NCAA (not paid)

For two guys who love college football, the world is looking very good these days.

Over much of the past decade, EA Sports has dominated the sports gaming scene with outstanding series of games like NBA Live, the Madden Series and NHL Hockey. But recently, 989 Studios has made quite a splash in the market with GameBreaker and its pro-football counterpart, GameDay.

With the competing releases of EA Sports' NCAA Football 2000 and 989's GameBreaker 2000, however, Electronic Arts attempts to regain its stranglehold on the market.

NCAA Football 2000 improves upon all aspects of an-already strong 1999 version of the product by increasing the frame-rate and number of animations available and improving a season/career mode that will now satisfy even the most rabid of college football fans.

GameBreaker 2000 boasts superior graphics, better animations and most importantly of all, about 40 ways to taunt your opponent. On the downside, however, Duke can consistently beat Florida State on the most difficult level, a far cry from realism and the Achilles heel of an otherwise strong game.

To call GameBreaker's computer coaching artificial intelligence would be stretching it. Heck, if GameBreaker coached the '98 Broncos, he'd have a hard time beating the '96 Blue Devils, who were shockingly left off the game's all-time greats list.

As surely as Fred Goldsmith will run a draw on third-and-long, the computer opponent will throw the Hail Mary every play if it is down by more than a touchdown in the 4th quarter. And you thought Carl Franks likes go to the air.

Speaking of Franks, you can follow in the footsteps of Duke's fearless leader by playing the career mode on GameBreaker. You can start out as special teams coach at any school in the country, and move your way up the coaching ladder by winning. Unfortunately for Franks, in the game you can't jump directly from running backs coach to head coach.