NCAA Football 2005 (xbx: 2004): Reviews

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NCAA Football 2005


8.0

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 13 votes
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GAMES:

Do you have what it takes to survive in college football's most hostile environments? For the first time in video game football history, the game-day atmosphere directly affects players' on-field performances. See if players have enough composure to withstand the pressure, and take advantage of key personnel mismatches with the new Match-Up Stick. Add in fan celebrations like the Gator Chomp or Texas Hook 'Em Horns and you'll see that NCAA Football 2005 delivers the real emotion, collegiate atmosphere, and traditional gameplay of college football. Electrifying Stadium Atmosphere: Watch the visiting team fight crowd noise when calling audibles and hot routes. Pump up the crowd and build up your home field advantage to take opponents out of the game. Build your team's stadium atmosphere to rank among the elite stadiums in the country. See, hear and feel the immediate impact from hostile environments like LSUs "Death Valley," "The Swamp" at Florida, Michigans "Big House," and Nebraska's "Sea of Red." Deeper Dynasty Mode: Monitor discipline levels and grades to ensure your program's integrity, while recruiting promising high school athletes and converting them into skilled position players. Keep players happy with playing time or risk them transferring to one of your rivals in the off-season. New Gameplay Enhancements: Choose from new custom playbooks, offensive schemes, and defensive formations that include the 4-2-5 and 3-3-5 Stack. [Electronic Arts]

PUBLISHER:	EA Sports
DEVELOPER:	Electronic Arts - Tiburon
GENRE(S):	Sports, Football
PLAYERS:	4
ESRB RATING:	E (Everyone)
RELEASE DATE:	July 14, 2004

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Cinescape

Home Field Advantage is huge in this game, and momentum for INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS is just as large. In one game, my QB had a half where he completed two passes, and then a second half where he tossed six touchdowns. It’s amazing the difference in your players based on confidence level and that all feeds off of home field advantage.

100

Maxim Online

In addition to wedging the usual hundreds of teams, stadiums, and plays into the game, NCAA Football 2005 focuses on what makes college football special: the psychotic fans.

100

GamePro

When playing in a loud stadium, visiting teams face a rowdily vibrating controller, shaking screen, and players whose lack of composure causes bad plays. If you think you can handle it, you're in for a surpise - the overall effect is huge, really adding to the challenge in key moments like kicking a field goal. [Aug 2004, p.90]

Gaming Nexus

This is the deepest football game to ever be released on the planet. From players transferring because of a lack of playing time, from your star quarterback cheating on his exams, if you want the most true to life, exciting football game available, NCAA Football 2005 is definitely your choice.

Team Xbox

Contains more content pertinent to the college football fanatic and the end result is near perfection...I foresee NCAA Football 2005 online tournaments being huge, especially when the fall semester rolls around.

Game Informer

In all, it felt like the players had a slightly lower center of gravity. This allows not only for a good running back to become extra shifty through better lateral movement (without even having to use the juke button), but it also gives defenders an extra punch to their hits. [July 2004, p.112]

Electronic Gaming Monthly

The option to equalize the stats of both teams in an online contest stands out as particularly brilliant. Not that most of it isn't already brilliant. Because it is. [Aug 2004, p.100]

Official Xbox Magazine

This is easily the most realistically simulated home field advantage in all of digital sports. [August 2004]

XGP Gaming

If you love college football, you will love this game.

Computer Games Magazine

Unlike previous versions, the home field advantage is huge. [Oct 2004, p.9]

Next Level Gaming

The passing game is out of whack. There are way too many dropped passes. The offensive line's blocking on running plays is horrendous at times. I felt it neccessary to go back and change the score [from 98], so it wouldn't so misleading to our readers.

Play Magazine

By far the best college football game to date. [Aug 2004, p.74]

Thunderbolt

Definitely a notable improvement over last year's offering and the new Home Field Advantage feature is marvelous, but the recycled visuals and mere handful of other additions may deter those who already own 2004 from purchasing the game.

Xbox Nation Magazine

EA has kicked its game into overdrive; in fact, the only major flaw to be found here lies with the retread, obtuse, and strangely homoerotic banter between TV commentators Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso. [Aug 2004, p.90]

GameSpy

While NCAA Football 2005 could use a bit of a graphical overhaul, and the running game still needs some help, the additions of Homefield Advantage and the Matchup Stick really add a lot to the game.

eToychest

The controls are spot on. The graphics are solid, and the dynasty mode will keep you playing for a long time.

GamingTrend

The sound this year is exceptional and easily stands out as the biggest aesthetic addition to this year’s game.

