EA Sports College Football 27 by developer EA Tiburon and publisher Electronic Arts—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
EA Sports College Football 27 - PS5 Review
Want to Manage Your Own Team? You Can in Esports Manager 2026 Launching on July 6!
KRAKOW, Poland – June 8, 2026 | Following its launch date reveal during IGN Live, Esports Manager 2026 from Neurona Games and indie.io is preparing to enter the competitive arena on July 6, 2026, via Steam.
Esports Manager 2026 puts players in control of every aspect of a professional esports organization. Recruit promising talent, negotiate sponsorship deals, manage finances, and build the infrastructure needed to compete at the highest level. Every decision, from roster signings to staff hires, can shape a season, define a legacy, or send an organization into decline.
Whether taking charge of an established powerhouse or building a new contender from scratch, players must balance player development, team morale, financial stability, and competitive success while navigating the pressures of the modern esports industry.
Key Features:
- Build and manage a professional esports organization
- Scout, recruit, and develop future esports stars
- Negotiate contracts, sponsorships, and financial investments
- Manage player relationships, morale, and team chemistry
- Hire support staff to strengthen organizational performance
- Make strategic decisions during simulated matches and tournaments
- Featuring real esports personalities, commentators, analysts, and industry veterans including @neLendirekt, @BanKsEsports, @PiNGCasts, @teddcs_, @bit1, @TravCS, @Ne0Kai, @ale_apoka, and more
Players can jump into the recently overhauled Steam demo today, featuring extensive updates based on community feedback. The latest version has earned a Very Positive recent review rating from players, offering an early look at the systems, strategy, and pressures awaiting aspiring esports managers.
Esports Manager 2026 will launch on PC via Steam on July 6th. For more information, follow @esportsmanager on X, join the game’s official Discord server, and wishlist the game on Steam.
About indie.io
indie.io is home to over 100 of the world’s best independent video games and developers. Our platform was built to provide independent developers with the resources, services, and management tools needed for success. Through collaboration and passion, we strive to cultivate a diverse and vibrant gaming landscape that resonates with players and creators alike!
About Neurona Games
Founded in 2019 by the dynamic duo of Andrii Chupyr and Bohdan Buiak, fueled by their shared passion for gaming and a commitment to innovation, the entrepreneurial team set out to redefine the gaming landscape. From its humble beginnings, Neurona Games has rapidly evolved into a powerhouse of creativity and technological prowess. Find out more on their official website.
Article by: Susan N.
PLAY BALL - 'SPEEDBALL' HITS CONSOLES, LAUNCHES OUT OF EARLY ACCESS JAN. 27
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OXFORD (Jan. 6, 2026) - Rebellion, one of the world's most successful independent video game developers and publishers, has today announced that Speedball will launch on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 and leave Steam early access on Jan. 27 following its initial launch in Oct. 2024. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1795190/Speedball/
Speedball is the revival of the iconic Bitmap Brothers franchise, first launched in 1988. Set in the grim future of 2138, Speedball is a no-holds-barred future sport that is used by mega-corporations to distract the downtrodden masses from their miserable lives. It is the only sport that allows two cybernetically augmented teams to go head-to-head at levels of speed and violence beyond human limitations. Matches are fast-paced, explosive and unpredictable and you will need to master high-speed passing, coordination and shooting.
Key features:
- Incredible fast-paced, explosive and unpredictable matches
- Face off in a brutal sport featuring a wide range of teams and arenas
- Take advantage of arena specific obstacles and abilities to gain the upper hand against your opponents
- Slow motion Slam Cam captures the most visceral and brutal tackles
- Arcade-style matches come together with sports management strategy
- Organize a team that fits your playstyle based on their individual traits and talents
- Hone your skills against the AI and then compete online or against a friend locally
Early Access Updates
Since Speedball launched into Early Access in Oct. 2024, Rebellion has continued to add new features and updates that have overhauled the game, including:
- New League Mode, which sees 10 teams compete over a season to be crowned champions
- Tutorial system to help new players get up to speed
- Added new Brutal versions of arenas, alongside their
- Standard variants Improved visuals, including upgraded VFX on high impact collisions
- Improved shooting system to allow for better shot placement
- Enhanced gameplay mechanics, including speed, goalkeeping and AI Eight new arenas added to the roster
- Dynamic arena traps and obstacles, including flamethrowers, ice shotguns, grind rails and more have been added
- New armor sets and color styles
For the latest news and updates, be sure to follow Speedball on our social channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Rebellion is also encouraging players to join our Discord forum to engage with the developers.
# # #
About Rebellion
Founded in 1992, Rebellion is one of the world’s most successful independent studios. Its flagship Sniper Elite series is renowned for its authentic stealth and sniping gameplay with more than 20 million players worldwide. Most recently Rebellion released Atomfall, a new action survival game set in Britain, which was met with critical and commercial acclaim, securing over 2 million players in the first 2 weeks.
The company also owns and publishes 2000 AD, which is synonymous with the absolute finest in British comic book art. With the acquisition of a $100m film studio and the world’s largest archive of English language comics, Rebellion continues to grow from strength to strength.
Rebellion now operates across books, comics, TV and film, but at its core it’s still a leading developer and publisher of games. Whether it’s the breath-taking intensity of the Sniper Elite, the face-hugging terror of Aliens vs. Predator or the grindhouse frenzy of the Zombie Army series, the Oxford-based studio is revered for creating stand-out games designed to thrill.
Article by: Susan N.
NBA 2K26 – PlayStation 5 Review
NBA 2K26 by developer Visual Concepts and publisher 2K Games—Sony PlayStation 5 preview written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
Madden NFL 26 - PlayStation 5 Review
Madden NFL 26 is developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes.
Decorate Competitive Venues with Style in Sports Renovations Today!
Montpellier, France – March 27, 2025. Polish indie developer Goat Gamez and French independent publisher Dear Villagers are excited to announce that Sports: Renovations is available now on Steam at a price of $24,99 with a launch discount of 20% during the first 2 weeks. Players can now get their hands on this relaxing simulator and put their renovation skills and gear to the test as they tidy, clean, repaint and repair old sports venues to ultimately save their local basketball club, which they have to restore completely in Sports: Renovations.
