Football games are DEAD. So what are you playing and why?

gabe.paul.logan

gabe.paul.logan

Retired Footballer
7 January 2007
Budapest
Hungary
To my knowledge there isnt any complete footy game. New ones lack of depth in gameplay or offline modes, while graphics dont matter old games do have deeper tactical aspect and very solid gameplay basics but lets face it many aspects like AI, dribbling just isnt there in a 25 years old game.

So although i dont have high hopes i can find a game that i could play. Can you guys drop below your recommendations and the reason why you like to play those games, also the cons to them? Let it bee FIFA, PES, anything.


Sorry if a thread such like this already exists.
 
Regarding sports videogames I play TS 2k25 every day. Imo it's one the best sports videogames of this decade. I also play some NBA2k24 and The Show. I mix it with Forza Horizon 4 and 5 for some arcade racing and then I mostly play RPGs (Pathfinder, Yakuza Infinite Wealth, BG3) and strategy when I'm in the mood (Civ6, Anno 1800, Victoria 3, Planet Zoo).
Plenty of good games around tbh.
 
I can’t give you any suggestions for new football games because I agree with you, they’re just not particularly great in my opinion also.

I made a poll with the best football games of all time so you could take a look at that, and the ones I didn’t include people mentioned in the thread.
For an alternative football experience with great net physics I’d recommend Football Kingom Trial edition for PS2. The name is confusing because of the “trial” part but it’s a full game. There’s an English patches version available.
Play it on the furthest away camera for best results:

 
PES4eva said:
I can’t give you any suggestions for new football games because I agree with you, they’re just not particularly great in my opinion also.

I made a poll with the best football games of all time so you could take a look at that, and the ones I didn’t include people mentioned in the thread.
For an alternative football experience with great net physics I’d recommend Football Kingom Trial edition for PS2. The name is confusing because of the “trial” part but it’s a full game. There’s an English patches version available.
Play it on the furthest away camera for best results:

Click to expand...
I have tried that a few years ago. Felt like an unfinished proto PES 1 or 2 tbf. Shame it didnt go further.
hitmanuk said:
Pes 21 fully modded is far from dead imo, play it all the time
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Im not talking about mod support but the game itself. I also went back to play PES 21 in the past few weeks but its the same old same old. No amount of gameplay mods can take out the broken features of PES21 out of that game ..for me.
 
gabe.paul.logan said:
I have tried that a few years ago. Felt like an unfinished proto PES 1 or 2 tbf. Shame it didnt go further.

Im not talking about mod support but the game itself. I also went back to play PES 21 in the past few weeks but its the same old same old. No amount of gameplay mods can take out the broken features of PES21 out of that game ..for me.
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To me that feels like a strange opinion of Football Kingdom. I don’t think it’s anything like any version of PES and especially not PES 1 & 2. PES 1 & 2 are rigid games, Football Kingdom is creative freedom. If you can think it up, you can do it in Football Kingdom. I agree the game isn’t perfection and it’s a shame Namco didn’t keep releasing it as a franchise because we could really do with a competitor to EA as I think most people have given up on eFootball at this point.
If you’ve heard of Football Kingdom you’ve probably heard of pretty much every football game from the past so I’m not sure I’m going to be able to suggest something because there isn’t anything new either.
Hmmm, the only thing I can think of that you could try are street football games, Mario football games and that sort of gimmicky thing. Maybe a Ice hockey game? It’s end to end action, you might enjoy them. NHL 94 (think they did a remake of it for PC actually)
 
