A Reason Football is tough to make Sim

[thedudedominick]

I always wonder to myself if football is too complex of a sport to ever be represented in a video game that would please all of us "sim" players. There are so many little details with football, complex offenses and defenses, as well as tons of different gear.

Think about Basketball, Baseball, and even Soccer. Baseball itself doesn't change year to year. You don't have to worry about complete system changes as far as offense and defense go, you just have to make the pitcher/batter interactions true to life as well as the fielding. Going "sim" in all of these areas is much easier to accomplish than it is in a football game.

In Basketball there are only 5 players on the court at a time, basketball offenses generally don't have any major changes and from level to level there isn't a drastic difference in the way the game is played itself.

In soccer there are 11 players on the field, but at any given time there are only a handful of interactions going on at a time.

In football you have 11 players on each team all interacting with each other and responsible for many different things at every second of a play. Each player has so many different responsibilities based on what the other team does it is tough to represent in a video game AI. Hell playing football in real life people have trouble learning schemes and not making mistakes within them.

Then we get to the current gen of consoles and the graphics. We all loved NCAA 06, but the lesser graphics allowed us to look past things that we can no longer look past. The graphics getting better and better lead us to complain about things like facemasks, sock length, small jersey inaccuracies. It also highlights the flaws in individual player interaction. Any little awkward interaction is just exaggerated by us having the enhanced graphics that allow us to see that.

[gator3guy]

I agree its tough but when we had a better simulation of football 10 years ago on a less superior console, that's a problem. The foundation on this gen was just poorly implemented and it has plagued the series for years. They aren't going to take a year off to fix it so we are left with band-aids year after year that hurt other areas of the game. It starts with the players movement. It's just awful and unrealistic.

[siouxredskins]

there will never be sim games. Only sim players

[JerseySuave4]

I don't buy it because there were games on past systems that were able to simulate football more realistically.

I'm not ever expecting a game to be 100% like real life but i do expect the cpu to be able to run the option somewhat effectively, be able to run a screen pass (since they seem to love calling them), not attempt 58 yard FGs, etc.

The biggest thing that would help is the way the players move. It's so unnatural and robotic. From linemen blocking, to running backs running to just about every aspect of player movement. If you get more natural and realistic movement then when you do a running play the RB looks natural running the ball, the line interaction is better and the defenders move more naturally.

The player movement is a big issue IMO.

[thedudedominick]

Quote: Originally Posted by JerseySuave4

I don't buy it because there were games on past systems that were able to simulate football more realistically. I'm not ever expecting a game to be 100% like real life but i do expect the cpu to be able to run the option somewhat effectively, be able to run a screen pass (since they seem to love calling them), not attempt 58 yard FGs, etc.

I'm not saying the past systems were more close to realistic, but then we look at the graphics of those games and it really allowed them to not worry as much about individual interactions and the way things looked.

[huskerwr38]

I know it's probably tough to make a football game. But when you have games that were better on last gen consoles you don't have excuses. People expect better and frankly deserve better especially when these games cost $60 bucks a piece.

[blkrptnt819]

Quote: Originally Posted by gator3guy

I agree its tough but when we had a better simulation of football 10 years ago on a less superior console, that's a problem. The foundation on this gen was just poorly implemented and it has plagued the series for years. They aren't going to take a year off to fix it so we are left with band-aids year after year that hurt other areas of the game. It starts with the players movement. It's just awful and unrealistic.

Have you played those games and compared them to current gen? I think the hips need to move during the running motions and the players need to lean more when they change directions. But this gen has taken steps forward in other areas.

[JerseySuave4]

Quote: Originally Posted by thedudedominick

I'm not saying the past systems were more close to realistic, but then we look at the graphics of those games and it really allowed them to not worry as much about individual interactions and the way things looked.

Problem is the NCAA team. Seriously, think about what they were promoting this year and talking about in the previews we got. Motion blur (which is poorly done) and heisman challenge. They pointed out psychic DBs being gone but instead we have broken zone coverage. They point to better pass trajectories but how about the option/screen game.

People can't get frustrated that others complain about facemasks and uniforms when the NCAA team is touting the USC Song Girls as some big accomplishment (keep in mind it took them 2 weeks to get the USC Song Girls in, think that time couldn't have been better spent on some other visual aspect?).

We're sitting here trying to come up with the excuse that replicated football is too difficult. Perhaps it's too difficult for the current team in place. Just because these guys can't do a good job with it doesn't mean nobody can.