The Official Next-Gen (post PSX) Sports Games Thread

Pretty obvious that sports games, especially modern sports games, don't get a lot of love on this board, so what the heck....talk about any sports game, starting from Dreamcast till present!

I used to swear off sports games completely, but now that I'm getting old and creaky and can't play em outside like I used to (damn I sound like a codger don't I?) I'm getting a major sports fix from recent consoles.

Here are some personal highlights:

1) Virtua Tennis (DC). I saw the first movies on IGN, and knew it would be a classic. The extra costumes and rackets were brilliant, and some of the minigames are super-hard - in fact, I've never been able to get all strikes on the serving bowling game. Reigned supreme at my house for four-player action, until.....

2) Tennis 2K2 (DC). Took everything good about VT and made it better and deeper. I prefer VT's world mode (I don't like training a player, myself) and VT's no-name players (I love you, Singh!), but having women was a plus, as was the slower, more strategic gameplay and huge number of courts. IMO, Best Multiplayer Game Ever. Me & some buddies have gotten together every week since this game's release.

3) World Series Baseball 2K2 (DC). OK, so it's flawed, and not exactly a sim, but DAMN IT'S FUN. I've put so many hours into this game it's pathetic. The only downside is the catchup AI, and the occasional ridiculous score (I once won a game 46-22). Also great multiplayer fun. I've played a little of the new Xbox version, and it does everything better.

4) Hot Shots Golf 3 (PS2). I HATE golf, but this game is taking up a lot of my hours lately. I'm almost done with it, in fact. Gorgeous to look at, easy to pick up, but incredibly deep. OK, the characters are a little goofy, but so what?

I'm highly anticipating Beach Spikers on the Gamecube - looks like an upgraded, different take on Virtua Tennis.

If anyone could post me some impressions of NBA Street, I'd appreciate it. How similar is it to NBA Jam (which was too goofy for my taste)? I dig Sega's NBA 2K line, but it's a little to simmy for me, too.

I would also LOVE someone's take on Soccer Slam!! Is it as much fun as it looks, especially multiplayer?????

I also think this will be the first year NFL 2K outsells Madden across all systems. Sports games will be huge once everyone gets their online acts together, that's for sure!

Well.... I don't play sports games too much, so I can only offer this:

If anybody wants to see an almost exact replica of what I looked like 4 years ago (when I had a lower hairline :D) create a male player in Tennis 2K2 using face 1 with the lightest skin and hair 13 using the darkest hair. Make him 5' 11" 190 lbs. It's almost scary how much that looks like me. :)

Here's my thoughts on NBA Street

First a little background on the game. NBA Street is a 3 on 3 streetball game. Don't compare it to NBA Hoopz, because Street is a completely different beast. What makes it different you ask? It's the innovative and fresh trick system that not only makes you win, but win with style. And that is what NBA Street is all about. Crazy crossovers, high-flying jams, and insane alley oops.

Features
3 on 3 streetball
Intense 2 player head to head action
Silky smooth gameplay
Build your own Baller and improve his skills by winning games and getting lots of trick points.
Innovative new trick system that encourages you to win with style
A new court in DC called ''The Paint''
All the NBA Teams
Updated Rosters as of January 4, 2002
Better graphics than its PS2 cousin
A large collection of streetball ledgends to add to your squad.
Tons of cheat codes that can be easily accessed at any time

Graphics- The graphics in NBA Street are much improved over the PS2 version. Gone is the slowdown that occurred every now and then, and broke up gameplay. Facial animations are also improved, as players now react using both their bodies and face. Animations are now a lot smoother than they were in the PS2 version and the transition from trick animation to trick animation doesn't look as tacky as it did before. Another thing I noticed that was improved was the shadows and lighting. The lighting on the courts looked a lot better and you could see the shadows of the players streaked across the court when it was sunny. My only complaint is that I felt like the game could've taken a little more advantage of the GC hardware. The players themselves look no where near as good as the ones in NBA Courtside 2002.
Overall- 9/10

