The online modes are just as limited as they were last year – you have your EA handle and aside from cumulative records (from the 07 games), there’s not really much more depth than before. Would it be too much to ask to have some sort of league functionality? Something?
Graphics in the game aren’t bad, but again; when you see the 360 version it’s no contest—the PS3 is far inferior. Textures look good and animations are fine. There is some clipping (not the football kind but the graphical kind) and the always fun ‘player walking right through another player’ on a penalty call. The audio should be so much better than it is – the play by play is rather dated and if you ‘Ask Corso’ a play suggestion, you’ll hear that “AARP says to pick this play” over and over again. Could someone tell me what that means, exactly? AARP is about retired people – so Corso’s retired? Huh? Whatever.
One new feature worth talking about is the play recorder. While in game, every play is saved to your PS3’s hard drive. At the end of the game, you can select plays you which to save for posterity and then upload for the rest of the gaming universe to download. NCAA automatically takes pictures of ‘classic moments’ in game; however it seems as though Stevie Wonder is the guest photographer. During a classic 80 yard touchdown run, instead of taking a picture of the RB shaking off defenders, we instead see a picture of the quarterback’s butt. Let’s not keep that picture for posterity!
As mentioned at the start of the review, NCAA Football 08 is the first college football game released for the PlayStation 3, and boy does it show. If you’re looking at this game on its own without knowing anything about the Xbox 360 version, it’s not bad and at least worth a rental. Knowing the Xbox 360 version looks (and plays) so much better, it’s tough to get excited about this game on a $500 console.
