Why would that upset the dad?  Who wouldn’t like the idea of stealing one of their arch-rival’s greatest players?  It’d make more sense if the kid had put Archie Griffin on Michigan.

Well, regardless, I think the NCAA game looks cool, although in all the videos I’ve seen, I’ve had a hard time because I get distracted by the ESPN crawl at the bottom.  The thing that says in big red letters “Upset Alert! Danger, Danger!  Warning, Dr. Smith!” or whatever.  That is great in real life, but in the game it’s just a nuisance.  I don’t care if the simulation has Wyoming beating Alabama or something, and it distracts me from the game I’m playing.

Actually, I think presentation in sports games is overrated.  I used to think it was important, but I gradually realized I’d much rather play a good, realistic simulation of football with a stripped-down presentation than a mediocre game with great presentation.  Presentation is just easier to do, so people fixate on it.

I don’t even care about the announcers at all anymore; I think every game I’ve played has them saying the same lines over and over.  And I don’t blame the people who make the games for that; it’s just inevitable.  (If I get Madden, which I doubt very much I will, I will not play the sound.  I can’t stand Phil Simms’s accent. “Well, Jeeem, the Cincinatt-uh Beeengals can’t run buh-cause the Buffalo Beeels are stoppin’ them.”  Sorry, Simms; don’t take it personally.)

Ultimately, I don’t play sports games to feel like I’m watching a game on TV, I play to feel like I’m, you know, playing in the game.