Players will rebuild the glory of old gyms, courts, and pitches, access to a wide range of tools and equipment, and upgrade them during their journey across venues filled with memories and souvenirs tied to the glory of former champions or full of hopes for future generations of athletes, in a wholesome storyline.
Along with the Goat Gamez team, Dear Villagers has also made the decision to delay the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of Sports: Renovations at a later date in order to make sure players can play to the best version possible on consoles. They will let players know about the new release date for the console versions when they are confident that the game can be experienced with the same level of enjoyment as on PC.
MAIN FEATURES
- Renovate dilapidated sports facilities;
- Immerse yourself in a wholesome storyline and complete side quests;
- Buy new tools and upgrade the equipment you already own;
- Earn money for your renovation jobs and use it to expand your base of operations – each room unlocked will add some perks;
- Buy cosmetic items you can place around your office;
- Collect memorabilia in your Trophy Showcase and discover the history of sports.
Use the money you earn to upgrade your equipment and expand your headquarters – each unlocked room comes with its own perks, advantages and sometimes with a little side quest.
Along with the hard work they will perform, players will have to put on their interior designer hat as they will buy and place items around several work sites and their own base of operation: a derelict basketball court in their hometown. Collect trash, clean up the dirt from walls and floors, give the place a fresh coat of paint, fix broken fixtures, furnish and decorate the place. Remember to take a photo before and after to prove how good a job you did!
About Goat Gamez
Goat Gamez SA is a video game developer and producer founded by Movie Games and Robert Lewandowski. The company focuses on creating sports-themed games, which it approaches in an unconventional way: Goat Gamez games focus on sports emotions shown from an unusual perspective, including from behind the scenes.
About Dear Villagers
Based in the South of France, in sunny Montpellier, we are a boutique publishing label composed of a team of twenty people. Open-minded and versatile, Dear Villagers offers handcrafted marketing and production guidance. Our mission: We tell memorable stories through memorable games. We love pixels, but we believe in people.
WWE 2K25 – Xbox Series X Review
WWE 2K25
by developer Visual
Concepts and publisher 2K Games—Microsoft Xbox Series X review written by Nick with a copy
provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
To be frank: this is what you hope to see in an annually released game. More features and improvements across the board combine to make it better than ever. WWE 2K25 is exactly that – bigger and better than ever.
Bigger really stands out right off of the bat. There’s numerous modes to choose from – including a new one called The Island. Much more to talk about there in a bit, but it’s also worth calling out that the roster is absolutely massive with wrestlers both past and present in the mix. There’s so much variety in the different types of wrestlers that the roster alone could keep someone busy just figuring out what styles appeal to them the most.
Then we move into the menu’s many modes of mayhem (try saying that ten times fast). There’s the traditional quick play where you just go in and fire up a quick match with the wrestlers and rules of your choice. It’s a great way to try some different types of wrestlers out before sinking time into creating your own wrestlers. You’ll eventually be doing just that though, as you create a wrestler for the MyRise and The Island modes. MyRise is what it has been for years now, a story-driven mode with some RPG elements like progression and choices to make through either a male or female wrestler’s story as you seek to become the face of a new era in WWE. All of the usual hijinks and betrayals are here and it’s brought together quite well between the overall presentation, especially the audio.
Now, the Island is another thing altogether – and frankly one that is likely to be a bit controversial. Years ago, I remarked that I was surprised WWE hadn’t yet created the kind of experience NBA 2K had, where they blended a story line with online play. Why? Well, my thinking was twofold. First, MyCareer in NBA 2K is by far the game’s most popular mode. It boasts a new story each year where players can compete with one another or stick to just single player content while incrementally improving their custom player. The second reason I figured a mode like this would eventually come along comes down to VC (Virtual Currency). It’s the microtransaction currency used by 2K, and it presumably makes the company a ton of money over and above the base game sales. In the past, WWE only had one use for VC – buying packs of cards in MyFaction. MyFaction is a mode that combines elements of card collecting and improving your roster through these wrestlers you collect.
To be honest? This is probably my least favorite WWE mode. It is an okay diversion, but I enjoy this mode far more in the NBA 2K games. Still, it’s a long-running mode that will likely stick around in the WWE series indefinitely because I’m sure they make money off of the VC bought and used in it. Now there’s a use for it in The Island. Like NBA 2K, in WWE 2K25 you can use VC to level up your character’s abilities. You can earn more VC by playing the game in this mode as well, so it doesn’t all have to be purchased. Time will tell what the grind / improvement curve looks like. Being a new mode, there’s likely to be some imbalance there.
So, what is The Island actually like to play? Well, if you can get past the slightly grimy-feeling microtransaction part of it? I had fun with it. There’s a new story separate of MyArise that basically puts you and everyone on this Island of Relevancy to try and earn the good graces of Roman Reigns. It’s a silly premise, but does the job and sets the stage. The things that work? The Island is pretty vibrant-looking, I appreciate a second story – even if it doesn’t feel as fleshed out as MyArise. There’s lots of quest-like objectives, and many of them are actually quite fun to try and complete. The progression elements like improving stats and badges are an effective carrot to dangle.
What maybe doesn’t work quite as well? Well, the first is how expensive VC is, especially when buying cosmetics for your wrestler. There’s no map, which feels like a bit of an oversight as I got so used to using it in NBA 2K. Luckily The Island is not too large and unwieldy, the layout is logical and it isn’t too hard to get the hang of where thigs are. One guardrail missing that’s in NBA 2K is that you can dump all the VC you want into your character right out of the gates. I saw several people running around at a 100 overall on day one. In NBA 2K, there’s a system that unlocks the next stage in a rising cap as you play. That limits how fast you can upgrade your player that’s lacking here in WWE 2K25.
I spent a lot of time in both The Island and MyArise modes, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they somehow became blended together in the future the way MyCareer has in NBA 2K. Universe mode is basically a giant sandbox mode. It’s fun to fool around with, but the lack of structured objectives doesn’t make it where I tend to spend my time. I will say that MyGM mode is looking better than it has in over a decade. It took some time off, came back a few years ago, and of all the returning modes, MyGM has received the most love it seems. It’s a season long campaign broken up over a couple of dozen weeks where you take a brand and create a stable of wrestlers to compete against one another. At its core, it’s a simulation mode that you can go hands-on with during matches if you’d like. Add to it that your created superstars can participate too, and there’s a lot of fun to be had here.
