Help me spend my bonus money

[Butter]

In addition to going to Disney World with my tax refund, I recently got a raise and a bonus. As such, I am allowing myself to buy another text sim that I can play on my newly acquired laptop. I already have Football Manager '07, and I did buy TCY a few years back (but have since uninstalled the game and lost my elicense).

Anyway, I am a huge sports fan, so let's assume for the purposes of this exercise that I like all sports equally.

Which game would you recommend that I buy?

Ideally, I would like to be able to play this game on my own, AND play it in a multiplayer league online (perhaps with some of you fine folks).

Also, if you have any other recommendations for quality strategy-type games that are not graphics-intensive (like Civ IV which my laptop's integrated graphics chip cannot handle), please mention those as well. But mostly, I am looking for sports games here.

Any and all discussion and questions would be helpful to me, as I have no experience with the FOF games. I probably will try the demos of all of these games, but I know that even after that, I will have a hard time narrowing it down to 1 game.

[Butter]

I should explain: "let's assume I like all of the sports listed in the poll equally".

I wouldn't have much interest in a pro basketball or pro hockey sim.

[KevinNU7]

Other: ABC123

[JonInMiddleGA]

Other: Second And Ten (aka SAT)

[JPhillips]

So you got what, a 29.99 bonus?

Buy them all!

[FrogMan]

nice that for a moment, this thread is right above the "Smoking Weed" poll :)

FM

[Butter]

So you got what, a 29.99 bonus?

Buy them all!

:D :p

No, I'm just cheap.

[spleen1015]

I think you will have the most fun with OOTP.

[gstelmack]

You're on an FOF board but haven't played the FOF games? I can't believe there is even a poll here...

[Raiders Army]

This being a FOF board, I'm surprised that FOF isn't getting the nod.

[Ksyrup]

I would say FOF over OOTP, simply because I've never played the other 3 games and if we're talking about right this moment, I can't vouch for OOTP (yet).

[Butter]

You're on an FOF board but haven't played the FOF games? I can't believe there is even a poll here...

I got TCY to start out with, which is how I found this place... and only buy FM on a regular basis. I used to be mostly a console gamer, but now with the laptop, I plan to have a couple of games on there I can have with me wherever I go so I can play a bit here and there.

[Butter]

Other: Second And Ten (aka SAT)

Web site, please? Also, what do you enjoy about that game over FOF?

[MizzouRah]

This being a FOF board, I'm surprised that FOF isn't getting the nod.

Yeah, what's wrong here? Support Solecismic Software!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Web site, please? Also, what do you enjoy about that game over FOF?

http://www.roogames.co.uk/

SAT is a remarkably consistent adapation of the tabletop game First and Ten.
It's a single-season (or season-by-season) replay of every pro football season back to 1950, subsequent seasons since the game was released have been made available free. The game is stable, the results are solid, the support is top-notch, both the PC developer & the original game designer are grade-A folks and easily accessible, they're a text-sim that isn't afraid to be a text-sim (although there's graphic representation of the field/ball marker/down marker/etc & user add-ons that add ambient sound & picture packs for the players) and with the number of seasons, there's more games available to play than most gamers will ever get around to. And that doesn't include anything you can dream up with draft leagues, mix & match, etc.

I am, by nature & practice, a "career gamer" or a "campaign gamer", I'm not a strict replayer. So for me to have spent so much time (more than 100 full seasons with at least all of my own games played one snap at a time) with what is by nature a single-season game says a lot about how strong I think this game is.

There's a 3-day demo available at the dev's site, give it a try when you've got some time, see what you think. It probably isn't everybody's cup of tea, but for me it's been the best PC game money I've spent in years.

[Swaggs]

I just bought BBCF last week and have really been enjoying it. It is the first game that I have played in quite sometime that I have had that "just one more round" feel to it. If you are a big college football fan and into recruiting, I would give it a strong look.

[st.cronin]

If you like TCY, you'll LOVE BBCF.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Other:

A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead.

[Schmidty]

Bowl Bound, no question.

[Emiliano]

I'd say FOF 2007, or BBCF.

[King of New York]

Since I am the only one who voted TCB, I'll make the case for it.

All of other games are really good, but I find that TCB is the complete package for me.

1) TCB vs. BBCF: BBCF is a fun game that I play a lot, but recruiting 12-15 players every season for a college football team is a big job; plus, for some reason, BBCF gets laggy on my machine after I play for an hour or so (maybe it's just my rig, maybe there are memory leaks in the program); plus, the way that team prestige is set up, I find myself getting similar mixes of 1-star, 2-star, and 3-star recruits each year. Because your roster size is smaller in TCB, recruiting is both less time consuming and much more signficant--every spot is crucial, and I find the recruiting to be a bit less predictable. TCB runs flawlessly on my machine.

2) TCB vs FOF2K7: I give the nod to TCB, assuming that you already have 2K4. FOF2K7 is better than 2K4, definitely. But does 2K7 add a whole new type of enjoyment? For me, no. 2k7 takes things that 2k4 did, and does them better--often much better--but aside from Gridiron Greta, there's not much that's stunningly new or unexpected. TCB, because it's about college basketball, will give you a new text sim experience. There are hundreds of colleges out there and lots of different conferences. Each school presents its own challenge. The conference tournaments are intense. For me, that keeps the replay value high.

3) TCB vs. FBCB: Both give you college basketball. Both are well designed. I give the nod to TCB because I don't always do well at it; with FBCB, it seems as though there isn't a team in the country that I cannot get into the NCAA by my fourth season.


4) TCB vs. OOTP: OOTP 2007 sounds great--the high praise from the beta testers carries a lot of weight, and I pre-ordered it. But really, who knows? A bird in the hand...

[lighthousekeeper]

this time of year it's hard to avoid going with the baseball game.

[beargrowlz]

MAXIMUM Football.