Sports games... whose games do you play, if any?

I will give my answers, too!

I don't really play football games, so I can't answer that one... the NHL08 vs. NHL2K8 is mostly the reason I started this, because despite the fact that I love playing hockey games, both 07 and 2K7 were completely stunted and not awesome (I am so angry at NHL 07's Dynasty Mode, which I can go on about at length if you're interested. GREAT length.) Of course, Pro Evo is the funnest soccer game to play, although I found recent FIFA games, partic. FIFA 07, to be closer to what I want from these games. The lack of licenses really grinds my gears with Pro Evo, too (why can't they do what Footie Manager did?). I don't play NBA games, so I can't comment there.

If you think of more sports games to add, throw 'em up.

SI's Football Manager vs. any other soccer management sim;

Skate. vs Tony Hawk;

Are there even cricket games? rugby games? if there are throw them up here too.

The best next-gen football video game was probably the last 2K game. I didn't like the All-Pro demo. Madden 08 is great if you like Madden, which I do.

Pro Evo is more realistic, and FIFA is more fun. I don't know anything about soccer, so I play FIFA.

MLB 06 is the best baseball game for the PS2. From what I've heard, none of the next gen games are worth buying yet.

I tried the demos for EA v. 2K NHL and neither of them really moved me very much.

Based on the demos, I think this year's NBA Live is better than the 2K one. I really enjoyed 2K6 for the PS2 a lot, though.

Skate is way, way better than Tony Hawk.

I tried Rugby for the PS2 and it was a complete disaster. One of the worst games I've ever played.

I think EA's NHL 2008 is the best hockey game I've ever played, and I think I've pretty much played them all. I like both Tony Hawk and Skate. I don't understand football enough to play Madden (how sad is that).

i always loved the nba2K series, ever since dreamcast.

Wow, NHL 2008 is really that good? Have hockey players learned how to stop or do they still just glide infinitely? Is it better than the SNES version of NHL 96?

I'm after a really decent baseball game, for either Xbox or PS2, or even PC ?

Also, if we are talking about EA's Xbox 360 NHL series, I am going to bitch about Dynasty Mode in '07, in the hopes that it's been fixed for '08. For example, there wasn't an option to drop players from your roster, which meant that if you had the maximum number of players and wanted to sign free agents or draft picks at the end of the season, you had to find a way to trade 3 players (which was the max for either team in a trade which is also stupid) for one, often throwing away your own depth guys and/or young, high-potential players. Also frustrating was the really annoying major/minor line editting. Also annoying was the fact that you CANNOT let a contract expire!!! If you try to progress past a certain point, your options are "cancel" or "let your assistant coach automatically handle contracts." Fucking unbelievable.

It bugs me even more because I was working for the testing company while NHL07 was in the office, but I was working on another game at that point. They actually listened to my comments a lot of the time (because I knew how to make these things sound way more serious that they were, and I had a direct line to the programmers, unlike most of the testers), so these things would've been fixed. There were almost as many issues with FIFA 07, and as far as I understand they were mostly fixed by the time it went gold. But that's a minor detail, I suppose. The bottom line is, 07 had the shittiest dynasty mode ever. Is it still shitty?

Ste: MLB 06 is solid for the PS2, not sure about he Xbox though. Avoid MLB 2K6/2K7 for the 360 though, buggy as all hell. :(

re baseball, I hear The Bigs is really good, but I don't know if that means as a simulator or for fun.

Will, I don't remember NHL 96, but the new one is as fun as NHL 93, my previous favorite hockey game, while actually feeling and looking like a game of hockey, which no game up to now has done, in my opinion.

I dunno about the Dynasty mode! I only ever play one-offs of sports games, usually with buddies. But I'm considering going for a season in this case.

Ahh, for me, it's all about the trading and drafting and all that fun stuff. I like taking a team like the Caps or the Hawks or the Pens and building a team with them. Although the Pens have done a pretty great job on their own...

I always, always play with the Habs.

I am always amazed and super-impressed by how totally loyal MTL natives are for their team. I guess for the first 13 years of my life, I was in the boonies and was probably as close to Toronto as I was to Buffalo as I was to Detroit, so I had a new fave team every year (which included all of those teams but Buffalo). Then I moved to Ottawa, and being an Ottawa fan wasn't even really ACCEPTED there until about 5 years ago (a lot of old MTL/TML fans there, took a while to convert). Then I moved to Montreal, and holy shit, EVERYONE is into hockey and EVERYONE loves the Habs. It's so crazy!

