NCAA Football 2004 starts off the same way as last year, with various face-painted, obnoxious tailgaters screaming the praises of their school. If you don't care to see this sort of thing you can stop reading now and go pick up your copy of Madden like the good drone that you are, because tailgaters are as much a part of college football as the game itself. If this game proves anything, it's that making a college football game means more than changing the uniforms and adding a few option plays to the playbook.

But we'll get back to the presentation in a moment. The game itself moves pretty quick, and that's mostly because the play clock feels a lot shorter than it is. Because it's easy to lose time searching for the right play, the sooner you know the playbook of your team the better off you'll be. The pace can be slowed down to a crawl if you listen to each post-play comment and watch each replay or animation, but all of those are easily bypassed if you're not in the mood.

The playbooks of many teams have been tweaked, some for the better, some not. Some of the plays that almost never worked (counter traps, anyone?) are still there and still don't work. Play action is improved, with better fakes and a brief change of camera angles to make any couch-sitting opponents think you're going to pass.

It is possible to play the "3 Yards and a Cloud of Dust" game plan and just plow ahead with your head down, but running the ball effectively requires a lot of practice and decent blocking. Better blockers hold up defenders longer and allow less cheap shedding. When a defender sheds a block, they'll often just appear in a hole that was wide open a blink of an eye ago. It's not unrealistic that holes close quickly, it just doesn't look as natural as you'd hope.

Passing can be very rewarding, as the game draws a fine line between having to read your receivers and throw before he gets open (because if you wait until he's open to throw, he'll be covered by the time the ball shows up) and penalizing you for throwing too early and having the receiver adjust his route on what he thought was a hurried throw. At first, I was frustrated by a high number of dropped balls. Then I looked at the receiver's "catch" rating. Ouch. The difference between his speed and catch numbers ended up explaining why he was so open all the time but couldn't make the play. And there's nothing subtle about what it's like to play against a good secondary compared to a bad one. The good ones stay in step with the receiver, turn at the right times and leave their feet only when they have to. Overall, long passes in coverage are still easier than in real life, but it's not a bomb-fest.

Playing defense is slightly more hit or miss than offense. Shedding blocks is extremely difficult and hardly ever happens. That means playing defense hinges upon your ability to avoid the block in the first place. When it comes to tackling, timing is everything. It's a lot harder to get knocked back if you time your button press just as you get to the ball carrier. If you jump the gun or, god forbid, dive, you'll be lucky to keep your jock. It seemed like poor cpu tacklers could NEVER tackle, but other than that they do ok. And unless you enjoy playing a down lineman each play, the "Coach's Cam" will become your best friend by giving you a reminder of each player's assignment before the snap.

After playing some matchups over and over again, changing certain things each time, a few things became obvious. For example, substituting my freshman center (with a low awareness) for the starting senior made picking up the blitz a lot harder the whole game. Even against average defenses, the line didn't function as well with less experience. The same goes for the defense, though I experimented more with linebackers and the secondary. You could have three or four of the best linebackers in the country but without a good line they just rack up a lot of tackles and the offense gets a lot of yards. My experiments confirmed one of the basic truths of football: The line of scrimmage and the players on it decide the outcome of a game most of the time. Seems obvious, but football video games are too often decided by the burners in the backfield or down the field. NCAA Football 2004 is more realistic.

Here's what I did not see: A lot of stupid mistakes by highly rated players, a lot of punt returns for huge yardage, a lot of sacks and a lot of ridiculous stats (at least not on "All-American" and "Heisman" difficulty, where I spend my time).

In the play selection screen, the player icon in the formation you're about to choose gives clues as to each player's energy level. A tired running back (something I have no short supply of) is represented by a yellow or brown square instead of green. Whoever made this happen, bravo.

Dynasty mode is the meat and potatoes of NCAA Football 2004, and it's very much like it was last year. You can make yourself the coach of your team of choice, sign a contract and start off by setting your first schedule. One new wrinkle is on the Coach's Report Card screen, where your job security is rated with letter grades. It seems the more successful programs have less job security for a coach. It stands to reason that mid- and low-tier programs expect less, but this system seems to imply that top-tier coaches are fired regularly, which certainly isn't the case. For example, how can Jim Tressel's level of job security at Ohio State be considered a "C?" I'm not saying he'll never get fired, but he seems safe at least for a year after winning the title. Sheesh.

How nice is it to have to find things like that to complain about in a sports game?

Recruiting is also very similar to the 2003 game. You can search prospects by home state, top nationwide and those already interested in your program. Head coach visits, phone calls and assistant coach visits and calls all cost points. Based on your performance, you get a certain number of points to use each week during a five week recruiting period. A new wrinkle is the option to choose what facet of your program to pitch to a prospect, like location, playing time or coaching style. All they need is an option for Escalades and collectible jerseys and it'll be a real sim.

The real reason to pick up this version over last year's are the presentation upgrades. During the game, you'll see stats like the Old Spice Red Zone and other sponsored moments. Of course, it's a commercial, but it's not the same as having a logo cover up your gameplay when the music changes. These are things you'll see during real games, and they just make the video game feel more real.

Every week during the season the game generates new Sports Illustrated covers featuring the big performers of that weekend. Other news also gets custom media treatment, like players of the week and the Heisman race. Instead of just a list of names and stats, your between-game time is filled with enough eye candy to make your mouth water. Fight songs, stadiums, mascots, Heisman hype, ESPN's talking head lineup of Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso – if it reminds you of college football, it's pretty much in NCAA 2004. Some new pre-game and in-game animations are the finishing touches on a great looking game.

Online play is available for the PS2, but not Xbox or Gamecube. Without getting into a debate about the reasons for it (there are other places for that), it must be said that it's a shame things can't be worked out among the big boys so owners of all the systems could expect the same features.

Every year we take turns whining about what was improved and what wasn't, and how fans are expected to fork over $50 for roster updates of the same game they bought last year. Considering the meager gameplay changes in NCAA 2004, those complaints will no doubt be heard again. But it's hard to complain too much because the gameplay of NCAA 2003 was so good to begin with. Instead of trying to make improvements that no one seems capable of (Two words: gang tackling! We need the nation's best scientists on this, people!), EA did a lot of work on the presentation. Whether or not those nice touches between the games are worth $50 is up to you, but if you didn't play this game last year, skipping it again would be an even more egregious error.