Game Breaker/Video Games/Sports Game: Difference between revisions

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* In many sports games, especially American football games, there are money plays that work 99% of the time against the computer. For example, in the Madden series, curl routes against a CPU defender in man-to-man coverage is an easy completion.

** Likewise, any kind of play action rollout which targets a tight end running a post corner route. Man-to-man coverage is almost useless, and if you keep the QB moving the same direction as the TE, any defender in zone coverage will peel off and head for the QB, leaving the TE undefended for a quick pass. Unless the defense brings the house in on a blitz, this play is almost always a guaranteed completion, for at least ten yards at minimum, and if the TE breaks free of his coverage, he can cover 20-30 yards along the sideline easily.

** Don't forget Christian Okoye (same game, same website). If his condition was good enough, most defenders literally couldn't even ''touch'' him.

*** Tecmo Super Bowl had a LOT of these, actually. Jerry Rice would catch nearly 100% of all balls thrown his way. QB Eagles (Randall Cunningham) was one of the fastest players in the game and also had superior passing abilities. Worst of all, though, was Lawrence Taylor, who was such a dominant pass rusher he could get to the QB at the same time as the ball, leading to an instant sack 99% of the time.

* Madden 08, on the PC at least, has a couple of huge game breakers in its franchise mode. The first has to do with the draft: early in the season, before the trading deadline, the player can trade their first-round draft pick for any other team's first-round pick. It doesn't matter if the player picks last in the round, and they're trading with a winless team who may wind up with the first-overall pick, they always make the trade, and will throw in two extra picks. Depending on the team, you may get their picks in rounds 1-3, or in rounds 1,2, and 4. So with that #32 pick in the first round, you can get a pick in the top 10, plus two other high-round picks. This works every season, so there's no draft-position penalty associated with on-field success. Especially since at draft time, teams will offer a first- or second-round pick for every pair of picks in rounds 1-6. It's not uncommon to draft five players in the first two rounds and one in the seventh, year after year, guaranteeing that every draft loads the team with eventual Pro-Bowlers. The second game breaker is triggered after several successful seasons, either a certain number of Super Bowl victories or undefeated seasons. All veterans' "awareness" rankings will shoot up to 99 during the offseason. Once this happens to a franchise, it's rare that they will ever lose a game again.

** Thankfully, the modders managed to fix most of this stuff on the PC. The in-season trading, however, was not fixed and will never be.

* Triple Play 98. The Oakland Athletics had a pitcher, Richie Lewis, who (aside from being a short pitcher at 5'6) was rather unremarkable. He threw a mediocre fastball (88-90 range)... and a few other pitches (such as the slider) at between 111-120 mph. To put this into perspective, one should realize the fastest fastball (with almost no movement) was only 105 mph.

* The entire offseason in ''MVP Baseball 2005'' was completely broken, in that if a player was considered a free agent come offseason time, it was trivially possible to 100% guarantee they would sign with your team, leaving you with a full team of the best free agents on the market. Not helping matters any was a [[Good Bad Bug]] that allowed you to completely disregard another team's higher offer and sign the players you wanted for their minimum asking price, which was already lower than normal for players of their caliber. Even if the free agent market happens to be dry, simple [[Save Scumming]] can fix that.

* Playing ''FIFA'' online, equipping two pacey strikers (or indeed a pacey winger with a striker) means that most players can skip past defences, force the goalkeeper to run out, and pass it through to the other striker for an effortless goal - since the goalkeeper will, by this point, be on the opposite side of the box. Such a tactic is often done in spite or by those not good enough to score better goals. Or indeed those willing to look like a dickhead to win.