NCAA GameBreaker 2001
- September 11, 2000 00:00 AM PST
Fight team, fight! Sony's NCAA GameBreaker 2001 college football sim returns to the gridiron to battle for a Bowl invitation.
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One For The Gipper
Gamers familiar with Sony's NFL GameDay 2001 will find many similarities in GameBreaker. The menu interface is a bit better, but gameplay is essentially the same, except of course, for the differences in college ball rules.
Five gameplay modes, including Scrimmage, Fantasy League, Tournament, Bowl Season, and Career, give the armchair quarterback a good number of game options, and there is a recruiting option for building your team into a dynasty. One nice addition in the Career mode lets you take a number of different jobs such as Special Teams Coach in addition to the traditional Head Coach position. Here you can build your team's program and tender better offers from bigger schools if you're successful.
Two For The Gipper
GameBreaker's control scheme is identical to GameDay, and the control is quite good, but as with any football game, there are a lot of commands to learn and remember, so spending time on the practice field is essential. The Total Control Passing lets you put more finesse on your air game, and it's essential to learn.
On the field, GameBreaker shows some good stuff. AI teammates block well, and the computer mixes up the play calling, but it's really up to you to cover receivers manually. One nice thing about GameBreaker is that you can adjust the AI through the "I.Q." settings or tweak the CPU's offensive and defensive ratings. Of course, you can also choose the overall difficulty of the game with Freshman to Senior settings.
The graphics engine is the same one used by Sony's GameDay. The player animations are smooth, and up close the player models look good, but they look rough when viewed at the best distance for gameplay. Keith Jackson is back to give the commentary from the booth, but while his pre-game intros are good, his analysis of the game during play is repetitive. The college fight songs add a nice touch on top of the boisterous crowd noise, but overall the sound in GameBreaker is merely fair.
If It Ain't Broken�
Overall, GameBreaker 2001 is a fine package that delivers some wild college football action. It's got all the game modes that a college fan would want, and though the sound and graphics are a bit behind the rest of the package, you'd have to be asleep not to get fired up for the college football in GameBreaker 2001.
