Your 2006 Sports Games of the Year

Football: 

NCAA 07 (360) - So new, so pretty and I could never go back to the old playcalling system. Still a bunch of current gen problems carried over (suction blocking, atrocious collision detection, lack of true gang-tackling, etc).  If they can fix some of these issues, tweak the weak areas of the AI, throw in some variety with the camera angles, clean up the horrid weather effects, add all the stadiums, teams and features from the current gen game... You have something truly special for NCAA 08.


Basketball:

CH 2K7 (360) - Even the pre-game warmups are a blast to play. If the EA Football games had 1/16th of the presentation in this game it would be a large step up for them.


Baseball:

MVP 06 (Xbox) - Good start but many, many, many things to work on as I have stated in previous posts.


Hockey:

NHL 2K7 (360) - Only hockey game I own.


Soccer:

Fifa 07 (Xbox) - Much improvement. If Fifa 08 is everything that is in the current gen game, along with the power of the 360, I will be a happy camper.


Other: (Traditional - Golf, Tennis, Rugby, etc)

Tiger Woods 07 (360) - Great game but still some flaws. They need to get to work on a course creator, get the existing course library over 20 next year, fix the short putt animation and difficulty of putting (which is far too easy) just to name a few.


Extreme Sports:

None - Guess nothing was extreme enough for me to enjoy. 


Biggest Surprise:

Tiger Woods 07 (360) and Fifa 07 (Xbox)

Fully customizable controls in both NCAA/Madden 07 (360)


Biggest Disappointment:

MLB 2K6 (Xbox)

Next Gen Menus - Whoever came up with the menus for CH 2K7 (360) needs to be taken outback and flogged. They took the already horrid NBA 2K6/2K7 current gen menus and made it worse. NCAA/Madden 07 (360) menus are right up there in annoying-ville.

Lack of ESPN, or for that matter any presentation on NCAA/Madden07 (360).


Best Sports Game Publisher:

Current Gen (EA Sports) Both Football Games, Rugby06, Fifa07 and MVP06 were solid.

Next Gen (2K Sports) Not by much but they get credit for not stripping their games of features and trying to sell some of them as microtransactions.


Game(s) you anticipate the most in Q1 & Q2 in 2007:

MVP 07, Virtua Tennis 3, WEPES 07


Game(s) you anticipate the most in Q3 & Q4 in 2007:

NCAA 08, CH 2K8


Last but not least
Your Favorite Sports Game of 2006: 

NCAA 07 (360)  but TW07 and CH2K7 are nipping at it's heels

As for NCAA 07 I have to quote Kool & The Gang for my reasoning

She's fresh (fresh) Exciting
She's so excited to me yeah
She's fresh (fresh) Exciting
She's so inviting to me

Football: NCAA '07 Football (360)

I know it's not perfect, but it's gorgeous and fun to play, and it's made me pay attention to real-life college football for the first time ever. My girlfriend was utterly perplexed to find me watching USC vs. UCLA yesterday, followed by a little Hawaii vs. Oregon State.


Basketball: NBA 2K7 (360) by default, really. I just can't hang with basketball games anymore and how long they take to play. Maybe if they came out with a PSP version or instituted something utterly revolutionary for the console versions like, say, IN-GAME SAVES.


Baseball: Definitely MLB '06: The Show. Both versions.


Hockey: NHL '07 (360). I love this game!


Soccer: Winning Eleven 9, natch.


Other: (Traditional - Golf, Tennis, Rugby, etc) Rugby '06 (Xbox) was fun for a while.


Extreme Sports: Um... pass.


Biggest Surprise: TIE - NCAA Football '07 and NHL '07 (360).


Biggest Disappointment: MLB 2K6 (360)


Best Sports Game Publisher: This is difficult to write, but EA Sports. They had a ton of stinkers but put out two games I really dig, which is more than I can say for any other publisher, really.

Last but not least
Your Favorite Sports Game of 2006: MLB '06: The Show