The Penny Arcade Expo, the show by and for hardcore gamers, loves games of all kinds…except sports games. The "hardcore" seem to shy away from licensed sports sims, but should they reconsider? Photo by Doug Bonham

Sports games: They come out yearly, they’re some of the top selling video games on a yearly basis (the Madden NFL and FIFA soccer series each sold more than five million copies worldwide last year), yet they’re almost entirely shunned by most “hardcore” gamers. As somebody who has gone to the Penny Arcade Expo three times, I can tell you with certainty that you’re far more likely to find an obscure Japanese fighting game or pen-and-paper RPG than a copy of Madden.

Which is a bit of a shame, because from a pure gaming experience standpoint, non-sports gamers may well stand to gain a bit from trying out one of the many sports games out on the market today. Besides being one of the last bastions of single-console multiplayer out there, sports games – much like fighting games – allow for creativity in how you manage to play a game. While the great stereotype is that nerds and jocks don’t get along, truthfully it doesn’t matter when it comes to playing games — you don’t need to be athletically gifted behind the joystick.

Rooted in desires shown by my Silicon Sasquatch comrades to give these games a try, here’s an introductory guide to unlocking the joy to be found playing sports games.

1. If you have a favorite sport/team/athlete, feel free to pick that game up.

If you’re not much of a sports fan but happen to randomly LOVE, say, baseball, then feel free to give that a shot. Same goes for most any sports out there right now — however, in all honesty, there’s one exclusion to make…

EA Sports' Madden series is awesome, but NOT a suggested starting point for rookie sports gamers with Xbox 360s or PS3s.

2. For the love of all that’s holy, don’t start out with an American football game.

When it comes to either EA Sports’ Madden NFL or NCAA Football games, unless you’re opting for a Nintendo Wii version, do NOT start out with one of these games. Not only do football games require you to play the game, but the tactics-heavy nature of football requires you to know what plays to call on both offense and defense.

In layman’s terms, it’d be like taking somebody interested in getting started with RTS games and throwing them onto a Starcraft server full of hungry South Koreans, or taking a fighting game newbie to a top Virtua Fighter arcade in Tokyo. Football is a complex sport, and football video games have incredibly complex control schemes — simply, they provide an incredibly tough learning curve to climb. Believe me, a good game of Madden is as satisfying as a tough game of chess, but it’s not for the faint of heart. The Nintendo Wii versions of NCAA Football and Madden both offer an easier play style, but if you don’t have a Wii, you’re out of luck.

FIFA 09 and NHL 09 by EA Sports have great Be A Pro modes that are engaging and allow you to do crazy things like this (yes, that's very hard to do in real life soccer, believe me).

3. Starting out with soccer or hockey is the best idea.

Don’t know much about sports? That’s perfectly fine; most people in the U.S. don’t know a ton about either soccer or hockey either. However, luckily for you, EA Sports’ NHL 09 and FIFA 09 are two of the finest games of 2008, period, never mind within the sports genre alone.

Much of the recommendation comes because both games have incredibly good, easy to pick up control schemes. The EA Sports NHL series reinvented itself for its 08 iteration based around a new set of simple controls, and the 09 version even includes simple three-button controls that hearken back to the classic 16-bit NHL games. FIFA underwent a similar re-invigoration in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation, with 09 packing lots of features in with a game that can be picked up and learned very quickly.

Plus, most importantly, both games are fast and easy to learn. Hockey might have some penalties to learn and soccer may be a bit foreign, but both are fast and active sports that keep you engaged. You don’t have to learn a playbook like with football, or grapple with the tougher control schemes that basketball games can have, or memorize the intricacies of baseball. Just knocking the ball or puck around and playing a fluid game — it’s a great way to learn.

4. Don’t be afraid to play on easy mode.

Seriously — if you’re new to sports games, learning the sport and the controls at the same time can be overwhelming. Feel free to knock it down and take it a bit easy when you’re learning the game. If you were to, say, start a franchise mode in a game, you can always turn the difficulty up as you go without re-starting — unlike some story-driven games (and the hunt for their achievements or trophies), there’s no penalty in increasing the difficulty as you go.

