Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

[EmbraceThePace]

I’ve been thinking about this lately and am curious to see if anyone else has the same feelings as me.

I’ve always been a diehard sports fan. I’ve watched and played sports for basically my whole life. Because of this, I naturally gravitated toward sports video games. As a kid, I always had a blast playing the CPU in Madden, NCAA, 2K, The Show, etc.

However, as I’ve gotten older, the offline experience in these games just doesn’t do it for me anymore. No matter how many features they add to offline modes or how many positive changes they make to gameplay, I’m always left feeling like it’s just not realistic enough.

One example is that franchise modes rarely present a realistic challenge. It’s far too easy to build a championship contender without restricting yourself with loads of house rules.

I think the main reason offline modes aren’t fun to me anymore is how the CPU opponents play. I feel like I’m perpetually stuck in a state of the game being too easy or too cheesy. Sliders can help with this, but only to a certain extent. You can also drive yourself crazy searching for that “perfect” slider set that doesn’t exist.

The thing is, sports are competitive. When I’m playing a sports video game, I want it to be competitive. I want it to feel like real sports. Unfortunately, I don’t get that feeling with any sports games aside from maybe MLB The Show. Everything else feels like you have to change how you play and restrict yourself in an effort to give the CPU a chance.

I guess at the end of the day, it depends on what you want to get out of sports games. Some people are fine restricting themselves to try and recreate what we see in real life. Some people want a more competitive experience. I guess I want both, but I don’t think I can get the latter out of offline gameplay.


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[Drty_Windshield]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

So I'm just curious... What roster, slider set , pitch speed slider, difficulty do you use? I can assure you that the game can be made so hard it's not even fun to play.

[KnightTemplar]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

Just shows the differences of outcomes. I love the challenge the game gives me. Some can’t have success unless they play on rookie mode, some don’t get a challenge on legend. Not sure it’s the games fault. I decided this year to not even touch the sliders......best games ever. The frustration of bad management moves by me, the excitement of a 9th inning rally for the win, etc., etc.All there for me.

[kehlis]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

Okay, I can see you posted this in multiple forums. If you want to talk about sports games in general. This is the forum to do so in. We don't need the same thread in multiple places.

[AstrosAllDay85]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

I mean this is sorta crazy to me...... there’s no sports game I play that is “too easy or too cheesy” I find the second from the most difficult setting in all games to be the sweet spot (with sliders of course) and have a blast with 2K and The Show (only games I play) I think you’re overthinking it to a degree and are outgrowing the hobby (seems u may be looking for reasons to quit) just my opinion though


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[Caulfield]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

different strokes , different folks . hopefully there will always be online and offline .

Online play will never provide the experience I want out of games . at the same time I still believe offline can get better by offering differing cpu management to go with differing skill levels of those cpu teams .

[RyanFitzmagic]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

OP: Have you played NBA 2K20? I'm one of the most picky offline players around, and I'm looking for pretty much the exact same thing you are (a fun, realistic challenge), but even I can't really find anything wrong with 2K20. The only issue I'm having is Anthony Davis not getting double-teamed when he should, but so far, it seems like I'm literally the only one who's experiencing this.

Give 2K20 a chance. It's easily the best offline basketball video game experience ever.

[KSUowls]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

I want realism, but imo realism also inherently implies a challenge, because in real life sports are a challenge. That's something that is very hard to replicate in an offline sports game though for a myriad of reasons (not the least of which is variation of skill). Also, for those of us who are a little older and have been playing sports games for 10-20 years I think we end up scrutinizing those problems a bit more because we have sunk so much time over the years into gameplay/features that often have recurring flaws/cheese or new ones any time an old one is fixed. It doesn't help either the industry has moved into a "games as a service" model where companies are encouraged to allocate the majority of the resources on aspects of the game that can generate revenue beyond the point of sale. Unfortunately these other areas of focus rarely align with their "offline" counterparts which only further exasperates the problem.

Personally, I don't play sports games online because even though they may offer a more competitive experience, they don't offer a realistic representation of the sport I'm playing.

[l3ulvl]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

I can't play online, everyone is better than me, I can't even play phone apps anymore, I just suck, it's frustrating to play Solitaire Cube and lose 3,985 to 3,981.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

Have you tried management sims like OOTP?

[NYJets]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

Hmm as far as the franchise stuff, I don't find it that difficult to create house rules for myself. In 2k its pretty much just don't make any trades that rip off the cpu, if i do that it seems realistic.

And I've found that 2k and the show both consistently give a challenge and are realistic. Madden and NCAA when it was around was a little tougher to get a challenge that felt realistic. But to me that's an AI thing not a single player vs. multi player thing.

FIFA and NHL I've only really enjoyed online but I'm also only a casual fan of both sports.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

I played in NCAA Football leagues non-stop all the way back to the PS2 days. Obviously that died when they stopped making the game. I've still never filled that gaming void. I was in a pretty competitive league, and was really good at the game. Never could get into Madden, and it doesn't help that Franchise mode is awful and EA sucks.

[slickdtc]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

I used to kill myself trying to get the perfect game with sliders, somewhere along the line I realized the games or myself was just too limited to give you the 100% real experience every single game. I changed my perspective and wanted to just produce relatively realistic statistics, with some concessions (I’ll never collect all the BB’s they do in the Majors...).

I’ve had so much more fun since then. Blazed through multiple seasons in NHL, MLB, and NFL games, playing an iteration of a game for years on end.

Also, there’s some psychological phenomena where if you lose it couldn’t possibly have been because you were beat, but the CPU cheated you in some way. I still get frustrated, but it’s rare. Now I just chalk up the L. I do like to have a consistently competitive team (make playoffs), but I don’t win the championship every year (or at all, often). Chasing a ring gives me a reason to keep playing.

I have never had a good time playing sports game online. It’s too cut throat, win by any means necessary. Who could exploit the weaknesses in the game the most. The closet I’ve gotten to a fun multiplayer experience is local multiplayer on FIFA. But that was when I was younger.

[mgoblue]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

I used to kill myself trying to get the perfect game with sliders, somewhere along the line I realized the games or myself was just too limited to give you the 100% real experience every single game. I changed my perspective and wanted to just produce relatively realistic statistics, with some concessions (I’ll never collect all the BB’s they do in the Majors...).

I’ve had so much more fun since then. Blazed through multiple seasons in NHL, MLB, and NFL games, playing an iteration of a game for years on end.

Also, there’s some psychological phenomena where if you lose it couldn’t possibly have been because you were beat, but the CPU cheated you in some way. I still get frustrated, but it’s rare. Now I just chalk up the L. I do like to have a consistently competitive team (make playoffs), but I don’t win the championship every year (or at all, often). Chasing a ring gives me a reason to keep playing.

I have never had a good time playing sports game online. It’s too cut throat, win by any means necessary. Who could exploit the weaknesses in the game the most. The closet I’ve gotten to a fun multiplayer experience is local multiplayer on FIFA. But that was when I was younger.

I think I agree with all this. I also greatly miss the NCAA Football Dynasty mode. Online gaming just feels cheap or people aren't at all realistic and isn't fun.

[Caulfield]

Re: Offline play will never provide the true experience I want out of sports games.

ya know, I can actually see offline far surpassing any online experience vs. Random Stranger. instead of the boys getting together for poker night once a week, you get 5 or 6 of your closest friends, couple or 3 tv's and PlayStations, then roun-robin tourney for cash would beat hell out of online IMO