As the launch of the Playstation2 drew nearer, one notable developer was missing from the fray; 989 sports. No titles had been announced, leaving many people wondering if their only choice for gridiron action was coming by way of Electronic Arts. Was Sony keeping the title quiet to please EA? Was it coming out this year at all? Was it so bad that they didn't want to talk about it? When word finally broke that Gameday was hitting the PS2, it delighted gamers who like 989's arcade-like approach more than the sim-like Madden. Like the Dreamcast at launch with NFL2K1 and Quarterback Club, the Playstation2 is offering up two football titles for your gaming pleasure. Read on to find out how this one fares in a game of review football.

The kickoff. My favorite thing in Gameday was its NFL Films style introduction. Although there's not a tremendous amount of action in the introduction, it gets you pumped for a battle on the field. Gameday 2001 presents all the requisite options for a next generation football title. Exhibition, Season, and a General Manager mode are all present to entertain you no matter what your tastes are. Setting up a game is simple, and you can control a wide variety of options before kickoff, this includes the ability to control the computer's abilities in several areas. One thing I liked about the menu was that it lets you and your friend pick teams at the same time. I don't know why some games only let you pick only one team at a time, it drives me nuts. Gameday takes the kickoff and runs it back to the twenty yard line with a respectable performance in the game's presentation.

Opening drive. Gameplay reigns supreme when it comes to making a quality game, but the first thing you'll notice when you play is the graphics, so we'll start there. To put it quite simply, the graphics are pitiful. If someone had told me this was a PSX game running with smoothed textures, I would have believed it. The players look bad, and somehow showing their faces just accentuates how bad the rest of their body looks. The referee is one of the most frightening looking characters I've ever seen in a videogame. When he speaks, his jaw stretches down causing his entire face to become misshapen (We called him Frankenstein). He looks like he belongs in a Resident Evil game, not Gameday. The weather effects are also poorly done, the snow looks just like the snow in the Super Nintendo version of Tecmo bowl, and the field is very dark during night games.

The camera is a major nuisance before the snap because of how close it is to the players. You can only see the offensive and defensive line, and the other team's safeties. If you are kicking the ball, you can't even see the kicker until after the ball is snapped. The camera problem also rears its ugly head on the opening kickoff, because you can't see your returner until after he has caught the ball and taken a few steps. The only way you know for sure that your returner has the ball is the rumbling in the Dualshock2. There is no excuse for such pitiful camera work, unless you consider that 989 wanted you to see the ugly player models as little as possible. On the opening drive Gameday throws an interception that Madden returns for a touchdown. Madden is up 7-0.

Madden kicks off to Gameday to start off our look at offensive gameplay. Horrible. That is the one word I would use to describe the gameplay found in Gameday 2001. There's so much going wrong here I don't know where to start, so I guess I'll start with passing. Pick a pass play, snap the ball, wait a few seconds and throw to a receiver, ANY receiver, and they will catch the ball. I spent one game running the same play, throwing to the same receiver, and I scored 49 points and he had over 400 yards receiving. This happens just as much against the computer as it does against a human opponent, and this is on SIMULATION mode. This game was so unrealistic on simulation, I couldn't fathom torturing myself by putting it on arcade mode.

