There is a certain ambiance that is prevalent in college football, and once again NCAA Football 2004 does a fine job of capturing it - starting with new models of many of the college stadiums and ending with the many rivalry games that occur each year. There is even a separate game mode for the rivalries where you can play as either team. No need to play through a season with a team just for the rivalry game. Speaking of which, noticeably absent this year is a season mode. While the dynasty mode is incredible, it was fun to just play through one season with a random team for the heck of it.

Ah the dynasty mode. It's like an armchair coach's dream come true. The schedules are customizable once again, at least the non-conference schedule, and the biggest addition has to be the Sports Illustrated section. Each week a new "cover" is presented. The covers have pictures of the players in various poses as well as headlines that, for the most part, could be written by an actual sportswriter. Did you pull off that big upset last week? Check out the cover of Sports Illustrated and there you are; immortalized for all time. It's a somewhat subtle addition, not really adding to the actual game play but it's one of those little touches that make a game great.

The off-season portion of the dynasty mode features a couple of important additions. The first is the ability to attempt to convince underclassmen that are leaving to remain in school for another year. What a great idea. Is your star running back bolting early for the pros? At least now you have a chance to keep him for one more year.

Recruiting has been improved once more. In previous years it was sort of a crapshoot, you selected the player you wanted to recruit and invested points by selecting visits or calls from your head coach or assistant coach and hoped that the recruit would commit to you. This year you actually have a way to better control recruiting by means of the pitch. The pitch is a selectable option for how you attempt to recruit the player. You can pitch location, school prestige, coaching style, and/or playing time. This small, but vital, addition to recruiting has really energized the process. Before recruiting was somewhat of a bore, you just hoped you got lucky, but now you can modify your recruitment in an attempt to secure more, and hopefully better, players.

While the dynasty mode may be the armchair coach's dream, the game itself is the armchair quarterback's. The graphics and animations are as smooth and as slick as can be expected. There isn't any noticeable awkwardness in the way that the players run and shift directions, spin, juke, dive or whatever else you want to make them do. The stadiums are magnificently done. The player models are spectacular and even the coach models are done incredibly well.

The gameplay itself is smooth as silk. Controlling your players can be daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature. Once more, new player moves and animations have been put into the game. Calling plays is especially intuitive. Once again the AI will recognize and learn your patterns in play calling, making money plays especially effective. That is, money plays that are done by play calling setup - run the ball up the middle of the defense several plays in a row, then call a play action pass and watch as you've got receivers open everywhere. Playing defense is just as solid as playing offense. Like on offense, the AI will recognize your play calling, so it's important to mix your coverage and blitz calls in order to succeed.

Added in is the fine, but still repetitive, commentary of Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, and Brad Nessler. Even the commentary did not escape the changes made for this year's game. In between possessions, quarters, and halves, Nessler will even stop to mention that the game is brought to you by EA Sports. Though it is not exactly innovative, the commentary also refers to previous drives and possessions while you are playing, adding that much more to the dynamic feeling of the game. There is one noticeable problem with the commentary: on certain occasions it gets so low that you can barely hear it. While this might be an attempt to further emphasize the effects of crowd noise, it just ends up being annoying and takes a bit away from the game's otherwise superb sound.

If you're new to NCAA Football, or just football in general, Tiburon has you covered. They've added in a mode called NCAA 101, a series of six lessons that teach you how to run, pass, run the option, play defense, and play special teams. They are done surprisingly well, and even a seasoned vet might pick up a trick or two to add to their arsenal while watching the tutorials.

Though it certainly bears more attention, an online mode is present in the game. Unfortunately I have yet to procure a network adapter for myself so I've been unable to test the online waters. From everything that has been reported though, the online mode has much more to offer than the online mode present in Madden last year, including win-loss tracking, stat tracking (both offense and defense), and voice chat via the SOCOM headset. There are no organized season or tournament brackets, but you can track your friends via the online chat messenger. However, if you have the Gamecube or Xbox version of NCAA Football 2004, you won't be able to play the online mode as it's exclusive to the PS2.

If online isn't your bag, and neither is building a dynasty, then NCAA Football 2004 still has a few extra modes to offer, including a Classics mode where you reenact some of college footballs most memorable moments. From Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass to last year's thrilling championship game. Though be forewarned that some of these Classics are particularly hard to recreate. There is also a Mascot mode, where you can play as various teams but instead of actual players every member on your team is the school mascot.

Rounding out NCAA Football 2004's features is the create-a-team and create-a-player modes. Can't find your small time college among the games 300+ (that's including the unlockable ones) teams? Don't worry. With the create-a-team you can easily create your school, even dictating what type of team they are. Whether they are smash mouth program or an air-it-out program, the choice is yours. Similarly, there are really no boundaries in creating a player. Creating a team of super men is once more within your power.

With all the updates and new features, especially the online mode for the PS2, NCAA Football 2004 is definitely worth the price of admission. Tiburon continues to amaze each year with their efforts. If you're a hardcore college football fan this is THE only game to own. If you're not, unfortunately, it's still the only game you can own. Don't fret though; this year's game is definitely the best yet in the series and an excellent simulation of football in general.