What's this? A college football game by Sega? Sega's venture into college football for the first time since the mid 90's seemed to catch everyone by surprise. I was very excited to hear the great news myself seeing how Sega has basically changed the face of sports gaming by putting killer sports title after sports title without even losing stride. While thier games may not be as groundbreaking as they were when they were introduced back in the PS era, they still are some of the best and Road To The Rose Bowl continues the tradition.
First I have not played NCAA 2002 for the PS2 or anyone of their titles since the 2000 season. Knowing that I cannot compare the two games graphically I can compare intangibles of each franchise seeing how I have played enough of each football title. Therefore I will use the NCAA 2000 title for the PS to compare with.
There are many good points about 2K2 and they will no doubt be mentioned, as well as the bad stuff. This title has a more arcadey feel to it than it's EA competitor. In all actuality this game plays much like Gamebreakers except that the game doesn't suck. The gameplay is pretty darn quick and the graphics are pretty good, nothing spectacular. There are plenty of plays to run and the feel of the game goes really smooth. Some people say this is basically NFL 2K2 except with college teams. I have to disagree with that. This game has almost everything that a college football game should have. The band in the background boomin after everyplay, like in real life, the option, legacy mode, the whole division 1a college school roster, and of course stiff competition. In NCAA 2000 I found myself leading the nation in almost every category. In 2K2 I was horrible in my passing attack and the only thing I could salvage was #1 in run, pass and total defense. Whats the problem? Why not a 10 instead of a 8? Well there are many things. In NCAA I loved the custom schedules. If I wanted to take a crappy team to the National Championships then I could put FSU, K State, OU or whoever to give me some strength of schedule merit. In 2K2 This is simply not possible. Say you want to take the Buffalo Bulls to the Rose Bowl you probably can't. They most likley don't play any top 25 teams and therefore will get left out. Also the ranking system is really messed up. Yeah Marshall can be a top 25 team but playing them in the Rose Bowl would never happen. Same with sarycuse being 5th. Sure its random but should OU be at least in the top 25 instead of 64th? This game roots for cinderella teams cause there are about 3 in the top 10. Also there are no standouts on the team. NCAA had their playmakers like 989 with their gamebreakers. 2K2 may give a team better offensive scores if they have a good running back or quarterback but nothing else. Eric crouch probably runs as slow as the backup. What you do get is Primary routes on pass plays which is pretty cool. Also the band gets stupidly ANNOYING at times. Every first down they will paly and it is the same son randomly selected. I was using Texas and they play OU's fightsong as well as Notre Dame's and UCLA. NCAA did a better job with that.The commentary is pretty bad and corny. I heard they use actors and it really shows up here. The kicking is much like the college counterpart with the odd angles and placements making the hashmarks very important. I guess my last gripe is the stupid crowd. You can be up 28-0 and they will boo you. In fact they booed me the whole 2nd half. That was a mjor bug that should have been fixed. I almost turned some games off in disgust because they were annoying. I love lowd crowds but this sounded like a bunch of drunk fans. They boo both the home and away team. I was getting booed in Austin up 28-freakin0! Oh yeah. One more thing. Some locations are messed up. A) the big 12 championship is in Texas Stadium this year not Manhattan Kansas. B) Texas OU is played in the Cotton Bowl not Austin.
I know I know. That was a long paragraph. Sorry. Even with those flaws though, I have to give this a thumbs up to buy. The game is fun and at least has a legacy mode to keep you coming back. While not as beefed up as NCAA this does give DC owners a chance to play some college football instead of leaving them out in the cold.
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