EA Sports - It's in the game!

Every year, EA Sports usually comes out with a new edition of a sports video game whether it's the newest edition of Madden, FIFA, NBA Live, NHL, etc. etc. What is your opinion on the sports gaming genre? Do you end up buying the newest edition of a sport each and every year? Do you ever just feel like the games are the same but with updated rosters?

Discuss!

I am not really a fan of EA Sports. I have only played two games made by them. The the first of the two that I played is Triple Play Baseball, which focused on the 2001 Baseball season. While the second of the two that I have played is Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. I don't feel a need to constantly buy a new EA Sports game every year.

Used to play FIFA a lot till I actually realized the games really look similar. And the fact that the visitors in the stadium look like they were made in 1986 doesn't make it better. I stopped caring about EA Sports cause I only played FIFA and was done with it cause EA. The servers for online play were not good and the gameplay was flawed a lot. Plus they came up with wonderful things to make more money out of it :/

Honestly I don't like sports games. I guess there just isn't enough action in them to satisfy me. :\

Never been a fan of sports games because they seem awfully repetitive \: Though I haven't played the EA ones; do Nintendo ones count? XD The only ones I'm familiar with are golf and tennis from the Mario series. But why play video games of the sports genre rather than actually participating in them yourself?

Vanille Sky said:

But why play video games of the sports genre rather than actually participating in them yourself?

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I see this sometimes and I never get it. Do you play sports?

FIFA will never replace actually playing Soccer, and similarly MLB The Show will never replace Baseball. But they're not meant to simulate the actual experience of the sports, but rather design a video game around the sport. Playing FIFA is completely different from actually playing Soccer. In the latter, you normally have a set position, centreback, striker, goalkeeper, whatever, and you play your role. In FIFA, the game is in controlling the whole team and their roles and there's also the novelty of "playing" your favorite team and winning with them. That's not taking the athletic abilities needed for the real sport into consideration.

The last EA Sports game I played was NHL '99. The only thing I enjoyed the most, really, were the fights. Albeit unrealistic, but yet funny at the same time.



I'm never really interested in these games, so...I normally tend to avoid it.

I've played EA Cricket '07 (only the Ashes scenarios) and every FIFA from '07 to '13.

Vanille Sky said:

But why play video games of the sports genre rather than actually participating in them yourself?

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It's a different experience. You get to control the entire team and you play from a third person's perspetive.
Actually playing on the pitch is a lot more fun than pressing buttons on the computer though, but then they're like 2 completely different things.

PS. Also you can't really play for hours at a stretch. An intense game of football would leave you exhausted within a few minutes, but that isn't the case with FIFA.

Vanille Sky said:

Never been a fan of sports games because they seem awfully repetitive \: Though I haven't played the EA ones; do Nintendo ones count? XD The only ones I'm familiar with are golf and tennis from the Mario series. But why play video games of the sports genre rather than actually participating in them yourself?

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Because they're simulations. and there is actually a sport called e-sports but that's a whole different story

I enjoy FIFA because I like watching football (soccer), but if you're not interested in sports it's easy to see why they won't enjoy them.

I know a while back they came out with like the NBA and NFL Street games that I really liked because of the lack of official rules, and I liked it when they had like the hall of fame gameplay option in Madden but when they stopped putting it in there for a couple of years I lost interest. I still play Madden '08 because it has the Hall of Fame option and it's just as fun for me as playing any other video game depending on what team I'm playing and what difficulty. Gaining a bunch of points gives me the same satisfaction as grinding characters a couple levels. I would rather play the sports but since they're seasonal and all my friends are wonderful but lazy turds and won't even come out to do backyard football like we used to anymore, I have no real way of competing.

Satoshi Ookami said:

You don't feel that online competitions are real way of competing?

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Not really. And I mean like physically getting out on the field, running around hitting people and sliding around in the mud. It's a lot different feeling than playing a video game whether you're sitting in a chair or standing up and getting into the game as much as you can.

Satoshi Ookami said:

Oh, you meant THAT real way =D Well yea, that can never be replaced but online competition can be viewed as real way of competing in video game =)

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Until they come out with the Oculus Rift for mass public production and the 3-D treadmill and bodysuit for mass production. Forever waiting.

Well, guess where I was earlier this week?

Sports games are still probably my favorite genre out there (yeah, I know), so if there's an EA Sports game out there, chances are I've played or own it. And while I try and stay away from it for series like Madden and FIFA, I've found myself getting the new release of NHL every year since 09, and I've had copies dating all the way back to NHLPA 93 on the Sega Genesis.

One thing I really do hate that they've done is sign exclusivety contracts with both the NHL and NFL, which means that no other publisher can make games for those leagues. I find that it really hurts the quality of their games, as competition would force them to try new things, and put more effort into each release. When you look at an aspect like player creation on both Madden and NHL, you see that they've barely been touched in the past 5 releases, because they can get away without overhauling things like that. When you see games with competition though like NBA Live and NBA 2K, they're both pushing to out sell the other, so you'll see noticeable improvements from year to year.

If I weren't such a huge hockey fan, I don't think I'd be picking up the yearly release of NHL, but until another company like 2K gives it another shot, I'm going to keep picking up EA's version.