5. Don’t play online with pubbies!

It’s a terrible way to learn how to play the game. Much like with other video game genres, public sports game servers have done that one thing the Internet is great at: destruction. People often play sports games with only the best teams and have found the most game-y ways to play the game imaginable. The recently-released Tiger Woods 10 has good players currently sandbagging to dominate more newbie-centric online tournaments; I also found out about a bug people are using in FIFA 09 to create godly teams in quickplay modes.

If you are a forum member or otherwise have a group of friends to play these games online with, though, by all means go ahead. One of my favorite gaming experiences was playing online leagues in NCAA Football 09, and that was organized through an Internet forum. But avoid public games, unless you want the sports game equivalent of a Zerg rush.

When this happens to you in an NCAA 09 online dynasty, do you: A. Swear loudly? B. Mute the mic and swear quietly? C. Hurl the controller to the wall? or D. All of the above?

6. Do play with friends in person.

That old gaming standby of sitting down on a couch and burning hours playing a video game is now as archaic a notion as 8-bit systems, or Sega being a console manufacturer. Most every game has an online play mode, and very few games are geared towards a local multiplayer experience anymore. Hell, some games have multiplayer as online only.

However, this is where sports games shine. Much like fighting games, the trash talking, competitive nature of playing a sport against a friend just works so much better when you’re in person with your opponent. Even with beginners or new players, the in-person experience is great. Also, it provides a great drinking game!

So that’s where it’s at. Sports games aren’t just for jocks looking to recreate their favorite sports fantasies — give some Xbox Live or PlayStation Network demos a try, and take a dive into the world of sports.

No? Hm. Well, here, check out Stephen Colbert’s exclusive preview of Microsoft’s Project Natal:

They always look.

Nick:

The stars have aligned. Not only will this year mark the release of games by Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman — three veterans of the Golden Age of Adventure Gaming — but it will herald the resurrection of Monkey Island, the game that brought the art of insult swordfighting to the masses.

In celebration of the upcoming remake of The Secret of Monkey Island and Telltale’s first season of Tales of Monkey Island, I dove back into my collection of LucasArts adventure games. First up: The Curse of Monkey Island on Mega-Monkey mode, to truly test my puzzle-solving prowess (and alliterative aspirations, apparently.)  Once I’ve killed Dread Pirate LeChuck again…again, I’m planning on paying a few of my favorites a visit: Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle and The Dig, most likely. And to cap it all off? I’ll be returning to the colorful streets of El Marrow in Grim Fandango. (Fact: Grim Fandango is the best game ever made. Honest! Look it up somewhere.)

And lest I forget the current generation of gaming, I oughta mention I’ve been plugging away at InFamous (50% completion rate and still excellent) and Red Faction: Guerrilla. Talk about an underdog of a game; Guerrilla’s only been out for a couple weeks and its price has already been slashed from $60 to $40.

Lemme give you some advice: No matter what opinion you may have of Saints Row or the older Red Faction games, toss it right out the window. Red Faction is relentlessly satisfying both online and off. Don’t be shocked if it ends up at the top of my list for Best Games of 2009.

Still the best at what he does.

Aaron:

Purchasing the Xbox 360 version of XMOWUE (that’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Uncaged Edition — which makes for an awful acronym) for $37 dollars at Target was the best gaming decision I’ve made this week. I’ve patiently waited for a sale on the game since its release, and I’m glad I finally got a chance to scoop it up.

The game is absolutely ridiculous, disgustingly gory and extremely family friendly (not really). Now I’ve never really read any of Wolverine’s comic series — give me Batman or Spider-Man anyday — but I can tell Raven Software lovingly nailed the feel of being Wolverine. It’s brutal, but also beautiful in a demented sort of way.

I’ll also admit within this allotted virtual space that I’ve become addicted to The Sims 3.

