The award winning
989 Studios franchise makes its debut on the
PlayStation 2 with 60 frames per second action and a variety of gameplay options, character animations, stadiums and statistics. As in previous incarnations, this edition features full
National Football League licensing for authentic uniforms, team rosters (based on the 2000 season) and logos.
Receiving assistance from
Tim Brown,
Mike Alstott,
John Randle,
Jerome Bettis,
Charles Woodson and nine other professional players,
NFL GameDay 2001 incorporates over a thousand motion-captured maneuvers along with realistic character designs. Carrying the series into the next-generation, the developers included a
ProTalk feature in which player's mouths move to the words they're saying much like an actual game.
Because of the
PlayStation 2's visual capabilities, players are proportionate to their weight and height and feature varying skin tones, neck rolls, tattoos and facemask styles. While on the gridiron, you'll notice actual landmarks unique to each venue and witness torn-up and worn-out grass as the game rages on.
Additionally,
Warren Sapp,
Corey Dillon,
Zach Thomas and a plethora of other football stars were brought in to create realistic playbooks. For those not satisfied with the default offensive and defensive patterns,
NFL GameDay 2001 features a Play Editor in which you design and create original plays -- you'll select where players should be after the ball is snapped and save the pattern to a customized playbook.
Because of the
Total Control Passing system (which was featured in previous games in the series), you'll see your plays executed through a series of realistic shoestring, tiptoe, one-handed and across-the-body catches; on passing patterns, you can even under or overthrow receivers using the analog buttons.
NFL GameDay 2001 features General Manager, Season, Preseason, Playoffs, Super Bowl, and Pro Bowl modes. Whereas the Preseason mode will familiarize you with controls and mechanics, the General Manager mode will have you creating and/or trading free agents, signing other players, and running a professional football team; there's even a Draft War Room that exposes team weaknesses before draft day.
With the enhanced Create-A-Player mode, you'll have the option of tinkering with the character's appearance, weight, height, size, facial attributes and mental brainwaves that affect how aggressive or passive the player is.
In Season mode, your team will accumulate various statistics; there are 163 statistical categories in all that can be viewed at any time. Before each game, you can check out a match-up screen that details each team's strengths and weaknesses. Additionally,
NFL GameDay 2001 includes throwback uniforms that recapture the yesteryear of football's past and
Super Bowl championship teams spanning every year (up to the 2000 season).
NFL GameDay 2001 also includes play-by-play and color commentary courtesy of
Dick Enberg and
Phil Simms with more catch phrases than in previous editions. Weather patterns such as wind, snow and rain will significantly alter the gameplay so there will be more injuries on days with snow and rain.
In addition to four difficulty settings (rookie, veteran, all-pro and hall of fame), there are four different viewpoints including the free-floating 3D television-style presentation and sideline vantages. The game also supports up to eight competitors via the
PlayStation 2 Multi-Tap peripheral.
~ Matthew House, All Game Guide