Yahoo! Games

On the PS2, you get the usual options, but Live is more interesting with support for Optimatch and Quickmatch, and dynamic scoreboards of other games currently taking place.

Stuff

An ultra in-depth Dynasty Mode and online capabilities will keep you playing until NCAA 2006, or at least until the new Madden comes out.

Console Gameworld

NCAA 2005 is not without problems, but no other game on the market can compare to its authentic college atmosphere.

IGN

Home Field Advantage is an inspired idea, the Matchup Stick rocks, and overall the game remains a solid sports title. Don't hesitate buying this if you're a fan of the series, just don't expect a revolution or even much of an evolution from last year's title.

Game Over Online

The inclusion of Home Field Advantage is a great feature, and really strengthens the strategy of the game when coupled with the Match-Up Stick. Unfortunately, these two things aside, too much of the game plays, looks and sounds like "NCAA Football 2004."

Game Revolution

While the PS2 version looks solid and runs smoothly, the Xbox version suffers from ugly framerate issues. Never mind the superior textures - during most plays the framerate will slow down a bit, while on running plays the pace practically drops to 15 fps.

Gaming Age

Frame rate aside, the Xbox does look the best visually as everything is smooth and the textures are bump mapped ever so slightly.

GameSpot

The Xbox version in particular is also plagued by some noticeable technical problems. All in all, NCAA Football 2005 is still a great college football game, but longtime fans will have trouble shaking the feeling that the series isn't quite living up to its awesome potential.

G4 TV

Places its emphasis on subtle refinements over sweeping changes, which is what tends to happen when the gameplay is seasoned enough to already be considered a class act.

Worth Playing

It’s also extremely disappointing to see EA do such a sloppy job on a port to Xbox. There is no excuse for any game being ported from Playstation 2 to have slow-down on Xbox when there is none in the PS2 version.

Operation Sports

EA Tiburon has added depth to the series with the addition of Home Field Advantage, composure and Xbox Live. Despite a few pit falls, NCAA 2005 is a solid rendition of college football.

Adrenaline Vault

While features such as the noise meter and match-up stick do give the player more control over the experience, significant updates and additions to the rest of NCAA 2005 were conspicuous in their absence this year.

The average user rating for this game is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kyle gave it a 2:
My very first impression when i played this game for the very first time was "Blitz 2000 for my n64 had better graphics than this!" and i still feel that way. I should have expected such, the nascar games are the only good games EA sports has ever came out with. ESPN NEEDS to make a college football game! this game is so bad its just a down right joke. I still haven't found a way to make my QB run for it if I can't find an open WR, he just sort of suffles a bit and then I get sacked...where's the fun in that? the one cool part is making your own college, and making your own players...but its not too cool when the graphics are so pathetic. Don't buy this game, please... instead, harrass the nice folks at ESPN videogames and demand a quality college football game.

TJ Seger gave it a 10:
This game is freakin' awesome...buy it!

Uter gave it a 7:
The game is well done, but I can't help and feel like it's been done before. It's not that exciting to see only minor adjustments from the previous year, unless you're a big time fan of the sport.

Chad S. gave it a 6:
I guarantee that if you do a "blind taste test" with 2004 vs. 2005, the 2004 version of EA NCAA college football will win hands down. There are a few improvements in 2005, but overall, game play has suffered. If you own 2004 and love it as much as I do, don't bother with 2005. Otherwise, if you're entertaining purchasing a solid college football game, 2004 can be purchased for significantly less than 2005 and it's simply a much better product, IMHO. I'm sure some moron who obsesses over the proverbial hype of "latest and greatest" will disagree. So listen to their opinion if you don't mind wasting your money.

Steve M. gave it a 10:
Awesome Game! M GO BLUE (for Michigan fans like myself) and i agree that Kentucky is underated. That aside, a great game, definitely worth your time...

Bob gave it a 7:
I had never played a college football game in the past, so I am in no way biased to previous versions. In my opinion, the gameplay seemed extremely slow and the control was very sluggish. I prefer pro football and I prefer ESPN/Sega over EA's Madden, but I play them both none-the-less. This game does not rate with the mechanics of either of the pro games. I have to agree with IGN when they asked "How can you add so many new things and NOT make the game any better?"

Brent gave it a 7:
NCAA is a good game, but by no means perfect. Homefield advantage does get annoying some times, but it is possible to win away. The create-a-sign mode is kind of pointless, you just pick letters or numbers and they appear on a sign, wow! Defensive backs still drop way to many balls, and when there is a fumble both teams seem to have trouble just falling on the ball. It is a good game, but will not hold up to ESPN Football or its big brother Madden.