NCAA March Madness 07

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EA's next-gen college hoops debut serves notice that two can play at this game

Words: Richard Grisham, GamesRadar US

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Unfortunately, the on-court gameplay is slightly choppy and significantly less smooth than we're used to from its rival College Hoops 2K7. To be sure, the most egregious problems that surfaced in its pro hoops cousin have been eliminated, but we've still got a few issues with the frame rate.

The controls are more than adequate, with two different shot buttons - one for jumpers and the other to jam home the rock in the paint - to go along with a Freestyle stick that'll enable your more gifted athletes to spin and juke past dumbfounded defenders. Steals and turnovers happen far too often on both ends of the court, though; passes get intercepted at a rate that borders on ridiculous (for and against you).

Online play exists, albeit in pretty basic forms of ranked and unranked games - no leagues (bummer). Our games on Live ran even less smoothly than the offline ones, so that has us frowning a bit too. On the other hand, the kick-ass ESPN integration is fantastic, especially for us sports junkies who no longer have to exit the game to see or hear the latest scores, news, and commentary from all of the network's personalities. Of course, if you're the owner of any other EA '07 sports titles, this feature is nothing new.