What is that, a breathe of fresh air here at OS? Amen to you. The epedemic is so bad over here that it has almost become commonplace to make fun of folks who dont play "simulation style ball" In one of my blogs, I got killed for merly suggesting that NBA Live 10 with a roster update is a worhwhile purchase and MIGHT even be more fun to play than 2k11. That was AFTER conceeding, several times, that 2k11 was the much better all around game.

It kind of feels like an Elitest club over here sometimes. My guess is that the folks who started this probably wanted it to be a place for ALL sports gamers but it definently has a certain vibe.

Oh well, off to play NBA Jam!

Madden is a good head-to-head game.

It's just the offline modes and the games against the CPU that are lacking.

Play against the CPU all the time and the game is tons of fun.....I like it better than NCAA. Offline modes....The game has draft, trades, and FA pickups in franchise mode....that is all most people need. Most people don't want to game plan and analyze for hours just to play one game or a franchise mode with EVERY rule in the CBA.

I personally do not have too many AI issues with Madden. With a few adjustments with the sliders I can get gameplay to a level I'm pretty happy with. My biggest gripe is the lack of depth within the franchise mode & the repetitive presentation.

Madden has just become soulless, IMO. Years ago it was the game that my friends and I played the most, and talked about the most. Now, no one even mentions Madden in our conversations.

Other sports games have raised my expectations and made me realize that Madden, NCAA and Backbreaker are not worth the time or money anymore. And even though my friends and I are talking more football than ever, we don't play football video games anymore - we play FIFA.

Blame Advertisers for setting expectations and giving the appearance that games are something that they are not. For example, cheeseburgers advertised are not the same in the restaurant. If developers tell us that this game has pros and cons, we know what to expect instead of constantly BSing us. So I don't agree that you can solely blame gamers. However, I agree that gaming is intended to be enjoyable.

good write-up,but you know Os'ers are not trying to hear what they are reading. T want sports ame to be as real as life as possible.

I agree. Games are meant to be fun, and perhaps also learning tools for children about some aspects of life. (as in games in general, not video games)

But this is a forum where the hard core can discuss their passion for all things sport video game related. Can't really have a go at them for that.

But then again, real people lost real life jobs partly (and only partly) because gamers take their pretend NBA games so seriously.

But then again, this is not just limited to sports video gaming. Generally we take video games too seriously across the board. Go over to Bungie.net and read about how seriously Halo fans take their game.

Games are a big, big money making machine that we are all hopelessly addicted to. But hey, it's fun.

I wonder if Morgan Spurlock will do a doco on the addiction of video games just like he did for fast food with Supersize Me.

Whoa, got way too serious there. :P

TLR version...

Nothin' wrong with talking about your passion for video games, just try and keep it in perspective.

@grunt -- So you absolutely hated Tecmo Bowl and almost all the sports games prior to the past few years as well right?

See that is the real issue here. When people detract from Madden on here, on youtube and soforth, they always say its not real football, it doesnt play like real football etc. It follows football rules (for the most part), it has an NFL license and all the stadiums and players so what are we REALLY talking about here. We are talking about SOME animations that need to be cleaned up, we are talking about better physics (which I would argue is part of animation).

What has happened to Madden is that Madden gamers have gotten swept up in youtube videos and act like the guys who make those videos are relaying the gospel.

The most ironic part is that those guys will endorse other football games that are no where near as realistic on the whole as Madden and people by into it like those are the greatest games on earth.

I can understand that...we're all striving for a perfect simulation of a real-life game, but that's never going to happen...so we might as well just strive for fun. Unfortunately for me, I'm such a stickler for realism that I can't really find enjoyment in a game like Madden. I'm a supporter of the physics based games, just because of that added realism. That whole concept just needs to be refined.

That's why you need two NFL games. Madden is great for people who want a fun and loose game that you play head-to-head (or online). But there needs to be an outlet for simulation football aficionados, and Madden just flat-out does not satisfy that. You can obviously understand our frustration, when Madden is the only game in town for NFL football.

Yea, I remember being toasted a bit for liking Elite 11 over 2K11 BECAUSE IT WAS MORE FUN to me because the controls connected me to the game of basketball more than 2K11's controls.

I also remember how people were losing their minds going ga-ga playing the Tecmo Bowl rehash yet trashing Madden 11. When a TON people felt that Tecmo Bowl was more fun (personally, I had no desire to revisit that franchise outside of a demo which never came to the PSN), it was all good, but don't say that you preferred Madden 11 to it *smh*

What's fun is, of course, a subjective thing. For some people, pretty graphics affects their idea of fun, for others, great gameplay, and yada and then there are the biases, but I, for one, find NCAA 11 more fun that Madden 11 yet, after my initial disappointment with Madden 11, I got more into it and it became fun, over time. Now I really don't play either but that's besides the point.

Personally, I don't get bogged down into too much outside of gameplay/controls even though I'd prefer the major aspects to be even yet sometimes, gameplay and/or controls will take me over. Another case in point, John Daley's Golf demo. The little bit I played of the ugly looking game was hella fun and in some ways, namely gameplay, I like it better than TW11 and the gameplay made it more fun for me.

The point is fun is what you believe it is...and, yes, I see how people on this site let their desire for "more realism", whatever they believe that to be, dictate what they find fun.

I loved Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo Throwback tho isn't as fun. I loved Madden on ps2 from 2002-2008, but Madden now isn't as fun. Forget all the issues, the game is just played out. After a decade of Madden, I can beat the cpu on any level in my sleep and find myself losing interst by halftime even in head to head matches.

Kudos to those that enjoy Madden or Tecmo Throwback, or 2k5 for that matter, but I'm ready for something completely new.