The last time I played any Sims title was way back in 2002 when the first game’s vacation expansion came out. After that I quietly put away the voyeuristic notion of controlling virtual people in favor of more conventional gaming experiences. Plus, I was annoyed with the hundreds of expansion packs EA and Maxis kept releasing (honestly that’s written with just a tinge of hyperbole). Even so I’m back for the third game, and it’s as crack-like as I remember. I have to stop sometime soon though, otherwise it’ll become my new World of Warcraft.

Which, by the way, keeps telling me to play it. I need help.

With Bill Clinton and the Fresh Prince in the rosters, NBA Jam really is the quintessential '90s sports game.

Doug:

Still working on games like Fallout 3, FIFA 09, and others, but have brought out some oldies this week as well as taking in some brand-spanking-new demos.

Kicking it old school: Been taking in some SNES games thanks to the power of emulation, specifically NBA Jam: Tournament Edition and International Superstar Soccer, the precursor to the Pro Evo Soccer series we know now. Gotta love some 16-bit goodness every now and then, but I’m still kind of tweaked that I can’t get the cheat codes for NBA Jam to work. Ah well.

Two big sports game demos dropped this week, though: NCAA Football 10 and The Bigs 2. I put damn near 120 hours in to NCAA 09, and am still kind of looking forward to 10, but man…I was not very impressed with the demo upon playing it for the first time. In fact, you could say I’m kind of down on the game. It just didn’t feel right — I had wanted the game to feel different, to make some improvements, but it still feels odd now that they’re here.

The other demo was The Bigs 2, 2k Sports’ take on arcade baseball. I only ever played the demo of the first one, but it was well liked by a lot of people, including 1up.com’s Sports Anomaly podcast. Well, the demo is incredibly good — fairly easy to pick up, a ton of fun to play, great mechanics, and it doesn’t feel unfair like a lot of arcade sports games can. I would definitely love to get my hands on the full game when it comes out soon.

Well, we’re all a little burned out here. I mean, you all saw the media deluge last week, didn’t you? The countless trailers, the hours of presentations, the Brütal Legend lawsuit . . . it’s just exhausting.

So, we failed to deliver on the E3 commentary we promised, and I wanted to personally apologize. We weren’t sure how we were going to discuss the event as it raced by, and thanks to each member of our bustling staff of three having something major come up, it just didn’t happen.

If you’re still with us, I want to thank you for your patience and understanding. All three of us have busy lives, and I know that it’s been a constant struggle for me at least to have a full-time job and keep up the quality and consistency in blogging that I aspire to.

We’ll be getting back on track shortly. In the meantime, excuse our flakiness.

Now, let’s talk about some games, shall we?

Nick:

I’ve been rounding up notes on about a dozen games to start discussing them on the site. And while there are a couple of standout titles among the bunch — InFamous and Red Faction: Guerrilla in particular — I’m eager for a nice, carefully structured linear experience. All this open-world exploration is great, but we all need some variety now and then.

And in about ten minutes, I’m going to be playing resent Apple for announcing something cooler than my iPhone 3G while I follow the Worldwide Developers Conference. It’s a little ridiculous of me, of course, but let’s be realistic. I play games on my iPhone more than any other platform at this point, and I’m gonna feel a little snubbed when people start buying something way cooler than the thing I’ve got. Oh well. That’s simply the way of things — especially when Apple is involved.

Aaron:

E3 slightly cut into my gaming capability for part of the week, but since Tuesday I’ve been enjoying Red Faction: Guerrilla. It’s really a slow start, but the destruction-based gameplay builds on you over the first few sectors in need of liberation. After awhile you’ll be bringing down buildings strategically by targeting their weak points (go for support beams!) and discovering your favorite combination of weapons (I’m fond of an upgraded rocket launcher, an upgraded nanomachine rifle and max demolition charge capacity). It’s really an amazing title overall, but I still see it being a sleeper hit despite THQ having saturated various media outlets with marketing for the game.

Oh, and multiplayer is ludicrously fun. More on that when we post our review sometime next week.

