ESPN College Basketball 2K4

Online college-hoops play? This is the only game in town.

ESPN College Basketball 2K4 offers a fun and deep hoops package, but it should have borrowed a bit more from its fellow ESPN NBA game.

Back to School
Formerly known as the NCAA College Basketball 2K series, ESPN College Basketball is the latest entry attempting to topple EA?s firm grip on the sport. The biggest problem with the previous installment was its inability to capture the essence and atmosphere of the college game. Luckily, the large ESPN presence goes a long way in correcting that. In the booth are Jay Bilas and Mike Patrick, who do an amazing commentating job that is both informative and precise. Other audio elements like crowd chants and random arena chatter are also handled well. Audio quality in both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions is identical.

The visuals are a bit of a mixed bag with detailed players but an overall generic look. That?s not really the game maker?s fault as the NCAA can?t license the likenesses of amateur players. The crowd cut-scenes are cool but get repetitive as the season wears on. The Xbox version has a clear graphical edge over the PlayStation 2, but that?s not to say the latter looks at all shabby.

March Showdown
The game controls, which are nearly identical in both versions, are very responsive, and you?re given a healthy arsenal of options on both offense and defense. Most of the controls and game engine of ESPN College Basketball are based off of the previous year?s NBA game, which has its positives and negatives. The predecessor to ESPN NBA Basketball was the top of its class at the time, but the competition has ramped up significantly since then.

There are some great innovations, like the lead pass from this year?s ESPN NBA game, that are sorely missed in the College version. This becomes a crucial factor considering rival March Madness bases its game engine on basically the same one as its newest NBA Live installment.

Full Curriculum
Online play for both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions is a nice plus for those who have experienced similar competition in the ESPN NBA game. Real-world online play could not be tested at press time, but every previous Visual Concepts basketball title has had uniform performance, meaning it?s pretty smooth but has some lag issues depending on network conditions. Other main modes of play include the standard Quick Game, an enhanced Legacy mode, and the brand-new ESPN Slam Session. The Legacy mode offers great dynasty-style customization like hiring assistant coaches and setting every detail of your schedule. There are also some cool unlockable extras that are tied into achieving various goals, such as hitting back-to-back three-pointers in a game. The Slam Session is a great bonus feature with competitions consisting of button and motion taps in order to perform ratings-grabbing dunks.

ESPN College Basketball is a fine hoops title with a plentiful feature set. It?s not the dominant game that its NBA brother is, but it?s still very worthy of a look.

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