Now that summer's here, I've been playing lots of the games I didn't have a chance to during the school year. It's been interesting.

I keep reading that NCAA Football is Electronic Arts' second string game behind Madden. That is so grossly unfair. NCAA rocks. It is reason enough to own a PS2. Heck, if it were out on the PC, I wouldn't even own a PS2 probably. Madden does have the aesthetic edge, but the 2004 version feels sluggish to me in terms of navigating menus and waiting on the field. I used to be OK with the commentary, but it is now just getting on my nerves. Too often, what is said has nothing to do with what's going on the field.

Even though Madden is EA's premiere title, NCAA is where the heart is. You can tell that for the people on that team, it's a labor of love. Ironically, I'm not even a big NCAA football fan, but, for me, it's the best version to play.

I hope, though, that in future versions the same attention will be paid to audio that is paid to the graphics. There has to be a way to get better, more accurate commentary. If Earl Weaver Baseball could handle player names in the '80s, you would think someone would be able to program it now. Speaking of that classic, I learned so much about baseball strategy from playing that game--and it was seamlessly integrated into the gameplay. I still struggle with football strategy after years of playing the various pro and college incarnations from EA. Why is that?