Gaming Target - Xbox: NFL 2K3

Written by Ryan Smotherman on August 19, 2002

Full Review: There are a few stumbles along the way, but NFL 2K once again busts into the end zone virtually untouched!

Never before have we seen such tight competition in the videogame football wars. There are just so many quality pigskin titles to choose from this year, and usually only enough money to pick up only one (unless you're Adam Woolcott). There's the tried and true 12-year veteran, Madden, who's latest installment improves vastly over last season's effort; there's Microsoft's wildcard, NFL Fever 2003, who into it's second season seems to be lacking the proper updates to contend with the big dawgs; and lastly, there is Sega's NFL 2K3; the latest into the critically acclaimed franchise that has yet to disappoint it's rabid fans. Wondering Visual Concepts let their fans down this season? Well, let's take a lookЕ

Coming off the stellar edition of the 2K series that VC had with 2K2, it was apparent that a lot of work was going to have to be done to make 2K3 even better. One of VC's main goals was to create a Franchise mode that would satisfy the hard-core NFL fans, and for the most part, they are quite successful. To be honest, personally I've never been a big fan of the Franchise modes in football titles. I'm the kind of guy who's happy with playing through the current season, and of course spending tons of time in multiplayer. So naturally I haven't spent much time with the mode, but it doesn't take a fool to notice that it's come a long way, comparatively speaking, when it's put up against past season attempts. Once you choose the mode you get to create a coach, or if you can use the one who's currently coaching the team in real life. Then you are thrown into your own personal 3D rendition of an NFL coach's office to take care of all your team's business dealings. Trading players, signing free agents, negotiating contracts, all that good stuff. But more impressive is your off season tasks. Once a season has ended you will be required to do a great number of things; such as negotiating retirements with older players, re-signing the free agents you want to keep, and attempt to get the hottest free agents on the market. And we can't forget about the NFL draft, cause you're definitely going to need those young rookies to keep you team running strong on down the line First you'll go through a scouting report at the NFL Combine, then once you think you know what players you want, you can start the draft and hopefully get your players. Now, I didn't go too in-depth in this for a couple of reasons Ц I haven't played all the way through it yet, and to be honest, this review is going to be long enough already. Bottom line Ц NFL 2K3's franchise mode is leagues ahead of the mode in the past NFL 2K titles and should satisfy any football fanatic.

Other modes include your standard Exhibition, Season, Tournament, Playoffs, and Practice modes; all featuring a ton of ways to customize them to your liking. Additionally, a new Situation mode has been added (it allows you to put yourself in just about any in-game situation), and, of course, Xbox Live is built in and ready to go once the network kicks off in a few short months. So the game has a solid line-up of game modes that can compete with the competition, but there's still that feeling that it could use more, maybe something like Madden's Mini-Camp mode for next year?

Presentation is also something that NFL 2K3 excels at. The newly aquired ESPN license really goes hand-in-hand with the series, creating an incredible interface and tons of chemistry. For it being only the first season with the license, Visual Concepts really put it to good use. Everything from the opening broadcast with Dan Patrick, to the game's entire interface, to the music and game coverage; it's obviously УPowered by ESPNФ. The new additions to the in-game coverage are subtle, but they really take the game to new heights. Dan and Peter (more on them later) go through the offensive and defensive line-ups for each team during their first possession, at half-time Clark Dishman goes over the status of the game so far and names the УHot at the HalfФ player, and when the game is over he's back with a final wrap-up and names the player of the game. During season games you are also given an interesting УWeekly Wrap-UpФ, where after each week is over you can see a brief summary of all the games played, as well as the play of the week and the offensive and defensive players of the week. Like I said, these additions are in no way in-depth, but they are a nice addition and brings the series closer to that authentic TV-style presentation. It's going to be interesting to see how much father they take the license in future installments.

On to the gameplay, fans should expect much of the same, with a fair share of modifications. The game still sports that fast, tight gameplay system that has made the series so fun and popular over the years, but oddly enough, they have incorporated a little of that momentum based physics that you'd find in Madden. It's nothing major; you'll notice it when you catch a ball and a certain angle and it takes your receiver a second to get turned around to go a certain direction, but it is noticeable.

Now, before I go on any further, let me point out that I am basing all these findings off the default Pro difficulty setting. Why am I telling you this before hand? You'll find out later.

