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The Line Drive for November 17
The Line Drive is a weekly collection of news, links, deal alerts, and updates that didn’t necessarily warrant their own postings.
♦EA has retroactively disqualified participants w/ felonies from Madden competition.
♦This comes in response to one of the winners having been found to be a sex offender.
♦Once again very limited and vague details on another patch out for NBA 2K20.
♦PES 2020 is on sale down to just $30 on PS4 for PlayStation Plus subscribers.
♦Amazon has deal on NBA 2K20 for Xbox One available for $40.
♦New Tournaments mode has been introduced to Perfect Team in OOTP Baseball 20.
♦Full details on the latest update to have gone out for OOTP Baseball 20.
♦Details on all the latest content that has been added to the Madden Mobile game.
♦Microsoft announced Project xCloud streaming service w/ preview period sign-ups.
♦Google revealed the limited slate of games available for launch of Stadia this week.
♦Most of this year’s sports games will be found for $25-$30 on 11/29 Black Friday.
♦The headlining movie release this week is It Chapter Two through digital video. -
Press Row Podcast: Top 5 Sports Video Games of the Decade
It’s a big extended episode of the Press Row Podcast as panelists count down their top five sports games of the decade (released 2010-2019). What games from the big franchises made it onto their lists and what others managed to join them there? Whether it’s due to how memorable they were, the influence they had on the genre or their continued relevance even to this day, these are the games that defined the decade.
Check out the podcast through Apple Podcasts for iOS, on Android with the Stitcher app, or with Pocket Casts on iOS, Android, and Windows. The show can now also be found on Spotify! Subscribe and give the podcast five star reviews to help support the show. You can also listen with the streaming player found below.
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Madden NFL 20 roster update details following week 10 of the season
The roster update for Madden NFL 20 factoring in performance and other transactions through the first 10 weeks of the season is now available to download on all platforms.
Christian McCaffrey continues his rise now sitting at 98 Overall. He has gone up 5 points in just the last 3 weeks and since the start of the season has seen his rating soar from 91 Overall. Teammate Luke Kuechly is going the other direction however dropping 2 points to 96 Overall.
Player of the Week winners Lamar Jackson (+2 to 86) and Dalvin Cook (+1 to 94) got recognition but the award winners on the defensive side, Jadeveon Clowney and Jamal Adams, went untouched in this week’s update.
Other notables on the move include Michael Thomas (+1 to 97), Odell Beckham Jr. (-2 to 93), Mike Evans (+2 to 92), Amari Cooper (+1 to 92), Travis Frederick (-2 to 91), Keenan Allen (-1 to 91), Adam Thielen (-1 to 91), Saquon Barkley (-1 to 89), Cameron Heyward (+2 to 88), Aaron Jones (+1 to 88), Philip Rivers (-2 to 87), Todd Gurley (-1 to 87), Minkah Fitzpatrick (+2 to 85), and Josh Jacobs (+2 to 84). For all the changes that have been made and the current ratings check out the spreadsheet on the official website.
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The Line Drive for November 10
The Line Drive is a weekly collection of news, links, deal alerts, and updates that didn’t necessarily warrant their own postings.
♦Latest embarrassment for EA is letting a sex offender in to win a Madden 20 tournament.
♦Details on the roster update with ratings changes just released for Madden NFL 20.
♦Online Franchise has apparently opened back up for most players in Madden NFL 20.
♦Full list of ratings changes made in the first in-season roster update for NBA 2K20.
♦Details on the latest content added into Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show 19.
♦Details on a minor patch that was released last week for MLB The Show 19.
♦PES 2020 is on sale down to just $30 on PS4 for PlayStation Plus subscribers.
♦Details on a minor patch that was released last week for Pro Evolution Soccer 2020.
♦Details on the latest patch to have released on all platforms for FIFA 20.
♦Take Notice content just added to NHL 20 involves three non-hockey athletes.
♦Need for Speed Heat has a 10 hour trial available now through EA Access.
♦Big Ant released the reveal trailer for AO Tennis 2 with a release date of January 20.
♦Details on a patch released during the ongoing beta period for Football Manager 2020.
♦Details on a patch fixing a handful of issues found in Franchise Hockey Manager 6.
♦Amazon deal currently has NBA 2K20 – NHL 20 – FIFA 20 for $40.
♦Blu-ray releases headlined by Good Boys and digital video Angel Has Fallen. -
Madden NFL 20’s Online Franchise, down for some since Halloween, now down for all
Those who argue that the shift in priorities from legacy modes to revenue-generating modes in sports games has been harmful to consumers have another piece of evidence of just that. Online Franchise in Madden NFL 20 has been experiencing issues since the end of October for some and now, due to problems encountered upon attempts to fix that, EA Sports has taken Online Franchise down completely for everyone.
