NFL 2K3 The King of All NFL Games?

I have played Madden 2003, Blitz 2003, and NFL 2K3. By far NFL2k3 is the best football game made yet.

CONTROLS:
The controls are perfectly placed wit the L1 R1 buttons being stiff arms,the L2 R2 buttons being juke, O is the spin move, triangle is the hurdle, square is the dive and x is the turbo. You can change them but the default is the easiest. Unlike some other football games where you hit the button and there is a delay, you will be satisfied that there is none here. This year the maximum passing (helps you controls your throw by using the analog stick to lead,call back, send left, send right your wide receiver while running his route) is back and is just as fun to use but beginners try without it a few games then upgrade. The select button calls a timeout and is more convenient than having to pause the game and then call a timeout.

GAME PLAY:
The game play in NFL2K3 is the best yet. Last year in NFL2K2 interceptions could be made just about every play, but his year they toned it down to a realistic pace. You start out after each play your menu pops up with all you plays you use the L1, R1 buttons to change pages and use the joystick to highlight you play then hit X on the play that you want. You can move your defensive line by using the top shoulder buttons, call audible with triangle. The game play is well balance as well you cant run the ball the whole game, and you cant pass the ball the whole game because the computer will start to catch on , and know what your plays are so they'll defend them better. But when you get a good play off the announcers will show you a replay, sometimes split screen showing QB & WR sometimes even telling you past career highlights. When on defense you can hold the X button to fill your turbo arrow and use it on whatever you want such as a hard tackle, better interception chance, or to run faster to catch up to someone. Unlike last years installment you cant score a touchdown just about every run play by using stiff-arms, and spin moves. The computer will time their tackling, but wit good blocks and well timed moves you can still get that easy touchdown(at least in easy mode hehe). The one thing I didn't like about game play on Pro mode without maximum passing you will rarely get a tight pass in your receiver will have to be open enough to catch the ball if not the defender will hit your WR at the perfect time forcing you to drop the ball but with maximum passing it gets easier.

SOUND:
Like all football game this has announcing but this game announcing has been said to have the best. The announcers after a good play will sometime give some stats on the player that just made the play, that makes him look even better. The announcers also sound like they are really interacting with each other and not reading any cue cards.
The announcing is also funny at times for those bad plays we all have and is not repetitive. Now for the non-announcing sounds. The crowd volume and be turned up, or down and the crowd will cheer you if your doing good at home or boo you if your doing bad. One very neat thing I noticed was when at home and the other team gets a penalty the crowd cheers, and boos when its against you. You can also turn up the player chatter volume and when up you can hear some trash talk by players. The game sounds such as QB faking the hikes and the crunching hits are astounding, and authentic. The sound in this game will have you amazed.

OPTIONS:

In the main menu options you can set the difficulty, qt length, play calling, game speed,fatigue on or off, advanced line moves, injuries on/off, coach mode on/off, performance eq ( which is neat it makes the two teams balanced so either team has a chance of winning no matter the rating), weather, time of day, temp., precipitation, wind speed, controller setup, presentation, player indication text, action replays, overlays, celebrations, sports ticker, vibration,sound, audio presentation, audio sliders, menu music typer, penalties, on/off penalties, and variable degree penalties. So this games options menu is loaded, when you pause the game you can make substitutions by package or global, you can call timeouts, replay,(you can save replay by hitting select), go to gameplan so you can set your man to man or check your audibles, change camera, choose side, and lastly quit. In this years installment you have more teams they have about five different years that you can go back about 15 years for each team, and they have throwback jerseys for all teams that have them.

ONLINE : Not available to be tried at the time but has been reviewed as the best.

GAME MODE:

There is a very updated franchise mode where you will be more involved where you have trade deadlines, fantasy draft, can customize league, import ncaa 2k3 class,draft players, resign players, sign draft picks, sign free agents. In the off season you can resign people who want to retire, scout players, check team needs, get salary cap done and more. You have a playbook manager where you can create your own custom playbook in which the possibilities are countless. In franchise mode you can always check stats, standings, leaders, etc.
Season mode is the same as franchise except your not responsible for anything except playing the game but you can be more involved like trades , drafts etc. but not as customizable and deep and franchise mode.
You can just jump in the playoffs and you play the top 16 teams. Tournament mode you can have 4,8,16 teams but I wont get into tournament and playoffs since they're the same in all games.

SITUATION: In situation mode you can set the scenario then you can enter the game at whatever time you want in an attempt to practice defensive stops or comeback attempts . ex. your team down 6 ball on 30 with 30 second left. This is very useful for those clutch times.

Overall: NFL 2K3 is the best football game out in my opinion and all the other video game reviewers it beats madden out in ratings for a reason. You get better ratings for upgrading and Sega Sports did an excellent job with the ESPN license used all throughout the game even the intro has Sports center, and the default menu music is the ESPN theme. The Graphics in this game are much upgraded excellent shadows, and the faces are all upgraded and show more detail, and the physics are authentic. If you want the best football game out NFL2K3 is your only choice.