Over the years, sports games - mostly Madden - have been introducing and re-introducing features to make their gameplay more immersive. Madden's introduction of the 'Hit Stick' in Madden 2005 was a game-changer, as was NBA 2K's My Career mode. However, there are still some features that today's sports games are missing. Some of them we've seen before and they should be brought back.
For this list, every good feature that is missing from modern-day sports games is on the table. It does not matter if they were part of older games, or have never been implemented before, if they will positively add to the playing experience they're on the list - or will at least be considered.
10 10/10 First Person Camera
ESPN NFL 2K5 is hands down the best sports game of all time, and its introduction of a first-person camera made its version of NFL football feel the most immersive. You got to see the field through the eyes of the players, and the camera would automatically change depending on who had the ball. Players' names would appear on the inside padding of each helmet so you knew who you controlled, and red arrows would appear on the screen to alert you where tacklers were coming from so you could avoid being hit.
Modern sports games like EA's Madden and NHL franchises should implement this camera. It would be awesome to skate around the ice at Staples Center and get a first-person view of crashing a guy into the boards as home fans cheer. Madden should adopt this camera angle or at least make it available in its career mode.
9 9/10 Include Real Minor League Ballparks
For years games like MLB: The Show and EA's NHL have included minor league teams, but only NHL has included their actual homes. MLB: The Show already allows you to make the ballpark of your dreams, but when it comes to playing as or on minor league teams, you just play in generic stadiums. The Show's career mode involves your player getting drafted, and going through the minor leagues hoping to be called up - and staying in - the big league. So being able to play in your team's actual minor league ballpark would add to the excitement of getting called up.
As someone who grew up in Syracuse, NY, home of the Mets' AAA team, it would be great to play an actual game in a digital version of the stadium I watched many baseball games in. You can choose who you get drafted by if you don't want the draft to be randomized. If you're someone who also lives in a minor league city, you should be able to play in your hometown's actual stadium. Even if you don't their inclusion just adds more realism to the game itself.
8 8/10 Add Team-Specific Entrances
Seeing your team take the field should fill you with hype and including your favorite team's entrance should do that. If you're playing as the Cowboys show them walking through the tunnel of fans at AT&T Stadium, if you're playing as the Lakers, the giant white sheet should drop over center-court and project team highlights and player intros. Each arena or stadium you walk into should have its own atmosphere and having team-specific intros would help give them that. EA's NHL games already do that, and 2K's NBA series does include pre-game traditions like the hitting of the bell in Philadelphia.
But it would be cool to play as the Atlanta Falcons in Madden and see guys run through the smoke and pyro. Playing the old NCAA football games and seeing Notre Dame players tap the 'Play like a champion today' sign as they made their way onto the field really showcased what many people love about the sport. If one type of sports game can have them, then all sports games - whose sports have these types of entrances - should have them.
7 7/10 Include College Games Outside Of Career Mode
The reason why this isn't higher on our list is partly that we're getting a new NCAA Football game next July - finally - so the need to play college games in Madden is lessened. However, playing college basketball in NBA 2K for actual colleges is a ray of light in its grind of a career mode.
It would be awesome to be able to play college games outside of career mode and depending on who gets drafted in real life and which schools are available, 2K would already have certain player models developed. With college players now able to profit off of their name and likeness, 2K could add actual rosters outside of the possible one or multiple players who recently got drafted.
6 6/10 Relocate Minor League Teams To New Cities
When you move a team in Madden you get to choose from a list of cities including ones outside of the country like Mexico City and London. However, each city has a different market size which includes different types of fan bases. Some may be more receptive to a team than others. Sports leagues like the MLB, NHL, and NBA minor league teams are used to develop prospects, and just like their pro affiliates also get moved around from city to city sometimes. It would be great to be able to move your minor league teams if you want or need to. Modern sports games could introduce perks like prospects who get called up suffer less fatigue because you moved the minor league team closer to your pro city.
There could also be drawbacks to moving minor league clubs such as loss of revenue, and players getting upset if a team is moved too often and want to be traded. There are numerous variables that could be introduced and would make the decision to move your minor league club have more weight to it.
5 5/10 Be Able To Watch Pro Days
Preparation is key in sports and being able to find the next franchise cornerstone in the draft is important to your team's future success. You can read the evaluations your scouts have put together, but depending on your scout's attributes their reports might not be as accurate. Seeing the real thing up close could better help your decision on who to draft, especially if there are multiple prospects at the same position who scouts have ranked high.
You go to a quarterback's pro day and you watch them underperform but the receiver they threw to ran really good routes and caught the passes that were accurate, and you add them to your prospect list while the QB you saw live falls down it or gets taken off completely. Sports games already have pro days and combine, but you don't attend them, instead, you just read numbers given to you and you don't really get the full concept of a prospect's talents. Adding visual pro days and combine's scouting in games goes from looked over to something you look forward to doing.
4 4/10 Halftime and Postgame Interviews
NBA 2K already does a great job using real interview audio of certain players and coaches during halftime and after games, but Madden and others are still very much lacking in that department.
There are hours of players talking and being interviewed on the field and on the track during and after races and games, so why not include them as 2K does? It's weird winning the Daytona 500 and the Super Bowl and not hearing players talk to people about winning it all.
3 3/10 Podcasts To Recap Games
Madden used to have something great in the early 2000s. After each week you could listen to legendary sports talk radio host Tony Bruno interview various players and coaches from around the NFL and recap the previous week's action. We are in the golden era of podcasts, so why not get someone like The Ringer's Kevin Clark and other top podcasters who cover different sports to host a show where they recap injuries, games, etc.?
We need something to do each week outside of perusing various menus in franchise modes and giving us a weekly show to listen to which recaps all of the major in-game news and notes would be entertaining and informational to listen to.
2 2/10 Contract Holdouts
The dreaded holdout. Nothing outside of injury is worse than when a star player decides not to play unless you give them a new contract. Sports games already allow you to re-sign players during the season, but holdouts aren't a thing. Implementing them into games adds a new wrinkle to team building. Imagine having to play a backup at a key spot because your starter wants more money and security and the holdout could last all season until you give them a new deal or simply trade them.
It can affect your job security, and your team's morale, and possibly cause players not to sign or re-sign with you because of how you view and mistreated certain players. Holdouts are a necessary evil in sports games as they add to the realism of the business side of pro sports while adding a new wrinkle when it comes to team building and sustaining a certain level of success.
1 1/10 Position Battles
Position battles are something that takes place in every sport, and used to be a feature in Madden. If guys at a certain position had similar or close to similar overall ratings, they would take part in a position battle that lasted throughout the preseason, and whoever had the better stats got the start. Each team had a list you could check out to see which starting positions were up for grabs. Each sport also has a preseason so this feature could be implemented in all of the games. Position battles are a nice way to really gauge the makeup and depth of your team.
A player might be a 79 overall but the guy who is a 77 might have a better completion percentage, be a better hitter against left-handed pitching, or be a better 3-point shooter. Position battles do a great job of highlighting players you might have not thought about starting in the first place because you feel two rating points mean they're automatically better in every area.