Best Sports Games in series

[buzz909]

Hi - I would be grateful if someone could help me out. I really want to get a NHL game and a Pro Evo game. Could someone tell me which is the best in the series. Its confusing because they make changes every year, and I read that this year FIFA is meant to be better. If so what is the best Fifa to get too?

I used to love the NHL game on the megadrive by EA, so I really want an update on that especially.

I would also like a really great tennis game. I have Virtua Tennis on Dreamcast and I think its great. what the best Tennis game ever though?

These questions are accross ALL formats. Thank you very much.

[Holio]

FIFA 09 is by far the best footie game around atm, and NHL09 is the best ice hockey game atm too.

PES 6 on the PS2 was the best that series had to offer recently.

I enjoyed Top Spin 2 on the XB360, and didnt get Top Spin 3 cause they had changed the play mechanic. Virtua Tennis 3 is decent, though it does feel even more arcadey than VT on the DC. I would still prefer the DC games.

[merf]

I never see the argument about old PES's being better than new ones and I play hours and hours of every version (I am 100h+ on 09 currently)

The only crime in recent PES in my view is not making huge leaps forward over the old ones, merely incremental refinements.

I'd say there is no better PES thatn the current one, it plays a lovely smooth game of footy (offline) and is full of classy touches and that great PES feeling.

For machine I'd go PS3, better pad for it and you can easily stick on the edit files with full licensed kits and crowd chants, which really addd something.

[toythatkills]

The only Konami football game I've truly enjoyed was ISS '98 on PSone...

[hudson]

If you're after a footy game now, get FIFA09. I still prefer PES, but I only get to play that when a friend comes round or in work as the online side of the game is simply broken.

FIFA09, needs to be approached from a slightly different angle from a playing PES, but it's rewarding if you put the time in to learn it. The online is solid too.

Other sports games to look out for are Everybody's Golf on PS3 and yeah, the hockey games.

[Leon Retro]

FIFA09 is an extremely horrible game to play. Take away the gloss - and it's a broken game to play. People see the excellent overall design - and think it's a good game. It's far from it.

PES is still good. It went down a different path this generation. Visually nicer, but.. not better in other ways. The broken online side of things is the real deal breaker.

I have had to accept that there are no football games for me to buy and play these days. I'm praying for a new, sensational football game to appear on the scene. EA & Konami don't deserve any success with their lacking products.

[Ajay1986]

FIFA09 is an extremely horrible game to play. Take away the gloss - and it's a broken game to play. People see the excellent overall design - and think it's a good game. It's far from it.
.

No. There is a reason FIFA 09 is being played by so many people and its because it plays a fantastic game of football. Its different to PES which is something PES fans seem unable to accept.

Its far more advanced than PES as well, the physics actually make it feel more life like not as rigid as PES.

[hudson]

Rigid feeling or not, I still feel in complete control of the ball whilst playing with PES. Still feel like I'm wrestling a bit to control player animations and then the ball with FIFA. I like FIFA. Both are different I guess.

[merf]

FIFA09 is an extremely horrible game to play. Take away the gloss - and it's a broken game to play. People see the excellent overall design - and think it's a good game. It's far from it.

PES is still good. It went down a different path this generation. Visually nicer, but.. not better in other ways. The broken online side of things is the real deal breaker.

I have had to accept that there are no football games for me to buy and play these days. I'm praying for a new, sensational football game to appear on the scene. EA & Konami don't deserve any success with their lacking products.

no offence but you do post some total garbage sometimes.

[Ajay1986]

Oh yeah both are good in their own ways i was just trying to point out that FIFA really really isn't horrible to play.

In terms of control thats one of the things that irks me about PES, firstly players just dont turn and move like real people and secondly players move as if they have the ball glued to their feet.

[prinnysquad]

A few weeks away I would have unhesitatingly recommended NHL 09 for your hockey goodness.

After the recent patch, I'd say avoid it like the plague.

Although if you haven't played it before, I guess you wouldn't notice the enjoyment-crippling changes they've made to it, the bastards.

[Extra Terrestrial]

Skate 2 is the best sports game around, full stop.

Even if it isn't a 'proper' sport per se.

[Soundwave]

A few weeks away I would have unhesitatingly recommended NHL 09 for your hockey goodness.

After the recent patch, I'd say avoid it like the plague.

Although if you haven't played it before, I guess you wouldn't notice the enjoyment-crippling changes they've made to it, the bastards.

Care to eloborate a bit??

