NCAA Football 08

In NCAA Football 08 you'll put your heart, hustle, and toughness on the line, for the right to a championship win! With all-new Leadership Control, you can boost the motivation level of your teammates by making big plays. A Campus Legend mode and even deeper Dynasty Mode puts your coaching prowess and integrity to the ultimate test. With the all-new My Shrine, Home Field Advantage, and exciting new plays like the Statue of Liberty, NCAA Football 08 is everything that's great about college football. What kind of legacy will you leave?

Point of fact, I am watch college football with more interest than professional football because I personally believe that the players want in more at the collegiate level. That means that I usually pick up a copy of EA Sports' NCCA Football once every other year and I have never purchased a Madden game as a result. This is the first year that I get to play it on a sixth generation system, the Xbox 360. So far, I am very pleased with my purchase.

The first major option, once I created my dynasty season (PSU), was that I was allowed to do pre-season options. I personnally know that many people couldn't wait to try this new, expanded feature out, but I am not a micromanager in the least and decided to simulate through this.

As I booted up my first game of the season, I was astounded by the level of detail in the players and their action. Of course, the story for a while was that the X360 version would be running at 20fps more than the PS3 version, but I didn't think that would effect me since I play on a pretty old television. I was wrong. I think the thing I like the most is the collision control after a play, such as when I player is celebrating: he won't "jump through" adjacent player but notice that they are there. Also, when you do a good play, you can see the frustration on the opposition even before the play is over.

Maybe it is because I haven't gotten into the groove with this game yet, but the difficulty and the game AI is pretty good. Granted, I have won my first four games, including against #2 Michigan, but the Michigan game was a close 31-28 victory with my offense being horrid (the QB gave up four interceptions with a 10.2 rating at the end), but my defense was top-notch.

This was a sound purchase. I plan on doing a full review at the end of the first season after I have given it a bit more time.

Xbox 360 purchase, weekend round-up

Xbox 360. Finally, I broke down and bought one. The funny thing? I spent most of the weekend playing Uno. But more on that later.

I believe there are too many up coming games for the system that appeal a lot to me; Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Grand Theft Auto VI. Also, there are many past games that I have wanted to play, mainly Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Dead Rising.

I ended up getting the Pro system, since I plan on using the Xbox Marketplace often and so the added storage of the 20GB hard drive appealed more to me. Plus, I have always wanted a wireless controller for a game system. I also bought Halo 2 and Elder Scrolls IV. I had planned on buying NHL 2K7 as well, but both Best Buy and Game Crazy were out of copies. I think I will just rent it from Gamefly, see how I like it and either buy it used from them or wait until the September 2007 release of NHL 2K8.

After setting up the system, I spent about an hour fooling around with the Marketplace and downloaded demos for NCAA Football 2007, NHL 2K7, Dead Rising, Crackdown, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare as well as the arcade game demos of Hyper Street Fighter II, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Texas Hold'em, and Uno. I played a bit of Street Fighter before I decided to try out Halo 2.

Sadly, I couldn't figure out how to play any matches on Xbox Live, so I booted up the main game. Knowing little of the original game, I must say that I enjoyed the opening cinematics. I will post a full review in the next week.

After a bit of Halo 2 action, I decided to purchase Uno using a $20 (1600 point) Xbox Marketplace card. One of the reasons was because I heard it was one of the most popular online game for Live along with Hold'em. And then I got addicted to the game the rest of the weekend. Review to follow.

I haven't yet played Oblivion for fear that I will be too sucked into the game to stop. I may just wait until Thursday to start playing because it is closer to the weekend for long gaming sessions. I also still have Okami to play on the PS2 from Gamefly, so I would like to beat that or at least get close before I send it back. Review of Okami to follow in the next week as well.

Though I have been busy with the console systems lately, I haven't forgotten about the handhelds or PC. I have played about six hours of Pokemon Diamond but haven't gotten really far in the game, since I am meticulous about getting each of the pokemon I come across. On the PSP, the puzzle/RPG Puzzle Quest is amazingly fun and addictive. Reviews of both to follow at some point. As for MMORPGs, I have finally been able to party with other members of my World of Warcaft guild, The Thunderhoof Tribe, since they are catching up to my level 49 hunter. I went to Scarlet Monastery with some Saturday night and fun was had by all. We may be headed back in tonight, since our warrior Stompingbull missed out.

In closing, I spent the late evening Sunday to rearrange my room so the the Xbobx 360 was set-up on the TV infront of my recliner, making my console experience most comfortable. It took awhile since I had to clear out space to prevent overheating, but once done, I spent an hour and a half playing Uno on Live, haha.

News and reviews to follow daily!