ESPN NFL Football

"Near perfection"

I was a Madden man, I was looking for something different this year, and when i purchased ESPN NFL Football, I was so Happy I did. and I will get to all the wonders of this game through out the review.
Gameplay:10
Here we go, what more can you ask fore, you can pull off so many moves, and do so much in this game i dont know where to start. How about with the running, Guys like Ricky Williams can be a real pain to take down, if you dont wrap them up and finish then off, Yea your are not gonna see some small CB solo tackle a guy like Williams with ease, He is gonna barrel and break those tackles with ease. Is it impossible and will he breake the tackle every time, No, but big backs will break off smaller defenders more often than not, and that is key in the realism of this game, But you can plow a guy while hes struggling to get away from a guy to finish a tackle. Passing is good too, you have a natural dropback where you dont press the anolog, and this is where your OB is most accurate, after you find you open reciever, if you have turned maximum passing on, you can direct the pass with the anolog to lead your reciever, as your QB is going through the throwing animation. Depending on on your scramble rating, is going to effect how much your accuracy is gonna take a hit from trying to break out of the pocket and make something happen. Speaking of animations here is one of the few flaws, because you have to repetedly tap x for a speed burst, the running can look a little awkward, as you are tapping faster and slower. Not the bigest of all pains, im just not a fan of rapid tapping. I can look past that though because so many other things make up for it in the gameplay. And what about a wonderful gameplay addition. Challenging plays. I know I know your thinking Madden has had this from 2001, but Not like this. In Madden say you throw a pass to the sideline, and you are positive that he caught the ball with both feet inbounds, but you feel he stepped out of bounds and the ref missed it, well your stuck there because every single time it will say Challenge Catch? Not in ESPN, if that happens and you decide what you want to challenge from a list, so in that situation you can say i want to challenge that the reciever stepped out of bounds at some point duruing the play, and not just challenge the catch. The gameplay just flat out feels like football from the gang tackles, to the passing control, its all good if you are a simulation nut and want things real.
Presentation: 10
ESPN is top notch at presentation, you get Chris Berman doing pregame, halftime, and post game shows. and an overall great presentation. Not to mention the superbowl finally feels like the superbowl.
Graphics: 9.5
Player models are amazing, I mean McNabb looks DEAD like McNabb, Strahan, Favre, hell even Freddie Mitchell looks dead on, and he's not even a Marquee player in the NFL. My only thing keeping this from getting a 10 is a couple jerkey animations, but I am really nit picking with that.
Franchise: 7
Its Not Maddens owner mode, but it isnt exactly poor, and getting the NFL primetime post game show with highligts from 3 different games each week is awesome. throw in e-mail you get from the league regarding trades, weather conditions for the up coming games injury reports, scouting reports, and its a pretty decent franchise mode.
Extras: 10
lets start with the most hyped feature in the game, First Person Football, Id like it more if i didnt get so confused with the view when i throw deep, other than that its pretty cool, Now on to ''The Crib'', Now I honestly thought this was gonna be flat out stupid, But its kind of like Madden Cards that dont Cheat, You unlock minigames, Like NFL trivia, Paper Football and Air Hockey. you get to other little extras, like ESPN commercials, which are pretty stupid and funny, like the rally monkey getting fired. another great extral is a single game of Fantasy football, where you select a team, and you get their back ups, ands special teams squads, minus the kicker, and you the go and select a QB, an RB, a TE, a couple of Recievers, a Kicker, and a Defense. and those players will replace your starters for that game. Pretty sweet. there is another mode which is called scramble starters and you will get various starters from around the league replacing yours for that game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/03