Gaming Target - Xbox: NFL 2K3

Written by Ryan Smotherman on July 19, 2002

First Impressions: The ball is now in Sega's courtЕ err, field.

Sega's latest installment into their hugely popular NFL 2K brand, NFL 2K3, is scheduled to hit the Xbox in mid-August (yup, no waiting till the season is over this year), and judging by the vast amount of improvements that are apparent from last year's edition, it's looking as if Visual Concepts is working hard to make the definitive football title. Let's go down to the field for the play-by-play.

With the competition heating up from Sega's two respective rivals, EA's long running Madden series and Microsoft's own NFL Fever, VC have made some drastic moves in order to stay at the top of the game. The two really major changes come in the form of a much-needed revamping of the Franchise mode and the rebirth of the series' online play. VC seems to have realized that the relatively weak Franchise mode found in the past incarnations is one of the main things that held the series back, but as they say -- one year can make a huge difference. The УnewФ mode let's you create your own coach and it then throws you into a 3D office to live your dreams of controlling every aspect of a professional football team. You can create your own playbook (out of the 220 different plays), put players up for trade, sign free agents, and pretty much everything in between. After a season ends you'll have to resign and release players, and you'll even go through an incredibly detailed draft. Stat tracking has also increased significantly, allowing you to view an incredible array of stats over however many seasons you decide to take your team through. All this should culminate into one incredible Franchise mode, giving the series a serious shot in the arm.

Although online play won't be accessible from the get-go, it is there and will be raring to go once Xbox Live kicks off later this fall. Since Xbox Live is an all-broadband network, this should be the most seamless, lag free playing NFL 2K online environment ever. All the details aren't known as of now, but do expect the standard features, such as the win/loss record keeping, as well as the number of times a person disconnects (Best. Feature. Ever.), and even the support of the infamous Voice Communicator for all your smack talking needs. With the big online push from all the major consoles, this is easily one of the best features in the game, and since EA decided to not support Xbox Live (glad to see they have so much confidence in themselves, and Sony) and Fever is still considered to many to the rookie, it might just secure NFL 2K3 the spot as the best selling Xbox football title this season.

There are also two other interesting new features to take note of. The first is the ability to save during a game, which will definitely come in handy if you don't always have the 45+ minutes to play or if something comes up out of nowhere and you aren't able to finish. The second feature is one I'm really excited about; it's the ability to save replays. Now, before this if you wanted to save a replay in a football game you had to throw a blank tape in the VCR and start recording away, but now you can just save it directly to the hard drive (just imagine how many you can save on this puppy), making it easily accessible and you don't have to go through the regular quality issue that usually comes with a VCR recording. This is great news for all those who like to show off their amazing feats to their friends (I'll certainly being using it effectively).

From a gameplay standpoint, the game will of course go through it's regular streamlining. While you shouldn't expect too many changes from last season (it was a damn good playing game by the way), do expect a few adjustments on the defensive side of the ball, and even in the blocking, which is said to be better and more realistic than ever. The A.I., while also quite fabulous last season, will also be smarter than ever, and the team has also worked hard on fixing a few of the problems it had last year, like the poor clock control it had at the end of games for example. In the end, the gameplay should still be what made the series so great Ц fast-paced and extremely enjoyable Ц but now better than ever.

The presentation has gone through an extreme overhaul thanks to Sega's acquisition of the ESPN license. While it won't go into full effect till next year, ESPN inspired menus, music, and TV style presentations are thrown in throughout the game, and there's even a chance that there will be SportsCenter type weekly updates that will accompany you through your seasons, very cool indeed. Sure, the ESPN license has never brought success to a game yet, but I think the problem was that they were just used in the wrong games (actually, Konami's sports games almost single handedly ruined the ESPN name in the gaming world). The quality and popularity of Sega's NFL 2K brand, along with the ESPN name just simply can't fail. Great move by both companies in my opinion, one that's sure to make the NFL 2K brand better than ever.

Fans of the series will be happy to know that the best broadcast duo in the biz, Dan and Peter, are back again for their 4th season, and they're back with the promise of even more realistic commentating, which includes a wider variety of things to say, as well as less repeating of certain phrases. Without a doubt, NFL 2K3's audio presentation will once again be the best all around, although, the good news on the Madden front is that Pat УSenileФ Summerall is outЕ oh well, too bad Madden is still there.

On the visual side of the ball, NFL 2K3 is set to impress. VC has added a wealth of new player animations and they have taken even more advantage of the Xbox's abilities by bump-mapping just about everything on the players (from their helmets to their socks), creating the most realistic player models around. One of the biggest improvements involving the graphics, though, is the fact that VC dropped the 4 year old stadium designs and have built each stadium from the ground up to take advantage of the hardware. Additionally, all 32 head coaches have been realistically rendered and thrown into the game for the full effect (Sega finally caught up to Madden here). Sega has taken advantage of this by actually showing split screen replays with the head coach so you can see his reaction to the play, whether it be good or bad. It is known that VC has given the Xbox version extra attention and has taken advantage of the stronger hardware, so if you're looking for the best-looking version of NFL 2K3, you'll find it right here on Xbox.