Running the ball in the game seems to have been kicked up a notch difficulty wise. It works well and you can have much success, but it's going to take some time and effort. First off, it's very hard to break tackles in the game. If one guy is there he's usually going to tackle you. Of course, VC has brought back all the same moves we're used to; such as the jukes, spins, stutter step, and hurdle, all which can be powered up for more effect, but for the most part these are ineffective against a would be tackler, and some are just downright useless. Which probably explains why breaking out for big runs is a rarity. I think the whole time I've played the game the most I've ever gained in one run is 30 yards, and that only happened once, against the Texans might I add. However, runners will turn their bodies sideways automatically and try to squeeze through a hole, which is a very nice addition. Passing in the game can also be pretty tough. Out and Post patterns don't seem to work as well as they used to, but things like Curls, Stops, and Corners, routes that used to be difficult, do work well. One of the more annoying things comes in the fact that the ball Уpops outФ of the player's hands far too much. If an opponent can hit you a split second after the ball is caught, which actually isn't very hard, the ball will go flying out for an incomplete pass. Very aggravating. Additionally, VC seems to have slowed down the speed of the QB's (even Steve McNair seems slow), making it near impossible to scramble, or even roll out, with the Quarterback.

Overall, the offensive side of the ball is very daunting. And you'll find that it's extremely hard to score against the CPU, especially when you get down into the red zone. The good news is that why the CPU might be a little too challenging, the multiplayer is just as phenomenal as ever. I've had some truly exciting and amazing games against my friends, which in the end is what it's all about.

On defense, you'll also find something that's quite annoying Ц it's almost impossible to sack the QB. When you're in your 11th game in the season and you have no recorded sacks, there is obviously something awry. And since it's still about impossible to pick up a CB or Safety and cover a receiver, you're stuck with the pointless task of trying to sack the QB, resulting in a very tedious defensive experience. Recently I did figure out how to do the Уadvanced defensive line movesФ (hidden in the very back of the instruction manual); these include such things like the swim and spin moves. Their labeled advanced, but they're actually pretty easy to pull off and fun to use; all you have to do is hold down the L-Trigger when you make contact with an offensive lineman and then press anyone of the 4 main face buttons. Anyways, enough with the D, let's talk about the A.I. a bit more, shall we?

Basically, the A.I. seems to be able to do the things that you can't. For example, their running back just seems to bounce off your defensive players, resulting in a lot of yards gained. Their Quarterback rarely misses a pass, much less throws an interception. And even on defense, it's seems like they can get some penetration through your offensive line, while you'll try to no avail. So in essence, if you're not wise to the A.I's ways, you'll quickly find frustration, and probably won't enjoy the game much. And on a side note, you will notice vast improvements in the computer's clock control. Just as an example; towards the end of one game they took a delay of game penalty just so they could run every possible second off the clock before they kicked the game winning field goal. Whether you find this good or bad, there's no doubt that it takes the realism factor up a notch.

At this point you probably think this is the worst football title ever created, but you'd be wrong. You see, VC included a very interesting feature into the game Ц the ability to customize the difficulty. No longer are we stuck between just the Rookie, Pro, and All-Pro settings, but we can now tweak certain aspects of the game without messing with it all. If you find that the CPU tackles way too well, turn down it's tackling a few notches; if you're having absolutely no success passing, turn down their coverage level till your passing game is satisfactory; in all there's 9 different A.I. categories you can tweak to your liking. It's really the game's saving grace, and it seems with how off the default settings are, you'd think VC did it on purpose just so you would have to customize the game to your personal liking.

In getting to the visuals in the game, you'll find them to be most beautiful. NFL 2K3 is a very sharp looking game, and probably the best-looking football gameЕ well, ever. It flies along at a very solid speed, no dips in frames whatsoever, the player models look great (especially their faces, which have been replicated after the real stars), and the newly built stadiums designs are some of the best I've ever seen (Best. Crowd. Ever.). The look of the grass and turf is still as mind-blowing as ever; even if you zoom right on in it, it looks incredibly realistic. And as in last year's addition, the game contains some awesome looking stadium lights, and there are some other nice effects, such as the clouds up above that cast down a shadow over the field. In getting back to the actual player models, you'll notice a nice dose of bump-mapping, from the jerseys to the socks and shoes, not to mention the fact that the animations are some of the best in the business. VC also added coach models into this year's version, and for the most part they are dead-on replicas of the current NFL coaches, though, to be honest, you rarely even see them.

Now, everyone knows that one of the staples of the NFL 2K franchise has been the audio, more specifically Ц the commentating. And you'll be happy to know that this year is no different. Peter and Dan, into their fourth season together, are just amazingly good. Their annotations are super smooth, they rarely repeat anything, and the accuracy of their play-by-play is second to none. All this equals an experience that is as close to real commentating as you're going to get, period. As for the other sound effects, tackles seem as high impact as ever, but you will notice that the player's voices are still the same old tired voice samples from the last few years. Hopefully, next year they will address this and bring us something fresh.

Music isn't really something important in a football game, but I feel it's worth mentioning. The game gives you a slew of different music tracks to listen to while you go through your season or franchise mode (well, you can hear it at other times, but I figure you'll hear it here the most). These include everything from ESPN tracks to classic NFL 2K beats.