NFL Fever 2003

With football season approaching, a number of highly rated football games are reaching the market. Since most people will only purchase one, competition between publishers can be intense, as standing out from the others by offering more features, significant improvements, or better gameplay becomes critical to a success or failure. One newer addition to this crowded football market is the Xbox exclusive NFL Fever 2003. NFL Fever 2003 still offers the same solid gameplay as the first release but only introduced a few improvements. With the success of last year's release, Microsoft is hoping to secure their position in the Xbox football market with this latest attempt.

NFL Fever 2003 still brings the same top level graphics, solid gameplay, and decent control that its predecessor had. Although some areas like the player animations could be improved, taking too long at times, most problem areas don't distract from the gameplay and have little impact.

Unfortunately, not enough significant changes have been added to this year's attempt, becoming the biggest issue. With most other football series having larger jumps in improvement, NFL Fever 2003 falls behind here and doesn't even build a strong case to purchase the 2003 version over 2002. Its only claim however is its potential to be used with Xbox's online gaming network.

The only problem with that is the release date for Xbox Live isn't until November and although it may be a huge success, with other series like Madden making more significant improvements, NFL Fever 2003 is going to be a tougher sell until the online portion is usable.

For those late Xbox owners who missed NFL Fever 2002, 2003 will offer them a great football game that includes the potential for online play. Those however, that have already purchased NFL Fever 2002 or don't plan to use the online gaming features in NFL Fever 2003, may want to look at the other popular football games on the market as you'll find more noticeable improvements and added features.

Microsoft September 2002--What better way for Microsoft to kick off their online gaming plans than with the latest edition of their football series? We're particularly excited about the way the game will access real-life weather reports over the Internet. For example, say you pick the Packers and it's 20 degrees out and snowing, that's the sludge you'll be playing in during your online game--talk about homefield advantage!

The only thing worse than losing to your online opponent is getting an earful of trash talkin to go with it. Thats exactly what went down when our Chicago-based editors linked up for a battle against their San Francisco counterparts. The headset provides a dose of comic relief for sure, especially when the masking feature transforms your cords to the mellow baritone of Barry White its hilarious. As for the on-field performance, with the exception of some lag typical for any online game, Fever ran smoothly. The players move with realistic momentum and control well.

Heavy with depth, the game will require you to spend hours unlocking classic teams, winning trophies and, of course, scouring the country for online matchups.