A Line in the Polygonal Sand

As much as I love the sport of football, I am as of this post refusing to ever buy another football videogame. I just don't enjoy the current offerings as much in reality as I do in theory. I've recently purchased Madden 2006 for the Playstation Portable and Blitz: The League for the Xbox and after roughly three or so hours with each, all i can say is that I want them out of my collection immediately.

Oh, sure, they're really shiny and fun when you first pop them in. And they look great on paper and they both carry fancy screenshots on the box and snazzy marketing slogans. But are they fun? No. In fact, they're quite the opposite. Madden 2006 on the PSP is entirely too slow, too buggy, and too awkward to be enjoyed. And then there's Blitz: The League. Funny, I thought I was actually getting a football game. Now, I know that it's going to be an arcadey experience -- and I was actually looking forward to it -- but not only does the game feel nothing like the sport of football, there's so much crap getting in the way of the game that it's almost impossible to root through the obstructions and get out on the field. And once there, the game simply falls apart into repetitive, yawn-inducing, gameplay.

I do, however, enjoy the NFL Street series of games and did spend a considerable amount of time with this year's second installment in the series. But if there was a third game to release anytime soon, I won't be buying it.

Looking over my collection of games and taking note of what I play the most often and what collects the most dust, I must confess: I apparently am not much of a sports gamer. I'm a total sports-junkie in the real world, but when it comes to sports videogames, you can keep them. In fact, please do.