The installation went as expected, smooth and easy. Kudos to Microsoft for the easy to follow installation interface.

The beginning of the intro reminded me of the old days of Lombardi. -pretty kewl!- A rustic looking 'old time photo-ish' reel to reel video plays at the beginning, focusing on the front line of the Green Bay Packers. The camera then pans down the line of scrimmage -affectionately known as the 'trenches'! and then back out to the sideline showing Favre checking out the defense. The remainder of the intro was comprised of the actual in game footage. Earth pounding tackles, nifty running plays, wide receivers catching the ball just before the safety comes over to lay him out! There are also a couple of shots of receivers getting tackled by having their legs taken out from underneath them. Ouch!--It actually looks like it hurts! ...yeah baby, that's what I'm talkin' bout!

Oh, did I mention the offense? ...Running backs literally running over people, spinning off tackles, stiff arming their way to the endzone, dancing the last 5 yards! If the game plays anything like the intro, then I might just have to use another sick day -again.

If you like that type of hard hitting action, then read on my faithful pupils! On the other hand, if any of the above mentioned scares you, then go ahead and grab your pacifier and blanket, sit in front of the TV, and watch your favorite cartoons! no offense LAZ and ZWORM...hey LAZ...nice tie buddy!

Bottom line is, there are not many performance things to tweak; but what is there, is enough to get you going and keep you happy. Very easy to access with no sub menus. You load it up and BOOM your in the game and WHAM before ya know it your ready to rumble with the pro's. (oops this isn't Madden!)

On the main menu screen you have a list of things in which you can choose to do. Practice, start a new season or playoff, start a single game, head to the official web site, or head to the Manager...what's that you say? Well here is where you can create new plays, create new players with attributes all their own, make trades - which I found very useful if you are involved in a fantasy football league (FFL) of your own. Since there are no rules on who you can or can't trade (none that I found anyway) you can end up with the team you drafted in your FFL. Then invite 'em over and have a playoff of your own to see who the real Super Bowl champs really are! Adjust\alter your playbook, create new plays, select the formation of your substitutions, make your trades, you can even bump up attributes of your entire team! Make them all super studs if you want! Tip, don't tell your buddies if you happen to play them head to head! Very kewl and very easy to do as well. -oh, and just a click on the Restore Roster option puts all players back to their original teams if you want to start a new season. -easy :o)

As far as the little details, the players name on the back of their jerseys are easy enough to see and their faces are there too! That may sound weird but in some games, faces and names can be blurred to allow faster frame rates.--example: the crowd in the bleachers!-- So this was a plus for me. It's pretty kewl to tackle someone - I mean just level 'em - and see the player get up slowly, shake his head and stagger back to the huddle!

The weather effects seemed to have little or no affects of the overall gameplay. At least in the Rookie level. --Hmmm, seems like rain soaked fields, and snow falling should mean sloppy games. I did however notice that while in Veteran and All Pro difficulty settings, the ball seemed to pop loose more often and passes seem to be picked off more frequently. Was this due to the weather? I really couldn't see any difference from playing in a dome versus Lambeau field in a blizzard. Also, there are no visual effects from the players breathing in cold weather...cold weather means you can see their breath right? - nope, not here.

As far as the in game sounds go, all the grunts and groans from the tackles are there reminding you that it's tough out there on the field and when you REALLY stick someone, the sounds from that tackle are just plain ol' awesome! The fans get into the action with cheers, booing, chants as well as an occasional taunt from the anxious ones. There's even sounds from the food vendors! I thought that to be a lil-bit humorous!

If you are not too confident about which play to run, NFL Fever gives you the opportunity to ask the advice of a pro. The game adds a 'Millen's Call' to the play menu for those of us that need help. Heck, you can run Millen's plays all day long if you want. It's still up to you. :o)

I started out by practicing a few of the plays before actually heading out to the field to match my underdeveloped skills with the pro's. I chose to begin a playoff run to the Super Bowl under the Rookie difficulty level. I actually faired pretty well. I just ran the one play I beat to death in practice and absolutely crushed the opposition all the way to a Super Bowl victory! Faulk rushed on avg. for about 300 yards per game!

Umm, like I said before you MUST practice if you want to compete at higher difficulty levels! My previous game strategy didn't work! Actually I found this to be a strength for the game, especially since there is no internet playability --but I'll get into that a bit more in the next category. Besides, who wants to be able to pound the AI all the time anyway!

It's really too bad the game doesn't support online multiplayer. In today's world, aren't all games multiplayable?

If you like the idea of sitting down plugging in your favorite stick and playing some kick me in the jimmy smash mouth PC football - without the individual or YTD stats, then go get this one cuz you won't be disappointed. It takes just a short time to install and to get all configured. Once your up-to-snuff and rollin, you just click here, click there, and just like that, your going toe to toe with the best of the best.