Just one question. Why?

[Heavens Gate]

Why does SEGA Sports not get the recognition it deserves? Their games are far superior than anything EA can come up with yet, every year they are lagging behind. I don't understand it. Sega has produced some of the best games on the market. It's really sad in a way. I grew up with Sega games. They are top notch in every way. WOW, I can't wait for ESPN 2k4!!! Drool, Drool:cheers:

[CarGuy]

Most magazine reviews i read EA and SEGA are usually pretty damn close. Both are always very good... I've been playing Madden since '95 (sucked back then, Tecmo Super Bowl III was the best on SNES IMO) So im more likely to pick up Madden. However after being frustrated w/ Madden's AI in 2003(you cant stop the AI team in the last two minutes of a half!!!) im going to give NKL 2K4 a chance.

[Flood]

mainly because sega sports games have only been around for a couple years now...compared to NHL/Madden series which have been around for 10+ years.

most people would go for the EA games due to their long running series'...but a lot of Xbox gamers(including myself...a big fan of the NHL series....especially 94) are tuning their back on EA (due to them making their games online playable on PS2 and not Xbox) in favor of the Sega titles because they fully support XBL.

[Highlite23]

There is a ESPN Football (Sega NFL2K4) demo on this month OXM disc, and although it's missing alot of the in-game audio, it looks fantastic.

Can't wait to try the FP (First Person) perspective as a QB.

Should be another solid 2K instalment.

[RadRider]

I'm one to disagree. There have only been a handful of Sega games I've ever enjoyed, while EA seems to publish a lot of good high quality games. The difference of course being that Sega likes to support consoles, whereas EA likes to choose sides and NOT support consoles. For that reason alone I dislike EA much more than Sega, and the only reason I don't like Sega is that their games typically don't suit my style.
Now onto your question, I actually found that Sega gets a lot of props from critics. I'm your typical average gamer, and assuming every other typical average gamer is like me, then they probably stay away from Sega products because they haven't enjoyed past ones. As for the critics, Essentially every Sega Xbox game has gotten rave reviews from IGN, and IGN is probably the biggest game related site on the net. Since your typical average gamer will read IGN rather than a "hardcore" gaming site, chances are they've been exposed to these rave reviews of Sega products. You know what? People don't seem to care. It doesn't matter if Sega actually does make better games (which I think is purely a matter of opinion), chances are they have brand loyalty to EA and Sony already. Heck, it's the reason EA is the number one third party publisher in the world, and the reason the PS2 is the number one game system in the world.
Well, my two cents.

[Dre]

Hey Rad, cool to see you posting again!!

I think one of the major reasons is that John Madden plugs the game every Monday night and uses it to show off plays and stuff. ESPN needs to give their games some exposure as well if they want to catch up.

[Heavens Gate]

Hey Flood, have you played NHL 2K4? it's nominated for game of the year. If so , what did you think?

highlite 23, I totally agree with you. I simply can't wait for ESPN. I haven't seen the demo though. Could you tell me if they improved on the field textures and overall graphics? Also are there the same announcers as all the previous games?

Radrider, I have to disagree with ya there friend. SEGA has come out with some of the most innovative titles ever. And I think if they had REAL announcers in their sports games, it's no contest in my book. Go SEGA!!!

[Heavens Gate]

Originally posted by Dre
Hey Rad, cool to see you posting again!!

I think one of the major reasons is that John Madden plugs the game every Monday night and uses it to show off plays and stuff. ESPN needs to give their games some exposure as well if they want to catch up.

Dre. Sup dawg. By the way, ESPN prime time sunday night is going to use the same for the games. They will utilize the telestrator like Madden does. Oh and what role does Chris bermann play in the videogame? I heard he's in there.

[RadRider]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they haven't produced good games, just that the games aren't good according to me. Personal opinion is the number one decider in whether a game is good or not. So regardless what you think, you can never change my opinion on Sega games I've already played.
See what I'm getting at? I think that's why Sega hasn't gotten their "props". They've definitely produced a lot of off-kilter games that don't appeal to vast audiences. Samba De Amigo, Outtrigger and Jet Set Radio come to mind.
Hey Dre.

