Like watching a scary movie or listening to a particularly stirring piece of music, video games can illicit real emotions from their audience. The tingly fear that claws at you while creeping through Dead Space; the sense of dread that gripped you the first time a world-destroying Reaper loomed into view in Mass Effect; untamed adrenalin that runs through you when you're in the middle of another Battlefield firefight - if you think about it, it's these feelings that make us come back for more. Sports games, while usually without fear or soul-crushing dread, can be as emotive as any other genre, and often in very unique ways. Some sports are inherently gushing with adrenalin - the fight or flight mechanism of an MMA encounter, for example, will have the hairs standing up on the back of your neck. Other scenarios, like a hard-earned goal in a trophy-deciding football match, may conjure a flood of elation, or perhaps the serenity of a quiet snowy mountainside for a snowboarder. Each sport evokes a feeling of some sort. Likewise, the games based on these sports are meant to do the same. But that's not always the case - some become so bogged down in complex gameplay mechanics, stats, flashy presentation and the rest, that the essence of the sport becomes an afterthought. Some of the biggest franchises in gaming have become bloated and cumbersome, trying hard to be bigger and better every year, often losing focus in the process. There are games, however, which got it right. Games which came as close as is reasonably possible to capture the soul of the sport they are representing. And these are the games we've rounded up here - not necessarily the biggest titles, top sellers, or most detailed recreations of their sports, but those which affected us on some deeper level. Sometimes it's just one element of the game, in other examples it's the overall feel of the game, but all the titles here made an impact in their own way...
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
