Poll of the Day > Do you guys prefer story modes or career modes in sports games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I vastly prefer story modes, as I usually get bored of career modes pretty quickly(the exceptions being UFC 3 and MLB the Show 19). Was wondering what the other guys preferred.
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isn't that pretty much the same thing?

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I don't play sports games, but if I do, I prefer story.

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I like both, but holy fuck I cannot beat Isaac Frost in Fight Night Round 4 for the life of me.

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Theres a reason theyre always the cheapest and most prevalent in the bargain bins.

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zebatov posted...

Theres a reason theyre always the cheapest and most prevalent in the bargain bins.

Cause they come yearly, therefore kinda making the last one unnecessary.

When did story mode become a thing?

Idk if I ever played it. I do career mode and just play a game every now and again. My stats are kept, but idc if it leads to a championship or anything. I usually do like 12 game seasons.

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pedro45 posted...

Cause they come yearly, therefore kinda making the last one unnecessary.

When did story mode become a thing?

Idk if I ever played it. I do career mode and just play a game every now and again. My stats are kept, but idc if it leads to a championship or anything. I usually do like 12 game seasons.

Story modes have been a thing for a while now. The NBA games used to have them, not sure if they still do. Most of the wrestling games have them, but them being sports games is kind of debatable at best. Fifa's had a storymode and career mode for years now.
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Career mode, because sports games have trash stories.
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What_The_Chris posted...

isn't that pretty much the same thing?

I'm assuming they mean the difference between games that have long-term season modes where you track stats and you're building up a team or a specific player over time, and games where you're literally playing as someone going through a pre-written storyline.

Personally, I've long since ceased to care about anything resembling a sports game in general. The one type I held onto longer than any others was the WWE games, but I went off them completely when they decided that things like "arcade-style play" and "fun" were less important than "online play" and "pathetic attempts to be more of a simulation". And then doubly so when they decided that it would be really neat to lock everything behind purchase walls and force you to either grind like crazy or spend money on microtransactions to even build up a single wrestler who wasn't shit. That's pretty much the exact opposite reason why I ever played those games in the first place.

But back when I did still play them, story mode was like 90% of the reason why (the other 10% was making insane create-a-wrestlers and stables and occasionally simulating matches between them).

The fact that the newer games HAVE story modes has piqued by interest at least a few times, but the fact that those story modes all seem vaguely insulting to the player and so terrible they seem to have been written by concussed baboons means they've never really led me to ever buy one of those games.

I'm kind of interested to see what AEW winds up doing with their inevitable game, since they've mentioned wanting them to be more like older titles, which would be right up my alley. If they have a somewhat fun and irreverent but well-written story mode, that pretty much sells me on the game right there.
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there are story modes in sports games now? i havent bought nba games since the ps2 days. i heard theyre shit now because of microtransactions.

Personally, I don't play many, if any, sports games. My brother does, though. I think it depends on what each one consist of. Those actually sound pretty similar for some games. But can be very different for some games.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

those story modes all seem vaguely insulting to the player and so terrible they seem to have been written by concussed baboons means they've never really led me to ever buy one of those games.

Most of the story modes in sports games I've played through are all bastardized versions of Rocky. Not so much the first Rocky, but the later films where there's some semi-villainous adversary (Clubber Lang/Ivan Drago).

"Up-and-coming [spin the sport roulette wheel] phenom faces personal and professional hurdles on their path to professional greatness. Can they overcome the odds and best [insert asshole heel-type] to become the champion?"

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Far-Queue posted...

Most of the story modes in sports games I've played through are all bastardized versions of Rocky. Not so much the first Rocky, but the later films where there's some semi-villainous adversary (Clubber Lang/Ivan Drago).

"Up-and-coming [spin the sport roulette wheel] phenom faces personal and professional hurdles on their path to professional greatness. Can they overcome the odds and best [insert asshole heel-type] to become the champion?"

For the last two WWE games, the plot basically boils down to "Anyone who likes wrestling or wants to be a wrestler is a pathetic loser, so now you're going to play through 10 hours worth of us basically making fun of you."

I'll take Rocky over that. At least Rocky is attempting to be inspirational.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

For the last two WWE games, the plot basically boils down to "Anyone who likes wrestling or wants to be a wrestler is a pathetic loser, so now you're going to play through 10 hours worth of us basically making fun of you."

I'll take Rocky over that. At least Rocky is attempting to be inspirational.

What? Can't say anything about 2k20, but 2k19 was far from that.
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lihlih posted...

What? Can't say anything about 2k20, but 2k19 was far from that.

2k19 was about shitting on the independent scene and anyone wrestling outside of the WWE. 2k20 was basically shitting on wrestling fans. In both your main character is basically a moron and a loser out of the gate (in 2k19 you kind of improve, in 2k20 you kind of don't). And it's only worse because of how the game mechanics work, where you basically start out as an inept dingus and have to grind your way to better moves, a cooler look, and actual stats.

It's a far cry from the days when you'd basically come in to story mode as a badass and got to feel cool right out of the gate.

Though in that sense, I suppose it's an accurate representation of how WWE books these days - they haven't been able to get anyone massively over for more than a decade now.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

2k19 was about shitting on the independent scene and anyone wrestling outside of the WWE. 2k20 was basically shitting on wrestling fans. In both your main character is basically a moron and a loser out of the gate (in 2k19 you kind of improve, in 2k20 you kind of don't). And it's only worse because of how the game mechanics work, where you basically start out as an inept dingus and have to grind your way to better moves, a cooler look, and actual stats.

It's a far cry from the days when you'd basically come in to story mode as a badass and got to feel cool right out of the gate.

Though in that sense, I suppose it's an accurate representation of how WWE books these days - they haven't been able to get anyone massively over for more than a decade now.

How the hell is the dude from 2k19 a moron? Yeah, he's gullible, but that doesn't make him a loser. I mean, he's poor because he's wrestling in the indies, but that doesn't really make him a moron and a loser.
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weeb98 posted...

there are story modes in sports games now? i havent bought nba games since the ps2 days. i heard theyre shit now because of microtransactions.

Same. I only game that generation and earlier though. I love it!

Far-Queue posted...

Most of the story modes in sports games I've played through are all bastardized versions of Rocky. Not so much the first Rocky, but the later films where there's some semi-villainous adversary (Clubber Lang/Ivan Drago).

"Up-and-coming [spin the sport roulette wheel] phenom faces personal and professional hurdles on their path to professional greatness. Can they overcome the odds and best [insert asshole heel-type] to become the champion?"

Is story mode just like season mode then, but with movies that have your character or team in it? Do you somehow improve your team or make them worse with a story mode?

I've never been interested really, so this topic is piquing my curiousity

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