Lastly, there’s the Showcase mode. Usually this mode follows a specific wrestler through some of the biggest fights of their career, interspersed with interviews and live footage from their actual matches. In WWE 2K25, the focus is spread out a bit and follows The Bloodline, which is in-line with all of the Roman Reigns in the presentation. It feels a little less forced / scripted in trying to make you authentically recreate the matches of old (and there’s a sort of ‘what if this happened?’ mode as well that’s made up of imaginary scenarios), which is appreciated. I always liked this mode, but often felt like the objectives were a bit too restrictive at times. They made sense, but still had me frustrated. There was less of that this time around. The mode does feel a bit more accessible, though a few of the imposed time limits do seem a little harsh. Completing these scenarios however, is a lot of fun. You get some cool looks at WWE’s past and generally some good unlockable rewards too.
None of this would matter much if the in-ring action didn’t
hold up its end of the bargain, but the good news is that WWE 2K25 delivers
here as well. I mentioned earlier that the presentation was fantastic, and it
really is. Authentic commentary, fluid animations and a variety of distinctive
playstyles depending on your wrestler of choice and opponent make every match
feel like an event. Thankfully the combat aspect has been solid for years and this
year’s is more minor polish and tweaks. Controls are responsive, you can tweak
numerous single-player settings to make the gameplay a bit more attuned to your
preferences. I really appreciated how much different a massive, hulking tank
of a wrestler played versus a quick, agile high-flying sort. One tweak is the
return of ‘chain wrestling’, which is like a minigame within the match that
just adds a layer to the already existing action.
Simply put, WWE 2K25 is the best wrestling game on the
market. The developers manage to make smart improvements to existing modes,
roll out an entirely new mode and continue to make the action in the ring look
and feel authentic. While the whiff of increased microtransactions is going to
bother some, I do appreciate that the series isn’t resting on its laurels and
gave us a game that continues to justify its annual release.
Score: 8.5 / 10
Renovate Once Beloved Team's Courts in Sports Renovations on March 27th!
Montpellier, France – January 15, 2025 | Polish indie developer Goat Gamez and French independent publisher Dear Villagers are proud to reveal that Sports: Renovations will be releasing this March 27 on Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series, their upcoming simulator game where players have to save their beloved team’s court from being torn down by a real estate developer. In order to do so, they will have to earn the needed funds by renovating dilapidated sports facilities.
Players will restore the glory of old gyms, courts, and pitches, access to a wide range of tools and equipment, and upgrade them during their journey across venues filled with memories and souvenirs tied to the glory of former champions or full of hopes for future generations of athletes, in a wholesome storyline.
The shining star of your youth where you watched fantastic matches played by your favourite team. It’s a place where many young talents started their careers. It’s a home of many fond memories, now covered in cobwebs and dust and deteriorating rapidly.
Use the money you earn to upgrade your equipment and expand your headquarters – each unlocked room comes with its own perks, advantages and sometimes with a little side quest.
Leave no corner undusted and no wall unpainted. Carefully design the area and arrange every room with its functionality in mind. You have all the time in the world so use it to polish your skills and plan out the space – some designs are better than others so be creative! Tinker with sports equipment and assemble the furniture to the best of your ability.
Along with the hard work they will perform, players will have to put on their interior designer hat as they will buy and place items around several work sites and their own base of operation: a derelict basketball court in their hometown. Collect trash, clean up the dirt from walls and floors, give the place a fresh coat of paint, fix broken fixtures, furnish and decorate the place. Remember to take a photo before and after to prove how good a job you did!
MAIN FEATURES
- Renovate dilapidated sports facilities;
- Immerse yourself in a wholesome storyline and complete side quests;
- Buy new tools and upgrade the equipment you already own;
- Earn money for your renovation jobs and use it to expand your base of operations – each room unlocked will add some perks;
- Buy cosmetic items you can place around your office;
- Collect memorabilia in your Trophy Showcase and discover the history of sports.
The shining star of your youth where you watched fantastic matches played by your favourite team. It’s a place where many young talents started their careers. It’s a home of many fond memories, now covered in cobwebs and dust and deteriorating rapidly.
Use the money you earn to upgrade your equipment and expand your headquarters – each unlocked room comes with its own perks, advantages and sometimes with a little side quest.
Leave no corner undusted and no wall unpainted. Carefully design the area and arrange every room with its functionality in mind. You have all the time in the world so use it to polish your skills and plan out the space – some designs are better than others so be creative! Tinker with sports equipment and assemble the furniture to the best of your ability.
Along with the hard work they will perform, players will have to put on their interior designer hat as they will buy and place items around several work sites and their own base of operation: a derelict basketball court in their hometown. Collect trash, clean up the dirt from walls and floors, give the place a fresh coat of paint, fix broken fixtures, furnish and decorate the place. Remember to take a photo before and after to prove how good a job you did!
About Goat Gamez
Goat Gamez SA is a video game developer and producer founded by Movie Games and Robert Lewandowski. The company focuses on creating sports-themed games, which it approaches in an unconventional way: Goat Gamez games focus on sports emotions shown from an unusual perspective, including from behind the scenes.About Dear Villagers
Based in the South of France, in sunny Montpellier, we are a boutique publishing label composed of a team of twenty people. Open-minded and versatile, Dear Villagers offers handcrafted marketing and production guidance. Our mission: We tell memorable stories through memorable games. We love pixels, but we believe in people.Vivid Games Releases Simulation Game Real Boxing 2: Remastered on Nintendo Switch!
Warsaw, Poland - December 2nd, 2024 | Vivid Games is excited to announce the US launch of Real Boxing™ 2: Remastered on Nintendo Switch, arriving on December 6, 2024.
This refreshed edition of the award-winning boxing franchise delivers a true-to-life boxing experience, enhanced graphics, and improved gameplay mechanics for boxing fans and gamers alike.
Game Description:
Take the fight to the next level with a remaster of award winning Real Boxing™ 2. Train hard, fight harder. Prove your worth in the career and multiplayer mode.
