Sport Sims Need To Stop Offering Story Modes

thegamer.com:

Sport has always been a natural born storyteller. How many times have you heard a commentator say "you just couldn't write this!"? Admittedly, it often comes after a fairly typical last minute goal or things to that effect, but sometimes, you just couldn't write it. While sporting biopics continue to offer rich soil, the fact is sport is so spectacular because it is so absolutely real and yet so absolutely impossible to believe at once. Sports sims keep trying to wedge in narrative modes, but the fact is they can never come close to replicating the real thing. The stories we write ourselves are so much better than the ones we act out.

Let's take a look at some recent examples. Recency bias is definitely in play here, but the two Champions League semi finals played out on Tuesday and Wednesday might be two of the best the competition has ever seen. In the first, Liverpool have one foot in the final, going into the game with a comfortable 2-0 lead over the biggest underdogs the semi finals have seen for a decade in Villareal. The team suddenly, inexplicably, implodes, and by half time the tie is level at 2-2 and Liverpool are there for the taking. Three quick goals after the break following some truly horrific goalkeeping, and it's 5-2, sayonara, roll on the quadruple.

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If Liverpool had one foot in the final, Man City had everything but their little finger. 85 minutes gone, City have a two goal lead. Pep, in his infinite efforts to control and overthink elite European matches, has already taken off Kevin De Bruyne, City's one major magician in a team of efficient technicians. On then comes Jack Grealish, the magician-in-waiting once he can learn to play