So there I was a week or so ago winning the Stanley Cup in NHL ’06. Uh, yay, I guess. A few days later I proceeded to do all the off-season stuff this game has to offer (which isn’t much, but whatever). I generally like console off-season features. It’s a nice break from playing the actual games, plus it’s usually not too detailed with tedious shit that you have to do. Well after signing draft picks and a free agent or two, I decided to save. Now you know whenever you save a Playstation game it has that wording on the screen, “Don’t remove card, shut power off, etc.”? Well I now know why you shouldn’t do this. The fucking power went out in mid-save. The kicker? It went out for about 2 seconds. File corrupted. End of story.

I figured this was God’s way of telling me to get up and do something with my life. Was this “something” to devote my time to charity, mentor a youth or visit a retirement home? Well I certainly hope not because my definition of “something” in this case was to go and get more video games. One type of sports game I haven’t purchased in a long time is basketball, so I decided now would be a good time to try this genre out. A few days ago I bought NBA 2k5, ESPN College Hoops 2005 and NCAA Football ’05. Not only did these games cost me less than $10 total, but I think they will tide me over until/if I get a next-gen console a few years from now. I normally buy Electronic Arts sports games, but the ESPN brand seems to get much better reviews over the EA titles when it comes to basketball. I also went with the ESPN brand for basketball because you can import draft classes, which for some reason I want to do; that’s why I also purchased NCAA ’05.

Getting beat by the Charlotte Bobcats is telling me it will take some time to get the hang of the game play for the basketball titles; the last NBA game I remember playing was NBA Live ’95 and NBA Jam on my Genesis. One thing I could have really done without was hearing Stuart Scott on the loading screens. Christ, the developers thought this was a good idea? After a few games Bill Walton’s commentary is still making me laugh. I think I committed only a half-dozen “inexcusable” errors my last game, which is tells me I'm improving.

One thing I like about NCAA Hoops is that you can generate random names instead of those annoying jersey numbers. Thankfully most of the controls are the same as NBA 2k5, although I HATE the way you shoot free throws in this game. In addition, I don’t think you can change the screen angle, which is odd. However, for some reason I’m having more fun playing the NCAA game than its NBA counterpart.

Since I talked about my first two purchases, I might as well give my opinion on NCAA ’05 Football: it’s Madden-lite, which isn’t a negative criticism. The only thing I don’t like with this game are the numbers replacing player names. I’m not complaining though because there are worse things out there, like having to listen to Stuart Scott during loading screens.