Thirith on 3/12/2015 at 10:48
I can't remember who it was recently who brought up sports games, as in "TTLG isn't big on them, right?" Indeed I don't remember much in the way of discussion here about the likes of FIFA, NBA, NFL, NHL, PES or DoA (if the latter indeed qualifies as a sports game, rather than a boob-ogling simulator).
I'd never count sports games among my favourite genres, but neither is it a genre that I've bounced off repeatedly, like real-time strategy games. My very first game that I played on a home computer was International Soccer on a C-64 module (my only module ever), and since the days of NHL 92 I've occasionally bought and played football, hockey and especially basketball games. Though I don't watch sports on TV, it's the latter sport that suits me most as a game.
Over the last month or two, NBA 2K15 is the PS4 game that I've played almost exclusively. For the longest time, I felt like I was complete shit at it, barely understanding how I could get any less bad at it. In the meantime I'm still shit at the game, but I understand its mechanisms better and I am getting less bad. While I'm not enjoying the moment-to-moment gameplay as much as the games I usually play, I do like putting in half an hour before going to bed playing two quarters. I'm still mystified by a lot of what's going on - I feel like I've only have a rudimentary understanding of how to pass best, how to defend well and how to actually score - but I no longer feel like a chimp pressing buttons at random because he likes the flashy lights on the screen.
Any other TTLGers playing sports games? Anyone here who's a big fan? And what about the games in the genre that I've completely forgotten about?
Starker on 3/12/2015 at 12:15
I played an online football manager game called Hattrick for a while and I had (and still have) Kunio-kun no Nekketsu Soccer League for the "NES" and FIFA International Soccer for the SNES, so I guess I'm not exactly averse to football?
zajazd on 3/12/2015 at 14:13
GTAV tennis is the best. I am in ATP top 100.
faetal on 3/12/2015 at 15:06
I used to love wii tennis, but had to stop due to shoulder fatigue. The tennis in GTAV is surprisingly good.
demagogue on 4/12/2015 at 14:28
I used to play this boxing manager game a lot, Worldwide Boxing Manager IIRC. You'd scout talent, hire staff, control what the workouts focus on, schedule bouts, and give your boxer a strategy round by round. More fun than it sounds maybe, but there's real drama when you've groomed a guy over months, and the score is still even going into the final rounds of a fight, and you just watch each blow hoping you've done enough.
When I first got to Japan I'd join other guys playing PESoccer, but not really worth playing it by myself.
I played a lot more of them as a kid ... football, baseball, golf, hockey, skating, biking (motor & bmx). Oh and rember the C64 'games', Summer Games, Winter, World, California... And 1080, a snow boarding game for the N64 was my go-to game for a long time.
Edit. I always put car racing into its own category, but the most I played (recently anyway) were the Need for Speeds with police, rFactor, and a little game called Death Rally that was crazy addictive for such a simple little game.
Jason Moyer on 5/12/2015 at 05:59
There are a lot of great sports games, but as far as the arcade-style sort-of-sims that come out every year go, I'd still rate NFL 2K5 #1. The gameplay was fantastic, the feature list was massive, the price was ridiculous ($20 at release i.e. fuck you EA) and it had the best presentation of any sports game ever. It made full use of its ESPN license, with half-time shows, often hilarious commentary, fully-presented/voiced ESPN-style draft previews/reviews with Mel Kiper Jr, and at the beginning of each week you even had this, which shouldn't be nearly as impressive as it is but 10 years later no one has even attempted it:
[video=youtube;16VZEmIFEBA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16VZEmIFEBA[/video]
My other favorites of all time would be MVP Baseball 2005, MLB The Show 14 (or any of them, really), NBA 2Kwhatever, NHL 2Kwhatever, Tennis Elbow 2013, Front Office Football, and the winner and undisputed management-sim champion Out Of The Park baseball. As far as actual arcade games go, there was Pigskin 621 AD, NFL Blitz, NBA Jam, World Series - The Season, Cyberball 2072, John Elway's Quarterback, probably more. And the NES had Baseball Stars and Tecmo Super Bowl, both of which are still amazing games. Microleague Baseball and the original Hardball! as well as Hardball 5. The High Heat baseball games were great at the time, although they've aged pretty badly and couldn't really compete with the MVP Baseball games once EA went the simmy route.
Racing wise there are so many classics. Pole Position II (the arcade and Atari 7800 versions), Final Lap Twin, Hard Drivin', Pitstop II on the C64, the arcade version of Excite Bike, all of the Papyrus sims but especially Indycar Racing II/Grand Prix Legends/NASCAR Racing 2003/iRacing, GTR 2, GT Legends, Assetto Corsa, Rally Trophy, Richard Burns Rally, Rally Championship 2000, DiRT Rally, Grand Prix 1/2/3/4, Viper Racing, the old Grand Prix Manager games (GPM 1/2 and GP World), etc etc. I probably missed a soild dozen classic racing games. RC Pro Am I/II. The arcade (3 screens omfg) and Dreamcast versions of F355 Challenge. The Dreamcast version of Test Drive Le Mans (which somehow sucked on every other platform). Fap fap fap.
Thirith on 5/12/2015 at 11:36
Oh man... Pole Position, Summer Games, Decathlon... I guess as a teenager I wasn't entirely unhappy that I'd spent my preteen years strengthening my wrists. :cheeky: I faintly remember some caveman olympics game that was pretty bad, but hey, back then I played so many games that were bad simply because I had them.
heywood on 5/12/2015 at 19:33
Likewise, I used to really enjoy sports games back in the 8-bit computer days and through the first few generations of consoles.
My wife and I have a holiday season ritual of setting up our old C64 between Christmas and New Years. Our family and friends who visit play some Summer Games, Winter Games, World Games, International Hockey and Soccer, One on One and non-sports games too. But outside of that, I pretty much don't play sports games anymore.
Playing online multiplayer is a no substitute for competing with friends in the same room. I really miss the days of playing Sega and PlayStation sports games, and the LAN Quake parties a little later on. Back then, I always had friends to play with. Now we all have families and when we get together it's for dinner parties, barbecues, birthdays, etc.
I also think that since the Xbox era, sports games have been putting more and more emphasis on flashy special moves and realistic looking animation to the detriment of control. The result is less fun and a steeper learning curve. The last sports game I remember really getting into was SSX 3 on the Xbox 1.
