One of my favorite questions to ask for our Athlete of the Week feature is, “What video games are you playing?”
Why? Well, more often than not, this is the non-sports question that kids normally open up to first, and I’ve gotten some very good answers from some of the more competitive ones. This even includes publicly calling out teammates, which I’m sure led to some action-packed contests.
I also enjoy asking because I’ve been a gamer for about as long as I can remember, and I always like to know what people are playing in case it inspires me to pick up something new for myself. I usually go for a big, open-world game that I can sink a ton of hours into, but playing great sports games over the years really helped me become passionate about real-life sports and want to pursue a career where I could follow them.
If the scripts were flipped and someone were to ask me what video games I love to play, I’d probably give a different answer depending on the day or time. I still rock the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Gamecube from time to time, because there were some awesome games that came out before NBA 2K blew up and took over everything.
I do love NBA 2K15, which I own for PlayStation 3. For my money, there’s never been a better, more realistic sports simulation than the NBA 2K series has been since 2K11. The games have gotten a little easier since then, but no less fun. The Clippers are my team in that game, because Chris Paul and Jamal Crawford are two of my favorite NBA players of all time, but I used to enjoy surprising people with the Utah Jazz before anyone knew how lethal Gordon Hayward is in those games.
But it was the NBA Street series that really made me love basketball games, and I still fire it up on the PS2 every so often. It’s totally unrealistic, but it’s one of the best arcade-style games around, and there’s never a dull moment in multiplayer. I’ve always loved making people regret not taking Peja Stojakovic seriously in a three-man lineup.
I know there are a lot of serious Madden players out there who are reading this, but I don’t think it’s better than the now-defunct NCAA Football series. The college games, especially in the last few years, have been better on virtually every level, namely where the control schemes are concerned. And yes, I have created a team for my football-free alma mater, Florida Gulf Coast University.
The Show is currently the only MLB game out there, but there used to be more options. In my last summer semester of college, when I lived on a pull-out couch and interned at a newspaper, my roommates and I played a lot of exhibition games in the Bigs 2 whenever we had a decision to settle. Say what you want about the Show being great, and realistic, but I’ll take the cartoonishly huge players, dropping Big Blasts on people and using Koji Uehara’s gyroball all day. Go O’s.
Last, but certainly not least, there used to be a series called NHL Hitz (which was exactly like NFL Blitz). Hitz 2003, with a young Chris Pronger on the cover, is my favorite sports game of all time and the only Gamecube game I owned that I couldn’t make myself get rid of. It’s completely ridiculous, 3-on-3 hockey with bone-crushing hits, a detailed fighting system and one of the most underrated one-two punches in hockey history on the Mighty Ducks, Adam Oates and Paul Kariya. Just make sure you master the art of the one-timer if you want to win a game.