Still, even though their numbers have diminished compared to years past, there are some gamers who actually want the realistic ballplaying experience. It's this audience that 989 Sports is clearly catering to with MLB 2001, but in its effort to provide a sim-like playing experience, it left little in the way of actual enjoyable gameplay.

This could have been a solid baseball game in terms of graphics, control and gameplay, but in the end, the game simply lacks polish. On the paper, I'm sure the developers felt the many features included in this year's entry would make it a serious contender, but the final results are so poorly executed that it has the same empty feel of walking a runner home to end the game.

As I haven't played NFL GameDay 2000 or any prior version of GameDay, I cannot honestly compare it to previous efforts. What I can do is agree with everything else Ben has to say about the game, but I'll try to be brief to avoid parroting his every word. The two major points of the game that I have the most problems with are the graphics and gameplay.

It's very difficult to think of NFL GameDay 2001 as a new release, because it's just a rehash of last year's NFL GameDay 2000. Actually, it's not even a rehash, because "rehash" implies "revision."