Design by Collin Oguro
We all know sports games aren't perfect. Nowhere else in the gaming world is the word "simulation" thrown around so casually as in the sports genre. With each season comes a new crop of games, and each one claims the throne as the most accurate simulation of a particular sport. While many of these offerings portray aspects of their sports in remarkable detail, it's rare, if not impossible, to find a game that perfectly renders a sport accurately. As good as they are, most sports games--indeed, the entire genre as a whole--suffer from one or more failings that, while not necessarily ruining a game's fun factor, seriously undermine any claims of true simulation for a particular sport.
The problems aren't relegated only to sims, however. Just because games like NBA Street or NFL Blitz make few, if any, claims of realism doesn't mean they don't have their fair share of problems. How many thousands of console controllers have been broken because of cheap artificial intelligence catch-up logic or miracle defensive plays? How many friendships have been permanently ruined because of one person's insistence on eliminating the word "punt" from his online football dictionary by going for it on every fourth down?
Whether in simulation or arcade games, the time for change is now. With the next generation of game consoles appearing on our gaming radar screens, a subsequent wave of innovation is within sports game developers' grasps. No longer will mere cosmetic upgrades, such as enhanced graphics and improved sound, be acceptable. Instead, because of the technological potential inherent in this next console wave, we want to see some of the big warts on this generation's games fixed. Here, then, is GameSpot Sports' list of "10 Things That Need to Change in Sports Games."
1) Fix Your Ratings
Remember last year when the Carolina Panthers were in the Super Bowl? The same team that came so close to winning a championship a year ago now sits near the bottom of its division, plagued by injuries and poor performances. It's obvious that the success of the 2003 Panthers found its way into the ratings for the team in this year's Madden and ESPN NFL games. Madden 2005, for example, rates the Panthers as a 93 overall, with particularly high quarterback and running back scores attributed to the team. Granted, the real-life Carolina Panthers have been racked with injuries since the season began, but quarterback Jake Delhomme's mediocre numbers don't seem to warrant the praise he's received--or the rating attributed to him in Madden.
Basing a team's rating on its previous year's success (or lack thereof) is flawed, because each year is simply just that: a new year. Anything can and often does happen. Because of this, it's only fair that teams be given a clean slate at the start of a season. They should be judged solely on roster talent and coaching ability. While this doesn't take into consideration things like team chemistry--and it's obvious that even a team with a huge roster of talent can fail miserably (see the 2004 Washington Redskins and the 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers)--it seems to be the only way to fairly gauge a team's chances for success.
2) Sim Away!
Who's got enough time to play every single game in a 162-game baseball regular season or an entire 82-game NBA season? Teenagers without enough homework and chronically sweaty adult men who still live at home, that's who. The rest of us most likely spend a good portion of time simming through the majority of the baseball, hockey, or NBA regular season games, choosing only to play key divisional matchups or the occasional rivalry game. Problems creep in, though, with the seemingly random outcomes of so many of these simulated games. It's hard to put together any kind of streak (either winning or losing) when simulating games, because so often the outcomes of these games feel more like the results of random chance rather than truly simulated matchups.
To their credit, some of the most recent sports releases have started to address this problem. ESPN NBA 2K5's full authority mode, in particular, is an interesting twist on the standard "coach mode" commonly found in NFL games. Instead of merely calling plays and watching them unfold on the floor (as you do in another ESPN games, like College Hoops 2K5, for example), you are given a finer level of control over your players and their performances, which includes being able to choose substitutions, matchups, and even the number of shots a particular player will take in a given period. All told, a game simulated in full authority mode takes around three to four minutes, which is certainly quicker than playing it out, and it also allows you to have nominal control over the play on the court. More games should follow ESPN's lead here, because, in the future, simply hitting the "simulate" button just won't cut it.
More Features
Games you may like…
-
MVP Baseball 2003
(PS2) -
ESPN MLB Baseball
(PS2) -
MLB 2006
(PS2) -
MVP Baseball 2005
(PS2) -
MLB 06: The Show
(PS2)
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games