PlayStation 2

NFL GameDay 2004

Ah, you can always smell football season when it comes. Hot dogs are on the grill, cold drinks are on ice and those gridiron heroes are ready for another rousing season of NFL football--it’s almost enough to bring tears of joy to a fan’s eyes. Yet it also means gamers will again have to make a few choices from the long line-up of football titles. Among them, NFL GameDay 2004 is here yet again--this time it has a few surprises up its sleeve. Are we ready for some football? You better believe we are.

With a few more years, Gameday may have finally made its way into the realm of respectability. That's not going to happen, as the 989 team missed the 2005 season and EA now owns this section of the market. If you still like the feel of the 32-bit Gameday's, then this is the version you're looking for. You'll be better off pretending the other games were never released on the PS2.

NFL GameDay takes another big stride along the comeback trail. The 2004 edition will even trade punches with heavyweights Madden NFL 2004 and ESPN NFL Football in some categories. Additionally, GameDay is making a run at the online arena with some impressive features, including downloading updated rosters, live sports scores, and even real-time weather conditions. Moreover, you get player-to-player chat, too. In fact, a USB headset enables you to call 50 voice-recognition commands. This takes practice and maybe it?s a little more interesting than practical, but it?s a cool feature nonetheless.

A bad reputation is an easy label to earn, and an even harder one to shake. Have one or two off-seasons in the videogame world, and suddenly your franchise is on the way out. That statement becomes an even bigger truism when your title happens to be in the highly competitive football market. And when faced with a lineup that sees award winners like Madden and ESPN staring you right in the face, the challenge becomes far more daunting.

Previous generations may remember exactly where they were when they heard that JFK had been shot or when man had first set foot on the moon. This generation now has its own "frozen-in-time" moment -- for the first time this millennium, 989 Sports has actually released a game that, well, doesn't bite. Its World Tour Soccer 2003 showed promise, but its NFL GameDay 2004 delivers the goods. It may not be hanging out in the rarified air that Madden and Sega's ESPN game breathe, but it finally deserves to be on the same playing field as them.

It's Sunday afternoon, the sun is out and the field is prepped. That's right, it's GameDay. Time when friends and family get together to root on the home team. If you are a fellow Raven's fanatic like me, there wasn't much to root for today was there? I expected Kyle Boller to be dazzling on his first ever NFL game. I didn't expect the rest of the team not to show up against the Steelers. So sad. I draw this analogy to the game I am reviewing today, the last of this year's simulation football games. NFL Gameday 2004 has a lot to prove to the critics who last year really gave Gameday a hard time.

In conclusion, I think that Gameday 2004 is a much better game than any previous PS2 effort, but still falls short of it's competition. If you already own Madden 2004 or ESPN NFL Football I cannot recommend Gameday 2004. However, if you are tired of EA and Sega's representation of NFL football and want an alternative on your PS2, you might find Gameday an enjoyable experience. It provides few single player thrills, but a good online component and feature set, provided you can find enough people with the game to play. Gameday is a vastly improved product that gives hope to former Gameday fans everywhere that 989 and Red Zone Interactive might just give us a real quality football game in the PS2's lifespan.

Like in last year's game, online play remains the brightest spot in NFL GameDay 2004. Its wealth of features includes everything from tournaments to built-in message boards and e-mail. That being said, the gameplay falls considerably short and is still behind the competition. Unfortunately, GameDay exhibits bouts of outrageously bad AI and displays little quirks that make it seem as though the game is simulating incompetent high school football players as opposed to seasoned professionals.

Why?! How?! I am impressed that 989 Sports has the nerve to try again this year to build upon the worst NFL simulation in video game history. The animations are laughable and the graphics, although better, are PS1 caliber at best.