Sound- EA did an excellent job in the first game with the sound, and the same applies to the GC version. Announcer Joe The Show calls the action, and helps add to the urban ''vibe'' you get from watching the game in action. His comments are varied, and he doesn't repeat himself to often. The music is pretty good, and fits the mood of the game well. There arent any lyrics to the songs, but I think that is a good thing, because that would have just got in the way of hearing Joe The Show. Another thing I really liked is how all the players talk smack to you before, during, and after the game. It makes you really want to leap through the TV and punch some of the more annoying guys(namely Biggs and Drake), and helps add to the intensity of the games. The only thing I dont like is the inclusion of 3LW in the game. But that is just a matter of personal taste. Street does a good job of giving gamers the whole ''Street vibe'' without coming across as forced, or being corny. That is something EA should definitely get commended for.
Overall 10/10

Controls- Having put extensive time into the PS2 version of this game, I thought I would be able to hop right in and enjoy the game.....but little did I know what I was getting into. The controls in NBA Street can best be summed up in one word: awkward. For those of you who played the PS2 version you know that controls were very intuitive, and the buttons were well placed. This is not the case for the GC version. For example, I absolutely hated having to use the Z button as a turbo button. Couldn't they have made it dive or something? As a result of this, it is extremely awkward to perform advanced tricks that require you to press all three turbo buttons plus a trick button. The same goes for advanced dunks. They are way to awkward, and I found myself relying on two turbo dunks way to much. Another problem I have is that they made the B button shoot. This is really stupid to me, seing that shoot is the main goal of basketball so shouldn't this action be mapped to the largest button? Also, when you have to jump to block or shoot my fingers would instinctively press the A button. This also happend to me several times the other way around. When I wanted to inbound the ball I pressed B to pass and before I could do anything about it the ball was in the air and I just bricked a half-court shot whose rebound politely fell into the lap of my oponent. This happened to me several times for the first 20 or so games I played in NBA Street, and it was really a pain. One more gripe is why in the hell do I need two jump buttons on Defense?? B and X are mapped to jump/block when one of them could have been made another turbo button or the dive button. As a result having to double-tap turbo to get a simple dive is really annoying. In the PS2 version, you press one face button and just like that, your man is on the floor scrapping for the ball. You could make a case that these controler woes are Nintendo's fault but I think these problems could have easily been fixed with a custom configuration for the controls. I can think of several alternatives that would work a lot better than the one EA forces you to use. However after having invested about 30+ hours with NBA Street, I am used to the controls, and even though they are very awkward at times, I have adjusted to them, and Im sure others will too. It just shouldn't have been a problem, and it shouldn't take me more than 30 minutes to an hour to get used to the controls of a pick-up-and-play game like NBA Street....as it stands this is just pure laziness on EA's part.
Overall 6/10

