman starts here

Per usual come July, the hype builds for the next season of NCAA Football. Not the real sport; that hype comes in August, but the game NCAA Football. The game is always solid, and people line up to find out what new features EA Sports have installed into the game. Last year it was the "Home field advantage... fear it or feast on it", where the home field player could make the crowd get rowdy and raucous. The noise would make the controller actually vibrate and would disrupt audible calls as the crowd roared louder. The best video game commercial I've probably ever seen was promoting home field advantage in NCAA 05, featuring Ohio State players going into Michigan's Big House, fearing the crowd (also the best UMichigan promotion I've seen). There also was the addition of the "match-up stick", where players could find mismatches by taking advantage of lower opponent morale at certain positions. This year, in NCAA Football 06, EA Sports has introduced "player progression". From high school summer camp to your senior year, you can lead a player from a walk-on prospect to Heisman holder. You live in a dorm room which is modest to begin with, but as you rise in the ranks of your team, your room becomes more glamorous. The more playing time your player gets and the better they perform, the better they become. As you improve, you eventually can take over one of the three "impact players" on your team, another added feature to this years' game. You have one impact player on offense, one on d, and one on either side of the ball. These guys are the gamebreakers of your team (remember NCAA Gamebreaker back in the day?). For Michigan, they would probably be Steve Breaston, Mike Hart, and maybe Gabe Watson (defensive leadership is now a question with Marlin Jackson and Ernest Shazor gone). Like I said, your goal is to take over one of these positions, and after that you're on the road to the Heisman. With all NCAA games, you can send your player to the pros in Madden.

Another new feature is "breakaway control". When the NBA Live series implemented the "total control" system (or whatever it was called I forget), when a players' special moves could be utilized using the thumbstick instead of the face buttons, it revolutionized the way the game was played. This is finally brought to football. In NCAA 06, the stick is used to perform jukes and quarterback sidesteps. In previous NCAA games, you have to turn off the passing icons to scramble. In NCAA 06, you don't have to do that anymore, you press the "A" button on the XBox to scramble with the passing icons up. This makes it easier to pass on the run and to move in the pocket, but I'm going to have to adjust to not having an "A" button to pass to. "A" was usually a receiver, while "Y" turned off the passing icons. Hopefully I can change this in the control menu.

EA Sports has also added four new mini-games: pass skeleton, oklahoma drill, and option and rushing attacks. Those who've played Madden know about the rushing attack mini-game; having an option attack would be pretty sweet. Pass skeleton is probably like the QB accuracy drills in Madden, while the oklahoma drill seems interesting. When I played football we only ran oklahomas a few times, I think it's along the lines of a modified suicide... I think it's 50 yards and back twice. I'd like to see how this comes out in a video game.


Mikey Hart gets clobbered by a Fuckeye

The University of Michigan has always been a big part of promotions for NCAA games, and considering how we have the best record in college football history, we damn well should be. U of M is always featured in the commercials and was featured in the aformentioned commercial for NCAA 05. This year, because Alex Smith isn't a big enough prospect even though he was the #1 NFL Draft pick, and because last years' Heisman Trophy winner, Matt Leinart, is going back to college, EA Sports didn't have a marketable enough player to put on the cover from last years' class. So they put a Wolverine throwback on the cover. Desmond Howard is featured on the cover of NCAA 06 in his infamous Heisman pose. Fuck yeah.


If only he did more when he was with the Lions...

NCAA Football 2006 comes out on July 12, so buy a copy and play me.

EA Sports
NCAA Football 2006