[Heavens Gate]

Originally posted by RadRider
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they haven't produced good games, just that the games aren't good according to me. Personal opinion is the number one decider in whether a game is good or not. So regardless what you think, you can never change my opinion on Sega games I've already played.
See what I'm getting at? I think that's why Sega hasn't gotten their "props". They've definitely produced a lot of off-kilter games that don't appeal to vast audiences. Samba De Amigo, Outtrigger and Jet Set Radio come to mind.
Hey Dre.

Good point. Actually I don't care for any of those games. I'm talking The Shenmue series, ALL Sports games, Sonic,HOTD (arcade), Phantasy Star, etc etc. Like you said , It's what you as a player likes. There's alot of games people like that I don't. I really didn't think HALO was that great. It was very good, buy not what it's made out to be.

[RadRider]

I don't really care for Halo either.
I only watched my brother play the demo for Shenmue, but from what I saw, I didn't like it. I Really disliked Sonic until the Dreamcast incarnations.
The Sega games I liked were typically Visual Concepts games, like Ooga Booga, NBA 2k3... That's all I can think of. Of course, I'm a very picky gamer and .. well, I used to be. Right now I'm more open. If I get frustrated at a game, I stop playing it, and I got frustrated at Sega games, particularly Outtrigger, Sonic and Sega GT.
But this is chatter, we're on the same wavelength, you and I. That's good. ;)

[Sound2TheBay]

Originally posted by Flood-XBA
mainly because sega sports games have only been around for a couple years now...compared to NHL/Madden series which have been around for 10+ years
You mean that they haven't been making games for other non-Sega consoles, right? Sega Sports has been around for about a decade, too. Those first World Series Baseball games for both the Genesis and Saturn are untouchable. The NBA2K series is untouchable. It is sad to see them go.

[Trento52]

i think sega has some sort of well... a curse. They made the first online console didn't they and yet they lost so much money. Then i think game gear is so cool they had the right idea bigger screen that lights up and here nintendo has this blocky black and yellow little screen that you can barely see you need perfect lighting conditions and yet they do better. Sega has some really good stuff but they always seam to lose money. If they had another console out i wonder what it would be like. But then they would go broke and stop making them or something?

[Kortiz]

There has to be a method to their faults.......I think it would have to be......hmmmmm........marketing and sony with their big machine guns.....

[BCan]

Sony and EA live off their names, rather than anything else. Everyone seemed to love the PSX, now they love the PS2, because it was around just before the N64. EA just kept pumping out their yerly updates to titles, which meant people saw them on the shelves all year round.

Your average Joe doesn't actually care that the XBOX is better, or that EA bleed you dry for a 0.1% difference from the previous years game. MS suffers the anti-Windows thing, when they have a 90% + market share of OS's installed.


I would assume that KotOR might be one of those games that get people to buy the console.

Suckily EA also has the current year F1 licence for games too, which annoys me so much. They have shown they can't make F1 games, but have plenty of cash to throw around to buy the licence.
EA just want to make money by having control over when they will force the consumer to buy the new version of the game, both on PS2, and Gamespy Tunnel if they adopt that. BUT still alot of people buy their junk....

[wbio]

They are usually pretty close in reviews in (most) magazine's, I think that part of EA's score does come from their name too, like bcan said.

[MetalSludge]

I find this thread particularly interesting just having came over from the pc world to console gaming. I have only had the option of playing madden and I must say even on pc it hasnt changed much. Can you guys give me some personal insite to the sega sports games? i have read about every post on the subject and most are flame about this is better cause i like it better. Thanks for some intellegent insight to my deliema. If you guys could rattle on a little more about each i would greatly appreciate it.

[robnyack]

I think NFL 2k3 did get the recognition it deserved, critically speaking. Most reviews I read last year gave the nod to NFL2k3 over Madden.