Gameplay- Nothing gets the juices flowing like a good competetive game of basketball, and NBA Street makes thing even more interesting by throwing in a few kinks to the usually stale and boring NBA Jam type gameplay. In NBA Street you not only have to win, but you have to look good doing it. Each team has a momentum meter that goes up when you perform tricks, fakeouts, and score points, and goes down when you get blocked, faked-out, or have a shot clock violation. When your momentum meter gets full, you are given a limited amount of time to perform your ''Gamebreaker''. When you make a gamebreker it not only gives you points but takes away points from your opponent. If you make a 1 point shot there is a 2 point net change, and when you make a long range gamebreaker there is a 4 point net change. The gamebreakers are really cool looking and really add a lot to the game in terms of strategy. When your opponent has a gamebreaker you have to decide if you want to try and stall out the clock, or just make a basket and try to get a stop on D. To score the most amount of points you will have to learn the art of the combo. To do combos you simply string together a series of moves within a four second time period. You can combo any of the following: dishes, blocks, dives, fakeouts, long range shots, dunks, alley-oops, hook-ups(Dunk to mid air alley-oop) and steals. Put as many moves in as you can and they will count towards your combo as long as they were all within a 4 second time period (all combos must end with a score except for block combos). In NBA Street you get two-main gameplay modes. Circuit and Hold the Court. In Circuit mode, you travel from court to court taking on NBA teams and streetball ledgends. Each match gets progressively harder, and if you think you will just breeze through this game in a few hours, forget about it. The CPU opponents play smart, and play hard. If you screw up, or start taking bad shots they will make you pay. This is what I love the most about NBA Street. It perfectlly recreates the true basketball experience where every point is crucial. Games in NBA Street are rarely blowouts unless your team is just completely outmatched, or you are playing someone who is new to the game. Each game is intense, and it really draws you into the atomsphere. This is one of the few games that has actually caused me to scream obscenities and flip the bird at my TV/friend(s) because I just lost a close game on some bullshit shot......well you get the idea. The only other games that do this to me are Fighting games, and that is usually because somebody, be it my friend or the CPU, is being a cheap SOB. The other mode of play is Hold the Court. The basic premise here is to win.......and win and win. To unlock extra codes, secret teams, courts, and gear for your created player you need to get a winning streak high enough to beat the record winning streak for that court. This is pretty fun, but you will probablly want to take breaks every now and then, because beating the CPU 9 games in a row on the same court can get a little tedious. HTC also serves as the place where you go to engage in multiplayer matches. And multiplayer is definitely the highlight of NBA Street. Nothing beats throwing down nasty dunks, and viscious blocks on your friend. I just wish they had taken advantage of the 4 controller ports the GC offers because 4 player would be incredible. Also on my wish list is some kind of 2 player co-op mode. It would have been cool to have you and a friend go through the circuit and building up your Created players together. Instead, both of you have to raise up your created player's stats seperately....which really sucks if you both want to have the rosters of your choice complete with streetball legends and NBA Stars. To do that, you would both have to have a copy of the game, and both of you would have to invest lots of time until you beat circuit mode. Then again you could always just have a 3LW vs. 3LW match and see who comes on top (Yes there is a 3LW team). The game also offers a street school mode that serves as a trainig mode.....but it isn't all that helpful. Another thing that I really like is this game's Create a player mode. You start out with a limited amount of skill points, but you can build up your guys skills by getting gobs of trick points in both HTC and Circuit mode. The selection of looks, outfits, shoes, and nicknames are excellent and allow a wide variety of looks for your created player. As a side note, the loading times are much improved over the PS2 version's horrendous load times. You had to wait forever in create a player for the items yo load, and it took a long time to start up a normal game. All that is gone now, and everything loads very fast. Overall though this game is just plain fun. Even cumersome controls cannot keep NBA Street from being the best Streetball game ever made, (NBA Jam deserves nothing more than to shine the shoes of NBA Street) and the best basketball game on the GC (sorry Courtside and NBA2K2 fans it's true).
Overall 9/10

Replay value- Don't worry about this game getting old anytime soon. It will take you a while to beat the circuit, unlock all the cheats, courts, players, and hidden teams. And not to mention the wonderful 2-player mode that will keep you going long after you have unlocked everything. NBA Street is a game well worth the $50.
Overall 10/10

Synopsis- Quite simply, NBA Street is as RVD says: "the whole fucking show". Its fresh, innovative, trick based gameplay is a welcome change of pace to the usually stale arcade basketball genre. Its got some cumbersome controls, but all of NBA Street's good far outways the bad. Unless you already have the PS2 version, go buy it now. And even if you dont usually like sports games, I suggest you at least give it a rent.
Overall rating 9/10

Hmmm...thanks wEEman....I'll give it a rent. The awkward-sounding controls are a little worrying, though. Nice review!

NHL2K2 - best hockey game EVAR!!!!!!