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
Tags:
Saturday, September 6, 2014
09:37 AM - September 6, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
On the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, NHL 15 is essentially NHL 14 with three new announcers plus some tweaks to the puck physics and player collisions.
All of NHL 14's modes and features have returned, except for the EA Sports Arena, where gamers could wager real money in head-to-head online matches.
If you've played the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One demo of NHL 15, you'll immediately miss that version's significantly upgraded skating and stick-handling mechanics, as neither aspect has been improved on the Xbox 360. You'll also notice that NBC Sports' theme music and presentation overlays are oddly absent from the Xbox 360 version, despite the fact that NBC's announcers do replace Gary Thorne and Bill Clement.
Read More - NHL 15: Early Impressions from 360/PS3 Version
Thursday, September 4, 2014
03:15 PM - September 4, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Now that the EA Access trial period has started, Xbox One players have noticed that the list of missing modes and features in next-gen NHL 15 is much larger than previously expected. In a prior interview with Sean Ramjagsingh, some of these were hinted at but not fully disclosed, but the depth of some of the gutted features seems to be larger than initially anticipated. The following items are features which users have noticed are missing while playing the early access to NHL 15 -- keep in mind this information is preliminary and some of these could actually be in the game but well hidden. With just six hours of time to test, it doesn't leave much room to explore:
Modes/Features
- No GM Connected
- No Online Team Play (when this is patched into the game later this year, it will use real NHL players and teams)
- No EA Sports Hockey League
- No EA Sports Arena
- No Online Shootouts
- No Live the Life
- No Be A Legend
- No Winter Classic
- No tournaments or Battle for the Cup
- No season mode (you can only play seasons in Be A GM, which is limited to NHL teams)
- No NHL 94 Anniversary mode
- No custom music support
- No create-a-play designer
- Cannot customize each team's AI
- No create-a-team
- No way to edit individual players
- Practice mode is now limited to one skater vs. an AI goalie
- No custom camera option
- No Action Tracker replay highlights
- No Top 3 Stars at the end of games.
- Yearly draft is fully automated by the CPU
- Cannot play the AHL games for your chosen franchise
- Players sent down to the minors do not accumulate any season stats
- No fantasy draft option
- No preseason games
- No option to sim ahead to the next shift
- You only play in the NHL; you cannot play for minor league teams
- The Memorial Cup tryout period is gone. You now begin by picking an NHL team, or by letting a random CPU team draft you.
- No All-Star game
- Cannot play against your friends
- No tournaments
- No mobile app
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
02:10 PM - September 2, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
If The Golf Club was a wrestling federation, it would be mid-1990s ECW. Both products were born from and designed around the belief that the status quo in their respective industries had become stale and antiquated.
Read More - Is The Golf Club Destined to be the ECW of Sports Games?
Thursday, August 14, 2014
02:27 PM - August 14, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Motorcycle gangs, not too long ago, were racing through America's cities and across its deserts, running over every innocent person or unlucky animal that crossed their path, all while beating up any police officers bold enough to chase after the asphalt outlaws.
Read More - Road Redemption: Alpha Build Impressions
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
01:58 PM - August 13, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
During the NHL portion of Electronic Arts' Gamescom press conference, a brief screen flash revealed the 10 North American and European hockey leagues that will be represented in NHL 15:
North America
National Hockey League (NHL)
American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Western Hockey League (WHL)
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
Europe
Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL)
Finnish Elite League (Liiga)
Czech Extraliga (ELH)
Swedish Hockey League (SHL)
Swiss National League (NLA)
All of these leagues were present in NHL 14, so hockey fans should be relieved to know that no licensing partners were lost this year, as was the case in FIFA 15.
The bad news for Russian gamers is that their country's top league, the KHL, remains absent from EA's hockey series. Popular Russian athletes like Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Radulov should at least be playable and tradable, assuming that NHL 15 still features roster editing, and still offers its usual selection of Olympic national teams.
EA has been reluctant to release any information regarding NHL 15's game modes, so we still don't know how, exactly, you'll be able to use these leagues in NHL 15. NHL 14 let gamers select any league they wanted to inside Season Mode, but the game would not allow your Be A Pro character to play anywhere outside North America.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
As its plain title implies, Pure Pool contains no fancy trick competitions, no goofy avatars, no shot-power indicator and no cheating overhead camera to let players perfectly align hit after hit. At all times, your view remains realistically limited to a first-person perspective, and while players can stand up on their tiptoes, or even walk around the table by holding the square button, a lot of guesswork is required when lining up successful shots.
