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[EverydayBeast]

Ballers, Backyard Football, SSX etc. were extreme but different sports games, 5th grade everybody was playing NBA Street and it's unlikely we'll see sports games going back to that fun script and more likely seeing sport games carry on through VR, graphics etc. in the next 2 years.

 

[ROMhack]

Honest question from someone who hasn"t bought any sportsgames since PS1, but what do people want to see changed about sports games?

(Like Fifa or NBA or whatever)

I get that the loot stuff like in Fifa are trash, but other than that, I don't see how much can be done other than make the games play in a more realistic way.

They could tbh as FIFA base game is really fast and IMHO is a lot more like ice hockey than it is football. They have sliders to slow it down but they don't affect the game online as you can't use them. That's certainly one reason I wouldn't call the game 'realistic' myself.

Another thing is that some years ago FIFA had mini-leagues for online play so you could compete against your mates - winners were tracked with little cosmetic trophies. It was those little fun things that made a big difference. They also had servers so you could find manual games, etc. They now have neither unfortunately as the fantasy football thing with micro-transactions has taken precedence.

That said, I'd prefer if they were like the old PES games as they were really well balanced and much more like classic arcade-style games.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

My bro used to play FIFA games all day and night, and did it all again over the years but the last 3 or 4 ywars he just stopped as he realised the games never change and he got a GF to pander to instead.

Too bad the rest of the UK buy into the same game every year.

I bought the first Inazuma game and let him play it. He really enjoyed it as well.

 

[anthraticus]

Just checked this out.That looks... interesting. I was kinda thrown off by the retro look, but if it plays good then hell yeah. Thanks for the recommendation.

Just to give you a heads up, winning grapples is all based on timing, not button mashing.

And also I'd recommend Carlzilla's mod pack. It has a patcher that lets you select various components/options for it. In the match pacing and booking options I also recommend changing the default match pacing to either average or short from long (game default) otherwise matches drag on for too long. Also in the mod pack for 2.0 section I use the modified damage scale set at 60 (med) and 18 (high)

You can dl wrestlers from the workshop, but then you gotta move them from the retired section in edit mode > team edit > transfer wrestler to the promotions you want them in. (which you have to create before anything)

 

[Caffeine]

I have been having this sentiment since the initial beginning of this generation. I fucking hate the lack of options, I hate the lack of competition, and they seem to just keep pumping out same games with out major improvements. Remember when there were fun games to play like nba street, nfl street. The idea of monopolizing a license is fucking bullshit to me, and ye the sales figures are through the roof because its the only place you can this especially if u have an itch to play. this current year I forgo ed buying any of the sports games. nba 2k has turned into everything outside of the actual premise of the game fucking playing basketball, no now its about customizing your baller running around the empty neighborhood, vc this vc that, come play the casino like games, last years game had ads in between loading which yes you could turn off later, but it just felt like a slog to just get into playing the actual game and then its a slog to grind upon grinding because your character wouldnt have left highschool basketball with those stats.

has there been any major sweeping improvements to the games ? not really the balls still magnetize some weird shit occurs, sometimes centers can match your speed to stop your drive, every bug that existed in 2013 is still present. the sports genre needs a shake up and making it look prettier but still play the same is gonna be an issue and I honestly dont plan on buying any of these moving forward into this next generation...

 

[anthraticus]

That said, I'd prefer if they were like the old PES games as they were really well balanced and much more like classic arcade-style games.

Yup, In terms of the games being properly balanced from an offense vs defense standpoint (which is EXTREMELY crucial for any sports sim) games like PES 3 & 5 were much more realistic than the newshit. Even if they might have played a little faster or lacked some cool things the newer games have added over the years.

The most important thing is for the base game to be SOLID. Doesn't matter if you have all the features/gimmicks in the world if it isn't. Like trying to build a house on a shit foundation

 

[nikolino840]

 

[LordClansman]

I heard PES 2020 is pretty good, haven't played that series since PES6 on the PS2 though, but that was a really fun game.

 

[MightySquirrel]

Shouldn't op say keeping it alive instead.

Anyone else is free to make a sports game or am I missing something here?

