Are You A Gamer?

Do you play sports video games? For a lot of us sports fans the answer is yes, and we don't even have to hide the fact that we do. We all have our own little man cave area where we play, or should I say waste, untold hours with that game pad in our hands. Whether it be PS3, XBOX,Wii, or Nintendo we all have our favorite games, some of which we have played since childhood. Some would say we never left stage to begin with.
My top 5 favorite sports video games franchises of all time are:
1) Madden NFL Football. Wow what a shock, right? It's not that I have liked each release but as a whole Madden pretty much set the standard for sports gaming. I am not a guy who can just stick a game in the machine and play it. I have to fiddle with sliders and gameplay to make it as close to the real thing as I can. No cheese!! Anyway, Madden comes as close tot he real thing as possible.
2) EA's NCCA Football. Ok, it's really Maddens little bother because they are made by the same company and all the controls are about the same but that's where it ends because the NCAA series captures College Football right down to the mascots and fight songs. I love being able to run the option in a game and you can even recruit players and build your own dynasty! I have played this game and piled up 15 and 20 seasons as a coach. Love it!
3) MLB The Show. Must have some baseball in my video diet and while I think it's the most difficult sport to have accuracy in from a video game there is still nothing like crushing a ball 450 feet off the bat of Josh Hamilton or another slugger. Of course, baseball is a purist sport and the stats are what the game is all about. Baseball video games have a hard time with reality especially with things likes walks, errors and other numbers.
4) The Baseball Mogul. You may not have heard of this one but it's so addictive to play. Baseball Mogul is a complete statistically based game where you are basically the GM of a baseball team (the real teams) and you are in charge of everything from a financial standpoint like player and TV contracts all the way down to the price of a hot dog. It's very deep micro managing and you have to kind of be a numbers nut to appreciate it and you must have an understanding of how to run a baseball team. If you have a star player on the rise do you sign him long term or trade him at just the right time? Pretty cool stuff!
5) Tecmo Bowl. This game came out in 1988 and is still being played! I must have spent weeks in hibernation playing this quirky little football game on my Nintendo with the corny music. In some respects it was better than madden because the game itself was pretty smart and you had to to be really good to have any fun with it. But the downside is this game only had 3 or 4 plays per team and not all the NFL teams were in the game. Still, my fingers are still sore from playing it.