NFL Fever 2004
System: X-Box
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer:
Microsoft
Released: August 2003
Genre: Sports (Football)
Capabilities:
Memory Unit, Custom Soundtracks, System Link, X-Box Live online play,
Communicator Headset
Review Written: September 22, 2003
Microsoft wowed everyone with the Xbox launch debut of their first party
football title, NFL Fever 2002. It ranked right up there that year with
Madden and the then NFL 2K series, and became an instant favorite
among fans. However, last year Microsoft didn’t really add anything special to
make a few of the annoying gameplay flaws (such as easily making long bomb
passes) disappear. While the developers added quite a bit of new features such
as the XSN sports network integration, and the innovative “read and lead”
passing control, the burning question is will it bring the series back up on par
again with the big dogs? Let’s take a look and find out.
I’m going to hop right into the biggest addition to this year’s game, which is
the read and lead passing control. How it works is after you select which
receiver will get the ball, a target reticule will appear by the receiver on the
field, and you then use the right analog stick to place it where you want the
receiver to catch the ball. Once the desired spot is found a pressure sensitive
press of the R trigger will determine if the ball is lobbed (soft press) or
beamed (hard press) to the target reticule. Of this sounds awfully complex to
you, then don’t fret, I was the exact same way. The new training camp mode will
give you drills so you can get the timing of read and lead passing down to
perfection. It took me a few games to finally get a solid feel for the controls
of this creative control scheme, and the only real downer is with all the time
it takes to lead the target reticule to the desired location, don’t be surprised
to see the QB getting sacked a little more than usual.
All the in-game controls are a bit different from the typical pigskin title,
with a few changes that caught me off guard. For example, with Madden and
ESPN Football I’m use to tackling and diving with the ball carrier with
the X button in the aforementioned titles, but Fever’s default scheme has
it set to dive the ball carrier with the hard-to-reach black button, whereas to
tackle on defense is done with the B button, and the X button operates to change
players on defense instead. I lost track of how many times I kept blowing plays
where I kept pressing X thinking I’d make a last effort tackle, where instead I
just ended up switching players. To me, these default controls will take a bit
more of getting use to than the read and lead passing itself. Yes, I guess I
could have just toyed with control schemes until I found one that satisfied me,
but I like to stick with the default controls because I always keep in mind it’s
the default scheme the developers intended the game to be controlled the best
with. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here. Of course, if you’ve played and
adapted to the past Fever games then just ignore this bit of rambling,
but for gamers looking for a fresh new gridiron game they can pick up and play,
just consider this your forewarning.
NFL Fever 2004 has all you standard gameplay modes like practice, and
exhibition games. A couple of new options under practice debut in the Fever
series this year with the additions of Training Camp and Chalk Talk. The
Training Camp is a series of drills to get you familiarized with the game’s
controls, I find this especially useful to learn the ropes of read and lead
passing. Chalk Talk is the equivalent of the tutorial videos found in this
year’s Madden where one of the announcers will guide you in several video
packages through offensive and defensive controls, and learning some of the more
advanced techniques like pre-snap hot routes.
The main way to play, Dynasty Mode, has two options to play in. One is the
classic team tournament where you vanquish the seven greatest teams of the NFL’s
past, one-by-one. The other is the standard Dynasty mode which plays nearly
identical to most other Franchise modes, where you can play up to a total of 25
continuous NFL seasons complete with all the standard off-season options like
retiring players, going through the draft, and whatnot. While it gets the job
done for establishing a main single player game, it lacks the depth of the ones
featured in its competitors. Sega and EA Sports introduced some great new
features in their Franchise modes this year like the Owner Mode options in
Madden and the email system in ESPN Football, hopefully Microsoft
will take note and integrate some of these options in next year’s game.
One that area that did get a dramatic overhaul is the online play. The new XSN
Sports Network is much like the 989 Sports Network games on the PS2 that also
debuted this year. This gives you the options of setting up online tournaments
and leagues. It also enables you to track all of your stats online from your PC,
and send game invitations via the PC as well. All of these options easily
outclass the miniscule of online offerings that ESPN Football has on the
Xbox, so this is one area that Fever outshines the rest on the Xbox in
comparison.
Visually, NFL Fever mustards the most of what the Xbox can handle. The
player models look fantastic up close in the post-play cut scenes, and probably
sport the most detail than any other NFL game this year. However, some of the
players look a little off-par with their real life counterparts when they are
seen on the sidelines without their helmets. Also worth noting is the texturing
for the turf is amazingly realistic, I swear I have never seen a better looking
playing field in all football gaming history. The tackle animations look pretty
dang good too; I just wish there were a bit more of them.
The presentation is decent all around, I always appreciate the game listing the
offensive and defensive starters, as it seems like it is a little more of an
authentic telecast. I also like the post-game highlight reel that shows clips of
several big plays of the game, though the feature is just begging for some
commentary to run through it describing those plays to be perfect!
Kevin Calabro and Ron Pitts are at hand for commentary. While they do a bang-up
job at calling the action on the field, their comments get repetitive within a
matter of games and are nowhere near as continuous as its competitors. There is
this one little tidbit I like where the coaches on the sidelines shout commands
at you to help you out pick your plays. Fever has three types of
soundtracks to listen too while browsing menus, one of the classic themes you
hear on telecasted games, another of rock songs, and a third one of more techno
type beats. If none of those suite your needs than you can always listen to your
own customized soundtracks.
There really isn’t that much of a selection of extra game modes here, other than
the classic team tournament and the training camp drills. The Dynasty mode
should get you by for a while, but this game doesn’t have those fun extras that
other NFL titles have today, like Madden with Mini-Camp and the 2-Minute
Drill, and ESPN NFL with First Person Football. Fever definitely
needs one of these to stay fresh with the competition, and maybe its plethora of
online options will be what you’re looking for.
RATINGS
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 8.2
Gameplay: 7.3
Replay Value: 7.5
Overall: 8.0
While Fever may not have that initial surprise factor that got its first
game to perform so well, don’t overlook it as a contender just yet. It’s kind of
in the same situation as GameDay is on the PS2 this year. While both have
a couple of gameplay flaws and may not have those extra amount of bells &
whistles they make up for with the best online options available than its
competitors. While NFL Fever 2004 is still a good football title in its
own right, I’m still going to have to recommend its competitors over it because
they outclass it in almost every area and have improved so much more than
Fever has.