Author Bio
Jayson YoungHome Town: Nashville, TN.
Sports: Football, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer
Games: Old: Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball, Tecmo Super Bowl III: Final Edition, NBA Hangtime, New: All Pro Football 2K8, NHL '09
Teams: Vanderbilt Commodores, Tennessee Titans, Nashville Predators, Memphis Grizzlies
OS Username: OS: wEEman33 Xbox Live: wEEman33 BSD
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Tuesday, December 9, 2014
04:26 PM - December 9, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
This week's PlayStation Network sale, which runs through December 15, discounts several PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 sports games:
If you use PayPal to add $60 to your PlayStation account's wallet before December 16, Sony will send you a bonus $10 PSN voucher code via email, which should reach your inbox by December 23. The voucher code must then be redeemed before it expires at 12:00 AM PST on January 23.
Operation Sports has reviewed all of the on-sale games except for Pure Chess, so click the appropriate link below if you're interested in reading up on any of these titles:
Don Bradman's Cricket 14 Review
Football Manager 2014 Review
NBA Live 15 Review
Pure Pool Review
R.B.I. Baseball 14 Review
Trials Fusion Review
10:09 AM - December 9, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
PR isn't my specialty, but here are some sample announcements Electronic Arts could have made yesterday that might have justified their marketers' month-long buildup to the "New Era" of NHL 15, which went live Monday evening...
Read More - NHL 15 Leaves Fans Disappointed Again with Overhyped 'New Era' Announcement
Saturday, November 29, 2014
12:43 PM - November 29, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Electronic Arts recently emailed select NHL 15 owners a survey that asks for feedback on this year's game and attempts to judge fans' interest in a few potential features for NHL 16.
Forum user NJDEVIL30274 posted a cell phone screen capture of the survey on Electronic Arts' official forums, showing some of the new features that the company is considering:
GM Connected, the 180-player online franchise mode that debuted in NHL 13 and was dropped from the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One editions of NHL 15, is disappointingly absent from this list. Though given EA's statements on the mode's metrics during a public Q&A that was conducted back in August, its absence is perhaps expected.
It's no surprise, either, to see Ultimate Team receiving so much attention, since EA continues to tout it as the series' most-played mode. Recent earnings reports have placed Hockey Ultimate Team's year-over-year digital revenue gains at 50% and 113% for the first two fiscal quarters of 2015.
The return of the EA Sports Hockey League (which also brings in digital revenue via paid attribute boosts) seems inevitable, and will likely win back some fans who skipped NHL 15. Rebuilding old modes from past titles, however, may not be enough to reverse the franchise's negative momentum in North America, where retail sales have decreased every season since NHL 11.
Surely EA will have some bigger surprises to share with its fanbase by the time E3 arrives next June.
Friday, November 28, 2014
11:15 AM - November 28, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
With the help of NHLView, an unofficial roster editor built by independent programmer Artem Khassanov, NHL 15 fans have uncovered the full attribute ratings for most of the game's retired legends.
Electronic Arts added 13 Hall of Famers (pictured above) to Ultimate Team on November 10, but to date, the company has failed to make these players viewable in NHL 15's official roster sorter, or usable in any outside game modes.
So if you're wondering whether or not these special edition cards are worth the thousands of coins they command on Ultimate Team's auction block, Operation Sports has gathered this information to help gamers become more informed buyers.
Read More - NHLView Unveils Full Attributes to NHL 15 Legends
Friday, November 21, 2014
11:07 AM - November 21, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Now 19 games into his 2014-2015 season, the 22 points tallied by Nashville Predators rookie Filip Forsberg currently tie Steven Stamkos and Phil Kessel for the fourth-highest total in the National Hockey League. Forsberg's +20 on-ice rating leads the NHL, placing five pluses ahead of the second-place skater, Vladimir Tarasenko.
It's been 10 weeks since NHL 15 launched, yet in the game, Forsberg remains the worst player in the Predators' lineup, tied with fourth-line grinder, Taylor Beck, for a team-low 77 overall rating.
Read More - NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Player Ratings Since Launch
Saturday, November 15, 2014
11:28 AM - November 15, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Nearly half of the Wii U's 7.29 million owners have purchased Mario Kart 8, which by September's end, had sold 3.49 million copies, according to Nintendo's latest earnings report.