 

[Trogdor1123]

Need a return of base wars

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Honest question from someone who hasn"t bought any sportsgames since PS1, but what do people want to see changed about sports games?

(Like Fifa or NBA or whatever)

I get that the loot stuff like in Fifa are trash, but other than that, I don't see how much can be done other than make the games play in a more realistic way.

This is exactly the mentality that's preventing these games from being fun. Sports games are not fun because they're realistic. They used to be fun because they were over-the-top and arcade-y. You should feel like a fuckin' superhero in these games. I don't want FIFA's realistic movement; I want to turn on a dime, carve up the defense and shoot a goal in like 2 seconds flat, leaving my opponent wondering what the hell just happened. That's fun. Not whatever it is that EA does.

 

[kiiltz]

 

[Rean no Kiseki]

Simply put, everything is expensive to make nowadays, and without licensing real world players you wouldn't get the big ROI big companies want, and indie games.... Well they're forever stuck in the 8-16 bit nostalgia to ever attempet something like Sega Soccor Slam.
In short everything is risky and inovation is minimal because there's no competition, i advise you to get NBA Street Vol 2 and Sega Soccor Slam now while they're still under 20$ and have fun and scratch that itch, or alternatively if you have a decent pc/laptop install dolphin/pcsx2 and play them in high def.

 

[brian0057]

MLB The Show > Anything sports by EA and 2K.

 

[DeepEnigma]

MLB The Show was not in the same situation as the other two as far as licensing concerns.

A first party MLB license was open for anyone (and 3rd party after 2K’s failure). MS bought the High Heat license just to bury the IP around the time of their original Xbox launch. Nintendo, well, they aren’t in the third party license business for games.

2K had the third party license, but failed to perform with it so they dropped out, and it sat there dormant.

MLB tried their own third party game with they’re own in house studio, and that has been failing. Sony’s game is just too good. They have a special dynamic in that studio that is crafted perfectly for baseball. So they probably approached Sony with a sweet deal on the entire license if they went multi plat. MLB is trying to expand their brand again.

Now that Ultimate Team modes (Diamond Dynasty in The Show) are the driving force of those games, it makes monetary sense. Revenue is going to explode for that franchise now.

 

[MvCSpiderman]

Looking around, I think NostalGia Critic and Phelous are the only TGWTG guys who are growing and not losing residence as their sub base collapses under their ego chamber.

 

[oagboghi2]

Sports games are almost universally trash, and have been for a good 25 or so years. Back when NBA Jam/Hangtime, Baseball Stars 2, Neo Turf Masters, and NFL Blitz were around, it was a different story. Those games were fun. Those games are still incredibly fun. Seriously, go back and play them again - you'll be amazed. But at some point, everyone decided to chase the idea of sports sims, and fun mechanics fell by the wayside in favor of statistics. And then the prevailing studios realized that you could actually just charge for those statistics, and they've been successful, so we're not going to see a return to when sports games were actually good for the foreseeable future. At least, not with any major license.

this is patently untrue

 

[MastaKiiLA]

2k is still a good game. There are 2 issues with NBA 2k21:

1. They ruined the shot meter. What a fucking awful decision that was. I don't like it. Yeah, I should learn to adapt, but fuck that noise. The new meter is too fucking clunky for me to wrap my head around.
2. They have a fucking casino in the game. It's been like this for some time now, but that's no excuse. It's complete garbage. I want a basketball game that is about basketball. The City stuff is fine. The myPlayer stuff is fine. Gambling mechanics? Not fine.

I don't have a problem with NBA2k, other than those 2 things. #1 they can correct for 2k22. The second one is probably here to stay, unfortunately. It won't go away until people stop buying the game.

 

[GymWolf]

I only play the ufc game from ea and yeah no lies detected.

I liked nba2k16 for what is worth...

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Game companies arent killing sports. Gamers are. They seem to now funnel to EA Sports and NBA 2k, which are all skewed to realism with real teams, players, management mode etc....

Arcadey NBA Jam style games have been around forever. In fact, the first sports games were pure arcade and fast paced gaming. And there were always way more arcade style sports games than hard knocks pro league stuff.

But over the generations, sports gamers dont seem to care about them so studios dont make them.

I think a new NBA Jam even came out years ago. I bet it sold hardly any copies.

