Finding The Right Sports Game That Fits Your Style Can Be Tricky But, Worth It.
Jul 08 '09 (Updated Sep 20 '09)
The Bottom Line Patience is the key and trying different sports titles each year is the way to go. There are always games to fit your style you just have to find them.
I am a huge sports fan and would not even try and figure out how many sport titles I have played over my gaming career. Finding a game that caters too what you like can be a long and tedious process. If you are lucky, you may like a certain publisher's games that makes whatever sport titles you like year end and year out to your liking. Still, you will probably find a game, here and there, that the publisher made some changes or just made a game not up to your standards or wants. I have found myself not really into a certain publisher as I just look for a game that gives me what I look for no matter who makes it. Needless to say, I usually end up playing every title of that particular sport that was made that year and sticking with the one I like best. If there is not a game better than the a game I am already playing then I will just continue to play the older one for another year. Finding the right sports game will ultimately come down to what you want. Whether you look for a sports game that has more of an arcade feel that you can just play for fun by yourself (or with others), or whether you are more into the finer details of management and running your team from upstairs there is a game out there that will probably be to your liking. This is my top five list on what I look for in a sports game to determine whether I like it or not.
1) The most important thing I look for in a sports game is how do the controls work and respond. If they are too complex and hard to execute the game will just never feel right. If the game doesn't play right or respond to your commands then you probably will not go back for more. This is the number one reason why a sports game will fail for me. From what I have seen in the past this is where a publisher will make the most mistakes. Every year they have to add new things in order to make that years version of the game different than the previous installment. A lot of times this means adding different controls or making some more complex. It is a hit and miss change that I have seen miss a lot. For a couple of examples, EA's Madden Football introduced the "Hit Stick" trying to add more impact and feel or a basketball game that will try and add different "post moves" like the NBA 2K Sports series. Some additions work and make the game feel and play more realistic while others feel "clunky" and make everything worse or has no impact at all. It is a fine line in a sports games to get all the different controls to feel right however, when they are done correct it can make the entire game. If you feel you are actually on the field, court, rink, or whatever surface you are playing on, then the game has a great chance of succeeding.
2) Another very important aspect of a sports title is once you execute the controls is the game realistic. What I mean by this is, when you hit a baseball on the "sweet spot" was the ball hit hard or if you hit a pitch that you can't believe you even made contact with is it hit like a "can-of-corn"?. If you take a jump shot and every time you release the ball at the perfect time do you always make the shot no matter where you are on the court? I remember back in the day with the EA Triple Play baseball series this was a serious problem. No matter how well you hit a pitch the ball was always smoked somewhere and made the games extremely hard to play defense. The realism of a sports game is, of course, hard to put in perspective compared to what you watch on TV and there has to be a little forgiveness from the player. The games today have improved in this area quite a bit and you can tell a lot of them take much more time trying to get the gameplay itself to be more realistic. Still, whether you care about realism depends on what style of game you are looking for. If your looking for an arcade style of game like the old Blitz series than you won't have a lot of realism.
3) The difficulty of a sports game makes a big difference for me. Back in the day sports games always became way to easy in a short period of time. Now, these games come with a lot of different options and sliders you can adjust to make the game harder or easier. This makes a game a lot more fun and more realistic for me. As you play a game more and more you start to figure out what is to easy and what is maybe to hard. Most games now have 3 or 4 different difficulty levels and a lot of different sliders that you can adjust specific things. You have more control of making a sports title cater to you and your style of play. Baseball games are my favorite sport titles and have always had a huge problem with pitching being way to easy. Once you play a game a few times you will never walk anyone and can always "paint the corners" until your pitcher became extremely tired. Finally a title came out really addressing this problem in MLB The Show 2007. You can still throw a ball right down the middle if you wish, and watch it get hit out of the park but, "hitting the corners" over and and over again is much harder which was a very nice change. This added to the difficulty and realism of the game. Some sports titles even offer an option that the AI can learn by your play style of play and adjusts it's own difficulty level to you. I have always said the more options the better and sports titles are now offering a lot more options to play with making the different games easier to make to your style.
4) Stats are something that I almost put number two on my list. I have always been a "stat freak" and while playing a sports game season after season (franchise mode) I want the stats to be realistic as well. Of course playing a team yourself will make the stats a little off but, all of the simulated games is what I am talking about. This was almost impossible to find a few years ago but, is also getting better with time. A lot of sports titles still have a very tough time with this though. I don't mind an occasional player having a season that is well above or below their average because that is realistic. But, as a whole, I want to good players to perform and the mediocre players to be just mediocre. If your a player like me and when I find a sports title I like I will play season after season which means the development of the players means a lot. This is included in the stats as younger players that have a bright future should get better making their stats reflect this. As well as older players dropping a level year after year. I'm sure this is a hard thing for the developers to accomplish but, effort is the key to me. No matter what sport I am playing I want the overall stats to be as realistic as they can be.
5) Something I don't find as important, as others probably do, is the graphics. Sure, having a game that looks great will help add to the fun and have you feeling like your actually playing the sport however, if the game looks great and plays like crap what good is it? There has been quite a lot of games that fall into this category for me over the years that really look awesome but, the controls and realism of the game are so bad you can't really even play them. I would rather put a game in of High Heat Baseball 2002 and deal with the very outdated graphics just to play a game that has realism and solid gameplay. Still, the graphics need to be clear and crisp enough so you have no trouble seeing the action on the screen. For example, if the graphics are not clear enough so you can see a baseball flying around the field or where a hockey puck in the rink it will make the game difficult to control and you will have a very hard time playing the game. With the power of the consoles and the PC video cards now-a-days there really is not much difficulty finding a sports title that looks great. It can just be hard to find a sports game that the developers took as much time into the gameplay itself as they did on tweaking the graphics out.
Final Comment:
There are truly sports games out there for every kind of fan. There are games that focus on graphics and an arcade feel and their are others that focus more on realism gameplay and stats. It all truly comes down too what you look for in a sports title yourself. The bottom line is, is the game worth playing again and again. If you can only handle to put the game in once in a while and play it, it's not worth it. I don't rent a lot of games before I buy them but, renting games in the sports genre can save you a lot of money in the long run. You can tell whether you like a sports title pretty fast so renting it can let you know if it is worth the purchase or not. Choosing a sports game that gives you everything you want can be a tedious process but, for the true sports fan, once you find one it is worth the time.
Thank you for your time and happy sports gaming.
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Member: D.J.
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In my little corner of Epinions relaxing, sipping beer, playing a game, listening to music.
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