Thursday, June 10, 2004
I can make my Niners live again!
The number one reason I buy a game is entertainment. The number two factor in buying a game is price. Take a great football franchise like ESPN NFL 2K and slash $30 off the normal price, and you will force me to purchase my first football title since the fun, though flawed, NFL2K2.
There was an article a little while ago saying that Sega would be more aggressive in their pricing for this year’s addition. No matter how hard Visual Concepts works each year, the NFL2K name simply cannot compete with Madden. Though Madden has been in a slump since it was the undisputed king of the 16-bit era, it still flies off the store shelves each year while buyers pass on the far superior Sega franchise.
Besides the ridiculously low $20 price, the game has two really cool features that are making me oh so anxious for the magical release date to arrive. First, via an awesome online system, you are able to set up a football community of your very own. This is essentially the video game equivalent of fantasy football. You can go on Sega’s website and set up a community, choosing who can join and how many people are allowed in. Then, you essentially run an NFL league of your very own. You trade and release players within your own league, and play games every week. Eventually, just like in real life, the weak will fall by the wayside and one champion will be crowned. For any die hard football fan, this is like a wet dream with no messy cleanup.
Maybe even cooler is the anal retentive stat keeping of the game. Every time you play, the creepy CPU monitors every nuance of your play style. If you run the ball to the right 60% of the time – the game knows. If you tend to go for it on 4th and less than 5 when you’re on the opponent’s side of the 50 – the game knows. If you blitz your weakside linebacker on every 3rd down more than 7 yards – the game knows.
Numbers alone would not make this feature outstanding though. What the game does offer is the ability to use said stats in an actual game. It is one thing to hear that you never throw on the left side of the field, but it’s another thing entirely to play against yourself and realize just how easy it is to defend your weak passing attack. This is probably the coolest thing I have ever heard of in a football title. You can practice and actually improve the whole style in which you play the game.
And if that wasn’t cool enough, you can now run a real life practice. You get to decide how to talk to your team after the game. You get to decide if your QB spends more time in the weight room or watching film. You can even make your wide receiver who refuses to shut his mouth run drills with the linebackers for a practice. That should quiet his complain hole. Yeah, I know, you non-football fans are rolling your eyes. But, when you are lucky enough to be a fan of a real life team that doesn’t even try to compete anymore, being able to whip a virtual team into shape each week is simply a joy.
A game that already played better than anything out there is finally getting some great franchise features that make the game a true gem. No, I haven’t played it yet, but, assuming that Sega didn’t complete scrap the gameplay, this should be the football game this season. Unless, of course, NCAA ‘05 has something to say out it.
There was an article a little while ago saying that Sega would be more aggressive in their pricing for this year’s addition. No matter how hard Visual Concepts works each year, the NFL2K name simply cannot compete with Madden. Though Madden has been in a slump since it was the undisputed king of the 16-bit era, it still flies off the store shelves each year while buyers pass on the far superior Sega franchise.
Besides the ridiculously low $20 price, the game has two really cool features that are making me oh so anxious for the magical release date to arrive. First, via an awesome online system, you are able to set up a football community of your very own. This is essentially the video game equivalent of fantasy football. You can go on Sega’s website and set up a community, choosing who can join and how many people are allowed in. Then, you essentially run an NFL league of your very own. You trade and release players within your own league, and play games every week. Eventually, just like in real life, the weak will fall by the wayside and one champion will be crowned. For any die hard football fan, this is like a wet dream with no messy cleanup.
Maybe even cooler is the anal retentive stat keeping of the game. Every time you play, the creepy CPU monitors every nuance of your play style. If you run the ball to the right 60% of the time – the game knows. If you tend to go for it on 4th and less than 5 when you’re on the opponent’s side of the 50 – the game knows. If you blitz your weakside linebacker on every 3rd down more than 7 yards – the game knows.
Numbers alone would not make this feature outstanding though. What the game does offer is the ability to use said stats in an actual game. It is one thing to hear that you never throw on the left side of the field, but it’s another thing entirely to play against yourself and realize just how easy it is to defend your weak passing attack. This is probably the coolest thing I have ever heard of in a football title. You can practice and actually improve the whole style in which you play the game.
And if that wasn’t cool enough, you can now run a real life practice. You get to decide how to talk to your team after the game. You get to decide if your QB spends more time in the weight room or watching film. You can even make your wide receiver who refuses to shut his mouth run drills with the linebackers for a practice. That should quiet his complain hole. Yeah, I know, you non-football fans are rolling your eyes. But, when you are lucky enough to be a fan of a real life team that doesn’t even try to compete anymore, being able to whip a virtual team into shape each week is simply a joy.
A game that already played better than anything out there is finally getting some great franchise features that make the game a true gem. No, I haven’t played it yet, but, assuming that Sega didn’t complete scrap the gameplay, this should be the football game this season. Unless, of course, NCAA ‘05 has something to say out it.
// posted by Tom @ 2:05 PM 
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