Best and worst games for create-a-team

[El Scorcho]

I hope this is in the right section.

As a logo/uniform aficionado and someone who has spent considerable time playing sports video games, I spend a lot of time creating teams in everything from Madden to AFL Live.

I always have design ideas in my head before entering the create a team mode, and some games are better than others at letting you fulfill your concepts on screen.

The best series I can recall in this regard is the Pro Evo Soccer series. I haven't played one for a few years, but the layer based uniform builder gave you limitless possibilities and the chance to do something really interesting and unique, or stick with traditional designs and make them look super polished and like they could be real. The ability to add in logos and sponsor logos via a PC meant that you really could create a custom team that looked and felt like any of the real teams in the game.

The NHL games are pretty terrific in this regard and give you a heap of customization options, although sometimes I find the logo choices are a bit limited, but this is true for just about every create-a-team mode in every sports game.

I've been playing NBA 2K12 recently, and the create a team is really frustrating, because instead of having your team or city name written across your chest like 99% of basketball teams ever, you are forced to put a logo there, AND the logos are all garish and really don't look like they belong on the chest of a basketball uniform. So before you even start, you are limited to something that wont look like a basketball uniform at all. Incredibly frustrating. You have zero control over number and lettering font as well. It just seems like a few very minor changes would have made this a pretty good feature. It feels like it was designed by someone with no real knowledge of or appreciation for typical basketball uniforms.

The AFL Live game had a decent create a team, but with the uniforms you had the choice of either using the uniforms of an existing AFL team, or a few preset designs that you could have in a few different preset colour combos. AFL football guernseys have some pretty classic traditional designs that are commonly used, and the preset designs didn't really fit the traditional look very well, as well as having stupid things like shorts that didn't match the guernsey colour, which is pretty unusual for the home strip of an AFL team.

Are there any good create a team modes that i'm missing out on? I've heard good things about Backbreaker, but i've never played it, but it stands to reason that it has good create a team for the same reason the Pro Evo Soccer games have, because of the lack of license and the want for people to be able to create real teams easily.

[raysfan24]

Best in my mind would probably be MLB The Show diamond dynasty create a team feature. You can design a custom logo in the game which is pretty simple actually and you can use masks, layers, etc. You can design every aspect of the uniform also. All the NCAA Football games with TeamBuilder are up there too. You can import custom logos and design the uniforms.

The worst is NBA 2K where you have limited uniform options and like you said above, they slap the logo right on the front which makes it really dumb looking.

[lancealot]

All the madden creat a teams are pretty bad, very few good logos, horribly generic uniform templates, inconsistent colors from uniforms-pants-stripes-numbers and the list goes on

[PhlyBoy]

I really wish there was more in depth create a stadium features in games. Definitely football games (NCAA and Madden) but it'd be retry beat if you could design courts/ice in NHL and NBA games and design parks for MLB. That all will probably never happen but one can dream...

[marble21]

The best series I can recall in this regard is the Pro Evo Soccer series.

For Soccer, look into the old This Is Football games. I think the last version I had was 2005.

Very similar to the Pro Evo format except there were more layers to add and a lot more variations. Only downside was no ability to import images into the game (I had it on PS2 so may be different on PC) for crests and sponsor logos etc.

While they will not provide an accurate a finish as Pro Evo given the lack of proper badges and sponsor, as well as worse graphics from being older games than Pro Evo 2008, at least it is a lot more fun and a lot more actual customisation of the shirt.

[illwauk]

I would put TeamBuilder up there, but the templates are starting to look pretty dated. Although you can still make some pretty good design if you don't just go "paint by numbers" with it and use a little bit of creativity.

[Kevin W.]

TeamBuilder was good when it first started but it hasn't gotten a worthwhile update in years. Plus, the results aren't anything to write home about.

[ksupilot]

EA NHL Team Builder is not bad uniform wise, but I can't stand that you cannot create custom names, and the logos are somewhat limited.

And that they include pretty much every folded team but the Barons. You can use the Barons uniforms as the Stars, but you cannot make the Cleveland Barons in team builder. Oakland Seals, Atlanta Flames, Whalers, Nordiques, Jets...all there.

[shaydre1019]

All pro football (2k) had a pretty good uniform builder.

Pro evo's was great, you could basically import a design, you just had to have it as an image file and stretch it out to fit the whole jersey.

Teambuilder is pretty good.

If you know how to do mods than you will have a field day modding your games. My brothers used to do that on pc and xbox and we created some awesome looks.

[Digby]

Try installing Kitserver with Pro Evo. Then you can literally design kits in Photoshop -- infinite customization!

[PaleVermilion81]

My favorite has been Backbreaker for creating a team. Gameplay aside, you could do anything you want with the logo, put a different version on the helmet and size/scale it exactly how you wanted, and you could also custom design your own endzones. The uniforms themselves weren't that creative, but it was the best for making your own logos/endzones.

[walkerws]

Another program for PC games is TexMod. It allows you to rip the live data textures and change your teams and do some updates to existing and created stadiums.

[El Scorcho]

Ah yes, ksupilot reminded me of the one thing I really hated about the NHL create a team.

Forcing you to choose from a list of team names is one thing, but then having logos without a corresponding team name is really stupid and frustrating. There was a pretty cool Rhino logo that I built my uniforms around, only to go to set my team name and realise there was nothing even close to Rhinos. What's the point of the logo? Shame.

[Old School Fool]

MLB The Show has it for Diamond Dynasty mode. Some great stuff can be made there.

[AlexWilson]

NHL 2K sucked for customization too. You can't even make the uniforms yourself.

[Glover]

Not a uniform creator exactly, but I always loved the NASCAR games back in like 04 or 05 where you can create your own paint schemes. It was damn near perfect. You could choose from like 20 or so different designs, then determine what colors you want each portion of that design to be. Then you could choose from like 50 different sponsors so you can find one to match your color scheme. Overall it gave you a lot of options so you could create the car you wanted, or very close to it.

[burgundy]

I have MLS ExtraTime 2002, which is basically Pro Evo with an MLS license, and I loved the use of layers in uniform creation. It made for so many possibilities. I don't know why more games haven't implemented something similar. Using layers is as good as you can get as far as uniform builders.

[El Scorcho]

So is the great create a team mode in MLB the show just for diamond dynasty mode? From watching some videos on youtube, it looks like exactly the sort of thing I could sink hours into. It's a shame if you can't use it for single player.

[marble21]

So is the great create a team mode in MLB the show just for diamond dynasty mode? From watching some videos on youtube, it looks like exactly the sort of thing I could sink hours into. It's a shame if you can't use it for single player.

Yes.

You can play games against the computer within that mode though. It isn't just online. If that is what you were referring to with the single player part.

[El Scorcho]

Excellent, thanks