'Single Player Is Thriving' Says Sony, So When's the Single-Player Sports Modes Renaissance?

[ChaseB]

Patrick Klepek over at Vice posted a story last Monday that showed internal Sony documents detailing...

Written By: Chase Becotte

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[ILLSmak]

When bots have claimed more next gen consoles than people, you know single player is alive and well.


-Smak

[illwill10]

As someone who likes Single Player Sports Modes, the issue I've seen is the approach they have been taking. I haven't played MLB the Show in a long time, so I'm excluding them(though I heard positive things). The problem is that you see 2k, Madden, Fifa focus on basically having an interactive movie. They have issues finding the balance between Story and Substance. Where they try to focus on building around the story, rather than having great substance. So if the story is bad, it sours the whole mode. You don't need that scripted cheesy underdog story lines with B & C list Actors where your actions don't really matter. It's just a waste of resources. For me, all you need is to capture the real life athlete experience of the sport.

My issue with MyCareer is the stories have felt the same with the same approach for the last 4 games and still heavily influenced by Online. Since 2k18, the story lines pretty much only last until you get NBA(outside of occasional cutscenes). With 2k storylines, it's either you're a young phenom heading into league or you're an arrogant underdog. I miss the 2k13 and previous where it was all about substance. The other problem is the Online aspect still heavily affects offline. Outside of story, most of the resources goes to the internet online multiplayer component. Yes, next gen gives you more freedom with your builds. But, I always felt they should separate offline and online. That way, you can have restrictions for competitive balance for online and for offline, they should do what they want. One thing I really dislike is starting off 60 OVR. That is all because they want to entice people to buy VC so that they are competitive day one for Online. I actually preferred Live's The One approach. Where you start off at 70 OVR, and progress fairly quickly. I remember getting to 90 by mainly playing offline Street games.

Madden has done a horrible job in the Single Player mode department. The Interactive Movie approach with Longshot was bad. It was short scripted forced stories with limited gameplay. Face of the Franchise was just scripted stories with no replay value. I rather them go back to the Superstar mode approach. Especially the PS2 era version, that was ideal. You just need depth outside of gameplay. It shouldn't just be practice, play game, interview, sim ahead and repeat. Ps2 era was great. DNA, Combine, interviews, Draft, Drills, Position battles, endorsements, act roles and such

[jrnlgrn]

The resurgence will come when a few things happen.

First and most importantly they need to care about making the best game as well as making money. Until this happens the rebirth of offline/single players sports games will never happen. Offline/Single players is just an after thought at this point. It's not like these companies were on the verge of shutting down prior to the Ultimate team/micro transaction boom. They just found a way to make even more money and pad the portfolios of their investors. That became the priority not making a innovative quality game. They could go back to Franchise/Career Modes/Play Now being the only modes and would do just fine it wouldn't be a lucrative but they'd be okay.

Adhering to the yearly release schedule is another issue. This is no longer necessary. It made sense prior to internet connected consoles. The only way rosters, logos, bugs features could be added were with a new game. That's no longer the case we can get roster updates, game modes and bug fixes in a patch. There's a reason Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, The Last of Us and similar titles get so much praise. The time was put in on the front side and the end product is solid. We buy sports titles and we're often lucky if the game is even playable at launch. The level of care just isn't there from the beginning they know they can just fall back on "it's coming in next years title we ran out of time." I'm really hoping PES '22 is amazing and that hopefully that inspires publishers to go to at least an every other year model with these sports titles. The dev cycle is way to short to implement user feedback and fix issues.

The offline story modes are too structured. IMO there doesn't need to be an actual story. I don't need actors or made up drama. That's cool but very limiting. The bones of the mode are good it's the extra stuff. If you want to take a football player from HS to the the NFL Hall of Fame cool. Create your HS player, your performance dictates which college chooses you, if your a star or a "longshot", where and if you get drafted, are you a star in the NFL or a backup that depends on performance. It should be random every time and based on actually play, not created scenarios. Maybe your first playthrough you never get drafted "game over" another play through you end up as a 10 year NFL veteran. Same applies for FIFA, 2K etc. The users imagination will always be more ambitious and capable than a set story. Read the franchise/career threads of any of these sports titles here on OS and you'll see some amazing depth and backstories EA/2K could only hope to achieve.

It'd be nice if this internal memo trickled down to sports titles but unless there is a ban on these lootbox microtransaction modes it's going to be a long tough road ahead. We can dream though.