I love GR, but this piece really should have been titled: The Top 7 things we hate about AMERICAN sports games.
The exclusion of football mkes the article a..not very compelling read for non-US readers.

I love GR, but this piece really should have been titled: The Top 7 things we hate about AMERICAN sports games.
The exclusion of football makes the article a..not very compelling read for non-US readers.

I love football and basketball games, but I agree with this top 7, escpecially #7 (I want to play as John Elway, not 'Richard Rice' dammit!)

@ nearly every commenting on this article
-Why do you hate sports games so much, it's admitedlly not the best genre, but I love it all the same

@popnfresh
-what complaints in sports gaming should be fixed then instead of the ones presented here

The only sport games i ever liked was the mario ones
super mario strikers waz my fave though
online was so much fun

Why would i want to play something i could go outside and have actual fun with in real life?

#6 hit right at home for me. I generally buy a new Fifa, Madden and MLB The Show ever 5 years or so, and I always hope the developers have included a more rewarding championship celebration sequence... And I'm always let down. Congratulations- now begin the next season. Eh

I just got my first sports game since NHL 98, with NHL 10 and was floored by the changes.

But there are some other complaints I still have from back then, as well as a few new ones.

1. Micro-transaction character boosts. You are given an option to earn boosts for your custom character and equipment to hold said boosts. However you can also pay real money instead.

The requirements for unlocking the boosts can be absurd and take a long time to earn, like by winning the stanley cup with every german league team. So they are trying to take advantage of people who want to be best in the online leagues and quick to make more money.

2. Not realistic enough. I'm hardcore when it comes to realism in sports games. You guys mentioned a few things, namely regarding atmosphere, but I'd like to add a couple.

Ads and announcers should be different in each arena and announcers should react differently based on whether the home or away team scored, got a penalty, etc.

Also, the commentators frequently get things wrong regarding plays, sometimes even getting who was in the lead or the time left in the period wrong a few times.

I have a few others but I figure this is enough.

P.S. what's with the hostility here? Popnfresh was completely entitled to his opinion. And if you don't like sports games that's fine too. I don't like them much either, that's why it was over a decade between purchases for me, and it will probably be about 3 or 4 years before I get another.

If racing games were in the sports game category, then (in my book) it's easily above and beyond Madden/NBA/NFL/FIFA/ some-other-category-I-give-crap-about.

Although Richard Grisham, you could NOT be more right.
When will FLYING cars come in.

8-10 years ago, for the PS1, flying MOTORCYCLES were around for only three times (Jet Moto 1, 2, and 3).

No. 1: they're sports games. 'Nuff said.

wasnt it the 72 'phins who went undefeated? 73 'phins were 12-2. not trying to be a know it all, im just sayin.

Popnfresh's comment about the how the NCAA "not allow names or likenesses to be used" couldn't BE more wrong. I consider, the same jersey number, height, weight, hometown, age, hair colour etc on all the NCAA football athletes to be likenesses.

Furthermore, the NCAA would love to use the players real names to add more realism to the game but they can't because they would have to pay the players for that, just like every other sports game. EA and the NCAA don't want to spend more money, so they skirt the line with likenesses. For someone who claims to have worked in the sports game development industry you seem to be missing obvious facts that involve little research. May I assume you were in accounting for some contracted company who designed the uniforms? or perhaps a secretary?

It's because there's no college player's union. Current licensing deals aren't made with individual players unless they're no longer active; they're made with player unions, which is partially why Barry Bonds wasn't named in baseball games in his later years (not part of the union = having to make an individual deal = way more money).

It's a stretch to say the NCAA would love to do it. I'm sure they'd rather use the names than not, but it's a logistical impossibility with no union and the NCAA's own policy on players not receiving money/gifts. It is their rules that don't allow it, so obviously they would rather have those rules than include names.

You're right about likenesses skirting the issue. They can use numbers, and they can use general likenesses, but if you load up an NCAA game and look at players on an individual level, and do the same with Madden, you'll notice that Madden has many, many, many more unique qualities for each player than NCAA. A part of this is because of the sheer number of teams and media limitations, but also getting too specific with likenesses can lead to things like this: http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/05/12/examining-the-ncaa-and-ea-lawsuit-head-down-the-rabbit-hole/

I was an engineer in my sports game work, not that it matters. I wasn't saying that to say I was right in what I said, I was using that info to say how little research would actually be necessary for a media member to clarify this stuff. If a basic engineer at the company knows it, then a member of the media could easily contact someone in Production or PR and get a breakdown and some answers. That was my problem with the article; it's not actually trying to get information out there, it's just crying in text.

I like the article, and i totaly agree that sports games havent raealy evolved. RIP CITY REPRESENT

Top things I hate about sports games:

1. Sports
2. ...nah, I think that pretty much covers it.

Popnfresh, well said. Iretract any statements i may have made that could be insulting and offer an appology. The article still has merit with general annoyances about sports games.

ReCAPTCHA: ATLANTA safes, a new sports team?

Sports suck, especially the non-American ones.

i potentially good article ruined by too much america, funny because the rest of the world have their sports.

shows a bit too much ignorence to anything other then USA.

I dont mean to be nasty as i love most articles and this was very goo, i'm just sayingyou could recognise their is other sports outside of your border

I agree with the Control Issues complaint, my biggest problem with the latest sports games is the 3 page instruction manuals. For example; MLB The Show, don't get me wrong I think the game is awesome, but a lot of the pitchers statistics when I'm batting confuse me along with other gameplay tips that aren't explained. I don't want to have to buy a strategy guide just to PLAY the game.
It seems the creators just cater to Sports fans and not someone that just picks the game up to try. I'm sure that hinders new players from buying them.

Not sure if you call it a "sports" game, per se, but on the topic of Disconnectors and Money Plays: Mario Kart Wii totally would benefit from getting a patch that prevents the clock-wraparound cheat and invalidates impossibly low times achieved through said cheat.