This is completely irrelevant, huh?

Ahh, for me, it's all about the trading and drafting and all that fun stuff.

Yeah, I am a complete sucker for this stuff. I am obsessed with baseball, basketball, and football, so I know pretty much every dude on every roster at least as a name. But if you don't care about that stuff, Madden loses a lot of its luster. It's a sim game for the most part, yet things happen in it that would never happen in a real game and it drives me a little crazy. Like when cornerbacks are three yards behind my receiver and I throw a bullet to my guy slightly out of my receiver's reach and somehow the cornerback intercepts it. Fuck that shit, Dre Bly is NOT that fast.

Also it is completely demoralizing to be so bad at the All-Madden mode.

One major flaw with Nerd Madden is that they made it really hard to do trades. Everything requires three sub-menus instead of just letting you do it all on one screen. Fuck that.

Oh my fucking GOD I was addicted to Tiger Woods' '04 (then '06 & '07) for like 18 months. I convinced my friend there was an easter egg where if you hit a duck in one of the ponds a dolphin would jump out of it and he wasted SO MANY SHOTS, fucking pwned his score. Then I made all these custom course layouts where I could beat Tigah the best. Oh god want to play now.

Maybe I should get into football, but I find it excruciatingly hard to be interested in. What I need to do is become friends with a hardcore fan of a certain team, and learn about one team and what makes them great and expand from there, like I learned about EPL soccer a couple of years ago. It also kind of worked that way re: baseball. Hockey I grew up on, and basketball I still don't get either. I blame being Canadian and having no team except the Raptors when I was like 10, and they sucked until I was like... 22.

I've sort of banned myself from buying sports games for a while after a few too many disappointments in a row. In particular, I've decided baseball just doesn't translate well to being played as a video game, as the games have become more and more complex - MLB 2K7 was the last one I picked up and it was just awful - hitting was too hard, pitching was boring and fielding was completely broken. Though my brother claims the new MLB Power Pros for PS2 is lots of fun...

The last few basketball games I've tried too, just miss all the nuances that make basketball actually good. The games get boring (at least against the computer) as they become just throw the ball to Kobe

p.s. I don't consider skate. a sports game.

How old are you now, Will? You didn't like the Jays growing up?

The games get boring (at least against the computer) as they become just throw the ball to Kobe

What could be more realistic than that!

True. I think the real problem though with the basketball games I've played is that they haven't really figured out a way to translate the shooting to a joystick + button presses into an interesting, skillful or fun thing to do.

Setting up a five on five game that could be played online might make for an intesting experience however. Has that been done yet? Or how far off are we?

Also can any current gen (or any gen) basketball games be played in first person perspective? That alone could possible make the game more challenging and fun - at least I'd like to try it...

That sounds like it would make me barf in about five seconds.

True. I think the real problem though with the basketball games I've played is that they haven't really figured out a way to translate the shooting to a joystick + button presses into an interesting, skillful or fun thing to do.

They should honestly just steal Skate's control scheme. It would work really well for basketball.

it's the lack of precise aiming too. aiming at the basket, or backboard in real life is important if you want the ball to go in the hoop - in all the basketball video games, it seems like you just sort of point your guy in the direction of the hoop & it's all about timing your release point.

Yeah, see I think this with a lot of sport games and it's why I don't really get that into them.

Recently picked up Madden 08 for the Wii second hand for mad cheap because it was supposed to be fun. Picking plays at random seems to have little or no effect on how good/bad/indifferent I am at the game, and your defence always seems able to recover even when they are supposedly completely out of position.

Maybe on Rookie or Pro, but not on the harder modes.

That could well be true, but I'm not sure I have any desire to play the harder modes.

How old are you now, Will? You didn't like the Jays growing up?

I am actually a bit young (23?), so while I was a HUGE baseball fan when the Jays were winning pennants, I wasn't really old enough to really "get" baseball like I "get" it now. And since then, every person on that team has obviously retired or moved on from the organization, so after I fell out with baseball, it was tough to get back in with the same team without Cito Gaston or Devon White or Joe Carter.

