My First Impression

[DreamTeams]

There are two things I look for first in a sports sim... 1) Customization and 2) exciting in-game play. I'm a fictional buff when it comes to sports sim, so customization is important. Also, I usually play in 'god' mode and enjoy watching games play out. That's why I want the in-game to be exciting. Well, after taking the BBCF demo out for a quick spin I like what I see. First, I fiddled around with the custom stuff and am thrilled, to say the least. It's great that the players, teams, leagues and bowls can be edited and customized further. Very nice. It's also good news that Arlie will include an in-game editor with the release. That's huge, as it saves gamers like me so much time and makes for ease of use. This game is going to allow me to create a fictional college football universe that I've wanted to do for a long time. I've begun creating custom art for my fictional universe using the helmet graphic provided with the game. I've already started adding my own custom logos to them. They look great. Creating custom helmets and fields for the teams is going to take some time (there are so many teams) but I'm actually enjoying it. By the way, it looks like the field; stadium and scoreboard are all editable. If the field/stadium graphic can be customized the way I hope it can, gamers will be able to create a complete customized home field stadium environment for each team. That'll open a whole new level in 'true' customization for a text sim that hasn't been seen since OOTP. Because I enjoy watching games, the area I wanted to check out most was the in-game play. So, I started a league and took Air Force. First, I decided to just watch a few other teams’ games. The games played out nicely and were fun to watch. Well, our first game was against Army. I actually decided to coach the game. With the plays and the 'suggest' button at my fingertip I figured why not give it a try. We lost 9-7, but it was a very exciting game. In fact, I've never played a text sim that kept me on the edge of my seat quite like this one (not even OOTP) as far as the in-game goes. In fact, my wife came downstairs to see what all the cheering and frustration was about. I told her I was playing a new game. Anyway, this game has an excellent in-game mode. Probably the best I've experienced as far as generating excitement. I haven’t had as much fun coaching a game since Tom Landry Strategy Football. I can't wait till the full version of BBCF is released. Until then, I'll continue to toy with the demo.