Sega Sports: NCAA College Basketball 2K3

With the new Player Editor, player's names appear on the back of their jerseys. The ranking systems let you track your team's performance with weekly top 25 and RPI rankings--and a bubble watch come tourney time. Classic and Custom Tournaments allow you to compete in conference tournaments, the classic field of 64, or create your own custom tournaments from scratch. An immersive college atmosphere is created with school-specific cheerleaders, chants, and fight songs. In role-play mode you can play as one player the entire game.

This game also lets you play online with your Xbox Live starter kit.

I will rate it across a few categories that many Players of games use. Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Value, Tilt.

Graphics - 3.5 stars
The Graphics are good, but not great. Some players look too much like other players, possibly due to the generation process. On a normal television it is often difficult to make out the numbers on each player. It may be better on an HD-TV, but I can not speak to that. Some of the animations are ugly, such as the finish of a jump shot, and the collision detection may be over pronounced at times. Overall the courts look good, the crowds are part of the atmosphere, and there is enough variety to be interesting. It is fun to watch players falling down going after the ball.

Sound - 4 stars.
The crowds are a definite part of the game, as well as the bands. The thing that pulls down the sound is the repetitive phrases of the commentators, though this is somewhat expected as it would take a lot of additional work to cover an entire season with a more variety. The sounds of the game (ie the dribbling of the ball, the squeak of shoes) are not pronounced and do not get in the way. There is no talking by the players, it would be nice if they occaisionally celebrated or groaned.

Gameplay - 4.0 stars
The gameplay is very strong with a certain amount strategy. The coaches AI is poor when it comes to timeouts, and questionable as to substitutions, but you can mannually handle this. Overall the control scheme is easy to learn, but it is different from the NBA 2K3 scheme, which is a bit of a challenge if you come from the NBA 2K series. Passing leaves you very vulnerable to turnovers, but you can return this favor by making an unseemly amount of steals. Errors in the game such as an injury bug, a Roster Export failure, and a few others hurt the game a bit.

Value - 4.5 stars.
There are a number of modes that make this game replayable, even with the same teams. One could play for weeks and never really reach it's depth.

Tilt - 4.0 Stars
I liked NCAA Basketball 2K3 quite a bit. It allows you to do a lot of things. With a few less bugs and a slightly improved Graphics and Commentary this would be a 5 Star game all the way. It is worth its cost, and to top it off, it is fun, admittedly more fun if you are a college hoops fan, or if you ever wanted to lead your school to the NCAA Championship. There are over 200 colleges to choose from, from Elon in North Carolina, to Florida A & M, to the Big names. It is well worth the investment.

It Could be Better, 2003-05-25
This game is good but not great. First of all, the controls are a little hard to get used to. There's no way to know where you are going to pass to and the free throw shooting is really hard. Plus, you can't create your own team in this game, a feature that I really like in college sports games. If you're a huge college basketball fan, though, and you can't wait for the next college basketball game to come out for Xbox then it is worth getting this game.

Mixed emotions from a dedicated gamer., 2003-04-09
This game, despite its numerous faults, was unfortunately quite addicting. With all the "street ball" in the NBA, I found it refreshing to get back to calling the ol' Pick and Roll, or a little 2-3 Zone. The other benefit of this game is the fact all Div. 1 schools, stadiums, and songs are included. Unfortunately, there are quite a few glitches programming wise that wear on the nerves:
-In-side scoring; Post-up your best player, dunk, repeat
-Difficulty; Went undefeated 3 consecutive seasons with the Campbell Fighting Camels (Go Camels!)
-Commentary; This was the most annoying of the glitches, as the commentators would often mix-up who was in the lead or trailing.
-Gameply; Much too easy to steal, especially in a full-court press.

Overall however, with all the problems, I did end up playing over 250 games of basketball, and definately got my $$$ worth. I would recommend it for it's adictiveness, just keep the sound turned down.

Great game with few flaws, 2003-05-31
This game is a must get for college basketball fans. Every division 1 team is there so you use legacy mode to turn Pine Bluff University or something into a powerhouse in a couple of years. The graphics are good and you can rename players from the huge name list. Now the flaws- I know some other reviewer said the free throws would take practice but come on! During the season with Boston College, I made 2 free throws out of over 100 tries and i practiced about 50 of them in the practice mode and made 3. Otherwise from this and the repetitive commentary, this game rocks.

Highly disappointing., 2003-06-03
I was really hoping to enjoy this game, but I was very disappointed to find that it's one of the worst games I've ever played on the XBox. The graphics are poor, the announcers are horrible, and the game play is terrible. By my 3rd game I was stealing the ball 80+ times w/ the game set to the hardest level (not because I'm particularly good or anything). The only thing that is half-way decent is the recruiting mode, but recruiting and simulating a season is only fun for so long.

• ESPN College Hoops 2K5
• NCAA Football 2K3
• ESPN College Hoops
• NCAA March Madness 2004 for Xbox
• Madden NFL 09

• Official Xbox Magazine [with DVD] (1-year)
• Play
• Tips & Tricks Magazine
• Rock N' Fold Chair