Unless, of course, you choose to play on the lowest difficulty setting, “Amateur,” which makes full path predictors visible -- both for the blank cue ball and for the numbered balls you're targeting. On “Pro” and “Master” difficulties, though, your own eyesight and angle judgment are the only tools you'll have for predicting ball collisions, as the spoilerific trajectory arrows become significantly shortened, making long-distance and sharp-angled shots a true test of skill. Escaping cue ball traps and sinking tricky side-pocket shots feels extremely satisfying on these settings, just as missing easy tap-in opportunities will have you shaking your fists and screaming curse words at the screen.
Read More - Pure Pool Review (PS4)
Thursday, July 31, 2014
04:39 PM - July 31, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
One track, named UEFA Champions League 2006–2007, sent gamers on a card-collecting quest, with the goal of building a five-star team of superstar soccer players.
The other trail, titled All-Pro Football 2K8, felt more like a recess game of football, where two talented captains picked their supporting casts from a lineup of flawed role players, each inhibited by multiple shortcomings, but blessed with one or two specialized skills.
The videogame business, naturally, took the road more easily monetized -- spawning fantasy team modes like Ultimate Team, My Team and Diamond Dynasty, which were not primarily designed to be fun, but instead, to test gamers' purchasing patience and spending self-control.
Read More - The Psychology Behind Ultimate Team's Success
Friday, July 18, 2014
11:50 AM - July 18, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Just as longtime football fans struggle to stop Lawrence Taylor from rushing through their minds every time Joe Theismann pops up on television (these days, to promote cures for a broken prostate), it has become equally hard for seasoned sports gamers to hold back thoughts of NFL 2K any time its old nemesis, Madden NFL, releases another hype trailer or holds another cover vote.
Forever, these football icons will be linked, primarily because of a privately cheered, publicly booed 2004 contract, in which the NFL (playing the role of Harry Carson) and Electronic Arts (standing in as the original L.T.) struck a long-term, exclusive partnership that effectively ended Visual Concepts' career in creating pro football videogames.
Read More - Why The NFL 2K Series Was Truly Great And Why You Should Miss It
Monday, July 7, 2014
04:13 PM - July 7, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Over 82 million people owned the original Wii Sports, a number that trails only Tetris on video games' all-time best-seller list.
The question Nintendo is now asking, by releasing a high-definition, online-enabled update of its iconic, motion-controlled mini-game collection, is how many people are looking to pay $40, 8 years later, for essentially the same games?
Read More - Wii Sports Club Review (Wii U)
Thursday, June 26, 2014
09:51 AM - June 26, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
You can't buy FIFA 15 yet, so should you buy FIFA 14?
If World Cup fever has you itching to buy a soccer video game, you may be wondering if now is a smart time to pick up FIFA 14, with FIFA 15's release just three months away.
Right now, you can find used copies of FIFA 14 for $30 to $40, depending on your preferred gaming platform.
Even if you plan to buy FIFA 15 when it releases on September 23, you'll still be able to sell your copy of FIFA 14 and get $20 to $30 back, using popular websites like Amazon and eBay.
So does paying $30 to $40 for a game that's soon to be outdated -- or even $10 to $20 for a "three-month rental" -- make sense?
Read More - The Cure For Your World Cup Fever: FIFA 14?
Sunday, June 22, 2014
03:24 PM - June 22, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Pittsburgh developer, Crosse Studios, has partnered with Australian publisher, Big Ant Studios, to pitch a new lacrosse video game for the Xbox, PlayStation and PC.
Lacrosse 15's Indiegogo project, which closes on July 10, has currently raised over $35,000 of its $75,000 goal, courtesy of 345 donors. If the stretch goal of $115,000 is reached, the game will also release on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, in addition to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Lacrosse fans can pledge their pre-orders towards the PC version for $25, the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version for $55, and the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 version for $65.
If Lacrosse 15 reaches its $75,000 target, the game will enter an eight-month development cycle, with plans to produce the following features:
Quote:
| Quick Game -- "Choose from hundreds of customizable teams and players." Dynasty Mode -- "Negotiate player scholarships, sign sponsors, hire top-flight coaching staff and set intense training programs to build the ultimate team." Online Multiplayer -- "Our engine is built from the ground up with online gaming in the forefront. Quickly pick up the game for competitive ranked play, or run a top-tier franchise with your friends through Dynasty Connect. Play competitively in ranked/unranked matches or in mini-games. Earn badges and rise to the top of the leaderboards." Character Creation - "Create teams and players in the fully featured Lax Academy and share them online. The Lax Academy opens up endless customization options, from the players' height, weight, skin and physique to their facial features and hairstyles. Equipment selection allows for customization of helmets, jerseys, shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, stick shafts, stick heads, war paint, socks and shoes." |
Xbox 360 lacrosse fans have likely already played one of Sunseri's five previous console lacrosse games, which were built with Microsoft's XNA engine, and released through the system's underpublicized Indie Games channel.
