A Defense of the Mediocre NFL Video Game

Existing neither as a fully-fledged simulation nor all-out NFL Blitz-esque arcade fare, NFL Fever 2002 stands as a reasonably accessible football game that feels surprisingly solid to play, albeit with tempered depth and charisma. Overall, it’s quite mediocre. As famed cornerback Richard Sherman might put it: NFL Fever may well be the Michael Crabtree of sports games.

And for NFL Fever 2002, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

An Xbox Launch 20th B’day Bash

I’m in a pretty celebratory mood at the moment. I got the first dose of the vaccine, my bracket is still somewhat in tact (for now), and — with the looming 20th anniversaries of the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube — I have the perfect excuse to rekindle my bizarre, nostalgia-fueled fascination with sixth generation console launches with a birthday celebration of sorts.