Doug:

It’s all Fallout 3, all the time. Hoo boy — time to go find a doctor and get injected with some pre-war stuff to clear out the addiction. I think I’m only about a third of the way through the game, but I’m still completely hooked. I’m to the point where I feel comfortable with the controls, how to get around the Wasteland, and how to fight. Not being at level 1 or 2 also helps — I’ve customized my character through weapons and skills. Unfortunately, though, the enemies don’t get any easier. I do look forward to kicking ass with the Brotherhood, though, as I’ve got the Broken Steel DLC installed too.

I got a bit of time to play a few other games, too — NCAA 09, FIFA 09, Mass Effect, Super Street Fighter II HD Remix — and hooked them up in HD, too. That was a situation I could get used to.

Well, PopCap, you’ve done it again.

I was all set to get the Backlog out the door so I could enjoy my weekend, and you had to stumble in out of the cold, like an estranged lover drawn back to rekindle a long-burning flame. All those hours we spent matching jewels, the dizzying ecstasy of our peg-filled Extreme Fevers…you’ve always been good to me, baby.

And now you show up on my doorstep with this new game, Plants Vs. Zombies — a clever and hilarious twist on a revered casual genre — and I can’t help but fall in love with you all over again.

Um. So yeah, that’s where I’ve been for the past three hours. Read on to see what the rest of the gang’s up to!

Subtitle: Except for this album cover. It's pretty shocking.

Nick: Aside from the freakishly addictive Plants Vs. Zombies, I’ve been trying to find good music I haven’t heard. And one of the best ways I’ve found for discovering new music is to check it out in Rock Band 2, naturally. There are two reasons:

1. I love playing Rock Band 2.
2. Harmonix has impeccable taste in music.

So I’ve been catching up on some of my favorite artists — Neko Case, the Allman Brothers Band, and, uh…REO Speedwagon. But the biggest gamble I made turned out to be a fantastic decision. I picked up Nothing’s Shocking, the debut album from Jane’s Addiction, and I’m shocked by how much I’m enjoying the thing from start to finish. The funky basslines, the intricate drum patterns, the awesome guitar solos, the…well, whatever Perry Farrell’s singing about, I like it too.

I’ve also got several games I’m pushing myself to finish in order to review them next week: Halo Wars, Resistance 2 and GTA: Chinatown Wars, primarily. But you can also look forward to another hand-picked iPhone game review this Monday, and I’m sure I won’t be able to stop blathering on about Plants Vs. Zombies anytime soon.

Aaron: So, this week I managed to download and explore the 10-day free trial for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. I’ve heard decent to average things about the game since its release, but after playing for a few days I’ll stick my neck out here and say this: Warhammer is more fun and better-crafted than World of Warcraft in terms of player vs. player content.

The Realm vs. Realm aspect of Warhammer is tighter and more fast-paced than Warcraft’s frustrating and sometimes inaccessible Player vs. Player feature. In Warhammer, players are in and out of battles quickly, they can queue from anywhere for numerous different battlegrounds and characters are even returned to their previous location, post-battle.

Even Warhammer’s quest system is more intuitive, though the myriad of “Kill this” and “Collect that” missions are pretty standard. I also enjoy how the minimap in Warhammer will lay a red hue over the area where your quest can be found, reducing the need for a multitude of add-ons just to find something, as is the case with WoW.

I doubt I’ll subscribe, as any MMO is a burden of commitment, but I’m quite impressed with what Warhammer has to offer.

Aside from all that online kerfuffle (there’s an antiquated word), I got back into some of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition and enjoyed it a lot. I’ve also been plowing through Fallout 3‘s three packs of DLC for our review feature, and I finally got around to Suikoden Tierkreis. Man, the voice acting in that game is absolutely horrendous.

Otherwise this weekend I’ll be watching some movies, enjoying the weather and the apartment to myself and probably reading. I’m a bit “gamed out.”

Doug: More of the same for me this week, as time-old traditions continue anew: Sports and racing games have dominated my gaming time this week.

Of course, my go-to has been FIFA 09. I’m hooked now on the main Manager mode, where I’m trying to guide Italian side Sampdoria to glory; I also have saves in that mode with my favorite soccer team, Arsenal, and an English side called Leicester City. The latter will be a challenge run, trying to build the team up from the third tier of English soccer up into a powerhouse.

