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The best NBA 2K17 ‘Start Today’ teams for different challenges with the new year
Many look at Christmas Day as the unofficial start to the NBA season. It’s an excessively long 82 game season after all with a great number of them being perceived as largely, if not completely meaningless. That has especially been the case in the age of “super teams” with fans just waiting for the Playoffs when those few teams will inevitably go head-to-head.
That however is something that can be played out differently in video games and the new ‘Start Today’ feature for MyLeague Mode in NBA 2K17 opens up some interesting scenarios that can make playing through the months ahead more interesting. New MyLeagues can begin with the current day’s standings and statistics. Instead of every team starting at 0-0 there are focused challenges that can be taken on for the more condensed season that remains. Read more
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End of Year Community Awards: Best Post-Release Support of 2016
The next category to open in the annual Community Awards is for Best Post-Release Support. EA Sports has undoubtedly provided the gold standard of post-release support for many of their licensed games over the years. The recent winners for the award are Madden NFL 16 and EA Sports UFC and both series are up for nomination again for the work done in 2016. They face a returning challenger that nearly pulled off an upset win in the category last year.
Madden NFL 17 has continued the trend of the franchise offering more than any other sports games post-release, whether that be adding features and new ways to play the game, consistent Ultimate Team content, weekly roster updates, and now even weekly commentary updates. Patches for M17 have addressed gameplay balancing, added Head-to-Head Seasons in UT, added Color Rush uniforms, and introduced new commentary lines to various modes.
EA Sports UFC 2 began with a huge roster of fighters but 12 more were still added to the game in the months that followed release. Post-release support for the sequel also provided new features for the Ultimate Team mode, introduced moves like the Stockton Slap to the game, and over a series of patches worked to better balance out the gameplay.
Rocket League receives its second consecutive nomination in the category. This year the game added a mode with power-ups, new arenas, and more vehicles. However its biggest move was to introduce a very fun basketball variant, which joined the standard soccer base that makes up the game and the hockey variant that was added in late 2015.
Other categories now open for vote
Best Gameplay
Best Mobile Game
Best Career/Story Mode
Best Presentation
Best Team-Building Mode
Best Online Play
Best Franchise Mode
Best Racing Game -
The Line Drive for January 1
The Line Drive is a weekly collection of news, links, deal alerts, and updates that didn’t necessarily warrant their own postings.
♦Summarized all the biggest sports gaming stories of 2016 for Sporting News.
♦Continue voting in all the various categories in the annual Community Awards.
♦Still to come: Best New Feature, Post-Release Support, New/Non-Yearly, and SGOTY.
♦The second Park After Dark event was another utter failure for NBA 2K17.
♦The NCAA Football 14 CFP semifinal sims got one of its upset picks right.
♦The NBA 2K17 All-Star Tournament competition through Pro-Am is now underway.
♦Evidence has been discovered of the dreaded “rubber-banding” in FIFA 17.
♦The PSN Holiday Sale with some solid deals only runs until morning of Jan. 3rd.
♦Amazon also has Madden PS4 for $30 and FIFA 17 PS4 $30 as digital deals.
♦Out of the Park Baseball 17 still on sale for just $10 but deal ends Monday.
♦Rocket League on Xbox One and PC digital is currently on sale for $12.
♦Only a few weeks old and Steep is already on sale for $40 on both Xbox One and PS4.
♦The deal for a one-time use 99 cent rental of any movie on Amazon is still available. -
End of Year Community Awards: Best Racing Game of 2016
The next category in the annual Pastapadre Community Awards is one that was warranted as a new addition for 2016. This was an especially great year for racing games, and the three nominees stood above the rest as favorites of both critics and fans, each one appealing to a somewhat different type of racing aficionado and yet satisfying most everyone who played them.
Forza Horizon 3 straddles the line between sim and arcade and provided great variety of racing through it’s various event types and the setting of Australia. Similarly, DiRT Rally has arcade elements but leans sim, and while it’s limited to rally racing the number of stages and various weather effects made each run thrilling. Then there’s F1 2016, which pleased with its ultra-sim and authentic nature along with an expansive Career Mode.
Other categories now open for vote
Best Gameplay
Best Mobile Game
Best Career/Story Mode
Best Presentation
Best Team-Building Mode
Best Online Play
Best Franchise Mode -
The biggest sports gaming stories of 2016
Every year it’s important to look back on developments within the sports gaming genre, not just as a reminder of what has happened, but as insight into the direction individual franchises are going and the trends within the industry that will impact them all.
2016 was a year that saw strong efforts across the board from major publishers and more independent developers making their way in to cover the abandoned arcade-style games and various niche sports. The broken release schedule remains a major concern, publishers are still struggling to gain traction in the world of eSports, the return of college sports games don’t appear to be any nearer, and post-release support is providing greater value and longevity to sports games than they’ve ever been able to offer before. Check out summaries of the important news stories and developments from 2016 in the piece written for Sporting News!
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Press Row Podcast: College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff is almost here and, as it so happens, Bryan Wiedey and Rich Grisham both have their teams involved and going head-to-head in the semifinal. The two discuss Washington vs Alabama and NCAA Football 14 simulations of the games before turning to topics such as the Blizzard Mountain expansion for Forza Horizon 3 and a rundown of the annual Pastapadre Community Awards categories and nominees for 2016.
Check out the podcast through iTunes for iOS, on Android with the Stitcher app, or with Pocket Casts on iOS, Android, and Windows. The show can also now be found on the recently launched Google Play Music for podcasts. Subscribe and review to help support the show! You can also listen with the streaming player below.
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NCAA Football 14 likes the underdogs in College Football Playoff semifinals
The College Football Playoff is almost here, with Washington vs Alabama and Ohio State vs Clemson on Saturday. NCAA Football 14 was perfect on its Conference Championship predictions early this month and now it returns to give its picks for the CFP semifinals.
Somewhat surprisingly, the game likes the two underdogs to advance, with Washington prevailing in OT and Clemson cruising despite Deshaun Watson being knocked out of the game due to injury. Check out the full results of the simulations over at Sporting News!
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End of Year Community Awards: Best Franchise Mode of 2016
The voting is now open for Best Franchise Mode of 2016 in the annual Pastapadre Community Awards. This category was originally controlled by EA Sports with NCAA Football and Madden winning the first four years. The last two however have been taken by NBA 2K after the creation of a highly customizable offline franchise to pair with the online-connected one.
NBA 2K17 looks to make it a three-peat with the offline MyLeague and online MyGM both contributing as unique franchise experiences. The new feature for MyLeague ‘Start Today’ allows for beginning a season on the current date with the real-life updated record and stats. Both MyLeague and MyGM received expansion abilities that can take leagues up to 36 teams.
Madden NFL 17’s Franchise Mode offered a revamped SuperSim called ‘Play The Moments’ which was well-received by those looking to get through games more quickly or to control only the important stretches of games, introduced ‘Big Decisions’ for things like when to bring back players from injury and an in-game score ticker, redesigned the game planning, and is still by far the best Online Franchise experience in the sports gaming genre.
FIFA 17 brought in new goals in the form of board expectations, updated the mode’s financial system, added 11 real-life managers, and offered even more licensed leagues.
Other categories now open for vote
Best Gameplay
Best Mobile Game
Best Career/Story Mode
Best Presentation
Best Team-Building Mode
Best Online Play
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