Potential. Funny word. I mean you can look at it in either a good way or a bad
way. It’s nice to have potential but sad when you don’t live up to it. That’s
the way I feel about 989’s NFL GameDay 2004 for the PlayStation 2. It has
potential, especially in the online world, but it just doesn’t live up to it.
Off we go to find out why...
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| LT plants a Raider with a stiffarm. |
I remember back several years ago when the first polygon football game for the
Playstation came out by the name of GameDay. I believe the year was 1998 and the
long-standing football champ by the name of Madden was seeing its first real
challenge. For a year or two there I thought GameDay was the more enjoyable
game. It was not just living up to its potential but surpassing it in many ways.
But somewhere along the way 989 fumbled on the goal line and the momentum
switched back to Madden and a new breath of fresh air called NFL2K. Since that
time 989 has been struggling to get back in the game and each year they kind of
take two steps forward and one step back. So while GameDay 2004 is a step up
from last year’s title, it still has much room for improvement.
Let’s start off with the good news and good parts of GameDay. By far the
strongest aspect of GameDay is its online play and the online community. I
covered a lot of this in the review for NCAA GameBreaker. It’s basically the
same online experience here. Actually it’s exactly the same except with
different team logos. It has the same look, the same chat rooms, same
downloadable roster updates, and so on. This certainly isn’t a bad thing. 989
obviously spent a lot of time designing its online community and it should serve
them nicely for the next couple of years. I would be surprised to see other
companies taking a similar path.
In another nod to GameBreaker, one of the strong points of GameDay is the vast
amount of game modes at your disposal. There’s Preseason where any two teams you
want can battle it out. There are certain options available to you in the
preseason mode that you don’t have in the other modes. For example you can have
Miami and Tampa Bay play at night during the middle of a snowstorm at the frozen
tundra of Lambeau Field. Good times for those sun-loving teams. There is also
the General Manager mode where you are in control of just about every aspect for
your team. You have to deal with signing players in the off-season, replace
injured players during the season and much more. Of course during all of this
you have to make sure your team stays competitive or you just may find yourself
looking for another job. Other modes include the Season, Practice, Tournaments
and Franchise Management. There are also a ton of stats and reports to keep the
inner number cruncher inside us happy.
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