Discover a whole new world of combat sports games. As a newbie boxer, challenge experienced opponents and try to win and score a KO! Explore the world of boxing and make your way to the top. You can become the boxing champion, the best warrior of all time! So get ready to punch, and punch hard! Discover what you’re made of, and try to climb to the top.
Become the ultimate champion! Use jabs, hooks, uppercuts & combine them into devastating combos.
REMASTERED VERSION
A brand new challenge awaits you as the game has been rebalanced for a fresh and fair boxing experience. With better effects and improved graphics you can feel like you're boxing for real!
CHOOSE YOUR STYLE OF BOXING
Before you KO your opponent, you need to improve your fighting skills! Adjust your boxer's stats to match your playstyle and level up quickly to unlock new abilities that will help you in fights to come! Use powerful boosts to make your dream come true. Get ready - a KO is in the air!
PLAY MINI-GAMES
Train your fighter in exciting mini games that reflect real life boxers’ training and develop your character! You need to leave a lot of sweat in your training hall to be a champion. No one said it would be an easy challenge!
CREATE YOUR DREAM BOXER
Real Boxing 2 allows you to customize your fighter! Choose your outfit, get a new tattoo and even change your haircut. Adjust all the aspects of the fighter’s body, from mass and muscle sculpture to nose shape.
DRESS TO IMPRESS
As in all fighting sports, it's best to enter the punch-out and serve a smackdown with style, so gear up - equip a pair of boots, trousers and gloves that fit your style and knock down your opponents with your looks alone.
BATTLE AGAINST UNIQUE BOSSES
Take on challenging opponents! Clown? Check. Santa? Yeah, he's there. A real stone golem? You bet. Defeat them all and claim their epic gear!
Join the club, create your boxer, and start your boxing career. Get ready to punch, and punch hard! Discover what you’re made of, and climb to the top!
NBA 2K25 - Xbox Review
NBA 2K25 by developer Visual Concepts and publisher 2K Games—Xbox Series X review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
I can almost hear the naysayers with this latest release of NBA 2K25: “Another year, another sports title update, another roster update with nothing substantial added”. Well guess what? They’re very, very wrong. NBA 2K25 is the best annual update the series has seen in some time. I’d go so far as to say NBA 2K25 is the best sports video game release we have seen in years.
I wouldn’t want the unenviable job of trying to develop new features, while trying to figure out what worked from last year’s game and keep it going, while balancing that against wanting to freshen things up, all on a limited timeframe because of the yearly cycle of major sports leagues. It’s a tightrope act that can often earn more jeers than cheers from fans who lament the cycle as a roster update cash grab.
NBA 2K25 doesn’t completely reinvent the wheel here, but it doesn’t have to. This is a franchise that didn’t get exclusive NBA rights like Madden did with the NFL; they simply put out the best basketball game year after year until the would-be competition picked its ball up and went home. Since then the series has been good, but seldom great. Last season was a bit of a bust in my opinion, so I was unsure what to expect from this year’s release. And right off of the bat? I had a somewhat odd feeling because things felt off. Different. Uneven. Loose. There were a lot of descriptors going through my head as I figured up a quick match and just wanted to get a feel for the game itself without working through the tutorial.
The thing is, what started off feeling sloppy actually grew on me as I realized it was simply more fluid. The feeling of loose controls was flexibility in movement and control options. The more I ran up and down the court, the more I began to appreciate that this game I knew so well and had been playing for well over a decade now finally felt like it had shaken some of its on-rails stiffness. There have always been exciting, flashy plays in NBA 2K, but many times things felt scripted. A specific set of animations triggered to go off in a very specific way. That may still well be the case behind the scenes, but the engine used in this year’s game feels like it has hit a new level.
Shots don’t just swish or bank in, they roll around the rim, ricocheting off of the backboard in unexpected ways. An errant pass doesn’t just sail out of bounds, but sometimes bounces off of a foot or a hand. One time it bounced off of the back of a player’s head, only to be snatched out of the air by a nearby defender who put the ball on the floor to advance, making contact with a teammate, nearly losing their balance before pressing on up the court. Such a simple set of events, but this is by far the most realistic representation of player movement I’ve seen yet.
Sure, this engine looks great in general. Well-known players look like themselves. The really great ones don’t just look like themselves, but are animated to move like themselves. Little nuances from free throw form, to how they handle a crossover to how they chew on their mouth guard. There’s a level of authenticity here that NBA diehards are bound to eat up, and all of it translates to the best basketball playing experience I’ve had yet.
The presentation doesn’t stop there, as there’s an excellent soundtrack of music that plays in the background, tons of voiced dialogue in the MyCAREER mode, tons of authentic filters and commentary both for the modern game and some of the older eras for those throwback games. There’s still times where I recognize bits of audio commentary that’s been used in the last game or two, but the repetition’s down this year, with more audio than ever it seems like. There’s still room to expand – maybe have some more commentators or something, similar to Madden introducing more teams this year, but I know that’s likely a lot of work and a few bucks to bring those crews in – but it’s an area that could be improved.
Speaking of improvement, there’s aspects of the UI that I don’t love. Maybe I’m just being an old fuddy, but I preferred the last couple of shot meters to the ones presented here. It was a bit of a surprise to see what it looked like this year when I pulled up for my first shot. It bricked. There’s something about navigating the MyTEAM mode that took more time to get used to than usual as well. Just something about the menu UI didn’t click with me for a while.
Last but not least, since I’m airing grievances? I might as well bring up how much I have Virtual Currency. The microtransactions are strong with this series, and they have been for many years. They want too much of the VC (virtual currency) for the packs in MyTEAM, which is a sort of fantasy sports meets card collection mode that wants you to open your wallet. Still, you can choose to spend or not, and outside of the VC I start with for the version of the game I reviewed, I never buy any more. I’m just not a big microtransaction person in any game, so I tend to grind in games to avoid paying more. The good news is, compared to last year’s NBA 2K24? This year’s MyCAREER didn’t feel nearly as grindy. In fact I was earning VC at a good rate and enjoying my time doing so far better.
That being said – I do have a request 2K: Could we stop with the pop-up windows when the game starts? Instead of defaulting to having them open, maybe have a banner with a button to be pressed to bring them up. It’s annoying to fire up the game (which takes a bit to load in the first place), then see a menu and attempt to pick your game mode only to have a window pop up trying to get you to upgrade your purchase. And sometimes if you close that, a second window with a different offer pops up. It’s annoying, and it keeps me from getting right into the action.
