Review: NCAA Football 06 for XBox

![](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00083G5CQ.01._PC_PU0_THUMBZZZ_.jpg) NCAA Football 2006 for XBox

by Electronic Arts

After an evening of running around shopping with [the misses](http://www.babybrowncow.org/), she wants to go to Kroger to buy some stuff for me to make chili. Right next door, is Blockbuster. I think “Hmm. Maybe I’d like to rent a game!” and then she says “You want to get a game?” See, that’s what love really is about.

I drop her off, park, and go into Blockbuster. They have a itty bitty game selection, and they didn’t have Tiger Woods 06 in. So, I pick up NCAA Football 06 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and wander around the store to decide which to get. I opt for football because the weather is good football weather. I put GTA back and go to check out. The guy rings me up… $7.99!! OMGWTFBBQ! Eight dollars?? “Yeah, they raised prices about a month ago. I’m glad I work here.” I swipe the card, and the receipt printer starts having a fit. It spits out a five foot long strand of receipt (hand to God, it really is five feet long). Apparently someone sued Blockbuster and this was the class action award for paying late fees in the past.

So, about the game… I like it… kinda. Full review below the jump. 🙂

I really enjoyed playing NCAA Football 2005. I mean, really. That’s quite surprising considering I’m not a big football fan. I loved playing the Dynasty mode where you were the coach of the team and tried to make yourself the best coach in College ball. I was pretty good at it.

NCAA Football 06 adds a new mode, Quest for the Heisman. In this mode, you start out selecting what kind of player you are and you are dumped into a practice mode to show off for the scouts. Since you typically are the quarterback in these games, I picked “pocket quarterback” as my position (meaning, I throw the ball). I got out there and had some trouble getting used to the controls again, and ended up getting a scholarship to number 37 Notre Dame. The better you score, the more likely you are to get offered a scholarship at a higher ranked school. (My second time around, I got offered a scholarship to the #1 team).

After you accept your scholarship, you move into your dorm room. It’s a crappy little room with a place for fan mail, your trophies, a computer to view stats on, a copy of the school newspaper, a playbook to let you practice, and a meter to show how much “heisman vibe” you have. But, if you move your cursor correctly, you can highlight the picture of a girl taped to your computer’s monitor. Starting out, my apparent “girlfriend” is really unattractive. I can only imagine as you progress through your four years and get a higher Heisman score, you start dating the porn star looking cheerleader (I’m sure the author of the book I’m reading, Pornified, would enjoy analyzing that).

Okay, gameplay. The practice sessions are supposed to help you score higher points, and help your Heisman scores go up. Somehow, while I can whip teams ranked 25 ranks above me with a score of 70-0, I cannot score higher than 2500 in the practice sessions. Either I’m that lucky during the games or the computer players suck that bad. I’ve found that I am apparently very good, because I have whipped the CPU controlled higher ranked teams 70-0 in two different occasions… but if I simulate a game against an unranked team, I lose. I am just not having as much fun playing it as I did the last time. I guess running a punt back 75 yards for a touch down 4 times in a row is kind of boring. I’ll give it 3 out of 5 stars.