PES4eva said:
To me that feels like a strange opinion of Football Kingdom. I don’t think it’s anything like any version of PES and especially not PES 1 & 2. PES 1 & 2 are rigid games, Football Kingdom is creative freedom. If you can think it up, you can do it in Football Kingdom. I agree the game isn’t perfection and it’s a shame Namco didn’t keep releasing it as a franchise because we could really do with a competitor to EA as I think most people have given up on eFootball at this point.
If you’ve heard of Football Kingdom you’ve probably heard of pretty much every football game from the past so I’m not sure I’m going to be able to suggest something because there isn’t anything new either.
Hmmm, the only thing I can think of that you could try are street football games, Mario football games and that sort of gimmicky thing. Maybe a Ice hockey game? It’s end to end action, you might enjoy them. NHL 94 (think they did a remake of it for PC actually)
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I did play a pretty lot of Fifa 14 (pc-old gen) versionand FIFA 17 too, but now that you mention i did also play FIFA Street and FIFA WC 2010. Those latter two were pretty solid games. But its just too bad none of them i can really convert into a normal league mode with a patch or something. And i think FIFA 14 and 17 were more like a gap fillers for me. Okay games but they did miss many features old PES games had or new games supposed to have.
 
gabe.paul.logan said:
I did play a pretty lot of Fifa 14 (pc-old gen) versionand FIFA 17 too, but now that you mention i did also play FIFA Street and FIFA WC 2010. Those latter two were pretty solid games. But its just too bad none of them i can really convert into a normal league mode with a patch or something. And i think FIFA 14 and 17 were more like a gap fillers for me. Okay games but they did miss many features old PES games had or new games supposed to have.
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I’m not really a fan of Fifa so you know more about those games than I do.
Maybe replay your favourite football game or all time (whatever that is) and look for different types of patches to reinvigorate it.
 
@gabe.paul.logan
After playing pes 3-6 and 20-21. Fifa from fifa 95 to fifa 19, i recently found my sweet spot. Its FIFA 16 with FIP 16 patch. I like physical battle , compact play on small area, player positioning, random events on the pitch, AI behaviour. Player speed its not most important skills. For me gameplay most resembles real match especially when we decrase game speed with mod. Its challenging and give fun after scoring. Biggest flaw in my opinion its too passive cpu play in offensive . Cpu dont make many shots and dont score many goals , even with mods and sliders on Legendary level, but i play on assist . And the FIP patch its updated all the time
 
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Sports games in general are no longer simulations they all seem to be following a pattern of eSports now.

FIFA is basically FIFA Street as skill moves and goals mean fun.

F1 is fun to play but is as far from a simulation as you can get - The single player element has the same computer AI as Spectrum games.
Even Grand Prix 4 has much better AI and simulation features not anywhere present in F1 24.
 
bsmaff said:
Sports games in general are no longer simulations they all seem to be following a pattern of eSports now.

FIFA is basically FIFA Street as skill moves and goals mean fun.

F1 is fun to play but is as far from a simulation as you can get - The single player element has the same computer AI as Spectrum games.
Even Grand Prix 4 has much better AI and simulation features not anywhere present in F1 24.
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It's true most sports games are focused on multiplayer and they're arcade games but NBA 2k24 and The Show are still decent sims offline in single player.
 
Hi @gabe.paul.logan yep it sucks that there are no new good footy games out there.

Thankfully for me I can still enjoy PES2008 the PS2 version, what helps me enjoy it is that I keep it up to date so it is quite satisfying to play with the new players. Apart from the fact that it is a good game against the CPU, I still play it with my older brother and we have the same skill level so the games are always good. I only wish we could play it online because he lives about an hour drive away.

I also recently discovered Outer Wilds (not Worlds) which for me has to be the best game I have played other than footy.

Finally I am also into emulation on the Xbox and quite enjoy playing the odd Commodore 64 game on there :D
 
Nothing. I rarely play any new games in general because most of them don't satisfy me.

Sticking with older fifa and pes games until I eventually get bored of them all and then probably quit football games as a whole. Best to move on sometimes.
 
bsmaff said:
F1 is fun to play but is as far from a simulation as you can get - The single player element has the same computer AI as Spectrum games.
Even Grand Prix 4 has much better AI and simulation features not anywhere present in F1 24.
Click to expand...
Nonsense. The AI in recent F1 games is generally considered to be very good, especially compared to other racing sims.