Naturally, the company is now looking to extract additional revenue from its successful kart racer's sizable player base. So far, Nintendo has announced two packs of paid downloadable content, with the first bundle going live Wednesday, November 13, and the second batch arriving in May 2015.
Read More - Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack 1 Review
Friday, November 14, 2014
10:47 AM - November 14, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Are you tired of playing hockey games where the puck seems superglued onto skaters' sticks? Have you ever wished that stick handling and shooting required more skill than simply touching one button? Do you dislike how easy overhead cameras have made it to pinpoint open passing and shooting lanes? Are you bored of dominating simplistic AI that never adjusts to your tactics and follows the same easy-to-beat routines every single shift? If so, you should try Hockey?, a free multiplayer-only PC game created by Cryptic Sea.
Read More - Hockey? Prototype Offers A Free First-Person, Physics Based Game on PC
Friday, November 7, 2014
07:18 PM - November 7, 2014. Posted by Steve_OS. Written by Jayson Young
Saturday is the final day to take advantage of Best Buy's ongoing Gamers Club Unlocked sign-up deal. As part of its weekly circular ad, the retailer is offering a complimentary two-year GCU subscription (a $120 value) when you purchase any cell phone in the same transaction. Your selected phone doesn't need to come with a contract, nor does it have to be activated, per the ad's fine print:
"Offer includes no-contract phones without activation needed."
Some of the cheapest cell phones in the store include:
TracFone LG 440G -- $5 after a price-match with Kmart's or Radioshack's weekly ad.
NET10 SIM Activation Kit -- $7
The latter is not actually a phone, but rather, a sim card. Nonetheless, Best Buy's promotion still recognizes it as a cell phone once it's scanned at the register.
You must visit your local Best Buy to take advantage of this deal, since Gamers Club memberships can only be activated from inside a store. If you're already a member, a two-year extension will automatically be added onto your current expiration date.
If you're having trouble finding a blue Gamers Club sign-up card to bring to the register, simply ask a cashier if he or she has one that you can use. Even if the employees fail to find a sign-up card, you can still have the cashier type in the card's SKU 3081375.
If you don't have any use for your new phone(s), consider donating to a local charity, or to a charitable program like Cell Phones For Soldiers.
Check out this chart below for the full list of Gamers Club Unlocked benefits:
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
11:20 AM - November 4, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
The latest patch finally stabilized NBA 2K15's troublesome MyPark mode and fixed the frequent dashboard crashes that had been disrupting online sessions since release day.
But even now, with MyPark mostly working as intended, the overall experience remains more frustrating than fun.
Developer Visual Concepts seems insistent on distancing this mode from expected "competitive online multiplayer" norms like pre-game lobbies and identical team uniforms. Yet MyPark's inefficient match-finding system and style-over-function design fail to justify all these unnecessary deviations from online gaming's traditions.
Read More - NBA 2K15's MyPark Needs Traditional Lobbies and Matchmaking
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
12:54 PM - October 22, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
My familiar team of five had been waiting since August for this day, when Online Team Play would finally be patched into the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of NHL 15.
Yet last night, none of my longtime EASHL teammates came home with a new copy of NHL 15, after learning that we could not join the same lobby or send each other match invitations in this "next-gen" version of Online Team Play.
Wasn't that the whole point of Online Team Play, to begin with -- you and your boys challenging cliques from around the world? I thought so, but apparently, EA Canada thought otherwise.
Read More - NHL 15's Online Team Play is a Rushed, Incomplete Mess
Thursday, October 16, 2014
04:55 PM - October 16, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
The 2014-2015 NHL season is now a week old.
The NHL's only console videogame, Electronic Arts' NHL 15, currently features rosters that are six weeks old.
September 3 is the last time that NHL 15's rosters were updated, leaving many NHL teams with missing players, incorrect lines, wrong jersey numbers, unaccounted for injuries, and in the case of the St. Louis Blues, outdated uniforms.
Simply pick an NHL team, and you're bound to discover several significant inaccuracies in their NHL 15 lineup; for example:
Only centers John Tavares and Brock Nelson have put up more points for the 3-0 New York Islanders than defenseman Johnny Boychuk. But if you want to launch bombs from the point with Boychuk in NHL 15, you'll have to use his old team, the Boston Bruins, because their October 4 trade with the Islanders still isn't reflected.