I may take a stab at getting into football and basketball, because sports are amazing and people like those two, so they can't be bad. I just get v. bored watching football because there's such a low action:waiting ratio. There must be something to it, though... maybe I'll boot up my DS while watching it or something. I guess I just need to "pick a team" in each sport. When I was a kid, I liked the Raptors, the Grizzlies, and the Hornets... but two of those teams moved and the other, well, is in Toronto. Decisions, decisions...

I've been playing a lot of Tiger Woods 07 on the DS. It's a pretty good no frills version of the game. I had to switch to the buttons only setup though because the stylus action was kind of crappy.

Power Pro Baseball? Any Wii ppl getting this? It looks right up my alley

Got it and it is teh awes - whoever described it as "RBI Baseball + 20 years of video-baseball ideas" was dead on the money. I feel really really stupid playing such a graphically laconic game on my new badass TV while Gears of War sits around barely-played, though. Also I live in fear/hope that Baseball Stars 2 will hit the Virtual Console and render it completely superfluous.

also, much like everyone else in the universe, I am coming to love NHL 08 v. much

I will probably end my sports game moratorium if/when sensible soccer finally gets released to xbla

I'm pretty sure it's there already.

Nah - they're saying end of November 2007, maybe...

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=86760

If I've never played a Sensible Soccer game in my life, will I still find it a classic? Or is it one of those things you play for the nostalgia only? I may buy it, because I love playing soccer games, but my points may be better spent on Omega Five or Worms

Not on Worms...

For some weird reason I picked up FIFA 08 for the ps3 today (PES 2008 isn't out here yet, btw). Just in the mood to try something different I guess, and so far I'm liking it. Jeez - the graphics look pretty great! I've only played two matches so far, one normal style (lost 3-0) and one in the style where you just play one guy for the entire game (won 2-0) - which was kind of interesting - I'm very curious to try out the 5 on 5 online mode - but not until I get the basics down. There's no tutorial mode though - and I could really use one. Any good beginner guides online?

I feel crazy saying it, but... I think I like FIFA 08 more thna PES 08! PES is actually getting worse while FIFA jsut gets WAY better every year. last year i had a hard itm epicking btwn the two, this year... i think it's EA, astonishingly

http://www.consoleclassix.com/info_img/Basewars_NES_ScreenShot2.jpg

what are the best and worst football games of all time?

does anyone remember lol libero grande:

has anyone played football kingdom:

these are my favourites:
PES 2

PES4

any actua soccer fans in?

adidas power soccer 97 was so bad

anyone play any striker?

my all-time top 10:

1. PES2 (PS1)
2. PES4 (PS2)
3. SWOS
4. PES5
5. nintendo's gameboy football
6. PES1
7. ISS98
8. football glory
9. kick off 2
10. fifa 98 road to the world cup

this one was great on the gameboy

You got that, or something that looked a lot like that, on NES as well. Remember you could basically score by doing a goal from the halfway-line whenever you felt like it.

What are the recent NHL games like anyway, loved '94 as a nipper but the new fangled ones have funny looking camera angles and I've heard the EA ones are rank rotten.

Virtual Striker that one by Sega? i have it for Dreamcast i think, it's awful apart from one of the cheats lets you play as these big bouncy characters.

sega worldwide soccer was dope

that was a contender for a while

hehe i still have that for my saturn too

That Heat to Head Striker video is heartbreaking - that poor kid probably killed himself before his seventh birthday! Why did they have a match between a six and ten year old?

Anyhow, I played some PES 2 last night for the first time (after the love it has got on here) and enjoyed it, er... except that I lost 0-3. It still holds up as a pretty fun game. I like how fast it is, and also the way people fall to the ground really flat and lay there like a log. Will play more.

on PS2 or PS1 jeff?

PES2 (PS2) = really dated and rubbish

PES2 (PS1) = really great, crunchy and fast football game

yeah, when the little kid in the head to head hits the ball into his own goal it is simultaneously lolarious and heartbreaking

who let him choose turkey against brazil, anyway? his mum? violet berlin?

ps1

nba 2k9 is great but I have no idea what I'm doing

what is 'post'?

ste, apparently mlb the show (ps3) is the best baseball game out there. apparently

The "post" is the area of the floor near the rim. To "post [a defender] up" is to back your defender down into the area close to the rim in order to get a closer shot.