There’s plenty of other modes to be had here outside of MyCAREER and MyTEAM as well. MyNBA is all about running a franchise. I love that there are different eras represented here (including the new ‘Curry Era’. I went back to the 80s to live out the early and later stages of my Detroit Pistons Bad Boys era in two different franchise files. There’s a ton to sink your teeth into here, and I lost a lot of hours to it. There’s also a MyGM mode that’s more of an RPG-lite management experience set with the current era as you also take the reigns of a franchise, but with a bit more story behind it. The story’s writing feels a bit stilted at times, but it’s still a lot of fun.
I was really happy to see The W get more love this year as well. Whether you follow the WNBA or not, it’s impossible to be more aware of the league with the arrival of some of this year’s top rookies, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. But it’s more about these new faces to the league. There’s more of an effort to make this mode more fully fleshed out than years past, including some storyline elements that don’t quite make it equal with MyCAREER, but a worthwhile endeavor all the same. And it’s worth noting that you get a set amount of VC for completing games in these other modes. I’ve seen some people grumbling that the requirement for ‘always connected’ could one day render these offline modes unplayable, but in reality I like that I’m getting VC for playing games, regardless of where (though MyTEAM does have a second currency in there. Frankly I think they should do away with that and just unify everything through VC.
Even with all of these modes? The vast majority of my time is spent with MyCAREER mode. I went with a different build than recent years for my first one, and I’m having a blast with it. The actual storyline’s not as interesting as a some of the prior years have been, but the voice acting is solid and the progression elements have been a lot of fun. I’ve been up entirely too late at night since installing NBA 2K25, and it’s usually because of this roleplay-lite mode.
Simply put, NBA 2K25 is the best release this series has
seen in years, and it’s probably my favorite sports game right now. This series
has a knack for being my guilty pleasure, in that I play it more than almost
anything else each year, and that’s very likely to be the case here once again.
The package isn’t a flawless one, but there’s undeniable progress throughout NBA
2K25, and fans of the NBA owe it to themselves to play it.
Score: 8.75 / 10
Madden NFL 25 - PS5 Review
EA Sports College Football 25 by developer and publisher Electronic Arts—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Another year, another Madden. Is it more of the same or something new and exciting? It’s the yearly question, and your mileage may vary depending on the aspects of the game that matter most. For my money though, Madden NFL 25 brings enough new to the table this year to warrant a good, long look.
Not every new year of Madden is a win. Sometimes they introduce a new mechanic that sounded better on paper than execution (we’re looking at you old QB passing cone or fumble minigames), or even take steps backwards in the presentation (audio glitches or crazy physics bugs). It feels however, that Madden NFL 25 has settled quite comfortably into this generation console technology and ironed out many of the wrinkles.
The initial first impression for me is a good one. Menus are easier to navigate, visuals are crisp, modes load quickly. If there’s a grumble, it’s how the game seems to want to funnel me into the Madden Money Making Mode… erm, Madden Ultimate Team (MUT) mode. For those unfamiliar with that mode (which likely means you haven’t played any sports games in the last decade), it’s a mash-up of sports card collecting, fantasy football and a wide variety of challenges. This all leads into a very grindy gameplay loop of beat challenge, get a small amount of currency, someday get enough currency to purchase another item or pack of cards, incrementally improve your roster and then do it all over again. There’s a very slow lather, rinse and repeat vibe to MUT. I don’t really care for it myself, but it’s popular and it offers micro-transactions that allow the progression loop to be sped up artificially.
There are other modes including some quick play options, but the real meaty ones are Franchise and Career modes. The former is structured very similar to years past (and that’s reflected even in the game’s trophies / achievements, which haven’t seen a meaningful update in years now). The gist is that you are a coach or owner who tries to manage the weekly operations of the football team. At the owner level you’re setting prices and worrying about the quality of the stadium, while the coach is more focused on the X’s and O’s and game strategy. Both are basically slightly different skinned approaches to the same core engine where you try to improve your team and live out a fantasy football world.
Franchise is easily where I spend the majority of my time in Madden, both this year and the releases of the past. It’s just the most rewarding experience overall as I enjoy so many of the team management aspects. The offseason feels a bit better this year, especially the draft aspects. It’s not exactly a major reinvention of the wheel though, and I feel like there’s room to do something ‘more’ with a narrative or elements of league-wide chaos: players holding out mid-contract, or teammates not getting along, or players beefing with one another from different squads, etc. I don’t really know, but as fun as Franchise is, it could use a little more ‘texture’ for lack of a better way to phrase it.
It's impossible not to reference the recent EA Sports CollegeFootball 25 game. There’s a lot of elements that have made their way from that game from a couple of months ago into this new Madden NFL 25. The Dynasty mode of College is the parallel to Madden’s Franchise, but they are very different animals. I will say that I am disappointed that there’s no draft class export from the college game to the Madden one. I imagine it’s more of a licensing limitation than a technical one, as we had that option way back on the PlayStation 2, but I hope it’s a hurdle that can be overcome next year as this was something of a major disappointment for myself and some of my football loving friends.
Now, one area where the College game transitions well into the Madden series is the created player mode. Your can import your graduated college player into the pro game and it will give you a slightly accelerated start into the process, pulling in your physical choices, numbers preference, things like that. It’s a fun way to keep the journey going. I really enjoyed this year’s Career mode. There is a lack of story / narrative told here, as your player just sort of graduates from college into the NFL and gets to go through the combine which culminates into a clumsy hug with the NFL commissioner after a team selects your player.
I do think it would be cool if you could create a bit of a backstory for your player (or import one from College football, such as the blue chip vs underdog starting points), but there’s numerous objectives sprinkled into Career mode. These dangling carrots are generally enjoyable targets as you level up your player and sink points and earned skills into him. There’s a lot of opportunity to put your own personal spin on the player in interviews / conversations, though the impacts feel very short-lived. Again, I think those choices could be interesting if woven into some sort of story or ongoing narrative (not even a super firm story, but just more than a +5 boost to stiff arms next week).