Crosse Studios' previous crowdfunding attempt, completed in November 2013, raised $120,725 from 1,157 supporters, but did not meet its $210,000 goal.
Lacrosse 15's lead producer, Carlo Sunseri, was a three-time captain on Robert Morris University's lacrosse team, where he also served as an assistant coach for nine years.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
03:02 PM - June 19, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Yesterday, developer RedLynx released a version 1.04 title update across all editions of Trials Fusion. The patch fixes a few glitches, improves the game's stability and brings back the single-player tournament mode from 2012's Trials Evolution.
The complete change log includes:
All Platforms
- Removed the "FMX speed boost exploit," where riders could gain an unintended speed boost by performing certain freestyle tricks
- Fixed additional issues regarding the PlayStation 4 Season Pass.
- Resolved some issues regarding Uplay connectivity
- Added a number of stability fixes to the track editor
- Several improvements to texture and graphics issues
- A number of fixes and improvements to Track Central
- Some of the best user-made tracks have been spotlighted in Track Central
- Demo added to Xbox One marketplace.
- PC-specific stability improvements and optimizations
- New options for users to tweak the graphic settings (foliage, particles)
- Mouse cursor now disappears when using the gamepad
Wednesday's patch marks Trials Fusion's first significant content update since its mid-April release on PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Single-player tournaments, a feature familiar to fans of Trials HD and Trials Evolution, will challenge players to complete a set number of courses in a row. These tournaments recycle existing career mode tracks, though the events themselves are scheduled to rotate every day.
Online multiplayer, which is still being advertised on the back of Trials Fusion's box art, remains absent from the game.
Gamers who paid an extra $20 for Trials Fusion's Season Pass also have nothing to show for it at the moment, aside from the "hazmat suit" rider outfit that was available on release day.
The Season Pass, which promises "six content packs before May 2015," plans to include "unique tracks and editor objects." No further details have been revealed, aside from a "summer" start time.
For a complete analysis of the Trials series' next-gen debut, check out Operation Sports' full written review.
Are you still playing Trials Fusion? If not, has yesterday's update revived your interest in diving back in? Share your interest level in the comment section below.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
12:22 PM - June 17, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Last week's Electronic Entertainment Expo was designed to showcase the yearly lineups of billion-dollar publishers like Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive. Undaunted by those behemoths' presence, three small developers brought alternative sports titles to E3 (and its Scottish equivalent), demoing their latest prototypes to the media...
Read More - E3 Roundup: Indie Sports Games
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
10:56 AM - June 3, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Do you really need another Mario Kart? After appearing on every significant Nintendo system since 1992, most gamers likely own at least one Mario Kart cartridge, disc or eShop download.
If that's true of your collection, then “Nope.” could be your answer -- especially if you're the kind of player who prefers to race solo, or loves popping balloons in Battle Mode, because Mario Kart 8 does those things about as well as Princesses Peach's servants do their guard duty.
On the flip side, if you were upset when, two weeks ago, Nintendo suddenly pulled the plug on Mario Kart Wii's and Mario Kart DS' online servers, your answer will be a resounding "Yes!" as Mario Kart 8's lag-free, 12-person network play is worth shelling out another $60, just to replace that non-functioning component of your old copies.
And if, somehow, you don't have access to any existing Mario Kart -- not even on friends' or neighbors' televisions -- then this eighth edition should still elicit a slightly less enthusiastic "Yes."
Read More - Mario Kart 8 Review (Wii-U)
Saturday, May 31, 2014
12:56 PM - May 31, 2014. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Jayson Young
Their absences won't be a result of injury or retirement, which are currently the only ways an athlete's services can be lost in Madden NFL 25.
Instead, commissioner-mandated suspensions will likely keep four of the NFL's star players from competing during -- and beyond -- the league's opening weekend.
Suspensions for unlawful off-the-field behavior continue to dominate sports news, yet they still do not exist in licensed sports video games.
Read More - Suspensions Should Exist in Sports Video Games
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