Draft Day Sports: College Basketball

Developer: Wolverine Studios
Platform: PC
Reviewer: Robby Ruggles
 Single Player: 5.0
Learning Curve: 4.0
Presentation: 4.9
Online: 5.0
     What is it about college basketball that creates obsessive fans, and some of the most passionate athletes you'll find anywhere? What is it about college basketball that makes people all over the country come down with the flu in early March? If you don't know yet, open Wolverine Studios' new title, Draft Day Sports: College Basketball and you'll quickly find out. Developer Gary Gorski's self-proclaimed passion is college basketball, and that passion shows through in DDS:CB. This is Gary's second college basketball game and first with Wolverine Studios.

     Recruiting is probably the most addictive aspect of the game, certainly the most in depth, and the first thing you experience after creating your association. Before we get into recruiting, I'll highlight the options you have to create an association. At the initial page to create an association you're given a straight forward list of options. You have the basics: association name, starting year, association logo. You're also presented with options that fans of college basketball should really enjoy. The ability to "allow"" illegal recruiting is in the game, as well as the option to not allow underclassmen to declare for the draft. Finally, you can choose which rating scale to use as well as if conference movement should be allowed. Step two of association creation is where you really get to customize. From this screen you can customize conference names, number of teams, log, and type of playoffs. Team editing is also on this page, allowing you to change team colors, logo, location, prestige, and more. Next, you get to create your coach. You get to choose how well your coach can scout, recruit, developer players and so on. Furthermore, you can set your own personal philosophies on coaching basketball. You can, however, have the game randomize your coach ratings to give you more of a challenge. Lastly, you choose a job from a list of interested schools, and, no, North Carolina is not interested in a rookie coach, you have to earn your stripes. As you can see, the game is really customizable for different types of play. As soon as user created modifications (some already have) start flowing you'll be able to play with modern day NCAA teams or maybe even teams from the past, there is certainly a wide range of possibilities.

     Now to the meat of this game: recruiting. As I stated earlier, your first task as the newly hired head coach of that up and coming team is to recruit. First, you choose which recruiting reports to buy and which camps around the country to send your scouts to. As you start to sift through your players you see high school stats, GPA, interest in your school and grades for different areas of their game (if they're included in your recruiting report). This is where the fun begins. Each week you have tasks you can complete. The athletic director has allowed you a set amount of time to talk on the phone each week, as well as money to attend live games for players or send scouts, and of course you can have the players visit your campus. All of these options are limited, so that you have to make tough decisions on which players to follow that week. As you complete these tasks, a database of information will start to build. You'll get a better idea of the players interests and what type of player he is. Also, you will learn about his parents, and what type of people they are. The parental aspect, probably more than any other, gives you the info needed in case you wanted to do some illegal recruiting. Did he grow up in a poor household? Maybe he "deserves" some cash or a new car for being such a great basketball player. However ethical you decide to act, the goal is to get the players that fit your program and DDS:CB makes that fun while being realistic and in-depth.

     Now it's time to play some basketball. You have your lineups set, you've decided on your strategies, and your read to put on the tie and step foot on the hardwood. DDS:CB, like DDS:PB allows you to play out games in a 2D representation of the game, which allows you to see the action and make decisions based on that action. During the game you can change your strategies on the fly, including situational events such as intentional fouls. You can even yell at the referees, or just work them trying to get an advantage. The players are presented as boxes proportionate to their size. While it's nice to see a size mismatch, the boxes are a little unsightly and akward looking. For online leagues, this 2D presentation is probably one of the most useful features in the game, as it allows you to go back and watch passed games, so you can see how your team did in the most recent simulation ran by your league's commissioner. Being able to see your players in action, makes all the time you put in to recruiting and game-planing even that much more fulfilling.

     Overall, DDS:CB is one of the best looking Text Based Simulations I've ever seen. The game screens are easy on the eyes, and logically organized. There are even more features that I haven?t covered in depth, including the coach "family tree" which allows you to see how your coaches are connected to other coaches in the league, which gives another dimension to the history in your league. Speaking of history, DDS:CB includes a well done almanac that keeps track of your association's entire history, making it easy to look back on the good times and the bad. DDS:CB also allows for online leagues, which takes the game to a whole new level when competing against other humans. Normally, when I write these reviews, I make a point to let you know what the "bad" is in a game, but frankly, I don't see any bad. This can be attributed to the open beta that took place for a few weeks before the official release. There will always be things that different users feel are missing, but DDS:CB delivers on what Wolverine Studios promised and is one of the most well rounded games in the text sim genre. DDS:CB is the whole package, and one of the best text sims in some time.
Discuss this Review
Single Player - 5.0
-The combination of depth and simplicity makes the single player experience top notch.
Learning Curve - 4.0
-As with any game of this depth, there's going to be some learning to do. Fortunately, most options are presented in a straight forward manner.
Presentation - 4.9
-This is one of the most visually appealing games in the text sim genre. Only thing stopping it from getting a 5 is the akward looking squares when you play out a game.
Online - 5.0
-The game is set up so a group of players can seemlessly compete in their own college basketball world.
Overall - 4.7
- If your a fan of college basketball, this is a must have. If your a fan of text based simulations, this is a must have. Overall, this is one of, if not the best text simulation available on the market today.