The only time an incompletion is thrown is when the computer decides your completion percentage is just a bit too high, and it makes you throw the ball out of bounds. Once in a while, to make things more "realistic" the computer would decide I needed to throw an interception. Unlike most games, where a poor throw or a good defensive play causes an interception, Gameday has found a new way to create them. What they have done is put "anti-reciever juice" on the ball. The way this works is your wideout will see this "anti-receiver juice" on the ball while it is in the air, and he will immediately run away from the pass, and get as far away as possible. You can't actually see the juice, nor is it mentioned in the instructions, but I can't think of any other reason for the receiver to stop his route and run away like the ball is a live grenade. Running the ball is difficult, and pointless since all you have to do is throw deep the whole game. Gameday's center accidentaly snaps the ball out of the back of the endzone for a safety. Madden leads 9-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Gameday opens the second quarter on defense, as we look at the defensive gameplay of this game. When playing defense I would suggest going outside to play in traffic instead of actually trying to stop somebody from completing a pass in this game. It's more fun, and you're likely to get hit by a car and you won't have to play this game anymore. Evidently the league has planted a chip in the heads of the players that causes them to all act the same. On one of my many 80 yard pass plays I would watch the defensive backs on the replay to see how I got so open. Many times it was because they all moved the same way at the exact same time to tackle me, but usually it was because of the "Invisible wall". Like "anti-receiver juice" this feature is not actually listed anywhere, but I can assure you it's there. Defensive backs were constantly running in place like a crazed mime trying to break through this "invisible wall" so they could get back in the play. Sadly the average defensive back can't break through this barrier, so the end result is a touchdown on most every play.

Since your secondary is a human wasteland, playing up on the defensive line is your only hope at stopping your opponents' aerial assault. I was pleasantly surprised when I found it wasn't terribly difficult to break through the line and put some pressure on the quarterback, sadly my joy turned to sorrow when I tried to actually tackle him. Just when you are within striking distance, your attack on the quarterback is quickly turned back when he performs the maneuver known as "raising his arm to throw the ball". This unexpected move causes EVERYONE on the defensive line to simultaneously jump up with their hands in the air (and wave them all around like they just don't care). Since jumping kills any forward momentum you may have had, the quarterback simply steps to the side and throws a touchdown pass. After showcasing its horrendous gameplay, Gameday gives up back to back touchdowns and goes into halftime down 23-0.

This paragraph is dedicated to miscellaneous problems this game has. In any game, on any system I don't recall ever seeing collision detection this poor. Even Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 had the concept down so that when you ran into a ghost you died, not ran right through him. Sadly, in Gameday you can run right through players and not even slow down, while other times they can tackle you without even touching you. This is done through a unique change in the rules that apparently even the NFL is not aware of. If you fall without getting hit you are down, BUT not all the time. If you are near the opponents' goal line and you fall, just like Chumbawamba, you can get up again. This is inexcusable, and this is why I don't feel guilty in the slightest about telling you how poor this game really is, it's like they didn't even try. Other things that are pitiful include: Rainbow passing (The ball hangs in the air forever), a two-minute warning that has been know to come at 1:56 even though I was in the huddle when the two-minute mark passed, the ability to call multiple timeouts in a row, and teleporting defenders. Yes that's right, although I don't they are supposed to be able to do it, some players have the ability to teleport in mid-air to tackle you. You're also supposed to be able to hurry to the line by pressing the X button, but I can't tell any difference in how fast they get to the line. It's simple problems like the ones I just mentioned that kill this game, there's just no excuse for stuff this sloppy to make it onto store shelves. Madden goes up 33-0 at the end of the third quarter.

As we start the last quarter of review football it appears that Gameday's only chance at redemption is in the audio department. This is the only part of the game that achieves being average, and it just barely does that. I enjoyed the "real" music that sometimes played after scoring a touchdown. This makes the game feel a bit more realistic, and it's a nice touch that I'm surprised more developers haven't taken advantage of. The announcing is average, but nothing more. The commentary does not have much variety, and at times was difficult to hear, but it was certainly nowhere near as offensive as the rest of the game. Right before the two-minute warning Gameday kicks a 40 yard field-goal to cut Madden's lead to 40-3

As the game ends Madden walks off the field victorious after trouncing the embarrassing Gameday. This game of review football wasn't even close, and if it hadn't been for Gameday being just a tad better than horrible in the audio department, it would have been a shutout. Seriously, this game has nothing going for it, and I can't think of one person that might prefer this game over Madden, and to charge $49.99 for this game is an atrocity. All indications point to this title being rushed out for the holidays to capitalize on ill-informed parents buying this for their kids. Avoid it like the plague.