With just a few short weeks before the kick-off of the ’99-2000 NFL season, we have received the first of many football titles who all hope to earn a place on your hard drive. This year’s first contender is a rookie effort by none other than the 600-pound software gorilla, Microsoft. How does this OS champion measure up in the action packed, highflying world of professional sport simulations? Well, let's take a look at the features that hold this game together.

Featuring full NFL license is a definite plus for Fever 2000. All franchise teams are represented, including the newly remained Tennessee Titans and the newly restored Cleveland Browns. All franchise stadiums are rendered to an adequate degree of detail, but more could easily have been done. Missing are the little details that would complete the playing experience. For example, being a resident of the bay area I am accustomed to watching the 49ers scramble around 3COM Candlestick Park on a dusty, muddy infield area that they share until midseason with the San Francisco Giants.

Equally as non-descript are the various player models that, save for skin color and body size, have no distinguishing features. The player models do a good job of varying their tackles and movements, but again, more detail could have been spent in this area as well. Going up against such entrenched and established games like the Madden or Gameday series’ takes special consideration in separating this title from the rest of the pack.

Microsoft has failed to go the extra yardage in its Play-by-Play as well. Fox Sports announcers Dick Stockton and Matt Millen add limited commentary to the on field action. Each of their phrases and monologues suffer from the worst of all PBP mistakes, awkward voice fluctuations. Stringing together words from a large pool of proper nouns forms the play by play. Here is an example: Ball is on the and has a lot of work ahead of him. Done right, in-game Play-By-Play can sound relatively seamless and at the very worst, a little forced. Done wrong, as it is in Fever 2000, the announcers rattle off words that do not match in pitch, volume or accent, leaving the COMMENTARY to a STRANGE hodge-podge of STUDDERING and canned CLICHES.

If one is so dedicated, like I was, to continue playing Fever 2000, one can turn off the in-game commentary with relative ease. I suppose now would be an appropriate time to talk about the actual gameplay and how accurately this game portrays the gridiron experience. Well, kids, I’d rather spend a little time on multiplayer, if that is alright with you. THERE IS NO FUCKING INTERNET/LAN MULTIPLAYER. There, now aren’t we glad to have that out of the way.

Gameplay offers exhibition, season and playoff play. It also has a useless training mode that lets you continuously run the same play to “practice.” I’m sure there are hundreds of armchair General Managers thrilled at the chance to force their team to run drills and break down the I-form set late into the night. For the rest of us Microsoft has left a majority of all-important features, like stat recording and league, completely out of the game. Did I mention the lack of any fucking internet/LAN multiplayer? Very cool, dude.

Carrying it's fair shares of fumbles and rookie mistakes, NFL Fever 2000 has a lot of work to do in the off-season. Simply put, Fever 2000 is nothing more than last year’s gameplay flaws, found in various other football titles, with this year's team rosters crudely attached. There is going to be an excessive amount of football games released in a very short time. Some will be better, others worse. My advice, wait for one with some fucking internet/LAN multiplayer.