'NCAA Football' update is a blast

"NCAA FOOTBALL 08," Xbox 360, EA Sports, rated E-for Everyone (reviewer's rating: 9 out of 10)

Another year, another NCAA Football game. Fans of the franchise will be happy to know that most of the tweaks were in all the right places.

On offense, NCAA Football 08 doesn't feel much different than 07. Frankly, that's a great thing. If it isn't broke, don't fix it. Anyone who's a big fan of EA's NCAA Football franchise can put the game in, push start, and hit the turf without much thought.

There are a ton of plays to choose — not many have changed from previous years. However, the trick plays seem to have been improved — or the computer defense is worse than in previous releases.

Another change is the right shoulder button used before the snap. In the past, pressing the right shoulder showed play routes. Now if you press the right shoulder button and up on the right stick, you'll see the routes. If you press down you'll see player motivation. When carrying the ball, the right stick is used to juke. The rest of the buttons are exactly the same as last year.

One thing you'll notice on offense, against the CPU, is how hard it is to make great gains. If you move up the difficulty scale, you'll be in for a real challenge — even at the varsity level. If you are up for a beating, try the Heisman level and watch your team get destroyed by even the worst college team.

Defense has never been as much fun — especially if you love to blitz. There appears to be a glitch on defense that allowed the Jayhawks to rack up 30-plus sacks for two players in a season. The trick is taking a decent defensive end and lining him up behind the nose tackle and running a blitz with eight men in the box. That will help destroy the offensive line. Just don't do it too often or the offense will get wise and burn you deep. If it can work for the awful Kansas Jayhawks, imagine what you could do with Florida.

Dynasty mode hasn't changed significantly from last year's edition. Dynasty has so many fantastic features that you might find yourself doing things other than playing football: recruiting, red shirting and changing the schedule — enough to eat up hours on end.