As I’ve gotten older, my taste in video games leans more toward nostalgia than new titles. I don’t want to sound like get off my lawn guy for video games. But, they don’t make them like they used to.
Despite having an Xbox One, I find myself playing Xbox 360 and PS2 far more often than the current gen. Even with newer sports titles out there, I’ve been playing NCAA Football 11 and Madden 07 as of late.
All the way through college, I used to crave the newer sports titles because I was fixated on having updated rosters. Now I just don’t give a shit. I am more about gameplay and leisure these days.
You remember when you were a kid you used to create your baseball, football and basketball teams? Yeah, I still do that shit because it’s fun as hell.
In NCAA 2011, I created a bunch of the guys I play flag football with and keep adding them to the mix to recruit each season. Of course, I don’t do the 8 year old method of making everyone athletic freaks and 99s. If the person is short for flag, I make them shorter in the game. If they are fast in flag, I make them fast in the game. I try to make it as comparable to where they rank in pick up. The highest rated person I created was a 90.
I am in year 4 of the Dynasty and most of us are in our final year before new dudes take over. I constantly find myself doing things like this more often than not.
Video games have become too heavily reliant on micro transactions. Gone are the days of playing games in order to build your player or teams. Now on top of the $60 or more you have to spend on the game initially, you need to spend even more each month once you buy it.
For example, the my player in NBA 2k has basically turned into an open world concept where you walk around a city to go get haircuts and other dumb shit. It’s Grand Theft Auto without committing crimes. It’s just overkill. You can’t get good until you spend more money or have 8 hours per day to commit to the game.
My wife bought me a combo pack of MLB/NBA 2k12 for 8 bucks for my birthday because I wanted to play an older version of my player. It is so much better. I’m halfway through season 1 with my PG for the Charlotte Bobcats. Yeah, they still existed. I’ve had more fun with that than I’ve had with more recent NBA titles in years.
One of my favorite genre of games have always been wrestling titles. The last great one to come out is Smackdown v Raw 2007. While the I am one of the few who like the gameplay engine of today, I hate the my career.
The last wrestling game that I enjoyed the story or season mode was Smackdown v Raw. However, it’s predecessor Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain was the best season mode ever. I actually started playing that again recently as well.
It just baffles me that companies can’t get these games right year after year. You go on the message boards and all people do is complain, yet they still buy them. I typically wait until I can get the games at a super discounted price well after the release if at all.
Madden was always a game I went to get at the midnight release. I haven’t done that since Madden 2012 probably. I have bypassed on it all together some years. The only appeal to the new games is the offseason. In NBA 2K and Madden, the offseason is fantastic since you are able to download draft classes and the schedule is so in depth. I love it. However, it lacks in gameplay.
Moving away from sports titles, the Call of Duty games are still a ton of fun. However, nothing tops the likes of Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3. Then they got too techie and haloish so I stopped playing those. The last title was actually a lot of fun though.
I used to love story based games. They’ve become so long especially with open world concepts that if I skip a day or two, it turns into a week or two. By that point, I have lost interest because I have no idea where the story was.
Aside from Grand Theft Auto and The Last of Us, story based games are pretty much a no go from me.
As a result, I find myself playing older titles more often than not.
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