The nominees for Best Sports Game of 2010 are…
A brief preamble…
As soon as we revealed our list of PSU 2010 Game Award nominees and opened up community voting, we realized that we made one questionable judgment. Out of the five nominees for Best Sports Games of 2010, one game didn’t fit in. Skate 3, an individual sports game, represents a wholly divergent spectrum of design than the other four team sports titles. After extensive discussion and debate, we were able to select our favorite team sports game — NBA 2K11 — but we gridlocked on the internal vote on Best Sports Game overall. Somehow, that seemed appropriate.
And the winners are…
Haters beware – don’t dis a game until you try it. FIFA 11 may have won the user vote, and we agree it is a great game, but Visual Concepts’ NBA 2K11 is just too good to pass up for Best Team Sports Game of 2010. It isn’t just Michael Jordan gracing the cover, the fact he was playable, or the numerous career-spanning “Jordan Challenges” that make 2K11 truly worthy of the top spot on our list; rather, Visual Concepts and 2K Sports dramatically improved the series’ controls (which were admittedly quite complicated to master at first), giving players more of a “hands on” approach to the gameplay. The complexity of the controls make NBA 2K11 the most authentic simulation of basketball to date. Meanwhile, the visuals are so strong that it’s hard to tell if you’re watching a televised NBA match or an actual video game. The game is so good that it effectively eliminated EA Sports’ NBA Elite 11 (make your own call on that statement).
EA clearly did a few things right this year, though, since EA Black Box’s Skate 3 is the Best Individual Sports Game of 2010. On all levels, it offers an an extraordinary representation of skateboarding. With lead development on the PlayStation 3, Skate 3 looks and runs like a dream, unlike the first two Skate iterations. It captures the look and feel of the skating perfectly, from the silky smooth skater animations to the skating companies’ board graphics. The game offers three difficulty (physics) levels — Easy, Normal, and Hardcore (most realistic) — effectively side-stepping the steep learning curve of Skate 1 and 2. For master players, Hardcore is as close to real skateboarding as it gets. There are plenty of races, competitions, events, and general missions in Skate 3, but the game’s biggest draw is the giant skating sandbox of Port Carverton. You’ll almost certainly most of your Skate 3 play-time just roaming around, skating spots as you find them. The game understands and encourages such exploration; the state of ‘flow’ you’ll achieve playing Skate 3 is unparalleled. Endlessly replayable and entertaining, Skate 3 is the best skateboarding video game ever, and one of the Best Sports Games this past year.
And the Community Award goes to…
Wow, we guess football really is the most popular sport. No, not the American type — we’re talking soccer here. EA’s FIFA 11 stole the show in the community vote for Best Sports Game of 2010, with over half of voter support with 51.9% of the total votes. Everything else was pretty split; NBA 2K11 bounced into second with 16.0%, NHL 11 budged its way to third with 12.3%. and Skate 3 hung on with 11.1%. MLB 10: The Show struck out with a meager 8.6% of the votes.
Agree? Disagree? Voice your opinion in the comment section below.
…or return to the MASTER LIST — PlayStation Universe 2010 Game Awards
Our unbiased editorial team selected all PlayStation Universe 2010 Game Award nominees and recipients. The PSU.com community voted on each group of nominees to determine the Community Award(s) for each category. Only games available on a PlayStation platform (PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2) were eligible for a PlayStation Universe 2010 Game Award.