Video game review by ERIK LEIJON

Last year, I wouldn’t have given EA’s NCAA Football (Multi/EA, Tiburon) a chance. American college football was a distant third behind the NFL and the CFL (which really deserves its own game), since to someone without an American collegiate affiliation it merely looked like an inferior version of football with 20-point spreads. This year I was really excited, for one obvious reason and one less overt. The latter was watching Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich playing on one leg in the 2001 GMAC Bowl, being carried to the huddle by his team-mates. It was a curious display of fanatical determination.

As Jane Goodall would tell you, it’s one thing to observe from afar, and it’s another to immerse yourself. I spent the latter half of 2005 not in Montreal, but on the football-mad campus of Colorado State University. There I witnessed first-hand what it’s like to live and die with your football team—tailgating in the stadium’s parking lot, flipping burgers on a hibachi while your fellow Rams chug Coors in the backs of their Ford pickups. In a matter of weeks, I went from not giving a shit about college football to having my bowels react violently to every handoff.

What do my meagre experiences have to do with NCAA Football 2007? Unfortunately for EA, while this is a perfectly fine football game that faithfully reproduces the on-field experience in your living room, the intangibles that truly make college football a transcendent experience cannot be re-created. What you are left with is a great football video game without any official players, who are less talented than their professional counterparts. Outside of being able to play as your favourite college team, what reason is there to pick up this game when the latest Madden NFL football will be hitting shelves shortly?

Credit to EA, Campus Legend mode is different enough from Madden’s Superstar mode that true football fanatics should enjoy it. As a freshman, players get to choose their school and major. The major matters, since keeping your GPA up is as important as your in-game performance. Granted the majors range from vapid to uninspiring (does Concordia have an “ESPN” major by any chance?), but EA gets points for giving it the, err... college try. Sadly, EA took the G-rating route with your player’s social activities.

The gameplay has a solid new kicking scheme, hopping on the current dual analog stick bandwagon. The new system finally recognizes the importance of the onside kick. The player models are simplistic and don’t look as good as the Madden players. The canned sound, especially when it comes to the team marching bands, fails to capture the electricity of the real thing. The crowd also plays a huge role (notice the decibel metre during the games), but it would have been nice if the crowd were more than just an ugly, jagged blob.

NCAA Football 2007 is a good game, but since the NCAA game is naturally inferior to the NFL, its inability to succeed where the college game actually outclasses the pros is disappointing. I’m not sure how EA can do it, but I’d like them to try something creative, since the gameplay needs little refinement.

Zip Zap

I’m already not too fond of the ridiculously long earphone cord fad made popular by the iPod, and now that shocking display of vanity and subtle marketing requires something to protect those silly, endless white cords.

The ZipWraps Automatic Earphone Retractor from Digital Innovations is serviceable at preventing tangles. It’s more durable than it looks, but it just seems this product wouldn’t be so useful if you just bought sensible earphones. Check www.digitalinnovations.com.