NFL GameDay 98

"Still one of my favorite football games of all time."

INTRODUCTION

I am a huge fan of football sports games. And I really liked the Gameday series until recently. In fact, the first game I bought was NFL Gameday 98. It's a great game, and I bought it the day of its release. And I must say I am rather happy I did.



GAMEPLAY

NFL Gameday 98 has a great roster. All of the 30 teams that made up the NFL in the beginning of the 1997 season are present, although it was still a couple years before the Browns were reinstated into the NFL. There is also a full selection of All star teams and Super Bowl champions and Super Bowl losers from all 31 Super Bowls prier to Gameday 98's release.

NFL Gameday 98 has the same modes as Gameday 97, with not a single new mode added. There is exhibition where you play a game of football. Then there's season. That's about it. Nothing more. I was disapointed with the fact there are so few modes to choose from. I was hoping they'd add a few, as these were the same modes as in Gameday 97.

NFL Gameday 98 has a few nice options, however, that spice up the few modes that are available. First off, you can make your own superstar team with trades. The game will never reject a trade, no matter how out of the ballpark it is. I could trade the 49'ers the Saints third string QB for Steve Young and they'd not do a thing about it. It's kind of fun making a crap team Vs. a really sweet team and watching just to see how bad the crap team gets killed. Then there's the fantasy draft, my favorite option you can use. The game throws in the starting player from each team at six positions: QB, RB, WR, and three defensive players. These six players from each team are tossed around the NFL, so they all end up with new homes. You could get an offensive combination like John Elweigh, Jerry Rice, and Edger Benet. I really like this mode, as it is fun to go on a season with a new team to see how you match up against who the rest of the league got in the draft. And any game with a create a player's always fun. You have a lot of options in the create player, such as skin color, which hand he usesalthe way to how much he can bench press and how fast he is. It is a very innovative mode that works very well.

NFL Gameday 98 plays identical to NFL Gameday 97. Everything is the same. To pass you simply hike the ball and drop back to pass. When you press x for the second time, four icons appear under your four possible targets. You press square and the ball will go to the receiver who correspondes with square. That's about it for passing. For running you simply press the directional pad and use the buttons to do actions such as speed burst and spin. In defense there's not much to do, as you simply run up to the guy and press square which is tackle. And that's mostly the defenses job. If you're on defense, and a player has a shot at an interception, you can get that pick. You simply press circle to change the specific player that you your control, then make that great pick and run it back. The controls in Gameday 98 move great, and they are very smooth. The gameplay is very simplistic, and it's easy to pick up Gameday 98 and start playing. The multiplayer fun in NFL Gameday 98 is great, as with the double multitap, up to eight people can battle it out on the grid iron for supremecy. You can even select a certain team to go with and go on a two player season: One person being the team that you have chosen, the other being the team he faces. Overall, NFL Gameday 98 plays great, and I see very little wrong other than a lack of modes.

GAMEPLAY SCORE: 8.6/10



GRAPHICS

The graphics in NFL Gameday 98 are very good. Gameday 98 was the first game to use polygonal graphics, and it was a success. Some of the players look rather distorted though, and they look much skinnier from the front than they do from the back. However, the detail in Gameday 98 is unbelievable. All of the players' details down to their jerseys are fine tuned and look very exact. Even the new Denver Broncos jerseys which debuted in Gameday 98 look fantastically real, and I hadn't even seen very much of the real uniforms yet. However, I knew that they must look very close. The same applies for the stadiums. All of the details found in Gameday 98's stadiums are marvelously detailed, right down to the terf. You can set the weather the way you like it, and the weather's portrayed very well. You can have wind, rain, snow, blizzard, day, or night games. The rain isn't a downpour as I would've liked, just mild shower, and the snow's just a light snow, but with the Easter Egg option of blizzard enabled, you can make it one of those classic NFC championchip games up in Green Bay when it's somewhere in the -30 degree range. However, there is one huge problem with Gameday 98's graphics that bring it down dramatically. The crowd. most PSX sports games, this crowd looks, well, bad. They look like blobs that are supposed to resemble humans. There is very little detail, as you can't see any difference in the people. They all look the same. Overall, the graphics are excellent onfield, but that crowd is simply atrocious.

GRAPHICS SCORE: 8.1/10



MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS

The music in NFL Gameday 98 is exactly the same that was found in NFL Gameday 97. The only difference is a slightly changed version of the music that plays in the menu. The song that plays sound like a typical song for a TV broadcast to use when it goes to commercial and things like that. Like the classic FOX music and my favorite, CBS. Only other music that plays is a three second clipping of that same music when a touchdown is scored.

The sound effects in NFL Gameday 98 are also very much like NFL Gameday 97. The PA announcer is back, and he says pretty much the exact same things. He says the downs, who gets first down, who sacks the QB, who tackles the runner, who gets a touchdown, and many other typical things that a PA announcer would say. The players sound great. There is an extra added bonus, difference in voice change. For a great quarterback like Brett Favre, when he hikes the ball he has a deep, low-pitched voice. However, when a jabroni quarterback, *cough* Trent Dilfer *cough* hikes the ball, he has a high, squeaky voice. Also, the quarterbacks actually call out play signals like blue 45, red 48. In Gameday 97 they simply went hut, hut, hut, hike! Once the ball is hiked, the players do a great job in making it sound painful. All of the ''crunchy'' sounds of the game are devistating and sound much like real football. The ball hitting the terf sounds pretty good, and I really like it. The crowd does a great job of getting into the game. They are a loud, voisterous group that really get into the game. When the away team is inside the 35 yardline, they will start chanting ''defense'' faster and faster as they progress towards the end zone. The home team will get the ''stomp stomp clap'' treatment that is the bass to ''we Will We Will Rock you'' Overall, NFL Gameday 98 sounds excellent, and there are no real problems other than not very much music, but most sports games don't have that much music.

MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS SCORE: 9.2/10



DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM

NFL Gameday 98 provides a moderate challenge. The computer has a good, solid defense that will stop you from doing the same 30 yard play every time that was accessible to you in Gameday 97. Also, the computer AI tightens up inside their territory, and they really can be a bit difficult to get by when you're inside the ten yardline. Your runs will be shut down, and receivers will be covered better. I really like how the AI will also tighten up in a must win situation, putting on their best show. But while the AI does put up a good fight, they are realistic when it comes to losing. If you have three guys on one man and the QB throws to that one man in the end zone at the end of the game, the AI won't make an unbelievable backflipping, diving catch. They'll try to make a desperate grab at it, but most of the time it'll slip from their fingers. Only if you turn on the Easter Egg to increase the AI offense and defense do they really start to amnoy you and rip you off.



REPLAY VALUE: AVERAGE

NFL Gameday 98 has a decent lasting appeal. The season will probably keep you intrigued once a season, but you can't really ware it out too fast. I wouldn't suggest doing more than two a season, because once you get good at the game it'll become tidihs like Gameig did, although I highly doubt you'll go 16-0 quite easily on Gameday 98. The multiplayer is really enjoyable, and with up to eight friends able to play, it can provide for an excellent party game.



OTHER GAME INFORMATION

RENT/buy?: BUY

GENRE: SPORTS



OVERALL SCORE: 8.6/10

NFL Gameday 98 is a great game. It is a must own for any football fan. I suggest you pickup Gameday 98 if you get a chance, because it is a very good game that deserves a purchase. The Gamedays went straight downhill after Gameday 98, as 99 and 2000, while with more modes and flashier graphics, couldn't compare to the overall fun that was provided by NFL Gameday 98.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/00, Updated 08/12/00