Even better, word through the grapevine is that Sasquatch editor Nick Cummings is thinking of dipping his toe into the sports gaming world by giving FIFA a try. My evil plan, it is working! Seriously, soccer is almost the perfect sports game to start with: The sport is very accessible, the current (since the 08 version) FIFA engine has great flexibility with its control scheme so beginners can start with some very good training wheels, and it’s loads of fun. It’s not overly complicated and, much like a fighting game, the way you play is very tailored to the individual.

The other game I’ve been spending lots of time on is Project Gotham Racing 4. I picked this up with Assassin’s Creed a few weeks ago for cheap at GameStop; both games cost me less than $40. I honestly can’t believe I shrugged PGR4 off the first time because it is rather amazing and, fitting in with the theme, it’s a great racing game for somebody interested in the genre to start with.

It’s really also the ultimate evolution of the work Bizarre Creations started with PGR2 on the original Xbox: You’re driving fast through real-life cities and doing a variety of race types to not only finish first, but finish first in style. The controls are great, and while it’s not the most realistic racer in the world (Forza 2 beats it, and that gets stomped by myriad PC simulators in terms of realism) it has a heft and feel and gravity to the driving that just feels more hyper-real than arcadey. The feeling of driving fast and attacking corners in PGR4 is what car geeks like myself like to remember our real-life Sunday drives feeling like.

It also does weather effects rather well, especially the rain. The moment I knew that was driving in one of the wet cities and feeling both a rumble effect and a slight pull from a large pool of water on the street. Being a native Portlander, I know driving in the rain – and PGR4 nails that feeling really well.

I hope to take more chunks out of Assassin’s Creed and maybe my second Mass Effect playthrough this weekend; might hop into Rock Band 2 a bit, too. But don’t be surprised if I’m still on FIFA.

It feels a lot like that. (Photo by Bruce Ely/The Oregonian)

I’m slowly coming back into the fold as a Portland Trail Blazers fan after hearing some really exciting things. The thought of a mostly young team making such a strong effort this season has got me eager to see what the future holds.

Unfortunately, the Houston Rockets don’t seem to share my enthusiasm, as they’re currently making the Blazers’ lives a living hell. But hey, at least I can seek respite in my recently repaired Xbox 360!

Nick Cummings:

What can I say? I’ve been busy. Other than a few short-but-sweet play sessions on the newly-released Left 4 Dead survival mode (which Aaron was kind enough to review,) my gaming has consisted almost exclusively of games I was playing for review. Fortunately, Prince of Persia’s Epilogue wasn’t half-bad, and Galaga Legions was an awesome, albeit sadomasochistic, experience.

"Young Folks," by Peter, Bjorn & John

I’m looking forward to delving into Fable II‘s Knothole Island DLC this weekend, and maybe I’ll even give The Path another shot. But I’m most excited to bust out some incredibly awkward karaoke on my buddy’s copy of Lips.

Aaron Thayer:

At this juncture, my weekly gaming intake has been quite average.

I played a bit of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars to help with the DSi overview, which, while enjoyable, wasn’t what I really wanted to play — Suikoden Tierkreis will have to wait until next week (full disclosure: Suikoden is my absolute favorite RPG series, ever). Fearless fellow editor Nick and I had a blast for a couple of hours in Left 4 Dead thanks to its wonderful new DLC pack, and I romped through the first hour-and-a-half of the Knothole Island DLC for Fable II as well; so far it’s visually captivating and typically Fable, to say the least.

But the mediocrity will dissipate tonight, as one of my dear friends is coming for a weekend visit and we plan on getting some old buddies together to play the following in between bar-hopping and such: Rock Band, Guitar Hero: Metallica, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and probably 20 other games. As you might have gathered, he has a PS3.

