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Developer: |
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ESRB: |
| Microsoft |
Microsoft |
Sports |
1-4 |
E - Everyone |
NFL Fever 2003
Reviewed by: Ben
NFL Fever is a fun, feature filled football game that will keep you busy for a long time. All the same basic features from NFL Fever 2002 are back for ’03, except many have been tweaked for the better, and online play has been enabled.
Gameplay: NFL Fever plays like any other football game. You have your coin toss, and then the kickoff follows. Then as always, you chose the play that you wish to follow. For those of you that have no idea about the basic play of football, you have to choose your “play” and then you have to try and get all the way to the “endzone” with the ball.
In the main menu of the game, you can select one of 8 options. Practice, single game, season, network play, general manager, load or delete files, user profiles, and options.
In practice, you can work on your skills without affecting your stats. You can work on specific drills such as kickoff, or kickoff return, or you can just do an open practice.
Single game is where the real fun starts. You select your team, and the offensive team, and then you select your playing conditions, such as difficulty, stadium, quarter length, weather, wind, and time of day. Each of them affects the way the game plays. There are three different levels of difficulty. Rookie, veteran, and all-pro, each level varies dramatically.
Season mode consists of two different play types. Dynasty mode, and classic challenge. Dynasty mode is where you manage your own NFL team(s). You have full control over trades, drafts, salaries, uniforms, and virtually anything else you can think of. Classic challenge mode is a grueling 7 game tournament where you are pitted against some of the best teams in NFL history.
Network play is going to be many people’s favorite feature in fever. Network play is what allows you to play Xbox online, or on a LAN. You can do a system link game which will allow you to connect up to four Xbox’s’ together, or to play online using a program such as gamespy or xboxconnect. The other type of online play is Xbox Live. Xbox live will be launching November 15th 2002, and will fully support online play with NFL Fever 2003 (not 2002) and several other titles with XBL compatibility.
In general manager mode, you basically own any NFL team, and manage them as you wish. If you want to change the uniforms, so be it. If you want the team to be more aggressive, it will happen. You can trade players, manage salaries, and pretty much anything else you can think of that a general manager would do (minus all the boring stuff).
Load and delete files is where you manage your saved games, and load up your saved replays.
User profiles is where you manage your different options and team roasters. You can also import and export your profiles from and onto a memory card from here.
In the options menu, you can access all of your sound options, rules, display options, game setting, and more. You can also access your “unlocked items” which you accumulate by completing certain tasks within the game. You can also view the game credits from this menu, and watch videos from upcoming Xbox games.
In the end, Fever 2003 is a fun, detailed, feature-filled NFL game that many will love. If you don’t already have 2002, opt for 2003 for some of the slight improvements, and of coarse, Xbox Live support.
Graphics: Fever is a graphical masterpiece. Every bit of the field turf can be seen in perfect detail. You can see the stitching on the players uniforms, you can see perfect light reflection on the player’s helmets, and you can even see the muscles on the player’s arms in perfect detail. Everything is detailed so well, some might mistake this video game for a real NFL game on TV. I’m quite impressed by Microsoft on this one. This is only their second attempt at a NFL game, and they have done a beautiful job.
Controls: The controls are dead easy in fever. When on the offensive team, you run with the analogue stick, “turbo” with A, dive with Black, lateral with White, and spin with B. When on the defensive team, you “turbo” with A, dive tackle with B, jump with Y, rip with White, and dive for pass with Black. When playing on the offensive team you can pass to a designated player that has a button assigned to them. For example, when you chose your play, you may see the A button over a players head. When you receive the ball, press A, and you will pass to that player and continue your play. Pretty much anyone can figure this game out.
Replay: Fever is one of those games you will play over and over again. Whether it will be defeating every team in the NFL, creating your own dream team and bringing them to success, or just playing online with your friends, you will play fever allot. When playing online, you can compete to get the highest world ranking. I think gamers will see what fever is REALLY all about in November when Xbox Live Launches.
Sound: Full 5.1 Dolby Digital. What more could you ask for? How about full in game commentary? That’s covered too! There is so much to hear in fever, you might just miss something.
Overall Presentation: In the end, NFL Fever is a fun, well crafted game that will probably hold up for a long time. With Xbox Live support, it is bound to be many people’s favourites.
Scores:
Gameplay:  8
Graphics:  9.5
Controls:  9
Replay: 9
Sound: 8.5
Total Score: 9
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