E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is THE place where most companies unveil their biggest products for the fall (read: Christmas) season. Since so many companies are showing off so many games, quite often promising titles get pushed aside.



As many of our readers are well aware, Electronic Arts secured an exclusive license with the NFL and NFL Players Association, which had a pretty chilling effect on the football video gaming industry. Everyone wondered, would anyone come out with a new football game this year, and how could it compete as a non-licensed game?



Sony has had what could be best described as a mediocre football resume. The first NFL GameDay games for the original PlayStation were often described as a fun arcade experience, but as the years went by the game was progressively inferior to EA’s and Sega’s game. Sony, under their 989 Sports moniker, had released the game for the PlayStation 2 and even the PC in the late 90s, however the general public didn’t seem to be buying.

The last NFL GameDay was released in 2003 and did show promise except for a nasty running bug which practically allowed you as any running back to go right up the middle for massive gains and killed any momentum the game had. There was no 2004 model and one would guess that this new game would have served as the new GameDay engine had the license not gone exclusive.



What is the new game, you ask? It’s called “Road To Sunday : Season One.” First, I want to give kudos to Sony that by using the “Season One” subtitle rather than a year, it won’t be hard to figure out what season or year you are playing – similar to a DVD. It’s a lot easier to remember “Seinfeld Season 4” instead of “Seinfeld, 1994-1995,” don’t you think? Of course, it also implies that there will be a Season Two, but I think they would want to make sure sales of Season One are good first.

This game is certainly NOT your run of the mill football game, or even your arcade style NFL Blitz of the past football game. Sony has taken great pains to clarify that this is a “Sports Entertainment Action” title and not just a “Sports – Football” title. My first thought was, hmmm… Sports Entertainment, like wrestling? Is it fake? Well, of course it’s fake, because it’s a computer and it’s using fake names and fake teams, so I can understand that. It’s called “entertainment action” because you don’t only play football in this football like game. Confused yet?



The game’s protagonist is Blake Doogan who inherits a team after the death of his father under suspicious circumstances. What circumstances you ask? Well, Blake’s dad bought a football team (The LA Show) but financed the team using money from a Jamaican kingpin. Because Blake gets the team, Blake also gets the debt that goes with it. Blake of course needs to make money to pay off this guy and in order to do that his team has to win the NAFA (National American Football Association) championship. You’ll play the football game using PSG (Position Specific Gameplay, but more on that later). In addition to the on the field gameplay, you’ll also have to do well off the field by gambling and fighting. Your player’s off the field antics will have a direct result on the way they play off the field.



For me, it sure does sound like some sort of crazy Japanese RPG title, but it does have some potential.

The “Off-The-Field” Gameplay is a completely different idea from other football games (aside from the old Mutant League Football for the Genesis, which you could bribe referees)…and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. To me that makes sense – if a player gets involved in some fight, they may or may not be a better player emotionally as well as physically on game day. We don’t know much yet about these fighting tournaments; “a guy walks into a bar and goes Fight Club” sounds interesting as well as a “this bookie is mad you haven’t paid up” fight would be good too --- however a random “You must fight this guy” wouldn’t be any fun for anyone.



In addition to the fighting, you can also make bets on football games and all of the favorites (not just who wins, but over/under and individual player statistics). Now this is a great feature. Again, there’s not a lot of detail here, but if you’re playing a team and bet the under for the game…..that may add a second layer of strategy. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.



In addition to the sports bookie, you’ll also be able to take part in Texas Hold ‘em tournaments. One only hopes that these mini games are just as good as the $19.99 poker games already out, if not better. It sure does sound interesting because sports and betting do go together well.

Is gambling and fighting not enough for you? Well, there’s more! That’s right, there’s also a “work out” feature in the game. In this part of Road to Sunday, you will take part in weightlifting and running exercises to increase your character’s physical attributes which will help in football games and in the fighting tournament. Although I cringe when the PR types mentioned “rhythm-based timing,” I like the rational behind this which is training helps your character. I just hope there’s no Dance Dance Revolution type of exercising required!



There’s also a football game in here – however Sony is calling it “mission based football.” That’s because in addition to winning the game, you’ll have to complete some sort of challenge in the game – details are sketchy at this point as to what the missions are, one could speculate that it’s ‘score x number of points’ or ‘gain 100 yards on the ground’ … I’m guessing the challenges are similar to earning points for cards in Madden, but again, we’re speculating here.

Earlier, we mentioned that the football game will have a feature called “Position Specific Gameplay” or PSG. What’s it all about? With the PSG feature you’ll supposedly be able to have more control in the game – and the controls will be player specific. For a running back, you’ll power up to become a power runner; while on defense your cornerback can force quarterbacks into making mistakes. It sure does sound great on paper – let’s hope that this game delivers.



Way back in the late 80s there was a Commodore 64 game called GameStar Football – in it you became the WR or the RB. Because the control was Dragon’s Lair like, your control was only with a certain number of joystick pushes (a post pattern was up 6 and left 2). 2K games had First Person Football the past two years, so it will be very interesting to see how PSG will be different from those modes – there’s definitely some potential in the idea of PSG.

The game itself will have a ‘down on the field’ presentation which I assume means that you’ll get more of a ‘playing the game’ ambiance instead of a ‘feeling like you’re watching the game on TV’ ambiance. You’ll be able to use trash talk to your advantage, which is always fun.



Sony promises that the game’s AI will take all factors into consideration when calling plays – such as time left in the game, score, the potential score and what the human player has done in those situations in the past. Many games do promise things like this but few actually deliver. Here’s hoping that Road To Sunday will make good on those promises.



In the ‘formal’ game presentation, the focus is primarily on football, and I hope that is the case when the game releases. The side quests/mini games seem to fall into line with the demographic that buys the game, however, I’m going to be curious to see what sort of rating the game gets. Will SCEA push for an “M” rating or go with a “T” rating. Personally, if you decide to get into gambling and fighting, it sounds like an “M” game to me and I’m all over that. Look for Road To Sunday: Season One in the Fall of 2005.