End of Year Community Awards: Best Post-Release Support of 2014

The voting for various categories in the Pastapadre Community Awards continues with Best Post-Release Support. This is a new category for the Community Awards. In the past post-release support has been factored into rankings but has never been singled out for recognition.

There were some strong efforts from developers to not just fix issues but improve and provide new content this year. The three earning nominations are The Golf Club, EA Sports UFC, and Madden NFL 15.

When The Golf Club released in August it was well regarded but maybe lacked a little in content and had its rough spots. It made the $35 price tough for some to justify. That has changed in the months since. Multiple patches have delivered a ton of fixes and improvements to the game along with new features. The patch earlier this month added a new Handicap system, new scoring method, and more courses. Next up is a Career mode that will be added in spring. All updates for The Golf Club, including those that bring with them new features/modes, are free.

EA Sports UFC was a game that almost no one cared for when it released. The developers made an enormous error in judgment by designing the gameplay in a manner they thought would be attractive to casual fans that, simply, were never going to be interested – or even if they were have the patience to learn how to play such an inherently complicated game. Six patches later UFC has transformed into a game that would have been received well at launch. Gameplay has become more realistic, authentic, and balanced. The roster was initially thin but the addition of 18 fighters since then has made it much more respectable.

It’s no surprise that Madden would have strong post-release support. EA Sports has always done a lot for the game in the four months that follow its release as far as patching, providing consistent roster updates, and delivering new content (Ultimate Team, Madden Moments, sometimes even new features). For Madden NFL 15 all that continued and they probably even overdid it as far as Ultimate Team goes. EA went beyond their their typical obligations though by releasing a free likeness update in late November that improved faces with new scans for over 150 players. They had little to gain by doing that then and easily could have held them back to use as a marketing point for Madden 16.

Previously
♦Best Gameplay
♦Best Franchise Mode
♦Best Career Mode
♦Best Presentation
♦Best Online
♦Most Disappointing Game