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The Golf Club Patch Out Now on PS4 and XB1
The patch mentioned last week for The Golf Club, which was already out on PC, has now gone live on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Unlike a few previous updates to the game this one is more about making tweaks and bug fixes than adding new features. The next major update is expected this spring and will include a Career mode.
Though listed as “minor putting adjustments” the changes to that area of the game seem to be the most notable with some players really appreciating the changes and others expressing disappointment in them. Here’s the full list:
♦Maximum course size indicator in the Greg Norman Course Designer.
♦Minor putting adjustments.
♦Various handicap interface fixes and adjustments (including ability to turn off handicap score on main screen).
♦Various Tournament interface fixes and adjustments.
♦Stability improvements (primarily console).
♦Increased max Tour duration to 180 days.
♦Updated the offline course list.
♦Fixed UFO shadow.
♦Tweaked the wood texture on selected Greg Norman Course Designer assets.
♦Fixed GNCD course testing crash when ball holed out.
♦Fixed local Match Play bug where match ended early.
♦Commentary tweaks and fixes in Tournaments.
♦Fixed removing Tee Furniture console bug which left the bag behind.
♦Various other small bug fixes and general tweaks. -
EA Sports UFC Patch #7 Now Available
A seventh patch released today for EA Sports UFC that delivers the four fighters mentioned in yesterday’s article. Anthony Johnson, Rafael dos Anjos, and Eddie Alvarez come in rated 92 overall while Holly Holm is 90. It weighs in at 1.15 GB.
Additionally it’s the fifth out of those seven patches to alter gameplay in some form or fashion. This one hasn’t made sweeping changes to gameplay like some of the others but the three things mentioned continue to address the sense of imbalance that UFC initially released with but has improved significantly since.
♦Added a stamina penalty for missed and blocked strike.
♦Added full body hit reactions to strikes landed while lunging.
♦Tuned stamina for lunges. -
More Fighters Being Added to EA Sports UFC
The winner of Best Post-Release Support in the 2014 Pastapadre Community Awards isn’t done yet! To date 18 fighters have been added to the roster in EA Sports UFC. They’ve made it in by piggybacking six patches over the first six months of the game’s release.
At least three more fighters are on the way and soon. The company has announced Rafael dos Anjos (fighting Anthony Pettis at UFC 185 in March), Eddie Alvarez, and Holly Holm (fighting at UFC 184 next month) will be coming to the product. Holm will make it eight fighters in the women’s bantamweight division. With previous fighter announcements the update delivering them has generally arrived the following week.
EA Sports UFC is currently free for EA Access subscribers on Xbox One. It was also made available for under $15 on both Xbox One and PS4 over the week of Black Friday, so there have been great opportunities to take a chance on a game that has improved greatly and offers relevancy that extends well beyond the traditional yearly-released sports games.
[Update] Anthony “Rumble” Johnson (fighting on Fox this Saturday) will also be added. The patch is coming sooner than anticipated it’ll be tomorrow, January 21.
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Fourth Patch Released for NHL 15
Normally a fourth patch for a game would signify impressive post-release support. That hasn’t really been the case for NHL 15, as EA Sports has only done the bare minimum when considering the state they released the game in and the promises they made prior to then. It could be argued though they haven’t even done that much given how poor and infrequent the roster updates have been.
Features that have been added in post-release updates include Playoff Mode, Be a Pro Coach Feedback, Three Stars, very basic Online Team Play and a Draft for Be a GM. That seems like a lot but it only scratches the surface of what was missing to begin with. It’s worth noting that various other improvements have been made to the product through the patches as well that have affected gameplay, presentation, and Ultimate Team.
Today the aforementioned patch released on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It includes a handful of fixes rather than improvements.
♦Hockey Ultimate Team and Playoff Mode: Fixed issue where the coin total displayed in the end of game HUT rewards screen is incorrect when it is Happy Hour.
♦Be a GM: Fixed issue where crash would occur after finishing a game, selecting rematch, then pausing and entering replay.
♦Online Team Play: Added positional filters to leaderboards.
