989's answer to EA/Take Two

RC Cola · Apr 25, 2005

For those that don't know, 989 Sports is Sony's studio for making sports games. 989 made the NFL Gameday and NBA Shootout games, along with other sports titles. Now, as I'm sure many of you may know, EA and Take Two/Sega have been competing for the best sports titles in every sport lately, outdoing anything 989 could come up with. Well, now 989 seems to be taking a different approach to these titles with two of their new titles, Road to Sunday and NBA '06.

Both of these titles take different approaches to their genres, putting in more customization and RPG elements. Here are some highlights:

From Road to Sunday:

Yes, you heard that right. Road to Sunday is a football/fighting hybrid that takes the established sports knowledge of the internal Sony development studio and melds it with a one-on-one combat engine. This kind of genre-melding is another result of SCEA's commitment to producing plot-oriented sports titles from this point on, which representatives feel will open up additional gameplay options not thought feasible before.
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As for the storyline in question, it follows the exploits of a spoiled team owner named Blake Doogan. As the inheritor of a NAFA football team known as the Los Angeles Show, Doogan is quickly thrown into quite a predicament when his father dies in a mysterious yacht explosion at sea. As it turns out, Blake's dad was in major debt to a Jamaican crime lord known as Nestor Farrington -- a notorious gambler, pimp, and drug trafficker -- and now his pop's debt has become his debt. In order to pay off the kingpin and save his own hide, Blake is forced to enter his team of football players into an underground fighting organization to help earn the money. And from there, we're told, things start to get really interesting...

Though told from Blake's perspective, Road to Sunday will follow seven main characters of varying positions from the National American Football Association's unluckiest squad. Each character (be they quarterback, running back, wide receiver, linebacker, defensive lineman, defensive back, or kicker), will have their own unique abilities and maneuvers that will be imperative to the player's winning strategy. What's more, is that since your football team is battling other football teams in-between their actual games, the results of those fights will be reflected in a gridiron contest. So if you take one of the Miami Mako's primary players out in hand-to-hand combat, his team will be that much weaker on game day. But the same rings true for your guys too -- because if you hurt on of your own, you're going to be in trouble on Sunday afternoon.

To make the game even more interesting, Road to Sunday also features a full-fledged gambling simulation that enables players with the ability to play poker, blackjack, and bet their earnings in various other fields through a couple of shady bookies. You can travel through the city of Los Angeles via a map system too, and go work out at the gym to build up player attributes or partake in other sidequests to move the story along. Weird!

Sony's big selling point with Road to Sunday is what Red Zone is calling PSG or Position Specific Gameplay. Through this system, users will be able to play a game of simulation football similar to what the GameDay series used to offer, but with a few key changes. Once a play has been selected from your playbook, for example, you'll then have the option to take direct control of one of your seven key characters so that they can make something special happen. Selecting the wide receiver means that you'll have a better chance of tethering and striking oncoming tackles via special moves, while playing as the defensive end will allow you to bull rush quarterbacks with greater authority and anticipate the snap better. Little details like this are what Sony hopes will set Road to Sunday apart from EA's upcoming NFL-exclusive Madden franchise.
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From NBA '06

At first, the only thing you'll have to worry about is completing a series of real-life training drills to improve and standardize your base attributes. The most important move, however, is acquiring an agent -- whose entire purpose is to get you situated into the NBA and become one of the biggest stars in the league. Before the draft begins, however, you also have to continue on with your workouts to make yourself a better player, while trying to get guaranteed contracts and endorsement deals out of your manager.

Eventually, the game shifts its focus to the actual NBA draft in New York City and from that moment on, the real meat of the gameplay will begin. You'll begin in the Summer Pro League and compete with other rookies and backups as you work your way through actual teams, stadiums, and a number of scenarios that can make your abilities and reputation increase with the higher-ups. The whole goal here is to earn a spot on your new team's training camp when the season starts, and from there you'll have to earn a starting spot on the team. This won't be an automatic cakewalk, though. Since your team already has established players in particular positions, you'll truly have to earn the position through solid game playing, stellar practice drills, and various mission-based scenarios that move the storyline along.
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Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this approach, however, is the fact that you'll actually build relationships with everyone you meet. At the center of these relationships is the need to balance your coach's wishes with your agent's. So while your coach needs you to be a team player to help create an effective team dynamic, your agent wants you to be a flashy superstar so that you can become more popular and earn a lot more money. Whichever way you decide to go is up to you, but regardless of the decision it affects everyone around you. Teammates, your coach, your agent, and even your family will change their attitude, abilities, uses, and ideas based on your actions.
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The games still look pretty bad graphically though. Take this NBA '06 screen for example:

The shoes look VERY strange to me, not to mention the fact that they must have had the "Get a free white T-Shirt" giveaway that game.

All joking aside, these all sound like interesting features that I wish EA or TT had experimented with earlier. I'm sure that EA and TT will provide better sports simulation games that these games, but if 989 can really make these features work out, I can see myself checking these games out over what EA or TT have to offer, bad graphics and all.

Hippieloser · Apr 25, 2005

The football game sounds completely r****ded, but I could see having a good time with the NBA game. If it didn't look like bad PS1 graphics, of course.

Beck · Apr 25, 2005

not sure the world is ready for a Mortal Kombat/Madden mash-up.

Oski2005 · Apr 25, 2005

Their graphics always suck ass, but that NBA game does sound pretty damn interesting. These games always put you in the GM/Owner's seat, this is the most in depth way of putting you in the player's seat.

KaiSeR SoZe · Apr 25, 2005

989 sucks monster ass

Ziggy · Apr 25, 2005

There really hasnt been a basketball game ive been happy with gameplay wise in a LONG time. So how about someone get that right before throwing gimmicks out to win educated gamers over.

Vengeance · Apr 25, 2005

That football game sounds just awful. But the basketball one sounds interesting. I don't know if it'll do well, or even if it'll be good, but it's nice to see someone trying to think outside the box. 989's football game can't be NFL any more, so hopefully this game won't be as bad as it sounds, or they come up with something else. I wonder if an arena football game would be any fun?

RC Cola · Apr 25, 2005

Originally posted by Vengeance
I wonder if an arena football game would be any fun?
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I think EA got the rights to the AFL as well.

Maybe it is just me, but I don't think the football game sounds too bad, although it does have the potential. I was thinking about the whole traveling around LA, doing sidequests, pumping iron, and gambling part of the game for the most part. It kind of reminds me of GTA in a ways. It would be pretty cool to do those things, pull up to a stadium and then play a football game, win the game, and then beat up one of opposing players with the MVP trophy you just got. The story could use some work, but the gameplay might work...might.

Of course, if I had the choice of RTS (hmm, interesting abbreviation...wonder if they is any resource management involved) or NBA '06, I'd definitely go with the NBA game. What 989 is proposing is something that I've really wanted in a basketball game, and if they succeed, it will be interesting to see what they do next year with next-gen hardware. At least we wouldn't have to worry about ugly graphics anymore. At that time, we may get fans made of actual polygons!

Two Sandwiches · Apr 25, 2005

As I opened this thread, I thought to myself, 989 should just fold, and never make a game again. The NBA game does sound interesting, though. I've always wanted a game like that. Maybe I'd buy it. I wish EA would make a game like that. That would be SWEET!

The NFL game sounds r****ded.

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989's answer to EA/Take Two

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