Historically, basketball has had two
leaders in the game industry: NBA Live and NBA2K. The two famed franchises have
gone back and forth for the past 10 years. Others have tried to encroach on
their territory, but none of them have been able to take away the crown.
NCAA Basketball 10 is the first game
that could actually change that. Considering who’s behind the title – EA, the
same developer/publisher that makes NBA Live – this shouldn’t be too surprising.
Still, who would have thought that it was actually capable of competing with
EA’s revered basketball series? NBA Live 10 is a great game, no question, but if
you haven’t picked it up yet, there are a couple reasons you might want to
choose NCAA Basketball 10 instead.
In the area of controls and gameplay
mechanics, it has been hard – and at one time impossible, perhaps – for
developers to top what NBA 2K achieved on the Xbox 360 in 2005. Even now NBA
2K’s controls stand out, despite the fact that they haven’t changed much in the
past couple of years. But NCAA Basketball 10, whose controls and mechanics are
nearly identical to NBA Live 10, has finally taken 2K Sports down a notch.
Most incredibly, the controls are
deep without sacrificing any of the user-friendly elements. The physics are
sharp and realistic without being cheap or over/under exaggerated. It’s a great
balance that’ll have you landing baskets when you time your shots appropriately
and measure your distance from the net accurately.
Players may not catch the subtle
nuances that make shooting at a basket exciting, or realize the work that went
into making the simple actions – even those as minute as passing the ball – work
extremely well. But they will catch onto the general feel of the controls, which
is amazing, to say the least. The graphics might deserve some of the credit,
since you can’t make a great sports game if the players aren’t responding well
to your every touch. But it goes beyond that.
NCAA Basketball 10 improves on the
AI with a change that gamers have always wanted but is something that developers
have struggled to create: opponents that aren’t cheap. Game after game and
mistake after mistake, the AI had plenty of opportunities to, as they say in
Fight Club, turn my team into a wad of cookie dough. But while my opponents
often fought hard to gain the upper hand, they rarely did it unfairly. Plus, the
AI isn’t infallible – it is perfectly capable of dropping the ball, missing a
pass, or taking a shot at the wrong time. AI opponents miss rebounds, cause
unnecessary fouls, and do everything else that a flawed team would do. It’s not
rocket science, and it’s not exactly an innovative leap forward. Expert players
might even say it makes the game too easy. But I like and very much appreciate
the adjustment. Other sports games could learn a lot from this development.
Thus far, almost everything you’ve
read about NCAA Basketball 10 can be found in NBA Live 10. Even the awesome menu
presentation, which pushes and pulls the screen through various 2D images (it
does it so well that the effect appears three-dimensional), comes straight from
NBA Live 10. NCAA Basketball 10’s menus are cooler, flashier, and cater more
heavily to specific teams. But still, a borrowed feature is a borrowed feature.
The one thing that helps NCAA
Basketball 10 stand out is its use of the college teams and the college
atmosphere. In a brilliant move that enhances the presentation and diminishes
most of the boredom brought on by long load times, the developers included a
real-time practice feature that drops you into an outdoor court while the game
loads. Run around, pick up any ball you see, shoot a few hoops, take in the
sights, and before you know it the game will be done loading. Then, if you quit
the game, NCAA Basketball 10 immediately jumps back to the outdoor court with a
scene-swapping transition that’s worthy of a movie.
EA gave each team the triple-A
treatment with mascots, arenas and a large (and loud) group of polygonal fans.
You’ll notice a bit of repetition from the commentary, especially when you or
your opponent is repetitive. (For some reason the game doesn’t properly register
the difference between the first and second fouls of a particular player, if the
fouls are back-to-back.) But overall the commentary and TV-style camera angles
are successful.
With regard to the different
versions of the game, developers have been trying to design their sports titles
to perform equally well across Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. NCAA Basketball 10
lives up to that goal with gameplay, controls and graphics that are virtually
identical on both platforms. The PS3 version forces you to download a chunk of
game data before you can start playing, but its load times didn’t seem to be any
faster than the 360 version. Of course, the load screen isn’t an issue here, but
some players are bound to wonder why the PS3’s built-in hard drive doesn’t make
its version load faster.
Whichever console you choose to play
on, NCAA Basketball 10’s graphics are gorgeous. The player models aren’t as good
as those featured in NBA 2K10 (that’s one area 2K Sports seems to have no
trouble staying on top of), but the animations are amazingly lifelike and are
frequently spontaneous. In the background you’ll spot cheerleaders, cameramen,
fans, refs and others moving around with a fair amount of fluidity. These
background character models aren’t as good as the players themselves – sadly,
our consoles aren’t powerful enough to push THAT many polygons – but when thrown
together in a large crowd, everything looks very good.
|
|
Gameplay: 8.2
Excellent controls, mechanics and ball physics designed for a sports game
that is very easy to grasp.
Graphics: 8.5
One of the best-looking sports games of the year.
Sound: 7.0
The commentary is solid, but the music and sound effects are too bland to
get anyone but the most extreme college basketball fans excited.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Easy to learn, fairly hard to master.
Concept: 7.5
Top-notch b-ball gameplay coupled with new Motion Offenses that let you
initiate plays manually while on the court. "Top-notch," however, does not equal
"brand-new."
Multiplayer: 7.9
NCAA Basketball 10 generates a fun multiplayer experience, but with only two
players allowed online (and only four offline), this part of the game feels
dated.
Overall: 8.2
Most of NCAA Basketball 10’s greatness comes from NBA Live 10, which means
owners of that game would be better off renting this one. But if you haven’t
sunk your teeth into Live yet and prefer the college world, you won’t be
disappointed by NCAA Basketball 10.