It's also interesting to me how College football put training wheels on your created player in the form of limited play calling impact while Madden lets your player (in my case, the very same halfback) have total control of the playbook. It seems a weird approach that swings too wildly from one extreme to the other. There is also the online-ish (there’s offline challenges too) sub-mode called Showcase where you play a much faster, simpler, more arcade-like game of football. It’s interesting, but hard for me to invest as much time into than the core NFL career of my player.
All of these modes and menus are well and good, but Madden NFL 25 seems to be at its best when you’re playing the actual game of football. The visuals are better than ever, which is to be expected. I appreciate the better variety in the announcers in the game. The primary commentators are still Brandin Gaudin and Charles Davis, who are just fine – but they’ve been growing a bit stale over the last few years. EA has injected Greg Olsin and Mike Tirico as well as Kate Scott and Brock Huard. It’s a welcome bit of variety that’s been well overdue and the presentation benefits from it.
It's interesting to note that in many ways, Madden NFL 25 feels slower to me than the College game. I'd love to know if that’s a reality of the engine, or maybe just a matter of perception on my part. Maybe there’s more parity in the pro players and therefore you don’t feel breakaway speed the way I did playing the college game where players might have much larger physical gaps? Either way, even with that impression, Madden’s collisions are fantastic, and that’s no small matter.
In a sport where you have two teams of eleven banging into one another all of the time, the tech behind these collisions is kind of a big deal. This year introduces what the team at EA has dubbed Boom physics. There are still some goofy animations here and there that occur, but nothing like some of the wonkiness of years past where a small player could chuck aside a behemoth twice his size, or a football kicked through the stadium roof. Instead everything feels much more grounded in reality when players hit one another. Actually, there’s moments before and after the hit as well where you see a player’s body shift to brace for a big hit stick tackle across the middle, or when they put their hand on the ground to stand up slowly after getting shmucked by a linebacker.
It's not always perfect, but by and large the limbs and bodies flail and thud in convincing fashion and blockers engage and disengage in a realistic way, but the ball has physics too. The ball can sit on the ground as a player bumps into it and knocks it around, but not like vacuumed right into their chest. Ditto balls bounced around as they can deflect off of hands (or backs or legs) in ways that it didn’t used to back in the day when the PS3 Madden passes would just laser into a person’s hands.
Madden NFL 25 is an excellent sports title, and though many of the improvements are incremental, they are numerous enough to be noteworthy. It’s far more than a roster update, but there’s still room to add some flavor to the various modes, and I’d like to see a stronger connection between the two EA football titles in the future. That being said, there’s more than enough quality football to be had here to keep NFL fans entertained for quite some time.
Score: 7.5 / 10
EA Sports UFC 5 Review
EA Sports UFC 5 by developer EA Vancouver and publisher ElectronicArts—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the
publisher.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
EA Sports UFC 5 finds its way to the current gaming console generation
and makes good use of the improved technology. The formula is tweaked, not
overhauled, but it still creates a satisfying fighting game. Those looking for
massive changes from UFC 4, however, may be disappointed that more chances
weren’t taken with this iteration of the series, but overall, EA Sports UFC 5
is an excellent game.
I’ve been a long-time fan of both the UFC and Fight Night
games (they have some similar DNA in how they work, despite being very
different games and experiences), and I’ve been excited to see where things
would go using the new hardware. Most of these changes and improvements show up
during the actual gameplay. For me, the meat and potatoes of the series is always
found in the career mode.
Here you create a fighter (with both male and female
options). There is a pretty robust set of options available at this stage of
things, which is great for making fighters that are different from one another.
Once the character is created, your character finds themselves in a backyard
battle with a relatively no-talent opponent that gives your character a bit of
a social media buzz as people recorded it and shared the fight enough that the
UFC takes notice of your character. Early on, the proceedings are a bit more
story-heavy, which I found quite welcome. I enjoy your coach’s interactions,
and the early stages do a great job of teaching you the basics. Frankly, I’d
recommend starting up in career mode if you’re new to the series, if only
because those early stages will teach you pretty much everything you need to
know about the gameplay.
However, once you get through the story nuggets during the
early segments, the career mode becomes a pretty standard gameplay loop of sign a
contract with incentives, pick an opponent to fight, enter a training camp for
a handful of weeks, improve your character’s skills, fight your opponent and
then lather, rinse and repeat numerous times. This allows you to carry on a
career arc from backyard fighting nobody to future hall of fame champion.
Additional modes including Fight Now (basically, set up a
quick match, including a Bloodsport / Kumite style endurance match), Contract
matches (generated battles that you can complete for bonus rewards) and an
online career mode. This one’s an interesting take on multiplayer with the
progression elements found in career mode. If you have a good internet
connection, this can actually be a lot of fun. Even at higher difficulties, the
AI tends to be pretty predictable, but human opponents? They have a way of
keeping things fresh.
Where EA Sports UFC 5 might frustrate fans is in how little
of the framework has changed. I was a big fan of UFC 4 when I reviewed it, and
by and large the way career mode advances, the way you build your characters up
and so on hasn’t changed a whole lot. Given that this title isn’t subject to
the same yearly release cycle that games like Madden, FIFA and NHL are, it would
have been nice to see a few more chances taken here. Some old annoyances are
still around from before, like trying to learn a new skill without realizing
you don’t have the base skill without any kind of a warning that you are about
to waste your time and points. Also for some reason there were numerous
instances of me trying a match or training session and the camera inexplicably
would pan back just a bit, outside of the ring, putting the fencing of the octagon
between the camera and fighters. This was really distracting when it happened,
and it happened about a third of the time I did a fight retry. Still, most of
what made the last UFC game so enjoyable is still here and with enough polish
that I still enjoyed what EA Sports UFC 5 had to offer.
Where this iteration really shines is in the actual gameplay.
For starters, the visuals have received a tremendous boost on a handful of
fronts. Bringing EA Sports UFC 5 into Frostbite engine has made for some
fascinating moments during the game. There’s always been a sense of risk versus
reward when playing, as going in for strong blows can leave your fighter tired
faster or even exposed to a powerful counter attack that ends the match
prematurely. These physicals and collisions are well represented in the
Frostbite engine.
