The Heisman Maneuver
EA SPORTS™, the company that holds the exclusive license for the NFL (as we'll see in Madden™ NFL 06, coming soon), has also nabbed exclusive rights for the college side of the game, and that's where NCAA® Football 06 comes in. Not content with simple exclusivity, the developers at EA Tiburon have added a slew of new features that build on their impressive NCAA® Football 2005 release (which was probably the biggest retooling of the franchise to date). One of the most intriguing aspects is the Race for the Heisman, like a Dynasty Mode for players—in this case, an individual player that you design from scratch. It's an engrossing way to spend your four years in school, and an innovation that broadens the appeal of NCAA 06 beyond the usual football fans.
Show them you have all the right moves.
From Small Town to Big Time
Far more than a mere "create a player" system (though NCAA 06 does include the popular and well-built "create a school" option), Race for the Heisman combines all the nuts and bolts of a role-playing game with all the, well, nuts and bolts of a sharp football simulation. Begin your college career at the end of high school, where the coach reminds the team that the college scouts are here to evaluate your skills. Now's your chance to run some drills that help establish your stats—strength, agility, catching, carrying, and the like—as well as the position you're most likely to be chosen for by the scouts (this also gives you an idea of the position you should be playing). After finishing the drills, start picking over the scholarship offers. If you performed well, expect to see offers from NCAA powerhouses (along with their rankings); a poor performance means you have to fight your way up from the gutter at a small school not known for greatness. You don't have to take the offers, either—you can always make your own way (or, as we mentioned earlier, your own school).
Run drills to impress the college scouts.
Modding the Bod
Here's where the personal customization comes in, and it is extensive. Pick your hometown, your position, whether you're right- or left-handed and every last detail of your uniform—from helmet type to facemask to eye paint. Adjust your body, including overall size, muscle mass, and of course hairstyle (which can get wacky, to put it mildly). The interface is easily as deep as that found in many other games that have nothing to do with football, and it's a heck of a lot of fun to play around with. Picking your position is important, and could determine whether you take the big trophy at the end of your college career. Heisman winners tend to be high-profile players, so going for a quarterback (you get two varieties: scrambling or pocket) or maybe a running back isn't a bad idea. Still, any position, played well enough, can certainly earn you a Heisman trophy.
Get your face in all the papers.
The Dorms of Perception
So you've established yourself, found your school, and have your look—now it's time to hit the gridiron and start getting noticed. Your dorm room is the center of this effort, your own personal Batcave that provides access to the season schedule (and also lets you sim games you don't feel like playing), your fan mail, and the most important tracker for your career: the Heisman Hype meter, a simple bar in the upper right hand corner that fills up with red the more people talk about you and your performance. Other clues about your career include the aforementioned fan mail, dozens of newspapers and, eventually, magazine covers touting the accomplishments of your team and their rising star.
The dorm—like a Batcave with a roommate.
The Prize
Getting to that ultimate goal—the Heisman itself—requires a different style of play than you may be used to. You not only take your team to victory, but also keep all eyes on your homegrown superstar. It's a tricky balance, because you (the player) may not always be in the position to do the most showboating, depending on the plays you (the coach) call. Worse, focusing exclusively on building the stats of one player, even when it's you, can be detrimental to the rest of the team. This also means you simulate many fewer games in Race for the Heisman than you would in a coaching-based Dynasty Mode (which NCAA Football 06 also includes, naturally). Participate in each and every showdown yourself. Once you win the Heisman, your homemade player is set to join the NFL … and thanks to EA Sports, that means you can actually take your Heisman winner and start a pro career in Madden 06.
If, that is, you can bring yourself to stop playing NCAA Football 06 for that long.
By Cory Herndon
