Impact Players

After a major overhaul that already saw NCAA® Football 2005 approach near-perfection as an Xbox® football sim, EA SPORTS™ and developer EA Tiburon have pushed the pigskin envelope even further this fall with NCAA® Football 06. In addition to the biggest new feature—the Race for the Heisman mode—and the long-awaited inclusion of the Madden-style "hit stick," the new NCAA introduces the diabolically simple concept of "impact players."

He's ready to make an impact.

Impacted Obstructions
What are impact players? In short, they're the best players (statistically) on your team. In games based on professional sports, it's usually pretty easy to tell who your "impact players" are, even if you only have a passing familiarity with the game. You know the names—Jordan, Favre, etc.—and you know their looks. But the NCAA games are based on college sports—meaning you only get numbers. Everybody knows real-world scholastic athletes don't profit from the game. (No, really, they don't … stop laughing.) To get around this, EA Tiburon has included an impact player identification system, both on the field and in the playbook. When playing, spot your (and your opponent's) impact players by the white circle under their feet; when looking at your plays, your impact athletes have white circles around their numbers. And bam! Just like that, you know who your superstars are. Perform well in the Race for the Heisman mode and your home-grown player has a chance to become one of the elite white circles as well.

An impact QB has an arm like a cannon.

Getting Amped
So you can find your impact players easily enough, and even become one. But what does it mean to use impact players? That's where the fun comes in. Every time an impact player scores, makes a catch, runs for distance, or smashes the opposing offense, he becomes more amped up—in short, he gets closer and closer to "the zone." Eventually, all this effort makes the circle icon pulse on and off, indicating the impact player has arrived "in the zone." It's not unlike the stadium pulse feature, which gives you more general, team-based bonuses when you get your home team crowd really rockin'.

Spot impact players in the playbook.

Zoning Out
When your impact player gets "in the zone," he's capable of amazing feats of footwork and seemingly superhuman acts of athleticism. It's not something you can pull off every thirty seconds, either, because getting in the zone takes effort and skill. Get an impact quarterback in the zone, and his arm becomes a cannon and his feet dance away from the blitz. Other players make amazing catches, spin out of tackles without using the spin button, and generally become onfield powerhouses—if you know how to use them.

That, ultimately, is the most important feature of impact players. They are only as good as the player that's controlling them (you). If you're new to NCAA 06, consider putting in some serious time playing the Race for the Heisman mode, for example, or at the very least run through the tutorials first. That way, you build up the skills that let you make an impact—and then some. Impact players, in one form or another, have long been a part of sports video games, but no one has ever put them into practice quite like this. It's just one more reason to check out NCAA 06!

By Ben Barker