I'm considering either EA's NHL '09 or the Sega 2K9 version but if you say the patch has fecked EA's one then I'd be interested to know how

Neil

[ezee ryder]

If you're after a football game then FIFA 09 is all you need. It is the best footy game around at the moment, don't listen to what a certain someone has said in this thread

It even has the Ultimate Team mode DLC coming soon so if you wish to create your own team of stars then you could always go for that.

[prinnysquad]

Yeah sure. I typed a big, vitriol-fueled rant the other day, only when I tried to post it, I seemed to have been signed out, and I lost it.

Here's an abridged version:

The patch has dramatically increased the number of penalties being called, and I'd argue that most of them have nothing to do with the player. Stuff like hooking and holding, which I hadn't seen ever in 200 games, were being called every game. I can understand tripping (which results from sweeping the stick across the ice, when attempting to poke-check), but hooking is (in the game) an upper-body infringement, and when I press the poke-check button, I can't see why my stick should be chest height. It should be planted on the ice, trying to poke the puck away. It just seems like a random punishment for a penalty beyond the player's control.

Likewise, holding. When I try to make a mega-check, but I'm too early or late, I can accept an interference penalty, no bother. But holding? When I go to check, no way do I intend to grab onto a player with one arm. Where is the button for that?? Just one arm, around another player. It's just a really arbitrary penalty that's been introduced that doesn't reflect the player's button presses in some feeble attempt to be more 'realistic.'

I wouldn't mind being called for penalties IF they were all genuine. Or even just a fraction of them. I'm not a dirty player, but I've seen my PIMs rapidly increase over penalties handed out for moves that I don't make. It's made the physical player obsolete.

Especially online. The boys and I aren't really skill players. We haven't played enough online games to compete. The peeps who've played 1000 games online plough all their dev points into speed and trickery, our players can't keep up. We get whupped 5, 6, 7 - 1. But, at the same time, we have fun. Why? Because we could check the opposition to hell and back. Tons of fair hits, hip checks, whatever. The game called the illegal stuff, fair enough. But we still had fun. After a humping, you could look back and think, hell, that little weasel wearing 99 tore us up, but at least we crumped him a couple of times. With the new patch, everything, EVERYTHING gets called. If you so much as bump into a skater (who's carrying the puck, no less), you risk a penalty. Checks get called all the time, even though they're on the puck carrier. You can't even clear the crease anymore, or it's interference, which is a ridiculous situation and rarely happens in the real NHL. This means that we still get absolutely hammered, but all the physical fun has been sucked out of the game. I could understand these changes if skill teams were getting denied rightful results by dirty teams, but they weren't. They were winning. Now they're still winning, but physical teams have been punished. Anyone who's put all their dev points into checking or toughness has wasted their time.

Moreover, on the single player game, the AI has been imbalanced by the patch. Your previously-reliable teammates are suddenly clueless retards, whereas the opposition players are all playing clutch hockey, every shift.

Case in point:
If I was on a 2 on 2 breakaway, what I'd try to do was power down the wing. My teammate would head to the slot. The two D-men would backskate between their keeper and my forwards. If I tried to pass across, they'd intercept it. So what I'd do is reach the goal-line, then spin backwards in a 180 move. I'd pass it across from my new position. My teammate would have stopped skating and nestled into the slot, but the two D-men, unaware of the impending about-turn, would carry on backskating, leaving my teammate a few precious yards of space, and they'd end up near their own net. I'd pass it across and my teammate would get off a shot maybe half the time.

Now, thanks to the patch, when I pull the same move, the second I'm about to pass after performing my move, the opposition centre roars in from offscreen and intercepts the pass in the slot. Every centre in the game does this, every centre plays like Pavel Datsyuk or Kris Draper, backchecking and intercepting the pass in the slot. I understand that they're maybe trying to make it harder to score in the game, but to have every opposition centre on every line on every team in the game pulling this move is ridiculous. The D men still get conned by my move, they still backskate towards their net - why couldn't they have tweaked the AI there? Why not have the elite D-men anticipate my move, and step up as soon as they see my spin backwards, to intercept the pass? It's very, very lazy programming and ruins the illusion of this 'reality' they've tried to create. Now, if by some miracle my pass does get across, the teammate AI is so cretinous he'll dilly-dally on the puck and get a shot away maybe 1 in 10 times.

So ...
Crap allied AI
Ridiculously unforgiving opposition AI
Lousy, unfair penalties
Physical play punished

It's totally ruined a special game and I doubt I'll play it ever again.

As I said before, though, if peeps haven't played it pre-patch they'll be none-the-wiser and think I'm a total chump, because for the fresh-faced player it's still a great game.