More Graphics and Sound

Not all good news

The eye candy in NFL Fever 2000 doesn't come without cost. Running at 1024 with all the options on was smooth as silk on my computer, thanks to a large amount of RAM, a Voodoo 3, and a 400+ MHz cpu. That's to be expected though - gamers with previous generation video cards, or slower processors may have difficulty running at high resolution in any game. The game still looks nice at lower res, but doesn't have quite the same impact as it does at 1024. Also, the celebration animations were a mixed bag. Some were fun to watch, but others looked way too canned and silly. There were also some minor issues with collision but these were hardly noticeable in the grand scale of things. NFL Fever is a visual delight, a true feast for the eyes.

Jett catches one in traffic?!?!

Howard goes in motion

Play by Play

EA Sports football has the charismatic (or annoying, take your pick) John Madden doing commentary during games. Microsoft deftly avoided being one upped in this department by bringing on seasoned veteran Dick Stockton and former all pro turned TV color man, Matt Millen, to do the announcing in NFL Fever 2000. The comments are decent and they do seem to say the right things at the right time for the most part, but it can get repetitive after a while. Once in a while though, Matt Millen will pull a real gaffe based on what's going on in the field. During one game, Jerry Rice dropped a pass over the middle and Millen made the comment that "he's not going to last long in this league if he keeps dropping balls." Hmm…maybe MS should have included a flag on Jerry's character so Millen doesn't make comments like that about the greatest receiver in NFL history. Thankfully Stockton and Millen can be turned off in favor of the PA announcer or no announcer at all.

First down!

The controller setup screen

Grunts and ooomphs

Sound effects in NFL Fever 2000 were definitely above average, but there's still room for improvement. They include good selection of ooomphs, ughs, crunches, and smashy sounds included, along with the obligatory quarterback cadences. Red! Sixty four! Red! Sixty four! Hut hut! The crowd will react appropriately to the situation on the field as well, with cheers for the home team when things are going well, or jeers on the ref when he makes a non-homer call. Sometimes the crowd will even boo the home team if they're playing particularly poorly. Overall it's a good job on the sound - I thought it was a nice touch that sound effects can be heard in the instant replay mode, but nothing here sticks out as spectacularly good or bad.