I mean, this is to be expected considering they only need to optimize 2 types of cars on 25 tracks.
 
Bing Bing Wahoo said:
Nonsense. The AI in recent F1 games is generally considered to be very good, especially compared to other racing sims.

I mean, this is to be expected considering they only need to optimize 2 types of cars on 25 tracks.
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The AI in the codemasters F1 games is absolutely shocking.
They rarely attack they stick to a very strict racing line they are no driving errors - It is what massively lets the game down.
When you overtake them on the inside of a corner they just drive into you as they just glued to a racing line.

Play GP4 or AC or any other driving game and tell me the AI in F1 is still good.
 
Bing Bing Wahoo said:
Nonsense. The AI in recent F1 games is generally considered to be very good, especially compared to other racing sims.

I mean, this is to be expected considering they only need to optimize 2 types of cars on 25 tracks.
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Nope. GP4 has/had better AI and it was more sim than any recent F1 game.
GP4 had a genius as the leader of the development team. Needless to say back then all the devs had the passion to create quality products without cutting corners.
 
First of I believe that still most people in Game Development nowadays are passionate and want to create a quality product. Be it designers, developers, artists or producers.

A lot of them also nowadays grew up with games and having game makers as idols.

Second at the moment I have been enjoying Retro Goal on Switch a lot. I love the idea for a football game with different type of Controls.

Not to mention Bang Average Football which is a very fun football RPG mixed with a Sensible Soccer type game
 
PES4eva said:
I can’t give you any suggestions for new football games because I agree with you, they’re just not particularly great in my opinion also.

I made a poll with the best football games of all time so you could take a look at that, and the ones I didn’t include people mentioned in the thread.
For an alternative football experience with great net physics I’d recommend Football Kingom Trial edition for PS2. The name is confusing because of the “trial” part but it’s a full game. There’s an English patches version available.
Play it on the furthest away camera for best results:

Click to expand...
Damn this looks quite good
 
Wow this thread went off the rails, i realized i should have specified the title more :BLUSH: as most people dont read the first post.
But i actually like how you guys try to recommend games to eachother. We dont have to stick to footy games only.
 
Well, your thread was very specific. Football games are dead so what are you playing? You're lucky you didn't get responses like "I play with myself", "I play Monopoly with my kids", "I play hide and seek with my wife". 😜
 
It is a weird thread.
As it is basically what you been playing this week..

But did he also want to discuss why modern sports games suck? I don't really know - as the what you playing this week is pretty active.
 
I think it is a good thread. :)

This is a PES and FIFA site, so I have always seen the thread “What are playing this week?” As “what are you playing this week apart from PES and FIFA?” not “instead of PES and FIFA”

I saw this thread as “Now that football games are DEAD, what are you playing now that gives you the same buzz that you used to get when you played PES and FIFA?”

I am probably completely wrong but that is how I saw it. :P
 
bsmaff said:
It is a weird thread.
As it is basically what you been playing this week..

But did he also want to discuss why modern sports games suck? I don't really know - as the what you playing this week is pretty active.
Click to expand...
I was looking for “your” most playable footy game 🤔
 
I highly recommend pes 13 with profootball24 patch

It comes with Jenkey’s gameplay tool which makes AI amazing and unpredictable - they dribble, shoot, long ball, short pass, good movement, hell even try and sombrero you

Then i either use jair 31.7.13 exe patcher or Nesa “modern gameplay”

Master league is much more in depth too!

You dont even need the original copy of the game as its now abandonware
 
bsmaff said:
Play GP4 or AC or any other driving game and tell me the AI in F1 is still good.
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Do you mean Assetto Corsa? If yes, I'm at a loss of words because the AI there is absolutely atrocious. They improved it quite a lot in ACC, and even there it's still bad to the point where the game is almost unplayable in single player. There's tons of discussion about that on the Kunos forums.

So yes, I'll still tell you that the AI in recent F1 games is good.
 
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