Sports Video Games

I love sports and have played my share of sports video games.  From NFL Quarterback Club 96 for the Gameboy to Blitz for the N64 to Madden for the Xbox 360.  The reason for writing this blog piece was because of recent developments in the courts regarding EA Sports and their football video games.  EA is being sued for allegedly having a monopoly over the football simulation games market, allowing them to overcharge their customers for games.  If you have bought an NCAA Football or Madden game since 2005 click that link.  It's free money.  Seriously.  If the settlement is approved, then people that have filed a claim will be eligible to get money based on the games they bought.  So do it.

This lawsuit, in my opinion, is long overdue.  Let's just focus on the Madden franchise for now, and I'll get to other sports later.  Since 2004, EA Sports has had exclusive rights to the NFL for video games.  This is a problem and the overall argument of the lawsuit.  Competition, whether in sports or video game making, is crucial to success.  Without competition, you get too comfortable in your situation and simply coast by.  This is why you will occasionally see top seeded teams get down early to lower seeded ones because there is no perception of competition.  This is the trap that I think Madden has fallen into.

While I was looking through the different Maddens to file my claim correctly, I realized that after Madden 2005 (Ray Lewis cover and the last one to be in direct competition with the 2K series) I did not purchase another one until Madden 2010 (Larry Fitz and Troy Polamalu).  And for good reason.  Games were going for $50 at the time (now $60 on the new systems), but the improvements they made were minimal at best.  The AI still is below average, and honestly has been a problem throughout the series.  Lead blockers decide to run up the field to get that pesky safety, rather than blocking the linebacker that is about to reduce your tailback to dust.  Offensive linemen stand around as though stuck in a trance rather than blocking their assignments.  Greg Jennings can break his leg, not lose stride, and score a TD.  Ok, that last point was really put in there just so you can view that video, but still. 

Let's take a look at this past year's Madden.  It boasted that defenders would be smarter, Kinect was a feature, and now the commentators could be seen in the booth!  Oh boy!  EA Sports, either out of stupidity or drunkeness, also decided it would be an awesome idea to completely take out the fantasy draft option in franchise mode.  This at a time when fantasy sports in general is on the rise.  That would be like Apple removing the touch screen option on the iPhone 5 even though every other phone had it.  I just wonder who it was on the development team that decided that would be a good idea?  Then, you're telling me that seeing Jim Nantz and Phil Simms in the booth is a feature?  I could honestly care less.  There also is no create a team, even though this has been a staple of sports games in general for the past few years.  The graphics improvement has been...well there hasn't really been improvement.  Here's a shot from Madden 11 and here's a shot from Madden 13.  Apart from the Nike logo replacing the Reebok one, is there any difference?  And they had two whole years in between these games.

Despite my shortcomings about Madden, I will give EA a few breaks.  For starters, I've never made a video game nor know exactly what goes into developing one.  Since sports games are released yearly rather than others that can be pushed back, I can understand that there is sometimes a time crunch.  Maybe changing graphics drastically takes more than a couple years.  This also isn't to say that EA is incapable of creating good Madden games.  Madden 2004 (Vick cover) was an awesome game and actually won Spike TV's Game of the Year award.  That's Game of the Year, not Sports Game of the Year.  Can you imagine Madden 13 being even nominated for that?  Didn't think so.  To this day, as far as an overall package (obviously the current game's graphics are better), Madden 2004 is the best football game I've played; Vick rule still in effect (if you don't know what that is, go play someone in that game against the Falcons).

2004 featured the ability to direct receivers if your QB was rolling out and call out blocks when running, a ridiculously deep owner mode where you could adjust everything down to how much a hot dog costs, training camp drills, build your own stadium, and play creator (not playbook, PLAY).  This should be the description for a game nowadays.  The fact that EA had to battle 2K benefited both parties as EA was able to release games like 2004 and NFL 2K5 is still widely considered one of the best football games made.  Now, EA actually highlights the addition of hand towels for players as a legit "feature" in the game.  Hopefully 2K can get some kind of NFL licensing in the future so that football games can go back to being good.  Until then, I'll gladly save my $60 and maybe go buy a version from two years ago for $5.  It's almost as good.

Despite EA's shortcomings in Madden, I think their FIFA and NHL series are great.  NHL has gotten a bit stagnant lately and still needs a lot of work on AI (particularly defense and goalies), but the strides have been significant.  FIFA continues to amaze year in and year out.  Heck, that team should just design all of the sports games.  They seem to listen to the fans' complaints and address them in the following game.  The control scheme is great and it is definitely rewarding when you score a goal.  It used to be more arcade-y, but now I've noticed that people who are knowledgeable or have played soccer in real life will crush those that just press buttons.  The game plays similar to its real life counterpart; not perfect, but probably the closest you'll find among sports.

As far as 2K is concerned, their basketball series is great.  So great, in fact, that I believe it led to the cancellation of the EA Sports NBA Live series.  Unlike the football scenario where both companies thrived under shared rights, 2K just took over.  Since their games started receiving critical acclaim, EA has cancelled two planned basketball games in NBA Elite 11 and NBA Live 13.  Although both were cited as development problems, I'm sure part of it had to do with the fact that 2K was getting such magnificent reviews.  Personally, unless one of those games by EA was ground breaking, I would not have ditched it for the 2K series.  Even without direct competition, 2K has continued to make improvements and has released game after game that have consistently gotten praised on nearly every gaming site.

Despite their NBA prowess, their MLB games leave much to be desired.  Mediocre graphics for today's day and age along with questionable game play mechanics and limited options leads to an okay package.  Their pitching system is great, forcing the player to make the motion of the ball and time it right to get velocity and placement.  The newest version, however, has been called simply a copy and paste version of MLB 2K12.  This series, much like Madden, lacks direct competition which results in poor efforts from year to year.  Playstation has MLB The Show, which I've heard is pretty great.  Still, as far as the last great baseball game I played, we have to go all the way back to EA Sport's MVP Baseball 2005 (Manny Ramirez).

MVP 2005 had everything you could want.  Just like the Madden series, it had owner mode which allowed you to set all kinds of prices as well as a stadium editor to make your ballpark into the next Fenway or Wrigley.  This game had all the major and minor league teams, good fielding, pitching, and batting controls, as well as a really fun hitting mode where there were ramps and objects to hit in the field of play (don't remember what it was called but I'm sure some of my readers remember that mode).  It also was the result of direct competition as it battled MLB 2006, which would eventually become the series MLB The Show.  Both games did well, but EA lost the rights in part due to their acquisition of the NFL rights so they have not made an MLB game since.

In conclusion, it should be clear that competition is needed for sports games.  It drives developers to add more features, listen to the community, and care about the games they release.  This competition doesn't need to destroy the other one's series (like in the NBA series), but should actually serve to enhance each one.  If they were to do exclusives, however, I would prefer for EA to do baseball, soccer, and hockey, with football and basketball regulated to 2K.  Hopefully this was a trip down memory lane for some of you, and don't forget to file your claim.  I'm looking forward to the day when one of these developers wakes up and makes a great NFL game again.

Matty O