Posts tagged NCAA 09
The Beginner’s Guide to Sports Games
Jun 23rd
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.
The Backlog: Post-E3 Hangover edition
Jun 8th
Hey there, reader! Long time no see. How’s tricks?
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?
