chaz k

Im looking to buy a college bball game. Do they both have the same game engine as the pro versions? Any help would be appreciated.

Josh H

Neither have the same engine as Live or ESPN NBA.

Every review I've seen has reccommended March Madness strongly over ESPN College Basketball.

I've played neither, so I can't give you a personal reccomendation. Then again, I imagine few have played both extensively.

dcswirl

I play ESPN alot and I love it. The recruiting process adds a nice touch in where you can play the recruits next high school game. I only played March Madness for a few minutes and hated the feel of it.

jrutz

That's not exactly true:

ESPN College Basketball
Xbox (80.3% average score): http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages4/914727.asp
PS2 (81.6% average score): http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/914726.asp

Pros:
- Better college sports feel, presentation and graphics
- Better announcing, although not quite up to par with other ESPN games. The announcers sometimes tend to be behind a play.
- Better legacy mode
- Online play for Xbox
* Finally someone decided to include the real Purdue fight song!

Cons:
- Isomotion feature not as good as in ESPN NBA
- No separate dunk and shoot buttons, so too many pull-up jumpers and layups in the paint

March Madness 2004
Xbox (81.1% average score): http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/914850.asp
PS2 (80.8% average score): http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/914849.asp

Pros:
- Fast-paced style of play
- Separate dunk and shoot buttons
- Good sound

Cons:
- Dick Vitale's announcing gets really annoying
- Graphics not as good as ESPN. Players look more cartoony than realistic.
- Cheating AI
- Dynasty mode not as good as ESPN
- Online play for PS2 only

XBN and EGM liked March Madness over ESPN, IGN and Gamespot liked ESPN better, and the rest of the scores are about even.

There have been other threads on this same topic (the search function is your friend ):

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=333882
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=334933

Based on my research on the above threads, I ended up getting ESPN College Hoops for the Xbox, and I'm happy with the purchase. I love the Visual Concepts-style of basketball from the days of the Dreamcast, so I'm already familiar with the controls and presentation. The added ESPN presentation is frosting on the cake. Plus the legacy mode is deep - you can recruit high school players and actually play in their games! There are plenty of unlockables like the Crib in other ESPN games, such as new stadiums, teams and uniforms. You get points based on meeting certain milestones during gameplay, and you use those points to purchase the unlockables in the "bookstore".

I might be biased, since I've owned Sega's College Basketball games for two years running now, but this one is such an improvement over last year's game. Plus, it's only $29.99 now so it's a steal. I'd snatch one up quick and get ready for the "real" March Madness...

Jeremy

Josh H

Gamerankings sucks IMO, because it lists so many websites who's reviewers don't know what they're talking about.

So let me rephrase, every print magazine I've seen (EGM, OXM, Gamepro) reccomended March Madness for both tighter gameplay and a better representation of the college atmosphere.

gr8fuldave

I have played both and dearly love ECH. I've played thru three seasons so far and have not tired at all. The legacy mode is by far the best in any game. Recruiting during the season and being able to play as high school recruits rocks. Plus the price just dropped on it to 29.99. To me it has much better gameplay, much better legacy(franchise mode), and looks better to me.

jrutz

EGM
ESPN 6.88/10
March Madness 8/10

OXM
ESPN 8.8/10
March madness 8.9/10

Gamepro
ESPN 4/5
March Madness 4.5/5

GameRankings is good for something, isn't it?

Like I said, XBN and EGM were the only magazines to like MM over ESPN, Gamespot and IGN liked ESPN over EGM, everything else was pretty even.

I was almost set on getting March Madness, since the separate dunk and shoot buttons and the better right-analog control sounded more desirable. But three things steered toward ESPN:

1. Dick Vitale's completely annoying commentary. You can only take so many "Yeah baby!" screams per game, let alone per posession.

2. ESPN overall had a better presentation of college basketball. Better graphics meant better player models, better animation and better stadiums. The game doesn't look like an ESPN presentation as much as the NFL game does, but it's still good,w ith plenty of crowd shots and chants and banners custom to the team. It also has the momentum meter, which is an accurate portrayal of college basketball excitement. Oh yeah, and did I mention EA can't even get the friggin' Purdue fight song in their NCAA titles? A perennial top-25 team in college athletics, and they get a bogus fight song?

3. The legacy and crib modes are bonuses for me, because I have too many games already to occupy my time to worry about playing multiple seasons with full-on recruiting and high-school play. But it was there, and better than what March Madness had to offer.

After all this, it ultimately came down to online play, and ESPN had it while March Madness didn't (for Xbox of course, PS2 has it for both).

I played both, not extensively, but enough to make my decision. Hope that helps,

Jeremy

Josh H

Fair enough, but as I've said before EGM mirrors my tastes the most closely, and the separate dunk and shoot buttons and better atmosphere are huge for me.