I really appreciate the new cut system. You won’t get much
out of this if you have the difficulty set low and you’re just pounding your
way through opponents in the first round, but for those who have an appropriate
challenger that goes multiple rounds? The hundreds of variations of bruises and
cuts a fighter can receive is truly impressive. The variety of injuries that
can show up, and the way they can continue to worsen throughout the match while
impacting your fighter’s health feels very authentic. There’s even a cut doctor
who can come in once in a while to make sure that the fighter’s good to go
after sustaining too much damage to the face.
Not everything has worked out perfectly in the transition to
the Frostbite engine, however. It’s not incredibly common, but every now and
again you get some really kind of goofy limb animations. Not so much during the
fighting itself as in the aftermath. There’s a fantastically cinematic replay
that happens at the end of matches that really show off the engine’s visuals.
You get a slow motion look from multiple angles that show the last blow of the
match. These feel appropriately weighty and devastating. However, there are
times when the player lands in a decidedly unrealistic way when they ragdoll to
the mat. The most egregious example that comes to mind was when I put an
opponent out on their back, and somehow their arms both folded up under his
back. It looked really weird and I’m pretty sure shoulders don’t move like that
without getting ripped out of their sockets first. It was a strange ending to
what had been a satisfying flying knee to the face that ended the match.
Another area where EA Sports UFC 5 feels improved is the ground
game. The controls are more streamlined and reactive, and feel less like a
button mashing mini-game that always seemed out of place within the rest of the
fighting. Upright clinching could probably use more love, as there’s not a
whole lot of depth to it, but I really appreciated how much better the ground
grappling felt. One more slight tweak from before is how the spin attacks work,
using two buttons to start a spinning motion and then the right sequence of
follow-up button presses to pull off the move. It makes sense to me that they
would make this aspect of the gameplay a bit more challenging to pull off, as
everyone seemed to love those flashy, powerful spinning kicks and backfists in
the prior game and they felt a bit overpowered as a result.
The good news for fight fans, is that EA Sports UFC 5 is the
best sports combat game on the market, and it’s not even close. It’s benefitted
from the improved tech of the current consoles and both the gameplay and
presentation are improved in multiple areas. However, it would be nice if this
felt a bit less like a next generation update of UFC 4. Sure, that was also a
really good game, but I would have enjoyed seeing a bit more done with some of
the modes, especially the career one. Maybe there’s some actual storytelling
that could be done with the Kumite battles, some decisions to be made along the
way, I don’t know. It just felt as though the story got off to a fairly strong
start and then sort of evaporated in favor of the contract, train and then
fight gameplay loop that hasn’t changed much from the last release. Those
quibbles aside, EA Sports UFC 5 is an easy game to spend a lot of time with, as
the core fight gameplay is truly enjoyable and has me lowkey holding out some
hope that we get a new Fight Night in the somewhat near future as well.
Score: 8 / 10
NBA 2K24 Review
NBA 2K24 by developer Visual Concepts and publisher 2K Games—Microsoft Xbox Series X review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 11
minutes
NBA 2K24 in many ways represents the best of sports video
gaming. However, NBA 2K24 also represents some of the worst aspects of the
video game industry as well. It is a shame, because NBA 2K24 is a fantastic
game when you take into account its presentation and the fun to be had in playing
the title itself. However, the gaming industry’s need to squeeze as much money
out of its customers as possible rears its head here in a way that is impossible
to completely ignore as well, which is unfortunate.
As a lifelong fan of the NBA who has been playing the 2K
basketball franchise since it first released on the Dreamcast just before the
turn of the century, I am the target audience for this release. I love
basketball. I have been playing it since I was a kid, I grew up watching the
Detroit Bad Boys era and have numerous collectibles spanning decades of fandom.
I’ve experienced the growth and change in the 2K series over its 25 years, from
a more fast-paced, arcade style of play to the more deliberate, simulation
style of play that the series has become known for over the last several years.
I say all of this to explain why I love this series, and was
able to enjoy so much of what NBA 2K24 brings to the table this year. The
presentation is better than it has ever been. This is in some part simply due
to the evolution of technology and time as developers continue to improve upon
their craft and find new ways to leverage hardware. One of the most notable
aspects of this is in the new PROPlay technology that Visual Concepts has
rolled out. For quite some time now, this series used motion capture on a
handful of specific players to help create authentic gameplay movements. NBA
2K24 is now leveraging this new technology to incorporate actual game footage
instead, opening up a wealth of shots, dribble moves and realistic collisions
to make the on-court gameplay look and feel more authentic than ever.
That is no small accomplishment. Unlike hockey or football
where players have a lot of bulky equipment to sort of mask their body physics,
the NBA has players out there in shirts and shorts jockeying for post position,
colliding into one another mid-air and diving across the floor for loose balls.
The types of tangled interactions are virtually endless and the 2K series has
done a remarkable job capturing the athleticism and physicality found in the
NBA. If the gameplay is the most important part of most video games (and I
believe it is), then updates like this help to make the experience better. This title looks and sounds the part.
This translates into a thoroughly entertaining representation
of basketball through a variety of modes such as MyCareer (create a player and
put them through this hybrid single-player / online experience), MyTeam (think
fantasy basketball mixed with card collecting), MyNBA (basically, a franchise
mode where you run a team, not just a single player), MyWNBA (basically a stripped
down version of MyCareer, but with a focus on the WNBA). Last year also saw the
reintroduction of Jordan Challenges, and this year swapped in Mamba Moments. This
is focused on highlights of Kobe Bryant’s career, where you try to emulate them
through some targeted challenges. All in all, it’s a nice celebration of Kobe’s
career for the 25th anniversary of the NBA 2K series.
There are some notable changes in other areas as well. The
interface is easier to get around, with more information in it than previous
years. I like that the Seasons that occur every so many weeks are now shared
across the MyTEAM and MyCAREER modes as opposed to being separate and making me
feel like I have to budget how I spend my time between those two most popular
modes of play. The AI has seen improvements as well, especially on the
defensive side of the ball. I loved playing the three-on-three mode in MyTEAM and
no longer seeing the opposing team abuse backdoor cuts on almost every other
possession. I didn’t realize how twitchy that part of the gameplay had made me
until I caught myself needlessly shading my defender that way out of habit from
last year’s release, but instead found myself pleasantly surprised to see my
defenders preventing that and some other relatively cheap tactics / angles taken
to the hoop.
