The roar of the hometown crowd, the chill of the autumn wind on your face, the anticipation of a 4th and 1 play - there's a lot to love about catching an NFL game live.
With NFL Pro 2014, Gameloft manages to expertly capture none of it.
False startNFL Pro 2014 represents an ambitious attempt on the part of the studio to blend a traditional sports game with a complex sports management sim. Gameloft even mixes in some light RPG elements for good measure.
Your gridiron players earn experience as they progress through games, and you can increase their stats to make them more effective on the field. If you're looking for a bit of extra firepower, for example, you can upgrade your home stadium to provide bonuses - like quarterback accuracy - to your team.
More enticingly, NFL Pro 2014 offers all of this for free. It soon becomes clear as you cycle through the tutorial, however, that there's simply too much going on here and none of it is executed particularly well.
Also, you'll realise that getting anywhere in this game is going to cost you.
Grounding
In my review of last year's NFL Pro 2013, I noted that "the football simulation is a bit dodgy at the best of times" with lag being a frequent problem. Remarkably, those issues persist in NFL Pro 2014.
Routine plays become a challenge, as you fight against lagging animations. The controls themselves are finicky at the best of times. Worse yet, the cold robotic announcer makes a return, calling every single play formation in the droning monotone that you'd expect from an automated telemarketer.
A new annoyance is the addition of unskippable full-screen video ads that distract you from the action of the game. One moment you're in the middle of a drive deep in your opponent's red zone, the next you're watching a car commercial or learning about AT&T's network offerings.
The final nail in NFL Pro 2014's coffin, however, is the free-to-play model employed here. To unlock all 32 teams in the league, you'll need to spend $24.99 / £17.49. Plays are all still unlockable via in-game currency, but you'll need to pay hard currency if you want to flesh out your playbook in any meaningful way.
Neutral zone infractionEven if you do pay to unlock content in NFL Pro 2014, you probably won't feel like you've got your money's worth.
The touted social elements are, admittedly, quite appealing, but they require your friends to play in order to work (and NFL Pro 2014 provides very little incentive for anyone to play past the tutorial).
If you're absolutely desperate for bland, stuttering NFL action as you wait patiently for the beginning of the season, you'll get more satisfaction from a second-hand Electric Football game than you will from NFL Pro 2014.