NFL GameDay 2003

The 989 Sports football franchise NFL GameDay has often been referred to as “the other football game” for home consoles, but has generally been a solid product, offering much of the same the competition has to offer, with less spectacular results.  It’s hard to point out specific shortcomings of NFL GameDay 2003, as the game plays much like the Madden or Sega football series, but the overall game is definitely a few yards short of the goal line. 

NFL GameDay 2003 has the normal variety of game modes found in sports games: Pre-season is a quick exhibition match in any weather and stadium you choose, Season gives players a shot at leading a team to the Super Bowl over the course of one regular season, General Manager is for more die-hard fans who want to take control of a multi-season dynasty in the making, and last is the seldom used multi-player round-robin Tournament mode.  There aren’t any groundbreaking new features in any of these modes, but Season mode does permit importing your college kids from 989’s NCAA Gamebreaker 2003, a very cool feature if you are attached to your college players.  GameDay 2003 does offer an in-depth online mode for use with the Playstation 2 modem, allowing gamers to deliver some pigskin punishment across broadband lines. 

For veterans of video football games, much of the controls are similar.  Hike the ball with X, and then lob a pass to a receiver designated by the appropriate button icon.  Plays are called by sorting through a whole slew of options on both defense and offense, but can be a little daunting as the presentation isn’t as clear as that of other games.  The L2 button can be used a modifier to make harder tackles, more advanced running moves, and various defensive moves, but would take eons to master.  Who wants to master a super swim anyway? 

Actual play on the field is geared more towards casual football gamers.  There are a few setbacks that might deter the kind of player who lives, sleeps, and breathes football.  Once at the line of scrimmage, GameDay allows you to pre-read your receivers, that is look at which receiver is which icon for passing, but does not allow players to see which routes the receivers will be running, a feature Madden 2003 does very well.  Given the amount of information that passes through the game and my forgetful nature, I have a tendency to forget which play I just called and reviewing the play just before the snap is always helpful.  Immediately after hiking the ball, the game appears to do a little bit of loading, which slows the game down for about a second.  This is awful.  It completely interferes with timing and reading holes in the defense. 

Running the ball can be a little chaotic and less crafty than other games, as defenses and holes are hard to read, but at other times you can run straight up the middle for fifteen yards.  Passing the ball deep is alot easier than passing short.  Receivers going long are easy to pick up and tend to catch the ball fairly easily when in one-on-one coverage.  Receivers running short routes are difficult to pick up amongst the chaos that occurs 10 yards past the line of scrimmage.  There’s less science that goes into a successful scoring drive, and many scores rely on simply airing the ball out downfield. 

Playing defense has similar issues.  Playing successful D in the Madden series is something of an art.  In fact, it took several seasons of play for me to make my first user-controlled interception in Madden 2001.  On my very first defensive play in GameDay 2003, I was able to snatch one from the opposing quarterback.  Coverage defense has been simplified, thankfully.  It is easy to follow receivers, and easy enough to deflect or intercept passes.  One feature of defense that is quite annoying is the inability to cycle through players in both directions, clockwise and counterclockwise before the snap.  Tackling has also been too simplified.  Simply pressing the dive tackle button will send your player diving in the direction of the ball carrier, regardless of which way you are facing.  Lost is the art of defense in GameDay 2003. 

Playing NFL GameDay 2003 after playing some of the game’s competition does leave a bit to be desired, graphics and over all look of the game being the main culprits.  There is a suspicious lack of excitement surrounding the game. The overall presentation of the game’s menus, loading screens, and replays seem a little outdated and gloomy.  Even most of the players seem like they’d rather be somewhere else with unenthusiastic celebrations, relaxed warm-ups, and a general lack of intensity.  To 989’s credit, they have added an insane amount of tackling, receiving, and tackle-breaking animations to spice up the game, and it does take a long time to see them repeat.  Unfortunately it seems as though the 989 team sacrificed quality for quantity as the actual smoothness of the animations at times reminds me of the robotic presidents of days past at The Hall of Presidents in Disneyland.

The audio on NFL GameDay 2003 could use a few more weeks at training camp to work on a few things.  When the commentary isn’t spewing poorly scripted banter, it’s saying the wrong things at wrong times like “Great pick up of yards” after gaining three yards on a 4^th and 6 situation.  The broadcast booth of Dick Enberg, Dan Fouts, and Ian Eagle often sound like they aren’t quite on the same page, with one man’s excitement about a play not matching the others.  This sort of inconsistency gives players the feeling that the commentators in the booth aren’t watching the same game.  One shining spot in the audio is the defensive chatter that goes on before the snap.  Linebackers and linemen will shout “Let’s stop ‘em, Defense!” or even get player-specific with “I’m going to get you, Fiedler!” 

It is obvious that Sony wanted GameDay to be less of a pure simulation than EA’s Madden series by their gratuitous use of big time hit animations, distasteful use of cheap cheerleader slideshows during load times, and plays with silly names the likes of “Pirate” or “Maniac”, but still has way too many button combinations to play more like an arcade-style game.  Until 989 finds their niche and polishes the basics, they will always be underdogs on the virtual football field. 

Gameplay: 6

While not the best out there, the football gameplay is very tight.  The problems occur with the little things.   

Graphics: 6

If games like NFL 2K3 and Madden 2003 have graphics as sharp as knives, GameDay is more like a spoon.  Kudos to 989 for the immense amount of player animations, but shame on them for the quality. 

Sound: 7

The commentary sounds artificial, but the ambient sounds are good.

Difficulty: Medium

A bit easier to pick up than other football games, but not quite an arcade-style button-pushing extravaganza.

Concept: 6

Not much added to video football except for the deep online mode. 

Multiplayer: 5

It ultimately ends up in throwing bombs back and forth, rather than nose-to-nose third and short situations.  At the time of writing this review, the online feature was not available.

Overall: 6

In the face of other football games out there, GameDay 2003 looks like it may go the way of the XFL rather than the Sunday glory of the NFL.