Of the aforementioned modes, the MyWNBA has received a few
small tweaks to the formula they have been using the last couple of years, but
nothing substantial. It makes sense that this is not where the devs would put
most of their time as it’s been a nice inclusion for fans of the game, but I’m
sure there’s data somewhere that shows that this mode is not as heavily played
as some of the other ones. I appreciate that the MyNBA mode has received a ‘Lite’
mode that strips out some of the more complicated systems for those who want to
run a franchise, but desire more time on the court and less in the menus
micromanaging things between games. I for one really enjoy the depth of this
franchise mode and don’t feel like I get much out of the ‘Lite’ option – but at
the same time, I think it’s a nice design choice for those who don’t feel the
same way. In addition to this streamlined functionality, we see the return of
the ‘Eras’ option we saw last year, with an additional one representing Lebron’s
time in the league. These five eras are fun to play with, though I’d like to
see even older ones get represented at some point, and create a fun alternative
to simply rolling out a franchise set in the current time.
However, the two modes fans are most likely to spend their
time with are the MyTEAM and MyCAREER ones, and that is where the business
practices of 2K Games starts to get in the way of the fun. MyTEAM is the best
version of this ‘pack of cards’ collection modes we see in other sports titles
like Madden, WWE, The Show and more. Additional options such as a more restrictive
but rewarding Salary Cap Mode to help keep games a bit more balanced between
players, or the addition of an option to buy specific cards you are looking for
to complete collections are welcome. The core gameplay loop of complete tasks,
gain cards and currency, then add to your collection and build out new teams to
tackle new challenges is actually pretty fun most of the time, and largely
unchanged from prior years.
That being said, the gameplay loop can be pretty grindy,
with the rewards for completing tasks and playing games being fairly
incremental. That is fine in and of itself I suppose, if it was a level playing
field for all and this was just sort of ‘padding’ to keep people playing longer
to reach their goals as opposed to feeling like they have nothing more to do.
The issue is that you can spend real money on VC (Virtual Currency) that allows
players to buy more packs or specific players. This gives those who purchase these
funds an obvious advantage over those who spend time grinding for these same
rewards. If that pace of progression wasn’t disconcerting enough, the new ‘buy
whomever you want’ shop feels like a grab at getting players to spend more
currency as well. On top of that, there is now a battle pass in the mix. That’s
right, if you spend more money during the ‘seasons’, you can get more virtual
rewards for the time you put in.
This same problem rears its head in the primary mode, MyCAREER.
For the record, none of this is new. This has been standard operating procedure
for the NBA 2K24 series for years now, and it’s often been viewed as a sort of
gross set of microtransactions. However, something about it seems every more
pronounced this year than the last few. Progress in MyCAREER just feels very
slow. With my review copy, I got a 100,000 VC head start that got my player
into… the mid 70’s in terms of their overall score. A dozen hours or so later,
I was in the low 80’s. Again, I get wanting to set a pace that is somewhat
slow, so players are still enjoying the game weeks or even months from now, but
for those willing to spend potentially hundreds of dollars to skip the grin and
suddenly have the best stats? Well, the actual experience is likely to be far
less frustrating.
There is certainly an element of ‘get good’ here, as an
incredibly skilled player can likely make up the difference between a character
who is a 75 overall and a 90 overall. However, the vast majority of people will
simply be doomed to lose against those higher-rated opponents. Of course, no
one makes you play the multiplayer component, but MyCAREER certainly wants you
to do so, as well as explore the new beachfront city it has established this
year. The setting is more enjoyable than last year’s more cluttered, less
visually appealing city, but with shops around every corner and numerous reminders
that your character could be more competitive if only they had a better rating,
there’s a stronger sense that NBA 2K24 is more reliant on VC than ever before.
It’s a shame really, because the actual career mode is still
the strongest part of the overall experience for me. Admittedly, I miss the
slightly more structured narrative focused on some sort of a plucky underdog or
resilient comeback story like we’ve seen in prior games. Here you are seen as
the next great player, perhaps even capable of becoming the GOAT (Greatest of all
Time). There is still a story here, but it feels heavily stripped down in favor
of getting the player into the game and not the ‘extra stuff’. That’s going to
be hit and miss depending on the audience. I have a couple of friends who just
like to roll out and play, and NBA 2K24 makes it easier to do that than years
prior. However, I’ve generally enjoyed these narratives and missed some of that
storytelling found in years past.
I will say that I thought one particularly cool new idea is
in how NBA 2K24 approaches your career arc. Instead of feeling like you have to
play each and every game in a season to get your stats up and instead gives you
the option to play ‘key games’. This can be your first game as a pro, or
against a key all-star at your position, or a pivotal matchup with another
great team also vying for the championship. These games ‘mean’ more in terms of
developing your character, and you can simulate the game in-between, and the
system does a really nice job of keeping those simulated results in-line with
how you played during actual games. The idea is to get you deeper into your
career, more seasons into the career arc, so you can experience more of that
rise to greatness.
Frankly, I think the above is a great idea. I’m someone who
probably spends dozens (if not 100+) hours a year with every installment of the
NBA 2K series and almost never make it more than one or two seasons into my
career. By skipping the more mundane or ‘filler’ games along the way, I got to
delve deeper into my created character’s career than ever before. This is
especially cool, as I tend to make two or three different kinds of characters
each year, just to try out the different playstyles available. There is still
plenty to do between games, with numerous quests and objectives that give this
beachfront city a sort of MMO-type vibe that works nicely with the RPG elements
in character progression.
So where do I stand on NBA 2K24? This is one of the hardest
reviews I’ve had to write in some time. I love the game itself, and have spent
a ton of time with it so far and have no doubt that I will continue to this
year. It’s still the best sports game out there. However, there is an
ever-present grindy-ness to this year’s iteration that gave me the feeling I
was swatting 2K’s hand away from my wallet as well. Will I still be playing in
a couple of months, like I usually do, because I want to reach great heights
with my characters? Or will the microtransaction-heavy nature of 2K’s business
practices wear me down and cause me to move onto something else sooner than normal?
It’s tough to say right now, but that’s the mixed nature of this year’s
release in a nutshell.
