Post by Portland on Dec 2, 2016 16:16:35 GMT
We're all here because we enjoy Fast Break Pro Basketball, in my opinion the best pro basketball computer game ever. Some of us go back a lot of years with it and FBB before that. It has certain annoying quirks, and the developer has disappearances that rival Amelia Earhart, but it does a fantastic job mirroring the challenges that real-life gms face. And it's a very stable program which counts for a lot with me. I don't worry about getting seven years into a dynasty and having the file become corrupt.
So I was interested in hearing from the rest of you, about what other sims you've played and how you rank them. Here's my list in order of how much fun I've gotten out of them over the years:
1. Football Manager: This is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned. There's no workable multiplayer, and you can't play historical teams or players, but year-after-year Sports Interactive puts out this amazing feature-rich game and it always blows me away. This is "start-playing-after dinner and still-playing-at-three a.m." territory. The thing that sets it apart for me is how your players actually take on a personality, more so than in any other sports sim I've played. I have players on my team that I'm fiercely devoted to and seeing one carted off the pitch with a torn knee ligament will cause me actual suffering, right there in my den; I have players i detest, smart-asses that I have to keep around because they win matches for me; I have ambitious players I intentionally trade to better clubs so they can advance their careers; I have players I loan to the most dead-end club I can find to stop hearing their damn whining; I know which ones I have to butter up constantly or stay away from entirely. When my dour center-mid identifies me as one of his favorite people in football I feel silly, actual pride over it. Other sims are trying to go down this 'player personality' path but they're light years behind FM.
2. Out of the Park Baseball: I grew up with an intense love of baseball, above all other sports. Over the years I've come care so little for the real game that I rarely watch it; none of my dozens of visits to real major league games in my life have happened in the last ten years. I don't know more than 2-3 players names on my once-favorite team. But with OOTP I can turn back the clock as far as I want, use whatever rules i want, with whatever players in whatever cities and parks I want, wearing whatever uniforms I want, with whatever facial hair I want for crissakes... and it breathes life back into baseball for me. I think OOTP has added too many features over the years at the expense of statistical accuracy, but I love it all the same. And if you stay a version behind or wait until the all-star break, it's a bargain in terms of cost.
3. Draft Day Sports College Basketball: Wolverine Studios has an entire line of sports sims, including pro golf and a pretty respectable pro basketball game, but head-and-shoulders above those in my opinion is their college basketball sim. The developer Gary Gorski got his start with the college game and you can tell he's more devoted to it than his other sims. You can play as any division one school and if you don't take one of the big programs, get ready for an incredibly-tough challenge improving your prestige to the point where national recruits will take your calls or visit your campus. Juggling these kids' disciplinary issues, their grades, their parents, their work ethic, their shot selection... not for the faint of heart, but amazingly fun. Setting up your schedule is a uniquely fun aspect of the game. And you can watch the games play out with little blocks running around on the court (tip... turn the sound off unless you have a fetish for sneaker squeaks and annoying fans!)
4. Fast Break Pro Basketball
5. Bowl Bound College Football: I tend not to like football sims - the rosters are too big and maintaining the depth charts is too tedious for my short little span of attention. But BBCF somehow gets me past that and provides a lot of fun. It's an older, reliable game from Grey Dog Software (home of wrestling and super hero sims, primarily) and for me the fact that it doesn't have the excruciating detail of a game like Front Office Football is a plus. It's plenty detailed as it is, and recreating great college rivalries and chasing bowl berths is great fun.
So I was interested in hearing from the rest of you, about what other sims you've played and how you rank them. Here's my list in order of how much fun I've gotten out of them over the years:
1. Football Manager: This is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned. There's no workable multiplayer, and you can't play historical teams or players, but year-after-year Sports Interactive puts out this amazing feature-rich game and it always blows me away. This is "start-playing-after dinner and still-playing-at-three a.m." territory. The thing that sets it apart for me is how your players actually take on a personality, more so than in any other sports sim I've played. I have players on my team that I'm fiercely devoted to and seeing one carted off the pitch with a torn knee ligament will cause me actual suffering, right there in my den; I have players i detest, smart-asses that I have to keep around because they win matches for me; I have ambitious players I intentionally trade to better clubs so they can advance their careers; I have players I loan to the most dead-end club I can find to stop hearing their damn whining; I know which ones I have to butter up constantly or stay away from entirely. When my dour center-mid identifies me as one of his favorite people in football I feel silly, actual pride over it. Other sims are trying to go down this 'player personality' path but they're light years behind FM.
2. Out of the Park Baseball: I grew up with an intense love of baseball, above all other sports. Over the years I've come care so little for the real game that I rarely watch it; none of my dozens of visits to real major league games in my life have happened in the last ten years. I don't know more than 2-3 players names on my once-favorite team. But with OOTP I can turn back the clock as far as I want, use whatever rules i want, with whatever players in whatever cities and parks I want, wearing whatever uniforms I want, with whatever facial hair I want for crissakes... and it breathes life back into baseball for me. I think OOTP has added too many features over the years at the expense of statistical accuracy, but I love it all the same. And if you stay a version behind or wait until the all-star break, it's a bargain in terms of cost.
3. Draft Day Sports College Basketball: Wolverine Studios has an entire line of sports sims, including pro golf and a pretty respectable pro basketball game, but head-and-shoulders above those in my opinion is their college basketball sim. The developer Gary Gorski got his start with the college game and you can tell he's more devoted to it than his other sims. You can play as any division one school and if you don't take one of the big programs, get ready for an incredibly-tough challenge improving your prestige to the point where national recruits will take your calls or visit your campus. Juggling these kids' disciplinary issues, their grades, their parents, their work ethic, their shot selection... not for the faint of heart, but amazingly fun. Setting up your schedule is a uniquely fun aspect of the game. And you can watch the games play out with little blocks running around on the court (tip... turn the sound off unless you have a fetish for sneaker squeaks and annoying fans!)
4. Fast Break Pro Basketball
5. Bowl Bound College Football: I tend not to like football sims - the rosters are too big and maintaining the depth charts is too tedious for my short little span of attention. But BBCF somehow gets me past that and provides a lot of fun. It's an older, reliable game from Grey Dog Software (home of wrestling and super hero sims, primarily) and for me the fact that it doesn't have the excruciating detail of a game like Front Office Football is a plus. It's plenty detailed as it is, and recreating great college rivalries and chasing bowl berths is great fun.
