College football games have only been around a fraction of the time of their NFL counterparts, but each year their popularity surges and more and more companies hop on the bandwagon. The Gamebreaker series was first released on the PSOne, and despite the fact that it sometimes surpassed its big brother Gameday, it remained second fiddle to the then strong franchise. Thus far, the series has had a difficult time making the transition to the PlayStation 2, but this year NCAA Gamebreaker 2003 has made small strides in the right direction. However, its bevy of problems and quirks make it a difficult game to recommend.

Gamebreakers graphics suffer from the same inconsistency as the rest of the game; some things look great, while others look downright poor. The most impressive aspect of Gamebreakers visuals are the close-ups of players after plays. The camera comes down close to the field and shows off detailed player models, helmets in which the stadium reflects, and some decent looking faces. Unfortunately, this is the only impressive camera angle in the entire game, as the rest of them all seem to hinder gameplay at some point in time.

The kickoff camera, while impressive from a visual standpoint is too far away from the action. This makes the ball difficult to see because its too slow to zoom into the action, causing short kicks from the computer to be extremely difficult to deal with. The default camera for gameplay also has similar shortcomings - its too close to the action. You cant see anything past either side of the line, so there could be a linebacker waiting to blitz and youd never know. Of course, you can zoom out, but this camera takes so long to zoom back in after checking your receivers that youll be playing from a blimps point of view.

There are some nice tackling animations in Gamebreaker, but there arent enough of them. It seems like you see the same generic tackle over and over again, and then suddenly see a tackle from behind where the defensive player throws the player down by the back of his jersey, or a runner getting hit and stumbling forward for a few yards. These moves are great, but they occur too infrequently. As has been the case in previous years there are some clipping problems, and the occasional ball that teleports from a couple of yards into a receiver's hands. Its these nagging issues every year that keep the game from making large strides towards the top.

There are a good number of stadiums included in the game, but a lack of a rowdy crowd, marching band standing behind the endzone, and no mascots or cheerleaders make home field not much of an advantage. This is a huge part of making a college football videogame feel like the real thing, arguably the second most important aspect to do correctly, next to emulating the option play properly.

The rest of games problems all seem to affect one another, making an issue seem worse than it really is. For example, the framerate is choppy, so its difficult to follow the action, and the rain washes the colors out and makes the ball difficult to follow. Either of these problems on their own wouldnt be so bad, but together, theyre tough to deal with. Speaking of the rain, my first six games all took place in the rain, making the whole first half of my season a drab experience. When it finally quit raining, and the sun came out I was blown away by how colorful the jerseys were and how nice the sky was. Its a wonder why something that makes the game look so ugly, is so common.

Gambreaker 2003s audio presentation, while having loads of potential is very disappointing. The legendary Keith Jackson is joined in the broadcast booth by Tim Brant, and while they have an occasional moment where they say something poignant or amusing about the game, their comments typically have nothing to do with what is really happening on the field. There were numerous times where the defense would be shutting out the other team, and then theyd stop the offense for a one or two yard gain. Keith would then say that the defense had better change what they were doing because the offense was rolling all over them.

Even worse than the meaningless commentary was the frequency of which these comments were repeated. After a game and a half, everything that Tim and Keith have to say has been said, and youre forced to listen to them say the exact same thing about recruiting speed every game you play. Theres also a rather obvious bug that occurs on the first play after some kickoffs. As you line up to run the first play from scrimmage, Tim will suddenly blurt out He takes the kick from the 45 or some other phrase that should have been said during the kickoff. This doesnt really hurt gameplay, but its yet another example of whats holding the series back.

As mentioned earlier, recreating the atmosphere of a Saturday home game is essential to making a college football game feel like the real thing. Gamebreakers got no team-specific crowd chants, and other than getting louder and softer the crowd doesnt do much at all. Also sorely absent are the teams fight songs after scoring a touchdown. Theres a little bit of marching band music that plays quietly after a score, but its a far cry from hearing your teams song blaring from the stands.

Gamebreaker has the all 117 Division 1A teams - including some all-time great teams for some of the bigger schools. There are several different play modes that cater to almost any college football experience you could want. Theres a quick play mode for those who want to jump right into a game, a bowl season which is a complete schedule and a bowl game, a tournament season which is a season followed by a post-season tournament, and a career mode.

The career mode is very deep, and allows you to take a coordinator position at a small school, and then by accomplishing certain goals from the athletic department, move on to bigger and more prestigious schools. Here you are forced to not only play well on the field, but also become adept at recruiting to keep your team contenders year in and year out. At the conclusion of each season, you can view graduating seniors, switch strong athletes to skilled positions to fill holes, and allocate your off season time to recruiting. This involves divvying up your time between four regions of the country, and then following up scouting with phone calls to recruits. As would be expected, the blue-chip recruits arent interested in going to small schools, but a good record and a bowl game will get you some good players. While there are several things that you can do in the off season, the menus are poorly laid out, and the first year or two of recruiting is more confusing than it should be until you finally get the hang of it.

The control scheme in Gamebreaker allows you to perform a wide variety of moves, but the button scheme isnt well thought out; rendering some moves so difficult to perform theyre essentially useless. The basic buttons are fine as theyre done just like every other football game out there, but its the special moves that are unusually cumbersome. Both the ineffective juke move and QB scramble are L2 + R2, one-handed catches and high steps are L2 + Triangle, and running a no-huddle requires both analog sticks to be pressed down at the same time. To beat an offensive lineman, you typically need to employ the use of both right and left swim moves. This is easy enough because it involves just the L1 or R1 buttons, but in order to do super swim moves in succession, you are required to go from pushing L1+L2 to pushing R2 + L2. Heck, even the kicking game is tough to get a handle on - youll miss your fair share of extra points in this game. Offering so many moves is admirable, but their limited effectiveness and complexity makes them a negative rather than a positive.

The most important thing to get right in a college football game is recreating the option play. If youre unfamiliar, the option play is when the quarterback takes the snap and rolls left or right with the tailback running behind him a few yards. As the QB rounds the line he can either keep the ball if nobodys closing on him, or pitch the ball to the back just before he gets hit. In theory, the defenders will have all been focused on the QB, so the running back will have lots of daylight. Gamebreakers option play is solid, but theres generally not much benefit in pitching the ball outside as the cornerback or safety always seem to be there to wrap him up.

Speaking of the safety, hes got way too much work coming his way. The linebackers are very ineffective, as they never seem to be where the ball is, even when the balls being run right up the middle. This, combined with generally poor pass coverage and a lethargic pass rush makes playing defense an exceptionally difficult endeavor. The AI is very poor and regardless of what level you are playing, never adapts to what you are doing. Its possible to win games buy running the same play over and over again the entire time. College football games are typically high scoring, but when you do just as well with the controller sitting on the floor as you do with it in your hands, its obvious the defense and overall AI need some work.

Theres almost endless depth in the career mode, but its so easy to score, and the defense is so bad that its not as challenging as it should be. Playing against another person tends to even things out a bit so you cant run the same play 20 times in a row, but you can only have one career mode at a time, so an exhibition or tournament is the only way to play someone else.

Once you get the basic controls down, Gamebreaker provides a decent, yet flawed football experience. Its obvious that 989 is working hard to revive this series and bring it back to respectability, but there are so many nagging issues, and small, but obvious glitches that theres no real reason to purchase it when there are other, more polished game out there.