Total College Basketball Review (PC)
Submitted on: Apr 19, 2006 by Aaron HolbertIt's this simple: I love basketball and in the past I have absolutely loved playing text based sims like Out of the Park and Front Office Football. So one would think if I played a game that combined the two, I would love that also. Well….not really. I have played every single text based basketball game released in the last seven years and I’ve yet to find one that kept me interested for more than a few seasons. The list is pretty long: Coaching A Dynasty, Fast Break Basketball, Tournament Dreams College Basketball and Total Pro Basketball are just a few of the games that I’ve played and they were all missing a few features that kept them from being a complete game. Now we have Total College Basketball from Grey Dog Software and just from reading the feature set it appeared that this was the game I have been looking for. Playing the game confirmed to me that it was.
When I say this game is incredibly deep, I absolutely mean it. Let me take you through the beginning season: Once you have accepted a job you have to assign responsibilities to your assistant coaches, choose which all star summer camps you want to visit, choose which recruiting service, begin recruiting players by calling them, watching game tape and inviting them to campus. All of this happens before your team sets foot on the court. Some may find this to be too much but I really like this aspect of the game. There is a strategy to deciding which camps to attend and how aggressive you are when pursuing a recruit. The skill and planning that it takes to recruit a player makes it very rewarding once you sign one.
The recruiting system is very well done. The system is very similar to the system found in many console and text based sports games but in some ways is much deeper. This is the first game I’ve played where players will give you verbal commitments before the season. What’s great about this is just like in real life; recruits can change their minds and renege on their original commitment. Also, just as in real life, your team’s prestige, coach’s personality and school’s facilities and commitment to academics play a role in recruiting. One thing I love is that coaching at a small school does not limit you to only being able to recruit players in your area. In real life, a mid major like George Mason will recruit the majority of its players from the local area but will be able to pull one or two players from high schools from other states. In Total College Basketball, the same is true. As head coach of St Joseph’s, most of the players that were interested in my team where from the northeast region, primarily in Pennsylvania. However, I was still able to successfully recruit a few players outside of my region.
The on-court action is handled the same as every other Grey Dog Software offering. There is a 2-D court with icons that represent each player on the court, a play by play window, a scoreboard and a coaches section where you can call plays, call timeouts etc. The icons move according to what offense or defense the team is running and it is so fluid that you can follow the action by watching the court or the play by play window.
One of the most important aspects of any text based game is the stat engine and Total College Basketball does this very well. First, all of the expected statistics are documented in this game like points, rebounds and assists per game and the results are accurate for the most part. There are some statistical errors found in the sim engine on a game by game basis. For example, in a game against Syracuse, the leading scorer on the Orange scored 44 points on 6/26 shooting from three point range. I have never seen a power forward shoot 26 threes in a game but it happened in this one. Also, I don’t think there is a coach on this planet that would let a power forward miss 20 threes and keep going to him. Thankfully, this was a one time occurrence and situations like this didn’t appear in other games. Second, this stat engine separates the post season statistics from regular season’s statistics which is something that I have never seen in a text based basketball game, pro or college. Finally, the stat engine isn’t just deep when it comes to season stats. The game features a "History" section that covers everything from past tournament winners to former award winners to a coaches win-loss record against another team. I absolutely love that 5 years into a career, I can look back and see who the conference defensive player of the year was in my first season coaching.
The biggest issue I have with the game is the interface. This game allows you to do so much that it is sometimes difficult to navigate. It took me a while to find the button that allows you to advance to the next week because it wasn’t clear from the interface how to do this. The in-game substitution screen is also confusing because it wasn’t clear where to drag and drop a players name and even if you found the right place sometimes the game would not recognize the change. The recruiting screens and stat screens are well organized though. I just wish that it was easier to navigate some of the options found in the home screen.
When the only complaint that you have about a game is the interface that means the game is really good. I used to be a huge text based sim fan but in recent years I’ve found myself playing them alot less. After playing Total College Basketball, my love of text based sports sims has been restored. This game does an amazing job of simulating what it’s like to be a coach and provides all of the tools to become totally immersed in the world of college basketball. If you have any interest in college basketball or text based sports games, download this game immediately.
When I say this game is incredibly deep, I absolutely mean it. Let me take you through the beginning season: Once you have accepted a job you have to assign responsibilities to your assistant coaches, choose which all star summer camps you want to visit, choose which recruiting service, begin recruiting players by calling them, watching game tape and inviting them to campus. All of this happens before your team sets foot on the court. Some may find this to be too much but I really like this aspect of the game. There is a strategy to deciding which camps to attend and how aggressive you are when pursuing a recruit. The skill and planning that it takes to recruit a player makes it very rewarding once you sign one.
The recruiting system is very well done. The system is very similar to the system found in many console and text based sports games but in some ways is much deeper. This is the first game I’ve played where players will give you verbal commitments before the season. What’s great about this is just like in real life; recruits can change their minds and renege on their original commitment. Also, just as in real life, your team’s prestige, coach’s personality and school’s facilities and commitment to academics play a role in recruiting. One thing I love is that coaching at a small school does not limit you to only being able to recruit players in your area. In real life, a mid major like George Mason will recruit the majority of its players from the local area but will be able to pull one or two players from high schools from other states. In Total College Basketball, the same is true. As head coach of St Joseph’s, most of the players that were interested in my team where from the northeast region, primarily in Pennsylvania. However, I was still able to successfully recruit a few players outside of my region.
The on-court action is handled the same as every other Grey Dog Software offering. There is a 2-D court with icons that represent each player on the court, a play by play window, a scoreboard and a coaches section where you can call plays, call timeouts etc. The icons move according to what offense or defense the team is running and it is so fluid that you can follow the action by watching the court or the play by play window.
One of the most important aspects of any text based game is the stat engine and Total College Basketball does this very well. First, all of the expected statistics are documented in this game like points, rebounds and assists per game and the results are accurate for the most part. There are some statistical errors found in the sim engine on a game by game basis. For example, in a game against Syracuse, the leading scorer on the Orange scored 44 points on 6/26 shooting from three point range. I have never seen a power forward shoot 26 threes in a game but it happened in this one. Also, I don’t think there is a coach on this planet that would let a power forward miss 20 threes and keep going to him. Thankfully, this was a one time occurrence and situations like this didn’t appear in other games. Second, this stat engine separates the post season statistics from regular season’s statistics which is something that I have never seen in a text based basketball game, pro or college. Finally, the stat engine isn’t just deep when it comes to season stats. The game features a "History" section that covers everything from past tournament winners to former award winners to a coaches win-loss record against another team. I absolutely love that 5 years into a career, I can look back and see who the conference defensive player of the year was in my first season coaching.
The biggest issue I have with the game is the interface. This game allows you to do so much that it is sometimes difficult to navigate. It took me a while to find the button that allows you to advance to the next week because it wasn’t clear from the interface how to do this. The in-game substitution screen is also confusing because it wasn’t clear where to drag and drop a players name and even if you found the right place sometimes the game would not recognize the change. The recruiting screens and stat screens are well organized though. I just wish that it was easier to navigate some of the options found in the home screen.
When the only complaint that you have about a game is the interface that means the game is really good. I used to be a huge text based sim fan but in recent years I’ve found myself playing them alot less. After playing Total College Basketball, my love of text based sports sims has been restored. This game does an amazing job of simulating what it’s like to be a coach and provides all of the tools to become totally immersed in the world of college basketball. If you have any interest in college basketball or text based sports games, download this game immediately.
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