March Madness 2003 vs. NCAA 2K3

CityWolves · Post by **CityWolves** » Wed Dec 04, 2002 11:59 pm

Interested to hear some debate on people´s views of EA´s March Madness 2003 vs. Sega´s NCAA 2K3... I´ve purchased and played both and have to say I´ve gotten more playing enjoyment out of March Madness, but I´ll reserve final judgment for the future
 
 I´ve had a little more time to play with March Madness, which admittedly is NBA Live with a few tweaks involving the college game. I don´t know if that has anything to do with my preference for it, but the time I´ve spent today (about 2 hours) with 2K3 hasn´t impressed me greatly. I may be getting really picky, but it´s where 2K3 is supposed to "one-up" MM that I am having a had time accepting it.
 
 The reason I was most looking forward to 2K3 was obviously the inclusion of all 300+ Division I schools which EA has been unable to produce. Being from the midwest and a follower of a few of the mid major conferences, I was happy to have the choice of playing with these smaller schools. Again, at the risk of sounding really picky, How hard is it for them to get the correct towns that the colleges are located in? For example, when playing a game at Western Illinois, I was greeted by, "Welcome to Peoria, Illinois". Western Illinois is located in Macomb, IL. OK, this was just a mere oversight, right? I decided to go with a school closer to me and hosted a game at Valparaiso University, only to be greeted by, "Welcome to Gary, Indiana". VU is located in Valparaiso, Indiana. I don´t want to sound like a perfectionist in this, but how could you get the correct names of the arenas, correct logos, and from what I saw, darn good representation of their rosters?
 
 Another head shaker for me is how a school´s head coach appears to have a new name almost every game. In the games I played, my beloved Hoosiers have gone through three head coaches, and this is just during exhibition play. It looks like the same guy, but mysteriously the name changes.
 
 As I already stated, I give MM´s gameplay a huge advantage over that of 2K3. I enjoy a simulation over an arcade game any day of the week, but after playing with the freestyle controls and being able to back down in the post or do a crossover on an isolation play, 2K3´s less impressive player animation just drives you nuts. I got better looking stats at the end of the game (although IU´s 22 turnovers in one of my games was a tad on the high side, but I´ll take responsibility for them.), but just didn´t have wuite as much fun getting those stats than I did with March Madness, which I believe made a tremendous improvement this year.
 
 Anyways, I figured I´d share a few of my first impressions and open a dialogue on these two games. I look forward to hearing what other people have to say...
 
 Go Hoosiers!!!!!!

CityWolves · Post by **CityWolves** » Thu Dec 05, 2002 11:05 am

Thinking I was a little rough and quick to wirte off 2K3, I did spend a bit more time playing it last night, and I suppose it might be growing on me. I have figured out how to do some moves, and while I still greatly prefer MM´s freestyle controls, 2K3 does give a decent amount of moves that you can perform.
 
 Another adjustment I made was on the camera angles. I finally came across one late last night that I think makes the game more fun than playing with the default view. By using the "side" camera and zooming out, it gives you a decent view of the entire half court and you get a better idea of where the passing lanes are opening and can concentrate on the play movements, which do play an important role in this game.
 
 I continue to have trouble with turnovers in the game. I know I made a couple of ill-advised passes, but I still think it is bordering on ridiculous how many TO´s you have per game.
 
 IU had yet another coach (ironically their most recent coach was Steve Stone, who I think could make a good baseball manager, but I don´t know about a Big Ten head basketball coach). Don´t know why they insist on randomly generating coaches names every single time.
 
 The little things that I mentioned in last night´s post still bug me, but after spending some more time with the game, I think I can tolerate them a little bit more...

Post by **Jared** » Sun Dec 08, 2002 12:20 pm

I´ve just started playing CB2K3, and it´s definitely not as wonderful as I expected. Gameplay is a bit too painful....it´s very difficult to get past a defender on the dribble, the computer zone defenses are too good, and it just doesn´t feel....fun.
 
 But this is just after a few games....I really need to play more before I really give it a strong judgment either way...

Heelfan71 · Post by **Heelfan71** » Sat Dec 14, 2002 9:29 pm

I loved MM. When I first played 2k3, I hated it. Just keep playing it and it will grow on you. Read the manual about the special shots and how to do a spin move. Go to the practice mode and practice shooting. Now, I like it better than MM.

NovaStar · Post by **NovaStar** » Mon Dec 16, 2002 1:15 pm

I had read all of the comments concerning MM and 2k3. I have played coach K for genesis and MM. I have to say that 2k3 is cut above them both. When I see posters saying that this game is bad or painful, I honestly don´t know where these comments are coming from. I have no major problems with the game. True, the fouls could be called more but I get enough called, the foul shooting is damn difficult, and there are others. But when you talk about atmosphere and game play, I honestly don´t know how you can say any other college bball game does it or has done it better. Reasonable minds may differ as to taste and style, but you can´t say this is a bad game, I can understand though if you don´t like it. I happen to love this game. I play with St. John´s (big east) and marcus hatten is averaging about 17 pts per game, my center cuffe is averaging about 16 etc.. I say this to point out that my stars show up. I have no major complaints.

CityWolves · Post by **CityWolves** » Mon Dec 16, 2002 6:25 pm

I´ve never implied that I hate 2K3 or think it is a bad game. There are many aspects of it that will have me playing it in addition to continuing play of March Madness. I think both games are well above average, but in the category of "fun", I´ve just had more of it playing MM than 2K3. This is strange because I am a big college basketball fan (Indiana Univ. Class of 2000) and can appreciate the fact that 2K3 is more of a team oriented game.
 
 I said in another post on here that I really think that this is the first time I can say that we have two games which, if you could take the two entities, put together their strengths, you would have the perfect game. What March Madness lacks, it is a strength for 2K3, and vice versa.
 
 I will still spend a great deal of time playing both titles, as they both are far superior to any previous college basketball effort for a console. The game I had the most fun with previously was the original March Madness on PS1, which I played endlessly and have been seething the past three or four years wondering why EA seemed to have regressed in the newer releases of March Madness.
 
 2K3 has just enough "problems" with it that it rubs me the wrong way, and I really, really, really prefer EA´s Freestyle controls as far as gameplay. This is not to say I won´t occasionally play 2K3 to take advantage of its several strong points.
 
 I will really be looking forward to next year´s games, but until then, I think we have enough to tide us over. I just hope EA doesn´t repeat its deterioration. If they could get off their duffs and sign contracts for the rest of the D1 schools, I think I would have to do cartwheels down the street, which wouldn´t be easy given my height...