The Nashville Predators' points leader, Filip Forsberg, remains stuck on the Predators' minor league affiliate (the Milwaukee Admirals), preventing him from being used in Online Versus Play.
Significant injuries to first-line players like Evander Kane, Pavel Datsyuk, and Mike Fisher don't show up in Online Versus Play, either.
On the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, NHL 15 has already received several gameplay tuners and two title updates, including one that even patched in an offline Playoff mode.
The popular Ultimate Team mode also continues to release special "Player of the Game" and "Team of the Week" cards on a regular basis, and offer one or two "Mega Pack" promotions per week.
Yet a basic roster update, which would entail trading a few players, signing some free agents, calling up the correct prospects, accounting for recent injuries, and setting the right lines, is still missing from NHL 15.
The official explanation from NHL 15 producer, Sean Ramjagsingh, is that a roster update "is being worked on," and that developers "had to wait for all the rookies to play a shift before we could put them in."
Even with those rookies' legal issues in mind, couldn't the hundreds of returning NHL veterans have been fixed for the league's opening week?
As of today, every NHL franchise has played between two to five games, leaving gamers wondering what the holdup is at this point.
Update: EA has officially responded with a tweet mentioning a roster update is coming soon.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
02:49 PM - October 9, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
While trying to play NBA 2K15 over the past two days, I've seen that error message more than I've seen my created point guard on the court.
I've shot about 30 different face scans, not because of a poorly-lit apartment, or because of any perfectionist compulsions, but because NBA 2K15 has a terrible habit of deleting your My Player profile if a store transaction fails or the game's servers go down.
And since Tuesday, Visual Concepts' network -- despite having the company's "top engineers" working on it -- has been down more than it's been up.
You won't lose any of your player's upgrades or his career progress when you encounter those errors, but you will have to re-enter all of his information again, including his face scan.
Aside from being repeatedly bugged to "fill the window with your face," or "check your internet connection and try again," here is what stands out from playing My Career in NBA 2K15...
Read More - NBA 2K15's MyCAREER Has a Rough Start, Shows Promise
Thursday, September 25, 2014
10:54 AM - September 25, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
1. Play low-rated National teams
After opening the starter pack, you're going to have a mediocre goaltender and only one decent line on offense and defense, so you'll want to begin your HUT career by playing a few “Solo” games against the computer to build up your puck balance. Beating terrible National teams like Great Britain, France, Italy, et al. on “Superstar” difficulty will guarantee around 1,000 to 1,200 pucks per win.
Users who are skilled enough to consistently beat the computer on “Superstar” should consider building an all-bronze lineup of castaways to continue earning pucks from exhibition games without wasting any contracts on important NHL players.
Read More - A Dozen Tips to Make Your NHL 15 Ultimate Team Experience As Good As It Can Be
10:44 AM - September 25, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
“Of course Ultimate Team made it in.”
Internet comment sections were filled with that sentiment once it became clear that NHL 15 would be missing many of its traditional modes and features on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
But much like the Columbus Blue Jackets barely making it into the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs before floundering in the first round, Ultimate Team's mere presence in NHL 15 is the only positive thing that can be said about the latest card-collecting fad.
The mode's present performance deserves no trophy, and certainly won't be bringing any titles back to Electronic Arts' Burnaby studio, except for the infamy of being the worst Ultimate Team experience in sports gaming.
Read More - NHL 15's Tough Season Continues, Has Big Issues in Ultimate Team
Thursday, September 11, 2014
10:46 AM - September 11, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
If the long list of things that NHL 15 doesn't have on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 got you thinking about buying the game for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, be forewarned: Though NHL 15 retains every mode and feature from last year's title (minus the retired EA Sports Arena), the only enhancements it offers over NHL 14 are updated rosters, new announcers, some subtle tweaks to Be A GM's prospect progression, and slight improvements to puck physics and player collisions.
Almost everything else appears to be a copy-and-paste job from last year's source code, which means that the game's many on-ice issues cannot be saved by community rosters or by custom sliders.
Read More - NHL 15 Review (360/PS3)
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