More like true college football than any of its' predecessors, and just as frustrating at times.
User Rating: 9.1 | NCAA Football 2005 PS2
One of the oldest sports traditions in the country, college football. Some evidence suggests that college football was being played as early as the 1880's. Here in the year of 2005, the sport of college football is still as strong as it ever has been. The EA Sports' adaptation of college football this year is the closest it's ever been to the real thing. I gurantee, this game will provide hundreds of hours of football fun, that you will want to keep coming back to. As i said before, NCAA Football 2005 is the closest the franchise has come to showing real college football on the screen. Though the realism, especially on offense becomes frustrating at times, that's how college football is really played. The running game is handled very well, giving you great control of the runner, and very fluid spin and juke moves. The running game isn't where the game really shows signs of realism, as it isn't hard to make running a football seem real. But the passing game, that can at times be the most entertaining and fruitful aspect of the game, and at other times will make you swear that your about to take the game back. I won't lie, about 4 or 5 games i played through, i was about to come on here and write a nasty review, but i waited it out. I'm glad i waited it out, because i realized it wasn't the game cheating me, i discovered that you have to play like a real quarterback if you want to be successful. In previous installments, the ball almost was always thrown to the receiver in arms length, and it was up to the corner or receiver to come down with the ball, that isn't so this year. If you throw off your back foot or on the run, the accuracy tremendously falls, unlike previous years. So to be successful, you're going to have to step up in the pocket, and set your feet to throw well. The defense didnt really change as much as the passing game had. The game seems to be defensively minded though, and you might have to tweak the offensive A.I. in your favor to make it fair at times. The new features for the game are just frosting on the cake, with the stadium pulse and the hard hits. The stadium pulse is kind of neat, but might irritate some gamers. The graphics of NCAA Football haven't really changed since the 2003 installment, and havent changed as much this year. The biggest change, is showing the fans when you make a big play, but the players and coaches all look and feel the same graphically speaking. The audio really hasnt changed either. There are a few lines from Lee Corson and Herbstreit and Nessler...but no major changed. The school fight songs are all the, along with the hard hits, and helmet smacks. The dynasty mode is the same as ever, and adds some depth to the recruitment department. You have to toy with the school budget to decide, in what direction you want to go with (heavy recruitment, heavy training, or deal with discipline problems). The discipline problems is another aspect that EA sports threw in, to make the experience more real, luckily it never gets too annoying, as the NCAA has never stepped in on me, and rarely has made a move on another school. The college classics, and mascot games are back. If you liked the 2003 and 2004 installments, and want something alittle more tweaked to bring the real college game to the PS2, then this one is for you 