Unfortunately, that did not translate to sales, because Madden CRUSHED NFL 2k3 in sales. Absolutely destroyed it.

So, you have a superior game getting trounced. Why? Because, like it or not, Madden IS football gaming. Until that perception starts to change, it's not gonna matter how good a game Sega puts out.

All Sega can do is to committ itself to putting out the better product for the next 3-5 yrs and slowly, but surely the belief that Madden IS football gaming will slowly start to change.

[Ford Mustang]

EA has the name. All of their Madden games could suck ass and it would still take forever for people to realize that the Sega games are better. I think Sega has made some good games in the past. My favorite Sega game on Xbox is Sega Gt2002....Loved that game. :D

[mrmp3]

First off, concerning NHL2k4, bar none is gonna be the best hockey game out this year and I quite honestly think it will destroy NHL 2004 in sales.

I really lked NFL2k and 2k1 (I hated Madden 2001, passing game was crap, running game was so easy, I ran back 2 punts for TD's per game), but when Madden 02' came out, I got hooked. I grew up playing the Madden series on my Genesis (which I find odd EA didn't support the Dreamcast with it's sports lineup.) And when I played NFL2k2, it just seemed so unbalanced. Run-game was slow yet defensive guys moved faster, tackling was too easy, doing the spin move to break any tackle was easy, and I wasn't impressed with the animations (i.e. I thought tackle animations looked cool but they all happened way too fast for you to enjoy and the fact every guy on the field doesn't cut but rather can walk on one foot 360* no sweat). I think Sega Sports has all the ingredients, but before I even consider playing it again, they gotta fix the cutting issue, ability to tackle players 7-9 yards away, and gameplay speed. Those scroll bars don't help, the game needs to play like a Simulation not Arcade-like.

As for Sega not getting proper credit for making great games, I think they got credit for all the great Genesis games, but the DC titles like the Sonic Adventure games, Shenmue, making the first good next-gen basketball and football games, PSO etc. Sega was given no credit because of the system selling terribly. Oh btw, Outtrigger sucked.

[MixMasta]

Originally posted by Dre
Hey Rad, cool to see you posting again!!

I think one of the major reasons is that John Madden plugs the game every Monday night and uses it to show off plays and stuff. ESPN needs to give their games some exposure as well if they want to catch up.

Can someone give me some insight here. ESPN is a subsidary of Disney, along with ABC. If ABC's Monday Night Football has John Madden, and ESPN Sunday Nightfootball is ESPN, which game will the networks plug?? I would think ESPN, because its advertising one of their channels. Although Madden probably has ABC logos in its games(not sure about this, but they did have Fox logos before Madden switched networks) ESPN on the cover of a game will give you more advertising. So if anyone can tell me whats gonna happen here, please do.

[robnyack]

my biggest complaint about ESPN Football....why do they insist on keeping those two actors as announcers????

It was the perfect opportunity this year to dump these two and get REAL football announcers. I am not a huge fan of Mike Patrick/Joe Theisman/Paul McGuire, but the game is now ESPN Football, right? Well, who are the announcers for ESPN football? Yep, you got it.

One of the things Madden has over Sega is two well-known broadcasters calling the games. It adds credibility. Sega has 2 actors pretending to be football announcers. Yes, they do an OK job, but come on, we need REAL football announcers.

They added Chris Berman to the pre and post game stuff, which is GREAT, but, they need to take the next step and add some credibility to the game by getting real football guys in the booth.

[Heavens Gate]

I was hoping for real announcers as well. I thought bermann played a big role in the announcing, but it's only the pregame, halftime, and end. Yes, come on SEGA, we need real announcers. Damn, Quarterback Club can do it I'm sure you can. Football is my Fav videogame and by the looks of ESPN, it's gonna Rock. Madden is rehash after rehash. I actually thought 2002 was better. The graphics stay the same. In ESPN, let the computer have a match with itself and it looks like an actual NFL broadcast. It actually is astonishing what they have done with the animations . Madden has real announcers yes, but ESPN looks better and the announcers (though not real) are better overall.