The Sports Video Game Thread

We live in a world where ESPN televises Madden Nation, a show where people play Madden NFL Football on a bus in a competition to determine the best of them all.

I think it's safe to say sports video games have become a large part of the sports landscape.

So let's talk about them.

Among the current games, what are the best? What are the worst? What are the best and worst games of all time? How do you play games? Do you play every game for your favorite team(s)? Do you play owner/GM mode and simulate? What makes a good game? What's a great idea for a game that doesn't already exist?

 

Some sports don't transfer very well to video-games. AFL doesn't, Cricket doesn't. The simple ones, like Basketball and Soccer are the most fun I find.

 

There a hockey game called NHL Hits I think. You play three on three. (I'm pretty sure it was on Playstation) The purpose of the game was to get into fights. Well at least that's how we played.

I loved getting six people together and playing three on three hockey. That was awesome!

 

NBA 2K7 >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Any other basketball game >>>>>>>>>>>> Any NBA Live series game

 

Pfft, NBA Jam for the win.

 

NHL Hits was indeed great. I miss playing NHL Hitz 2003; it was kinda weird playing 3 on 3 hockey, but it worked.

NHL 07 is pretty amazing. The skill stick is pretty innovative. Takes some time to get used to, but it's not too hard to master. Say goodbye to the classic way of playing hockey in video games.

Haven't played a decent baseball game yet. MVP Baseball 2004 was a disaster, IMO. Had some good ideas, but terrible execution for the PS2.

 

I still play NBA Jam TE on the SNES to this day. What a great game. Totally a revolutionary video game that paved the way not only for special modes in other games, but other non-traditional games like NFL Blitz.

 

I remember when my mom took me and my older brother to Toys R Us to get NBA Jam. Well, they didn't have it. So instead we got this game called NBA All-Star Challenge. Take the most god awful basketball game you can imagine, and then make it twenty times worse. You couldn't even play actual games. You could pick one player from each of the teams and play either HORSE, 1 on 1, or Three Point Shootout.

 

I liked the EA Sports MVP baseball games... though the last one they did (or could do) for MLB was 2005. I still play that one, trying to update the rosters myself as best I can. MLB 2K7 FTL.

I enjoy the college basketball games, but thats because of the sport, not the quality of the games. The college football ones are much better video games, IMO.

The Tiger Woods games are usually pretty good, although they have some silly stuff most of the time - "Tiger Proofing" anyone? Not to mention the ridiculously fake courses.

I think that covers most of the sports video games I've played.

 

I'm with RJ on the college basketball games. I feel a little more invested with those games just from having some knowledge of the teams I play with or against.

For goofball fun, I still like the NBA Street games, though I haven't played the newest one.

 

I'm with RJ on the college basketball games. I feel a little more invested with those games just from having some knowledge of the teams I play with or against.

Yeah, I always go through and put the names in for the entire SC and Duke teams... and usually nearly the entire UNC team (except for the walk-ons and some freshmen), along with a ton of other players across the country. Then I go through at least USC and Duke (and sometimes others) and look at how they rated players... usually having to make corrections, both improving and weakening, to more accurately match the players. I'm pretty certain I'm more qualified to rate USC players than they are, for example

 

I haven't played a basketball game in a long time. last one I played was whatever year 2k sports had Allen Iverson on the cover. Got that one for the Dreamcast. They haven't made many for the Gamecube, which is my current system.

 

I've always enjoyed the 2K series more than others, as well.

 

I don't really play serious sports games, they annoy me. But NBA Street and SSX are good fun.

Realist, my 8 foot 400 pound superstar with max skills in everything with the Dinner's Served over Shaq to seal a 21-0 win =

 

EA Sports NHL Series (especially 94)
NBA Jam
Ice Hockey

Those would be my favourites.

 

NBA Inside Drive on XBox was better than 2K7 or Live. I don't know why the series didn't do well.

 

High Heat Baseball 2003. By far the most fun baseball game I've ever played. Unfortunately, my hard drive crashed and I lost it.

 

I enjoy a good video game as much as the next guy, but sports games generally do not translate well IMO. I just don't feel like they're adequate similuations of real sports at all.

 

There was a Summer Olympics game a long time ago (probably for Genesis) that had the Equestrian part on it. The course was so tough you literally had to have one person steer while another jumped. It was ridiculous!

 

NCAA Football ftw!!!!!!

 

Has there ever been a sports video game character as dominant and awesome as Tecmo Bo, from the original Tecmo Bowl?

I don't think so.

Would it even make sense for a game in today's landscape (where accurate sims of talent are the goal) to try to make someone on/near the level of Bo?

 

Christian Okoye, anyone?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ddO5ENtus

 

Yeah where would sports games be without tecmo bowl, great game. Madden obviously too is one of my favorites. EA however is a whole seems to be fallin off, NHL 2K7 and NBA 2K7 were both better then there EA counterparts.

 

Nice. Almost Bo. But not quite vintage Bo from the original Tecmo Bowl.

 

I don't know. he gives bo a run for his money, though I must admit Bo=god there...

Anyways, anybody remember the older mlb slugfest games? Gameplay sucked, but i found it amusing all the same.