 

[TheGrat1]

^The day they took this out was the day I knew the exclusive license would be the doom of NFL games.

I can understand innovation slowing to a crawl and overall quality slipping but what I do not understand is the the series going BACKWARDS on features.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I don't play sports games anymore. So are they killing the genre? perhaps. I used to play the arcade sports games like NBA Jam, and games like PES PS2 era and NBA 2K Dreamcast era.

I think the games became too ridden with MTX and other shit that I just lost interest. I played FUT in FIFA 2014, the last FIFA I bought which was at PS4 launch, and I just hated it. Considering the amount of shit draws I got was obvious that they pushed the player towards excessive grinds or real money. And the saddest of it all that you can start all over by the next yearly and marginal update.

 

[WorldHero]

The problem is the lack of choices and genre diversity. We have one option for a sim basketball game and one option for a sim football game. Neither company is motivated to improve because they are the only choices. If the genre's were more diverse, like NFL Blitz or NBA Hangtime releases, things would be more palatable for us consumers. But we really need diverse sim options. Can you imagine the type of football and basketball games we would be getting if 2K and EA could actually compete in the same space?

 

[godhandiscen]

I heard PES 2020 is pretty good, haven't played that series since PES6 on the PS2 though, but that was a really fun game.

It is awesome, very simulation heavy, and not for someone willing to play only casually.

 

[bender]

I used to like both arcade and simulation sports games. Simulation games are just far too complicated these days and arcade titles are all but dead.

 

[StormCell]

Game companies arent killing sports. Gamers are. They seem to now funnel to EA Sports and NBA 2k, which are all skewed to realism with real teams, players, management mode etc....

Arcadey NBA Jam style games have been around forever. In fact, the first sports games were pure arcade and fast paced gaming. And there were always way more arcade style sports games than hard knocks pro league stuff.

But over the generations, sports gamers dont seem to care about them so studios dont make them.

I think a new NBA Jam even came out years ago. I bet it sold hardly any copies.

I would argue that the problem with the less realistic (non-sim) options is that they make no effort to build or maintain the fantasy or any semblance of the leagues that popularized the sport. Just because you don't want an ultra realistic baseball experience doesn't mean you don't want a fun game that also includes the leagues and teams. I'm a huge Braves fan, therefore any baseball game that I play want to play as Atlanta. I'm probably not going to buy a baseball game that doesn't offer anything resembling major league baseball.

Even Nintendo's Ken Griffey Jr. baseball games had the leagues and the teams but not the real rosters.

I wish Super Mega Baseball was interested in offering something resembling MLB.

 

[Unknown?]

I miss the PS1 days where you had multiple choices for every sport.

 

[Unk Adams]

I remember playing this every weekend with my buddies. We preferred it to both Madden and 2K. It was nice having competition back then.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Did you see what 2K did to the WWE games?

 

[ClosBSAS]

Remember when we all wanted 2ks college football back? Ea must of convinced 2k to use mtx in their games and created a monster instead.

 

[Grechy34]

EA and 2k are Killing the Sports Genre

In my 20+ years of gaming, I have known some pretty hardcore sports gamers. Back in the days when the Fight Night games were still a thing, I knew guys who would play the Career/Legacy mode of those games until they became undisputed world champion. Of every weight class.

I have never been one such hardcore sports gamer, but I definitely enjoyed sports games growing up. Part of this had to do with all the options that I had as a kid. Basketball games are my favorite sports games, and as a kid, I had NBA Live, NBA 2K, NBA: Inside Drive, AND 1 Streetball, Backyard Basketball (Believe it or not, the Backyard sports games were actually fun), NBA Hoopz, NCAA March Madness, and NBA Ballers.

Fast forward to 2020, and we have NBA 2K and NBA Live. NBA Live has lived in the shadow of NBA 2K for years now, so basically, you just have NBA 2K. Which, you know, sucks.

Football games aren’t doing any better. When’s the last time you heard of a football video game that wasn’t Madden? I think that MLB The Show isn’t as horrible as its’ basketball or football counterparts, but it’s still pretty bad.