♦NHL Moments Live: Fixed issue where some moments weren’t displayed or downloadable.
♦Presentation: Fixed upside down texture CCM Extreme Flex 2 Blocker.
♦Misc: Fixed issue with users not rewarded for watching ad videos, and misc. crashes. -
Mutant Football League Still in Development
Work has continued on the return of Mutant Football League despite an unsuccessful crowd-funding campaign in 2013. The game has been so under-the-radar since that when pre-alpha footage (check it out here) was posted two weeks passed until any media site took notice.
Creator and lead designer of the original Mutant League Football (released in 1993 on Sega Genesis) Michael Mendheim has been driving the development of the PS4/XB1/PC/iOS/Android reboot. During the Kickstarter campaign a target release date of summer 2015 was stated but that might be overly optimistic to expect now, especially with a publisher and additional investment still being sought. The hope is that it’ll be out sometime before the end of the year.
Mutant Football League was only able to draw 19% of its funding goal in the original Kickstarter campaign. At one point the plan was to try crowd-funding again, with less of a focus on mobile, but it seems to be going the more traditional route now.
The near extinction of arcade-style games has meant creative ideas, even those potentially to be resurrected from the past, have a much harder road to travel. Super Mega Baseball has shown it can be done though, and Mutant Football League would have the advantage of nostalgia and some remaining brand recognition on its side. Continue on to check out the slate of expected features for the game! Read more
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The Line Drive for January 18
The Line Drive is a weekly collection of news, links, deal alerts, and updates that didn’t necessarily warrant their own postings.
♦Wrote one Sporting News article this week – an early MLB 15: The Show preview.
♦2K Sports posted an outline of how to earn the various badges in NBA 2K15.
♦EA Sports released details on the latest roster update for NBA Live 15.
♦EA continues to talk about shoes more than anything else for NBA Live 15.
♦NCAA Football had the WR ineligible play similar to that run by the Patriots.
♦Check out the details of the latest roster update for NHL 15.
♦EA has listed the top five player rating risers and fallers this season in NHL 15.
♦Some pre-alpha footage of the upcoming Mutant Football League has released.
♦DLC pack with new moves for $4 was released for WWE 2K15.
♦A new Rugby game is due out February 24 on PS4, XB1, PS3.
♦At the Detroit Auto Show the cover car for Forza 6 was unveiled.
♦The latest episode of Breaking Madden is the culmination of a Tom Brady trilogy.
♦The fighting game WWE Immortals has released for both iOS and Android.
♦Check out a closer look at the design for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium.
♦Microsoft released details on the February system update for Xbox One.
♦Amazon launched their new season of pilots to watch and review for full orders.
♦Of those shows I’d highly recommend The Man in the High Castle and Mad Dogs.
♦Check out the new trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron.
♦Blu-ray releases this week headlined by Lucy and The Boxtrolls. -
Press Row Podcast: Breaking Down the 2014 Awards Season
The latest Press Row Podcast features extensive discussion on the 2014 accolades given out through the Pastapadre Community Awards and the Operation Sports Awards. Every category is examined from nominations to results and reactions. The year-in-review period is important not just in looking back on what happened but identifying what can be learned from for the future of the genre and specific products within it.
Check out the podcast through iTunes for iOS and the Stitcher app for Android – subscribe while there to help support the show! You can also listen in the streaming player below.
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Three Sports Games Finish in Top Ten Sales for 2014
With NPD reports in for December the entirety of 2014 can be analyzed and three sports games finished in the top ten of sales for the year. The three in question are regulars when rounding up the best-sellers annually.
Madden NFL 15 finished as the second biggest seller in 2014. Only Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was able to top it. NBA 2K15 finished the year in seventh place and FIFA 15 came through in ninth place.
It’s important to note that NPD only covers North America. NBA 2K and FIFA are far stronger properties than Madden overseas. FIFA has been the top selling game in the world for several years now, and more recently has shown impressive growth in the US. Its first appearance in the NPD top ten came in 2012. Madden finished the year strongest of the group, as it usually does, coming in third in December but NBA 2K15 still has six months ahead of it where it will continue to place among the best sellers.
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