As with most EA Sports games, this one has its ups and downs.
The game looks great. The graphics are nice with a great college feel to them. Most of the floors I've seen are spot on for their real life counterparts, but the arenas don't seem to match up. And to be really picky, all the cheerleading uniforms are the same, and my Arkansas State University Indians still don't seem to have "Red," our secondary mascot that's been around since 2002.
The game have a great college atmosphere with cheering fans wearing the school colors, cheerleaders and bands. This time around, the bands amazingly play something other than just the school fight songs - just like real bands. To add to the fun, there's also a school pride rating now. Along with more fans in the bleachers, you can impress the alumni to unlock new training facilities that boost your player stats.
The gameplay is great, though it doesn't play much different than my old 'Mello copy. A huge annoyance is the play in the paint. You just can't do it on anything but the easiest difficulty level. If you can ever manage to get inside, you'll be fouled before you can shoot. If you're forced to shoot from the outside, you had better get the ball to someone with a high composure rating. Even then though, it's iffy. This is especially true if the other team is working toward the next feature, the impact moment.
The impact moment is the first plus factor that doubles as a negative factors. As you do well or poorly in the game, your players get "+" and "-" signs over their heads. Along with helping their composure level, they help the team move toward impact moments. These are like the momentum swings in this year's NCAA Football, but there's a finality to it. Your team gets a great boost while the other team is negatively affected, but then the meter empties and you have to build toward another impact moment.
The bad thing about impact moments is the frequency vs. animation varieties. Between you and the computer, you can sometimes get 10 impact moments in one game. When you get the meter built up, you wait for the ref to blow the whistle and then trigger it with the left bumper. You then move your player around to varied parts of the court to interact with your teammates, opposing players, the crowd, the band, or the cheerleaders. It seems like EA only created one animation for group you can interact with. And again, with up to 10 interactions in one game, these can quickly get old.
Another plus/minus factor is the new free throw system. The minus is that the game explains how to use it at the first foul of each game. Along with that, the game displays it so fast that you can't read it all until you've seen it several times. With the new system, you pull the right thumb stick down to start the shot, then after the ball gets to the player's forehead, you push the stick up to complete the shot. Keep it stead and straight up and down, and you'll make it.
Probably the worst thing about the game, next to frequent lock ups, is the half-ready recruiting system. There is no real way to narrow the recruiting field down except to choose by position. The only way to sort through them is by name, offensive skill and defensive skill. There is no way to sort by interest in your school, so you have to sort through each player individually to find out if they're interested at all in playing for you.
And again, the game crashes. I've had mine crash about twice as many times as I've been able to finish a game. I'm going to try to trade the disk for another copy, but I hope you have better luck that I do.
Overall, this is a good game with a good college feel to it. You may want to rent it first though.