Best Player Mode in All Sports Games?

[Revan30]

Hey all. So I was playing NBA 2k11 today and was thinking about how good of a job they did with their My Player mode this year. I really love my player modes, and I actually really hate basketball--I just play this game because it's got such a great my player mode.

See, the thing is that I really like modes like that--where you just control a player and take him through a sport.

But I've only played a couple: Mlb The Show's Road to the show, NHL 09/10/11 Be a Pro mode, Fifa 11's Be a Pro mode, and Madden 08 for the PC's Superstar Mode.

Of all of the "player modes" in the history of sports games, which game do you guys think has the best one? Things to take into consideration:

1. Actual Gameplay Realism
2. Unique features or cool abilities or lack thereof (for example, in NHL 11 you can't request trades or negotiate deals or ANYTHING like that...)
3. The amount of off-the-camera options (what I mean by this is like, for example, in NBA 2k11, post-game interviews, or if there was a game that involved like your player's life outside of sports, I totally dig that, so if there is a game like that then please let me know).

What do you guys all think? Of all the ones I have played I would definitely have to say that Madden 08's superstar mode was the most enjoyable, depending on the position you played (actually, if you played qb it was good, and everything else sucked :P). There was all this crazy stuff like movie deals and the ability to be on the madden cover, lol. I thought that was hilarious, the ability to have a movie career, and I remember as a younger kid writing down all my lines and taking it really seriously, lol. Also the ability to be sponsored by different companies was really cool. Just be like the spokesperson for all of these different companies. Nba 2k11's is awesome, but there's something about that old school superstar mode that really gets me having a good time.

[Weezer21]

Re: Best Player Mode in All Sports Games?

Yes I don't remember if it was 08 or 09, but one of those Madden games. And the feature(s) that really got me were the ability to come out at the start of the week and guarantee a win, or say you need to work harder. You could build your player's persona and everything. As well you could request trades, and you and your agent were very tightly nit and looking for a contract(s). Like you I loved all the movie role things and everythign like that, gave it a real life feel. In the new games for Madden, NHL, even MLB, it is strictly about the actual gameplay, you don't connect to your character, it's basically play now with position control set to whatever position you are.

[Revan30]

Re: Best Player Mode in All Sports Games?

Yes I don't remember if it was 08 or 09, but one of those Madden games. And the feature(s) that really got me were the ability to come out at the start of the week and guarantee a win, or say you need to work harder. You could build your player's persona and everything. As well you could request trades, and you and your agent were very tightly nit and looking for a contract(s). Like you I loved all the movie role things and everythign like that, gave it a real life feel. In the new games for Madden, NHL, even MLB, it is strictly about the actual gameplay, you don't connect to your character, it's basically play now with position control set to whatever position you are.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. I mean, NBA 2k11 did a pretty good job with their My Player. Things like post-game interviews, sponsorships, and trade requests all affect your player's "standing" from within the league and it gives a very minor look of the off-court action of an NBA player. But old-school Madden's superstar mode was awesomely in-dept when it came to that. I loved how you would start out in a crappy apartment and then end up like in this huge mansion.

MLB the show also does a fairly good job with their my player type game mode. The reason though is because they add a lot of in-game goals to vary the play up. It's not like you said it is, just "play now" mode with position lock. I sort of feel like the NHL series games are like that. MLB the show does a good job because you'll have all sorts of in game goals to make specific plays seem a lot more important and prioritized to your player and team's development.

[NYwRiter94]

Re: Best Player Mode in All Sports Games?

I remember playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 way back on the PS2, and that was the earliest one I could remember. You got to level your guy up by getting points and buying new equipment, and you'd get new sponsorships and everything. It was actually a revolutionary concept, and the fact that it's an individual sport really helps add to the realism.