sell it to me, FOF2K7 vs FOF2004
 

this has probably been asked a million times but I went back through the last 15 pages of threads, back to Novermber 2006, and couldn't really find what I wanted.

With the NFL season underway I'm getting the itch to get back to playing some FOF, after almost two years out of it. I reainstalled FOF2004 on my new PC last night after seeing that Yabanci had released a new player file for it (as well as for 2k7 obviously) and I'd be about to start a career tonight.

My playing with it would strictly be single player and here's my question to you: What's the main reason why I should upgrade to 2K7, based on the fact that I would be playing only single player? In other word, sell it to me...

I have read about the coaches actually doing a much better job at adjusting the gameplans/depth charts and that would probably be the biggest point, but are there other points I should know about and that could entice me to buying the new version?

If you remember a thread about the same question, feel free to link to it.

Thanks in advance.

FM

Better record keeping/stats.

For me the the game does a much better job of managing my roster during the season, less micromanaging for me. There is also more game-planning options than I remember in 2k4 if you want to get into that.

CPU trading draft picks for draft picks was a -huge- improvement to me and made the draft a -lot- more enjoyable.

by better, you mean more and more stats and records are kept, as in more diversified?

From what little I've seen of the demo of 2007, it appeared to be more stats...

FM

yeah, that's what I'd read in a thread by SkyDog I think. I want to play more of a GM role and see how the team goes in a long term career, more than gameplan from week to week.

FM

do you mean the AI will offer you trades of pick for pick, or that it will trade from CPU to CPU?

From what I remember, I almost never initiated a trade for fear of taking advantage of the AI. Has the AI gotten better overall in trading?

FM

correct - a wider variety of statistics and records are recorded and maintained - additionally there is a much richer injury, award and transactional history kept for each player...

team statistics and records are also much greater in number and scope...

If you love stats, FOF2k7 is fairly close to perfect...

cool, thanks for the info. :)

FM

As you said you prefer to play as GM only, you will like 2k7. I find the gameplans more limited and harder to setup than in 2k4, but if you click on recommend, the AI does a pretty good job, way better than in 2k4 and more adapted to your players.

Forgot to say, the draft is way more challenging, with no current/future ratings for draftees until the draft is over, the booms/busts seems more random now too and you can't detect them as fast, as the booms/bust take more time to be noticeable by the scouts (the green/red bars).

And if you don't feel like going through the whole game plan screen and spending the time to hit "recommend" each week, you can also just turn the option on to have the computer "automatically" cake over.

-Reip

That's what I remember reading in that thread by SkyDog and yeah, it would be pretty be for the way I like playing FOF. To build a team (either by draft or F/A signing) and turn it over to my coaches to use as efficiently as possible would be the way I'd want to play it. Glad to be reading there was improvement in that part...


hrm, I thought the red/green bars in the draft were already gone in FOF2004 and replaced by some grey bar that was wider or narrower depending on your scout's level of knowledge at the position. Is that what you mean by that or was there some more changes made to the draft?

Thanks for your input.

FM

yeah, that's always been there, but to hear that I can trust it more on its own is good to hear. Thanks for the input.

FM

CPU to CPU.


Overall better at trading, I'd say. I use the draft value chart as a general guideline, but a lot of cases you still have to overpay.

Sorry if i confused you, it's still blue and grey for the draft but you can't see current/future numbers until he is in your team. In 2k7 you can also interview the guy, and doing it, his bars become grey/orange and the scouting error is lower.

What meant with my comments in the post before, is that in FOF2k4, once the guy was in your team, you saw immediately if he was a bust or boom as you could see his green/red bars and current/future numbers with a low scouting error.

In 2k7, the scouting error is huge, so a new draftee can look like 25/35 when he joins your team, the next year become 35/45, the next 45/60 and the next a real 75/75 monster.

In 2k4 you would see him like at 25/75 as soon as he joined your team most of the times and then every year, his current would increase without much variance in his future.

Umm trying to make sense with what i type, but i recommend you reading this example by Skydog and you will understand what i say way better:

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=59610

don't waste your money

I'll echo what others have said, 2k7 is much better if you want to play as GM and let the coaches do their jobs.

interesting stuff. I'd read about the interviewing thing but didn't really know what it did, interesting too...

FM

hrm, okay, and what do you think 2007 is lacking in improvement to not make it worth it for me to upgrade?

Thrown out like that, that's kind of a blanket statement...

FM

dola, the same way a "buy it, get it, you'll love it!!!!!!" post would have meant nothing to me either...

FM

Get it for the improved draft, stats, and AI gameplanning (and to some extent gameplay is more accurate but still not perfect). I think that's the main selling points.

thanks for the info. Silly question, what do you mean by "gameplay is more accurate"?

FM

The main thing for me is that the AI is much better at keeping its top players together, and gameplanning properly based on their personnel. They have more diverse gameplans.

The team that wins the Super Bowl is no longer the team who signed a bunch of really good players for 1 year contracts during training camp.

You just see a lot less of the goofy stuff. Like you no longer see 75% of interceptions returned for TDs. Timeout calls are better. Plays called make more sense at certain points in the game.

Now, I'm not saying you still don't see some goofy stuff, you will, but it has been minimized from prior versions.

To echo what Front Office Midget said, the teams seem better at keeping decent players. You can't go out and routinely sign several players rated 50+ anymore during the FA period every year... or at least as often as you could in previous versions.

Maybe it's just me, but I find the game a lot harder, particularly if you start out with a bad team.

If you like geeking around, you can try to put some players on diets or on bulking up programs prior to training camp, and even intervew 60 draft picks to get a better scouting look at them prior the draft.

Overall, it's just a more fun game.

Thanks for your input guys. After starting a new career with FOF2004 and fooling around with it for a couple of days, mostly getting reacquainted with the interface, I decided to buy 2007 last night. :)

Felt weird at first, since I'd played 2004 and previous versions a whole lot but had play FM almostly exclusively since for the last couple few years. Like I saw screens and had flashbacks of what I use to do routinely, where I used to check and such. I already like the depth chart buttons at the bottom of the roster screen very much...

FM