Yesterday, our teams attempted to roll out a server side fix to address the issue where some Online Franchise Leagues were unable to login. After the fix was rolled out, we noticed that the Franchise servers started to lock up. Late last night, a decision was made that we had to gate all of the Franchise Online modes to prevent all the Madden servers from locking up, which would have impacted all game modes.
Beginning on Halloween some players found themselves unable to access their server-based cloud franchise saves. It turned out that it was happening to franchise files that were created early on in July and August. That explained why not everyone in ongoing franchises was having the issue and newly created franchises were operating just fine.
Currently there is no in-game message regarding the servers for Franchise having been taken down. Unfortunately only a “connection error” message is displayed. Offline Franchise and Face of the Franchise are not affected.
It took way too long for EA Sports to make a real comment on the situation and now things have only gotten worse. The next update is supposedly going to be given a full three days from now. Needless to say if the problems were related to Ultimate Team, and not Franchise, the scrambling on the company’s side as well as their communication would have been starkly different.
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First ratings changes for NBA 2K20
The first roster update featuring player ratings changes has arrived for NBA 2K20 and also includes updated heights and weights. Now two weeks into the season there is enough data to merit ratings increases and decreases and the updates should become fairly consistent throughout the year representing current player performance and trends.
Jumping up the most in this new roster are Luka Doncic (+3 to 90), Trae Young (+4 to 89), and Andre Drummond (+3 to 89). Doncic is averaging nearly a triple-double with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. Young’s numbers took a hit due to an in-game injury and a poor performance last night but has been sensational otherwise. Drummond is currently at career-high levels in points, rebounds (18.6!) and assists.
The changes aren’t as pronounced going down with Mike Conley (-4 to 83) and Marc Gasol (-3 to 79) taking the most significant hits. Conley is averaging only 13 points and 4 assists while Gasol is way down with 7 points and 7 rebounds a game.
Other notables on the move include Joel Embiid (+1 to 92), Kyrie Irving (+1 to 92), Karl-Anthony Towns (+1 to 90), Donovan Mitchell (+1 to 89), Nikola Jokic (-1 to 89), Al Horford (+2 to 87), Devin Booker (+1 to 87), Rudy Gobert (-2 to 86), Malcolm Brogdon (+3 to 86), LaMarcus Aldridge (-1 to 86), C.J. McCollum (-1 to 86), Brandon Ingram (+4 to 85), D’Angelo Russell (-2 to 85), De’Aaron Fox (-1 to 85), Khris Middleton (-1 to 85), Derrick Rose (+4 to 84), Buddy Hield (+2 to 84), Nikola Vucevic (-2 to 84), Jrue Holiday (-2 to 84), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (+4 to 83), Wendell Carter Jr. (+3 to 81), Ja Morant (+2 to 81), Dejounte Murray (+2 to 80), Julius Randle (-2 to 81), and Jaylen Brown (-2 to 79).
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Details on the latest patch to Madden NFL 20
The fifth major post-release patch for Madden NFL 20 is available now on all platforms. This patch delivers a brand new X-Factor ability, adds all of the new abilities from the last patch to Franchise, and makes a variety of adjustments to gameplay and presentation. Read more
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The Line Drive for November 3
The Line Drive is a weekly collection of news, links, deal alerts, and updates that didn’t necessarily warrant their own postings.
♦The door has been opened for NCAA Football to finally return in the next 3-5 years.
♦Many questions remain however making it not a sure thing that it’ll happen smoothly.
♦Reminder of just one more day for PS+ subscribers to grab MLB The Show 19 for free.
♦Details on the latest patch adjusting gameplay and more out now for FIFA 20.
♦New kits have been added to FIFA 20 for AFC Ajax and AS Roma.
♦Unskippable ads have been encountered in NBA 2K20 despite backlash from 2K19.
♦The public beta being held for Football Manager 2020 is now up and running.
♦Details on the Heavy Hitters Event for HUT ongoing now in NHL 20.
♦Details on the latest content added to Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show 19.
♦The mobile version on iOS and Android of PES 2020 is now available.
♦Details on the latest Most Feared content and more now found in Madden Mobile.
♦Details on the first patch out for the much-troubled recently released WWE 2K20.
♦Golden Tee Golf is out now for iOS and Android based off the popular arcade game.
♦EA and Valve have partnered to bring EA Access to Steam beginning next spring.
♦Blu-ray releases headlined by Hobbs & Shaw and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
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