NCAA Football 11 – Review – Xbox 360

The Nittany Lions, The Crimson Tide, The Trojans, The Screaming Eagles, The Fighting Irish, The Thundering Herd, and The Mean Green. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. You’re in the game!

Gameplay: you can play as one of a huge list of collegiate athletic teams in this years version of the game. Each has it’s own offense and defense and types of plays. The controls are the same as the other football games available. There are a few different modes to play; play now, dynasty, and Road to Glory, and Mascot Mash-up. Play Now is exhibition where you can play any team vs any team.  Dynasty is franchise mode. Road to Glory is “Superstar” (create-a-player) mode.  Mascot Mash-up, where they replace both teams with its mascots and have them battle for the football.

Things They Added:

• Touchdown celebrations with mascots/team specifics such as Texas giving devil horn sign
• Realistic traditions (touching the Rock, the Smoke in Miami, and tapping the sign at Notre Dame)
• online league pass

Graphics/Sounds: Overall, the stadiums and player models seem legit, and realistic. The graphics and sound seem crisp and no real problems.  The menus and games are filled with the different fight songs from each school.

Multiplayer: There are 3 different modes of multiplayer.  Online matches (player/ranked), Online Dynasty, and Split-screen (versus/co-op) You can have up to 4 players per game, and 12 teams per dynasty league. To utilize the online portion you have 3 options.  Each new, packaged copy of the game comes with a code for EA League Pass.   If you get a used copy, EA has a 7 day trial for each game.  They also have said that you can buy a pass via XBL or PSN.

Overall: Each year, the sports genre gains more steam, trying to outdo last season’s versions of said game. We buy the games for trophies, achievements and/or to enjoy the competition between the teams, if this excites you, this is the game you should buy.

Pros:

• Easy Achievements/trophies
• fun to watch the animations, celebrations, and the traditions

Cons:

• EA online pass
• gets tiring after awhile

Score: 8 out of 10

A Copy of this game was provided to the reviewer from the publisher for reviewing purposes.

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