Almost perfect...

I am truly surprised at Sega's first crack at creating a NFL game for the Dreamcast. Usually, first year games have some kinks, but this game is almost perfect. With solid graphics and gameplay, this game truly delivers the goods for most football fans.

Sega made a stellar effort with NFL2K. The graphics are over the top, with very good looking players. Their sizes are also appropriate to their positions, and although players don't have realistic faces, the texture work makes them look more real. The stadiums look good, but the fans look two dimensional and don't move. There are a lot of press and other extraneous people on the sidelines, but instead of focusing on the players, they focus on your camera position. The refs look good too, especially as they give out penalties. While Sega generally did very good motion capture, I think they messed up on capturing the walk of players after a play is done. They all generally walk quite funny - like they've had hip replacement surgery. They all seem to have poor posture, with their heads slightly slouched forward. When plays are executed, their motions seem quite fluid though. The best graphics and motion capture can been seen when a tackle is made. The players fall so realistically! The touchdown celebrations are cool and nicely done

The gameplay is equally good. There are lot of plays to pick from, and the game gives you the option of picking plays by formation or by type (like short/med/long pass, inside/outside run). I've found that picking plays by type is quicker, because you usually have an idea of the kind of play you'd like to run, and going through the formations can be time consuming. Although there is a good variety of plays, some are missing. There's only a couple of reverses, and no flea flicker. You can create plays in the customize section of the game, but you can only do routine passes or runs. While playing against the computer is fun, playing against a opponent is less so. There is no good way to hide your plays, and you can only hide the routes. Your opponent will still know whether it's a pass or run. You can't juke, which is key for runners like Barry Sanders (not enough buttons on the controller maybe?). The difficulty levels are also slightly messed up. While Rookie level is very easy, the other two difficulty levels are much much harder. Just moving up to Veteran makes passes very difficult to complete. All-star is very hard to play even against the worst teams.

The game has plenty of options- you can create players, and even teams. You can then take your team to play exhibition, playoffs, season, tournament, or fantasy season. In fantasy seasons, you can draft players to your team and play a completely custom season. You can create about 8 players, but its not easy to create good players. I've been able to make good receivers, tight ends, and defensemen, but very poorly rated runners, and QBs. But even though they are rated poorly, they perform decently on the field.

The sound effects are good, but the commentators are only average. Again, Sega couldn't afford to get real people (just like in NHL2K), so they're substitutes. They're nowhere near as lively as John Madden. They're not annoying though.

Overall, NFL2K is a solid game with very good execution. It has lots of options and very good replay value. If you can get past the fact that Barry will never juke in this game, you'll get addicted quickly and come back for more. NFL2K is an excellent effort by Sega, and in my opinion, much better graphically and gameplay wise than anything on the PS2.