This thread inspired me to try out Super Soccer (snes) tonight...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2531/3880181446_2982725fc4_o.jpg

In my defense, I'd never played the game b4, didn't know the controls (tried to figure 'em out on the fly), was using a xbox360 controller and received two red cards.

whatever, you obviously suck at videogames.

game-related lolz of some fashion

also thanks polyphonic, that makes sense. I've not played a basketball game since the PS1 and they've gotten a lot more complicated since then. was able to pick up nba 2k9 for stupid cheap and it's fun so far. the presentation is amazing (especially the crowd) but yeah, as I say, don't entirely know what I'm doing. I keep losing to crap teams (the nets? who?!) while playing as the suns : /

Suns in 2009 were kind of a mess though (didn't make the playoffs & half the league makes the playoffs). I haven't played any basketball games in a few years (since I first got a 360), and while the graphics have improved, from what I've seen the gameplay remains the same, repetitive and boring. The key to winning is to pick a team with a "star" dominate player and feed him the ball in good positions. It's just too easy to score with these guys and too hard to defend them. In that sense, I guess the game mirrors real life. So it's helpful to know at least the starting guys on your team and the team you're playing against. Don't bother shooting with a guy who isn't your #1 or maybe #2 option (if your team has a #2), unless you've been left wide open. When playing defense, whenever possible, double team the best scorer on the other team, get the ball out of his hands (probably easier to do against the computer than against another person. Try to get good at stealing the ball, or at least knocking it free. Learn the timing trick on free throws.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2542/3881648500_a2899dcdcb_o.jpg

mlb the show (ps3) is the best baseball game out there.

seconding this; Show 09 is a top-five 2009 game for me right now (although of course the next three months are rife with contenders). it is REALLY difficult to be any good at all, though.

I only played NBA 2K9 a few times and then got bored of it and regretted buying it. It's not that there's anything WRONG with it, but it's definitely just a roster update of the previous year's game, which I played a good deal of. I'm not sure what it would take for me to really love a basketball game, but for some reason it just doesn't work for me as well as other sports.

Meanwhile, I am definitely going to buy NHL '10. Loved the demo, and I'm not much of a hockey fan. I like it for the same reason I liked FIFA '09 ... a great game to just pick up and play.

The Madden franchise is a nutsack; DO NOT WANT.

so NCAA football 09 is on clearance at the target down the street for like $7 or something. worth it?

Aren't those games basically Madden with college stats?

In terms of gameplay and graphics, yeah. But the presentation is pretty different.

The gameplay is what makes Madden a nutsack, though.

MLB 09: The Show was my favorite game of the year until like the last week or two.

The gameplay is what makes Madden a nutsack, though.

I love Madden's gameplay. *shrug*

It's really amazing how little effort goes into Madden's Superstar mode. They actually removed a bunch of stuff, so you don't even get email feedback from coaches, etc. anymore. There doesn't seem to be any progression either. You just play the plays you're in, and then back to the bench. Why even include it in the game? So weird.

That's for Madden '10, of course.

Hey guys, don't buy Madden '10.

So glad I rented this.

The graphics are nice, though.

re: madden
http://www.youtube.com/ryanmoody21

See, nothing even remotely as bad as that happened to me, and still I can't get over how bad my experience was.

mlb not on sale on amazon, to uk :(

http://www.movietyme.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=44521

no region protection either

I've used movietyme before, btw; they're legit, even if their site looks a bit cheap

mint, cheers. will check it later

MLB The Show hasn't been available in the UK for like three years now I think..

GM - have they figured out anything to improve the fielding in the new MLB The Show? With such a little ball, it always seemed too easy to miss-play anything hit into the outfield (that isn't catch-able). I recall always having a hard time running down the ball (common to most baseball games I've played) compared to running down a ball in real life. That aspect of video game baseball always frustrated me the most. I almost wish you could just push a button to have your closest guy run to the ball in a straight line.

Pitching for a full 9 innings can also get kind of boring :(

i was reading that in the new nba 2k9 that you can play 5 on 5 online head to head and control one play per person. so it's like a real 5on5 pickup game. has anybody played this? tell me about it?

!!! wow - this is a must-buy feature for me if it's implemented well, though based on the feedback I'm not sure it is :( I have been playing this (http://freestyle.gamekiss.com) which is 3v3 and dumb and shitty in lots of ways (full of cheaters, not many ppl online) but still fun because I *love* the "you just get one player" thing.

Seems like in 2k9 lag made it unplayable past 6 players online - pretty unimpressive if FIFA can manage 10v10.