f13.net

So my friends wife is buying him a 360 for x-mas and he is a huge football and sports game fan. I want to get him a football game, but as I dont really like them and dont play them, I dont know which ones are good. Should I just go with the standard Madden 07?
I see they have a Madden 07 Sports Classics version or some thing like that also. Any input would be great. Thanks guy.

FIFA 07 looks nice, and has separate ball physics, which makes it much more realistic. There's a shortage of teams, with just the  Euros and a light scattering of  some others making the title.

He doesn't have any choice but Madden on the 360 (thanks EA cocksuckers). The FIFA game is good on the regular X-Box, but as sigil mentioned, they really skimped out on the number of teams, leagues and stadiums. That won't matter unless he's a big soccer fan. I've always been partial to the 2k series of sports games as just good, quality sports games for sports fans, the hockey and baseball in particular.

EDIT: As long as he doesn't mind last year's teams, the MLB 2k6 is available on the 360. There is also NHL 2k6 which is a better game than NHL 06 (that's the EA Sports version).

You mean 2k7.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Is Madden the only good football game? American Football.

It's the only American Football game.

Fucking EA locked up the exclusive license to be the only ones able to make NFL-licensed American football games for any platforms including PC. Then they proceeded to make 2 really mediocre Madden titles when compared to the last NFL 2k5 game for the X-Box. It's a fucking crime.

I'm hoping Madden for the Wii doesn't suck.

Madden is a fine game. The problem with Madden isn't that it is a bad game, just that it is the same game every year. Madden is a good game as long as you buy it once every 3-5 years.

Madden is decidely mediocre if you compare it to the NFL 2k series of games. They were just vastly superior. Madden 2007 for the X-Box had two levels of granularity. Either the game felt like it was playing itself, or it felt like it was on my back telling me how much it loved me and how much I liked it like that.

Fight Night Round 3 is the system must-have as far as overall sports games goes.  You're pretty much stuck with Madden for football, and hockey is a toss up with NHL 07 bringing a new control scheme and slightly better graphics, while NHL2K7 is more of your standard hockey game, but with a lot better franchise management, trading, etc.  NHL2K7 is a deeper game, but NHL07 has the better control scheme.  For my money NHL2K7 is slightly better, but it's by a thin margin.

I can't speak to basketball or soccer as I don't like those games.

Actually, I would contend that 2k7 has the better control scheme as someone who actively watches and plays the sport. I can actually get "set up" with 2k7's directed passing system. I liked the idea of 07s right-stick passing, but I was often not passing it to where I actually wanted passes to go.

I thought we all agreed we wouldn't talk about the capitalistic death of 2k football at the hands of EfuckingA!

*calls therapist*

Sorry, my vagina is still sore and sandy from that one.

Fight Night Round 3 is a must-have as said before.
Madden 07 is ok.
I haven't played any of the other sports games so I can't help there sorry!
Also, if he likes college ball I've heard good things about the college football game. (the name escapes me at the moment.)

I'm also wondering if Blitz the league is any good, it's sort of the Necessary Roughness of Football Games as near as I can tell.

2k7 is definitely the better all-round hockey game, but once you get used to the 07 control scheme, it's a Hell of a lot of fun. On offense anyways, the defensive scheme sucks, but could easily be fixed by letting me re-map the controller.

For the last... many years, 2k hockey has been far superior to EA's hockey, but they'll have to make some changes for next year imo. NHL07 control stick is just that much fun.

The impression I got of 07 when I played it on Xbox was that it was a budget title. It may very well BE a budget title on the Xbox, but I did not get that feeling from 2k7.

Though I will grant that there are things in both games that I liked. I really wish I could combine certain aspects from both games into one.

Quoted for truth.

The final reason I ended up purchasing 07 was that the guys I play hockey with over XBL all bought it.