Doug Bonham:

Honestly, gaming hasn’t been at the forefront this week — I’ve been busy starting up a part-time job and going on wild adventures with the City of Portland’s parking bureau. I’ve played a little bit more FIFA 09 and Assassin’s Creed, but the only really great time I had was last weekend with Nick and another of our friends. We all played a bit of Rock Band 2 now and then — including at Ground Kontrol on Tuesday nights — but an extended play session was a long time coming.

We rectified that last weekend, playing for a good four or five hours. Hanging out and rocking out like that is one of my favorite things in all of gaming, ever, and it’s great to get to do that with people who have similar tastes in music and song choice. Rumor has it we may be tackling the Endless Setlist at some point in the near future, and I can’t imagine a better crew to play with.

Nick:

I wouldn’t call myself an achievement hunter, but I’m definitely playing through Prince of Persia once again for 100% completion. While it’s not quite as breathtaking as the first time I laid eyes on it, it’s still a remarkably enjoyable experience. If it doesn’t satisfy the hardcore (and we’ll see about whether the Epilogue DLC scratches that itch next week,) well, I guess I’m proud to represent casual platform gamers. Hey, I beat Ninja Gaiden II — I’ve earned some rest.

I’m hoping to wrap up the single player component of Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars as well. I’m still not finding much of a draw within the storyline, but I’m still holding out for a touchscreen-powered chainsawing minigame. Somehow, the scalpel in Trauma Center just didn’t quite cut it for me.

And finally, I picked up a ten-dollar copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance today. After a couple hours of bruising a cast of hallowed comic book villains with an ensemble of the big-name heroes, I’ve come to realize that comics really are as cheesy as they always seemed. I mean, what kind of name is Dum Dum Dugan? Seriously. I thought I was watching The Venture Bros. for a minute there.

Aaron:

This week, and by week I mean over a day and a half, I beat Mirror’s Edge. I’ve been postponing playing the game since its November release, partly because the demo didn’t wow me in a major way and also because GameFly is unreliable.

It’s a fairly decent title overall, and definitely a case where the experience of first-person free running is more fun for being unique than for gameplay-related purposes. I’m mostly impressed that DICE can do more than excellent multiplayer war titles. Mirror’s Edge was frustrating in some parts, and completely illogical at later stages with its “runner’s eye” gimmick of red-hued pipes and ledges. Plus, as I’m not into time trials and all that (except for Mario Kart 64), the lasting appeal really, well, didn’t.

The other day I put Fable II back into my 360′s (very loud) disc tray and found myself enjoying it all over again. This time around I’m trying to propel a fresh character to some undetermined place in the game world to justify purchasing the Knothole Island DLC. Unfortunately, I still don’t think I’ll ever complete the “Dollcatcher” achievement. So annoying.

Next week I look forward to some DSi action, which you’ll be reading about!

Doug:

I’ve been trying to make room for games I really want to play…and that’s gotten me sucked back into the world of soccer, like clockwork.

I’ve started Assassin’s Creed and gotten a few hours in. I’m really enjoying the experience – the controls fall to hand really easily, I like what the game’s story is doing so far, and the ambiance is really good. Now to get busy killing people – should be good fun.

Along with Assassin’s Creed, I picked up a game I missed until it was in the bargain bin – Xbox 360 racer Project Gotham Racing 4. I loved multiplayer in PGR2 back on the Xbox, and enjoyed PGR3 well enough when I first got my 360, but I just wasn’t enthused about this most recent title. Racing-game newbies would enjoy it, as it’s very approachable, fast, and fun. The single-player progression is very fair, too. I’ll have more on it as I wind my way through single player.

Lastly, I’ve been pouring more time into FIFA 09. Even more of my life has gone into Be A Pro, and I’ve also picked back up the “regular” manager mode. After comparing a bit with one of my all-time favorites, Winning Eleven 9 on the PS2, I have to crown FIFA 09 as the best soccer game I’ve played – at least, within the context of playing a match. FIFA still gets some of the ancillaries wrong, but the gameplay on the pitch feels oh-so good. Now I just need to justify spending the money to unlock the Ultimate Team add-on mode, which plays like a sports game crossed with a collectible card game…