The good ol' days VS. NCAA 06

[lav]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bill_Abner

Oh, lemme tell ya... In Jr. high my best friend and I created an entire college football schedules with the 40 teams that were in 4th and Inches the college edition. We created our own top 20 polls, etc. We also created every NBA team for TV Sports Basketball and kept season stats by hand. As for realism, those games were fun not because of authenticity but because I was playing with friends. Even when I was 13 I thought 4th and inches had its silly aspects (half the plays never worked). The fun was playing with my freinds, not neccesssarily from the games themselves. Playing those games solo were fun, for a while. I'd just as soon go outside and play at that age rather than play a solo game of 4th and Inches. With friends over, though, it was a different story. Just speaking from pesonal experience and opinion with this kind of thing, those games of yesteryear were fun because they were a social magnents. I recall in 1994 when my college roomates and I played multiple seasons of FPS: Football. We created fictional teams, printed draft reports, created custom uniforms, the works. That was the first game that great graphics (for its day) with shockingly realistic gameplay (for its day). There are still features from that decade old game that many of today's games don't have, speaking strictly from a design standpoint. Voicing frustrations with games is part of the deal, though. As gaming becomes a more mature medium, and it's still in its infancy in many respects, the expectations are going to go up. And they should. Games today are not like they were back in the Tecmo days, when budgets were tiny and the corporate empires didn't rule the landscape. The number of big publishers is shrinking every year. I'm also no longer 13. I'm 33. If I were a kid today I'd be in gaming hog heaven, no doubt about it. When a 15 year old reads a review of mine and tells me I'm an idiot for not liking (for usually not LOVING!!) Game X I understand where he's coming from. If an old man told me when I was a kid that 4th and Inches was lame I'd have completely ignored him. Back in 1986 there weren't too many 30+ year old guys playing TV Sports Basketball. (I assume). As the hobby grows, the gamers that were kids when the industry first started are going to grow into adult gamers and they'll demand a more adult games. Nothing wrong with that. As the technolgy improves, demands go up. With sports games this is compounded by the fact that publishers insist on selling a "new" game every 11 months, marketing it as a vastly improved version of the same game, so that those who bought it last year will have to buy it again or fear that they've missed out. We gamers are no self control over such things. Myself included. Can you imagine this happening in other genres? If every year Blizzard ships a new WarCraft game with a few new races, slightly improved graphics, and some gameplay tweaks, but using the same basic game engine and charge gamers $50 for it. Strategy gamers would throw a fit. High expectations are important. This is a billion dollar industry today. The days of 3 guys designing and programming a high profile big budget sports game are long, long gone. If Madden 2020 comes out and allows us to step into that Virtual Reality suit and play the game, the AI better punt the damn ball on 4th and 13 on the 39 yard line in a tie game in the first quarter or this soon to be 48 year old gamer is gonna be ticked.

Well put. I'm glad you brought up 4th and inches. I had completely forgotten about that game.

I agree that game player input has helped fine tune the games we enjoy. Before I made my initial post I had read a number of "I hate this game...it's unplayable" threads. I felt the need to explain why I enjoy the game.

I hope I didn't come across as though I was bashing those who dislike the game. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I know it's not all younger gamers who speak their disgust with the game. In fact I share some of the same dislikes as many of the people who express them on these boards.

So, how is everyone taking the things they dislike about the game and making it more enjoyable? For instance, I (like many others) find defending the run becomes too easy once you get used to the game. What I've done to help that is I choose one player on defense and stick with them until the play is over. The CPU definitely racks up more yards against me this way.

[mudd]

im 33 and my friends and i use to make schedules and keep stats for 2-3 different teams we coached while playing ELECTRIC "FREAKIN" FOOTBALL... ahh the hum of the board brings back memories...

[UMDDogs]

Baseball Stars was and still is the greatest baseball game ever created

[lav]

Quote: Originally Posted by mudd

im 33 and my friends and i use to make schedules and keep stats for 2-3 different teams we coached while playing ELECTRIC "FREAKIN" FOOTBALL... ahh the hum of the board brings back memories...

Wow, Electronic Football...you, my friend, are a die-hard gamer. I had that game. I even ordered the AFC Central figures to go with it.

I also, and this was by myself since my friends wouldn't get into the game, woud keep stats/records/etc. for "Strat-o-matic" football. I think that's what it was called. You had cards representing each player, you'd make play calls, roll dice, etc. I really enjoyed that game...but it took FOREVER to play a single game.

[lav]

Quote: Originally Posted by UMDDogs

Baseball Stars was and still is the greatest baseball game ever created

Yes, that was the best baseball game. Nothing like playing the "Lovely Ladies" 20+ times to rack up a huge budget.

[Alliball]

Quote: Originally Posted by UMDDogs

Baseball Stars was and still is the greatest baseball game ever created

Give this man a cigar, because I couldn't agree more.

[mudd]

i still have my raiders and giants team... and will be buying a board and some more teams soon...
check this out... http://www.miggle.com/

Quote: Originally Posted by lav

Wow, Electronic Football...you, my friend, are a die-hard gamer. I had that game. I even ordered the AFC Central figures to go with it. I also, and this was by myself since my friends wouldn't get into the game, woud keep stats/records/etc. for "Strat-o-matic" football. I think that's what it was called. You had cards representing each player, you'd make play calls, roll dice, etc. I really enjoyed that game...but it took FOREVER to play a single game.

[lav]

Quote: Originally Posted by mudd

i still have my raiders and giants team... and will be buying a board and some more teams soon... check this out... http://www.miggle.com/

That's awesome!!! I may need to check into getting a board and giving it another shot. My wife's gonna kill me...actually, she's cool about stuff like this. It never cease's to amaze her how I can be a school teacher/administrator, assistant coach college baseball, and find time to spend in front of a TV so many hours a week...I don't know how I'll squeeze electronic football into my schedule, but I think it's worth a shot. I wonder what ebay has along the lines of elect. football??????????????????????