College basketball has always been the red headed step child of sports video games. While oodles of development money is sunk into big time games like Madden and the NFL 2K series, college basketball is usually viewed as an also-ran. Even the mighty EA Sports' college basketball game, March Madness, is a yearly underachiever. This is part of the reason why ESPN College Hoops 2K5 is such a monumental surprise. It's deep, fun, and if not for some bug issues, would be a Grade A product.

The Hardwood



The on the floor play is both fun and refreshing; College Hoops manages to avoid many of the stumbling blocks that plague today's basketball games. Perhaps the best part about the gameplay is that every player on the floor can contribute. In most games, and especially in previous editions of College Hoops, bench players with poor shooting ratings struggled to make open lay-ups, let alone get hot and score in double figures. This year, if a player gets on a roll or is left open they can nail that 12 foot jumper and it helps to open up the entire game.



That's not to say that the gameplay is static and predictable. On the contrary, you may score 25 with your star point guard in one game and the next he may struggle and score eight points and foul out. Each contest plays out like its own mini drama, which is really what makes it such a joy to play.

Perhaps the biggest issue with most basketball video games is a lack of fouls, specifically shooting fouls. College Hoops, especially after tweaking the in-game sliders, does not have this problem. While at times the ref likes to keep his whistle in his pocket, it's not uncommon to shoot 20 free throws per game. How many basketball games are out there that you really have to worry about a player's foul trouble on a regular basis? Little things like this really help separate College Hoops.

Speaking of free throws, the system used to shoot them is unique and works wonderfully at first. There's no "shot meter" at all when taking a foul shot. It's all timing based and the margin of error you have depends on how well the player shoots free throws. The only problem is that it needs to be a bit tougher; once you master the timing of this system you can shoot 80% from the line regardless of the skill of your players.

Another potential snafu, rebounding, is modeled extremely well. . Each game you'll see offensive rebounds that make sense, nothing appears scripted at all; it's all about positioning and timing rather than the game deciding it's time for your team to get a rebound. If there's a major beef with the gameplay it has to do with two key things: three-pointers and animations.

Most college basketball teams rifle off anywhere from 15 to 30 three pointers per game ·even bad teams shoot a lot of threes. It's an integral part of today's college game. In College Hoops, the CPU AI will shoot a three-pointer only with players that are highly rated in shooting from beyond the arc, which means if you play against a team that doesn't have a three-point specialist then they'll only shoot a few three-pointers for the entire game. In reality, many college level players can nail an open three, and the AI needs to shoot more ·especially when left wide open.

Finally, College Hoop's answer to EA Sports' FreeStyle is ISO Motion ·and it's not nearly as good. The players do their special moves in slow motion, and taking a player to the basket with a highly skilled guard is a lot tougher than it should be. Additionally, players still go into this bizarre hook shot animation when shooting underneath the basket. It looks downright goofy. Instead of just laying the ball off the glass, a player will sometimes turn his back to the rim and flick the ball over his head like a mini sky hook. This was also in the game last year and it's surprising that it hasn't been addressed.

Despite some weird shooting animations and issues with ISO Motion, the player movement is silky smooth. The game looks much, much better than EA's March Madness 2005 ·and it's not even close. The arenas are pretty much dead on accurate and the players look and move much better than the weird looking models used in t he EA Sports game. The atmosphere, on the other hand, still needs work. The band plays at odd times and gets cut off in mid song and on top of that the songs are all generic; you never really get the feeling you're playing in a packed house.

Recruiting 101



On the floor College Hoops is a real winner despite some hiccups, but its recruiting model is absolutely fantastic ·when it works. The year round recruiting model takes careful planning and strategy to land the recruits you set your sights on. You get a set number of recruiting points and have to manage them wisely, offering visits and scouting trips to the proper high school players. As coach you also get to plan practice schedules and decide which assistant recruits each player. It's heady stuff.



There are two ways to play the game's Legacy mode, which in turn allows you to recruit players: Open and Career. Open legacy lets you pick any school you wish and you go from there. The Career legacy is where it gets fun. You have to take over a small struggling school (such as Navy or Norfolk) and turn the program around through winning games and recruiting better talent (which go hand in hand). Landing one top recruit can turn your whole program around. After a few winning seasons you'll be offered a job at a better school as you rise up the coaching ranks. It really is a fulfilling gaming experience to finally get offered a job at a top school after toiling in the Patriot League for a few seasons. The recruiting model really makes the game shine when combined with its gameplay. It's really the icing on the cake.



The Madness

While the madness of the 64 team tourney is in the game, the real madness is in the number of annoying bugs that made their way into finished product. The most annoying is when you load your career legacy and all of the data is corrupt; all of your contacted recruits are nowhere to be found and you're basically stuck but turning off the Xbox (not restarting, but rather powering completely down) fixes the problem. It's a bizarre bug but it's one that happens far too often. Most of the bugs in the game have workarounds but it's still no excuse for such sloppy execution.