Recruiting is the deepest feature. The 07 version was rich enough, but this year it's deeper. There are numerous selectors to pick prospects to recruit: 40 times, list of prospective schools, caliber, star rating and more. You can also select prospects in state or in your pipeline. You can even look outside of your normal recruiting states. Want to expand your pipeline to Alaska? You can do that. You can select up to 35 prospects to put on your board. As the weeks go on, you can call them and ask numerous questions or choose to fly them in for a campus visit. Once they visit campus, you can select three activities.

You'll have some clues as to what they are interested in doing during their campus visit; make sure you sort that out or the trip could be a disaster. This year's recruitment system doesn't seem to leave things completely up to chance. There were times in NCAA 07 where it seemed you'd have a lock on a prospect and suddenly he was gone. NCAA 08 allows you to call the prospect and choose the conversation to gauge his reaction. Occasionally, you can sway even the most uninterested prospect if you know what makes him tick. If you have a great weight room and the player likes it, you'll know or vice versa. If the conversation goes the wrong way, the prospect may hang up on you.

Campus Legend mode takes a huge leap back into high school. It's thoroughly entertaining. Too bad it's so easy to win the state championship and become a five-star prospect. The road to being a high school star is already paved. It's a piece of cake to become a five-star recruit. This will surely grow to be a much deeper sim in the future. What's next? Dating? The prom? EA makes the Sims, after all.

• Graphics: HD is kind to NCAA Football 08 more often than not. The player animation looks fluid and realistic. The problems occur when players run through each other after plays are over and the animation kicks in. The player models look fantastic and yet the sideline security guys look terrible. They're egg-shaped blobs with very little thought put into them. Then again, who is looking at the security guys? The mascots look great, while most of the fans are given a nice blur to make sure we don't pay much attention. You're far better off being dazzled by the stadium detail and the portions of campus that you can see. If you are familiar with a specific stadium you will be impressed by its virtual self in NCAA 08.

A new feature lets you make a highlight reel of the game and put it in your trophy room, called My Shrine, for the future. I've never once gone back to watch a highlight reel, so the value is debatable. Perhaps the only real reason would be to have highlights of crushing your friends. Why would anyone watch a highlight of themselves beating the computer in a video game? The biggest problem with highlights is the out-of-frame photos.

EA is the master at dropping in advertising. Pontiac is a sponsor and the weather is brought to us by The Weather Channel.

• Audio: If you don't know your college's fight song you'll get it in all its glory. That's only a taste of what you'll hear. The crowd makes you feel like you are at the game, and the crunching hits make you wince. Even if you don't like the combo of Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, you won't find better video game color commentary. Brad Nessler is there to round it out. Not only is the analysis strong, it is also entertaining.

• Parent's take: Set the game on freshman and let them have at it. This is a fun game for any football fan in your family. Depending upon their age, the game might be a bit too complex for kids — especially against the CPU. There is nothing to fear for kids except a growing need to spend every waking moment playing NCAA Football 08.

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E-mail: ccraine@desnews.com