Whatever your sports game of choice may be, there are four constants in the modern sports genre: Microtransactions, stagnation, EA, and 2K. And these four things are making the sports genre arguably the worst in gaming.

$60 is a lot to ask for a video game, so it had better be worth the money. And modern, annual sports games honestly aren’t. As Angry Joe very furiously puts it in his recent rants about NBA 2K20 and Madden 20, modern sports titles are largely copy and paste jobs. Lazy ones at that, since they can’t even be bothered to fix the shortcomings found in last year’s entries. The only things that change are the microtransactions. Sports gamers are essentially paying for the “privilege” of resetting their accounts so that they can start at the bottom of the microtransactions, grind-fest ladder once again. Repeat ad infinitum.

And since we are on the topic of sports gamers, we need to talk about the role they play in the downfall of the genre that they love. Because sports gamers are indeed enablers of video game industry villains like EA and 2K. A lot of these guys are hardcore sports gamers, but casual also gamers. What do I mean by that? I mean their investment in the gaming industry as a whole is very minimal. If they played Game Dev Story, chances are, they’d get zero of the gaming references. They don’t know about the way that Konami has treated Hideo Kojima since his departure from the company, or about Blizzard’s plummet from grace. They sure don’t care about these things. For a lot of sports gamers, gaming is just NBA2K and Madden, and that’s it.

It’s not really a surprise that people with very little investment in the video game industry aren’t as inclined to care about what happens to it, but you would think they’d at least care a little more about the game they pour hundreds of dollars and hours into right?

I was into a lot of trading card games as a kid and teenager, but folks like EA and 2K have caused me to despise even hearing the words card packs now. I guess that we should be thankful that the extreme sports genre has been long dead; otherwise, they’d ruin that too. I don’t even want to know what microtransactions in a skateboarding game look like. New deck tape for the low price of five dollars?

At the pace it is going, the sports genre of video games is completely doomed. The sports games put out by EA and 2K share the same harmful qualities that atypical mobile games do. They are very profitable for the developers, but extremely detrimental to the industry and consumers. One of the most effective ways to push back against developer overstepping is with your wallets. But a significant portion of gamers in the sports community don’t know or care how bad it is getting. Combine this with the ever-growing problem of pig consumer culture and gamers just accepting whatever it is developers give them, and I worry that these terrible digital casinos will permanently solidify themselves as the new norm of the sports genre.

There is a little ray of hope, though. Governments around the world are taking notice of the monetization practices of companies like 2K and EA. Last year, Belgium made loot boxes illegal, and despite some initial resistance, EA was forced to remove sale of FIFA’s currency to continue selling the game in Belgium. You may not like governments stepping into this matter for fear of oversight, but their actions at least bring more attention to the issue.

Even prominent figures in the sports community have spoken up and voiced their displeasure with the numerous problems in the most recent annual entries in the NBA2K and Madden series of games. If even more of them were to continue to take a stand against the severe decline of the sports genre, then maybe the average sports gamer will finally take notice of the issue and realize that they deserve so much better. There is only so much that we outside gamers can do. If real change is to ever happen in the sports genre, sports gamers are the ones who need to lead the charge.

Unless they start doing something to invoke change, and soon, what we have now is all we will ever have. And what we have now needs to die in an Amaterasu dumpster fire.

Even people in the sports community aren’t too happy with the numerous problems in NBA2K20. If the prominent figures of the sports community were to collectively take a stand against the severe decline of the sports genre, then maybe that will wake up the average sports gamer and get them to realize that they deserve much better. Because unless they start doing something to invoke change, what we have now is all we will ever have. And what we have now needs to die in an Amaterasu dumpster fire.

Source: Exclusively Games

I don't know man. Seems like asking the average Joe to care about problems for a pastime he uses to get away from problems.

 

[Ozzie666]

I really enjoyed the more arcade style takes, like the Street Series, Jam, Blitz. I hold out hope since the NFL license is allowing developers to make non-sim style football, maybe we will see a return of Blitz or something similar.

I still miss games like Street Sports Football, Baseball, Soccer and Basketball on C64 from Eypx.

 

[TheMay30thMan]

If you don’t like the direction sports games are headed, maybe you should go outside and play them in the real world.

Spoiler

It’s a joke, I swear.