It is one of most exciting times in most professional North American pro sports, the Off-Season. This time comes once a year, and as a fan, you may be hurting or overzealous with joy. A whole slew of things can happen during the Off-Season, athletes come to the end of their contracts and can choose to sign with other teams, coaches get fired (or hired), trades happen, and most importantly, the drafting of young and upcoming super stars. You may be wondering, what does this have to do with gaming? Well as a sports fan myself, this is the time my sports games get the most play time. All the excitement surrounding the sports world during this time has me missing my favourite team compete for glory, so I pick up my copy of NHL 16, create my fantasy team, and start on my own road for the Stanley Cup.
Most sports games come out on a yearly basis, and the reigning champion of this genre is of course EA Sports. EA has put out a NHL, FIFA and NFL game every year right before the sports season kicks off. I am going to take you back a few years and briefly look at what I think has been major changes the sports genre has gone through with the four major associations: NHL, NBA, NFL, and FIFA. The last major innovation EA had with an NHL game was the introduction to the Skill Stick which gave total control of the skater’s feet and hands using both joysticks on the game-pad, this was back in 2006. Here is the tutorial from NHL 07 in case you forgot:
The same year Madden 06 introduced something similar called Truth Stick, this allowed offensive players to lower the shoulder so they can break or avoid a tackle. The FIFA title had a much bigger change in 2006, the developers changed more than half the game’s code, along with the games engine and increased the control of play. As for the NBA Live titles, EA tried to do the same thing and give the series a new look by calling it NBA Elite. The game did not fare well with the public and it was cancelled. EA did not develop another NBA game until 2014, and if you ask any NBA fans, the developers at 2K do it better with the 2K series.
In 2014 a new batch of sports games began arriving on next-gen console using a new engine called Ignite, this was a huge deal. Personally, NHL is my favourite of the EA titles, and I was completely disappointed with its next-gen debut: NHL 15. It was as if the developers made this game bad on purpose by stripping it of everything that made it great just so they could start adding past features to future game releases, but, it sure did look beautiful. Since then, they have brought back many fan favourite modes and features and keep adding new things each year, like Playoff Beards, really? Playoff beards are a feature now? FIFA 15, however went through another major change on next gen-consoles. As mentioned above, the Ignite engine was developed which allowed for a variety of graphical enhancements from Shifting Weather to True Player Motion. NBA Live 14 was the first NBA title EA developed since NBA Live 10 and it was terrible. Using the same Ignite engine as the other major sports titles, the game did not look very next-gen especially next to its rival in the 2K series. If you ask me EA lost their fan base with this one, but that’s okay, they still have every other sport covered. Madden, released in the same year, used the same engine and also went through a graphical make-over as the series’ 25th anniversary. This title included major changes to real-time physics, reactive environments, and player tracking for improved path collisions and impacts, this one fared much better with its fan-base.
As you can see, the sports genre has gone through some pretty serious changes. Now let’s look to the future. We are just a few months away from the release of this year’s season of sports games and in my opinion there is very little to look forward too. NHL 17 has added a few new game modes like the World Cup of Hockey, Franchise Mode and added a couple new touches to Fan Favourite game modes, for example an Arena Creator and a Team Editor. It does not sound like anything groundbreaking is going to be introduced which leaves the consumer very little to look forward too. It looks like FIFA 17 will move on to another engine this year called Frostbite. Sound familiar? That’s the same engine Battlefield 4 uses. They are also adding new physical play and a new A.I. system.
One of the industry’s leading game engines, Frostbite delivers authentic, true-to-life action, takes players to new football worlds, and introduces fans to characters full of depth and emotion in FIFA 17
Madden 17 adds similar features including a new Ball Carrier UI which will help teach available moves, and Pass Assist which will assist in navigating down the field. Madden 17 will also add a new presentation providing the feel of a live NFL broadcast with new camera angles, sounds and augmented UI. Madden will also use the Frostbite engine, looks like NHL missed the boat. The only game missing from this year’s release will be NBA LIVE 17, the game will not release until early 2017.
Every year, as players we are treated to some kind of mechanical improvement, A.I. enchantment, environmental change, game mode additions. Yes, these are all much needed and make a better game but most other game developers add these types of improvements in a patch or download add-on. As a player of this genre, I’m starting to wonder how I can justify paying full price every year for a new sports title, many with little innovation. Sure, we get a couple of new game modes with each annual title, but maybe these can be implemented as a type of DLC, would it be so horrible to drop the date in the title and release these games once every few years with major improvements? I fear that the sports genre will become saturated and stale with yearly releases, fans may not look forward to their favourite sports game anymore. Perhaps I’m asking too much? This genre has been around for more than 2 decades; how much more innovative can they get? The developers better think of something if I am to invest each year.
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