I'll admit it, I liked the first NFL Fever a lot. However, the 2 games since then have proved to be progressively more disappointing. When Fever 2002 came out, it had a lot going for it. It had good gameplay, the best presentation of any football title this generation, and it had Legacy mode. In Legacy mode, you took an existing team, or created your own and took it from season to season. Players improved if they performed, people retired, and it was all a lot of fun. 2004 still has the well done Legacy mode, but sadly, it's the same one from two years ago, as is most of the rest of the game.

The presentation of Fever 2004 is some of the worst that I have ever seen. The menus are all dark and boring, and it gives the game a feel that's closer to prison yard football than the NFL. When compared to the bright, energetic presentation of EA's and Sega's games, it looks especially sloppy. The entire game, from exhibition mode to the training mode feels altogether uninteresting, and one has to wonder what exactly the developers were thinking.

The first fever had some really odd animation and gameplay glitches. The finished product was good overall, so most people weren't bothered too much. However, those glitches have gotten even worse in the two installments since. Players on the filed somehow manage to move both fast and slow. Sounds weird, I know, but it's entirely possible, and really annoying. Your back always seems to be running in slow motion while the opposing defense is always on speed, and every other animation glitch happens at the worst possible times, including the criminally slow bullet passes. The graphics within the game are bright and pretty, and digital sound is nice, but there's just not enough that's redeeming about Fever to keep the game from being crushed under the weight of its own mediocrity. Even the game's only real innovation, the Read and Lead passing system, which allows you to control where you pass the ball with the right thumbstick, is poorly executed and disappointing.

Overall, there's just no reason to buy this game, unless of course you desperately need to create a team named the Pansies and give them pink uniforms. Sure, Fever 2004 is playable over Xbox Live, but so is ESPN Football, and the latter is an infinitely better game. If online play isn't your thing, then just do yourself a favor and get yourself Madden. If you for some reason just can't bring yourself to buy an EA or Sega game, then just go ahead and deposit your 50 dollars into a stripper's G-String, because even a nerd like you has a better chance of getting fulfillment from a stripper than from a Microsoft football title.

· · · AFX