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Madden NFL 15 Roster Update #19 Details
The latest roster update for Madden NFL 15 which follows the Divisional round of the Playoffs has gone out on all consoles. Richard Sherman has finally recaptured the 99 overall rating while Peyton Manning continues his plummet from being rated 99 midway through the season. Check out complete details on all of the changes made in the spreadsheet here.
Players rising significantly in ratings include Tom Brady (+1 to 98), Marshal Yanda (+1 to 98), Vontae Davis (+1 to 98), Earl Thomas (+1 to 96), Tony Romo (+1 to 95), Devin McCourty (+1 to 95), Kam Chancellor (+3 to 94), Thomas Davis (+1 to 93), Russell Wilson (+2 to 90), Kelvin Benjamin (+2 to 85), Luke Willson (+3 to 83), and Davante Adams (+3 to 77).
Among the players headed down are DeMarco Murray (-1 to 96), Luke Kuechly (-1 to 96), Darrelle Revis (-1 to 96), Marshawn Lynch (-1 to 95), Demaryius Thomas (-1 to 95), Peyton Manning (-2 to 93), Jason Witten (-1 to 92), Bobby Wagner (-1 to 90), Aqib Talib (-1 to 90), Morgan Burnett (-2 to 85), K.J. Wright (-2 to 83), Wes Welker (-2 to 82), and Casey Hayward (-2 to 82).
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New Patch for The Golf Club On The Way
The runner-up for Best Post-Release Support in the 2014 Pastapadre Community Awards recently sent out another patch for the PC version which will soon come to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The Golf Club’s Twitter account noted today that it has been submitted to Sony and Microsoft which means it should be expected to go live within the next two weeks.
The patch isn’t bringing in new features like some of the past ones have but instead is focused on bug fixes and adjustments based on feedback to features that were added recently.
…we are putting the finishing touches to a small patch that will address a few bugs and make some tweaks to the new features added with Feature Update 2…We’ve implemented some tweaks and enhancements to Tournament presentation, fixed some issues with local Match Play, fixed a couple of crashes and a bunch of presentation bugs plus tweaked some of the wood-based assets in the Greg Norman Course Designer such as benches and bridges. The main driving force was to fix a GNCD crash that was a little annoying but we also took the opportunity to sneak in some other polishing. A full list of areas covered will be published once the patch is released.
Adjustments to the Handicap system introduced in the big December patch may also be included, or at least are being researched for a future patch, and of course there is still the feature update to come this spring that will add in a Career mode.
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Final Set of 2014 Community Award Winners
After a few weeks of collecting votes – the total of which exceeded 31K – it’s time to announce the remaining winners of the 2014 Pastapadre Community Choice Awards. Make sure to check out the earlier results for the first six categories here. Continue on to see what has won Best New Feature, Most Disappointing Game, Best Mobile Game, Best New or Non-Yearly Sports Game, and Best Sports Game of 2014! Read more
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Special Teams May Never Get Sufficient Attention in Madden
For as long as I’ve been covering sports video games the neglect of special teams in the Madden series has been readily apparent. Such a huge part of the NFL goes without much of anything being done to represent the aspect of the game properly. Tinkering with kick meters has been about the only thing that has changed over the years.
So on Saturday when Kam Chancellor stunned everyone by perfectly timing and jumping over the offensive line on back-to-back field goal attempts naturally many wondered would something like that ever make it to Madden? If it is being attempted in NFL games why wouldn’t it be possible in the video game? Of course within minutes the idea was dismissed with a wave of the hand by one of the developers. Read more
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Madden NFL 15 Divisional Round Upcoming Roster Update Discussion
The Divisional round is now complete and the NFL is on to its final four with the Conference Championships on Sunday. They’ll feature three QBs with rings, two with MVP awards and two that seem likely to get their own in the future, one historically great defense, and playmakers like Rob Gronkowski, Marshawn Lynch, T.Y. Hilton, and Jordy Nelson.
After the performances in the Divisional games players likely to rise in the next Madden NFL 15 roster update include Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, Justin Forsett, Luke Willson, Kelvin Benjamin, Jermaine Kearse, O’Brien Schofield, Jonathan Newsome, Mike Daniels, Jeremy Mincey, Devin McCourty, Vontae Davis, Darius Butler, and Kam Chancellor.
Among those who will probably take a hit to their ratings are Peyton Manning, Mike Remmers, Ronald Leary, Von Miller, DeMarcus Ware, Tharold Simon, Bene Benwikere, and Aqib Talib. Who would you like to see go up or down based on recent performance in the next update?
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The Line Drive for January 11
The Line Drive is a weekly collection of news, links, deal alerts, and updates that didn’t necessarily warrant their own postings.
♦Still can get votes in for the following Pastapadre Community Awards with winners announced early this coming week: Best Sports Game of 2014 – Best New or Non-Yearly Sports Game – Best Mobile Game – Best New Feature – Most Disappointing Sports Game
♦Make sure to check out the articles I wrote for Sporting News this last week.
♦A minor patch for The Golf Club is out for PC and will be soon for PS4/XB1.
♦Metalhead Software is beginning to work on a patch for Super Mega Baseball.
♦The digital-only “Holiday Edition” of FIFA 15 is on sale for $30 on Xbox One.
♦Night Train Lane and Steve Smith are new legends for Madden Ultimate Team.
♦EA instituted changes to MUT and then reverted back to the original settings.
♦EA listed the top 20 player transfers that have occurred in FIFA Ultimate Team.
♦New tutorial video goes over basic and advanced defending in FIFA 15.
♦A first look at new LA Galaxy member Steven Gerrard through FIFA 15.
♦EA finally released a roster update for NBA Live 15 that includes recent trades.
♦The latest Press Row Podcast features discussion on old-school baseball games.
♦The latest episode of Breaking Madden is another classic.
♦Check out the jerseys that’ll be worn in the upcoming NHL All-Star game.
♦Sony released details on a subscription service with PlayStation Now.
♦SlingTV service is coming to the Xbox One for $20 a month.
♦Marvel released the first trailer for Ant-Man due out July 17.
♦Blu-ray releases this week headlined by Gone Girl and Boardwalk Empire S5. -
NBA 2K15 Week 11 Ratings Changes
Despite slowing down on the rate of roster updates featuring ratings changes NBA 2K15 has been on top of player movement (unlike the competition) often updating transactions the very next day. Yet after starting the season with ratings being changed on a near daily basis there were only five updates that contained them between mid-November and the end of the year.
Since then though there have been six more updates that have adjusted ratings to better reflect current performance levels. Check out all the ratings changes over the past three weeks with the spreadsheet here.
The trend of there being far more rating points going up than down has continued and that remains concerning. By the end of the season the roster will be far more top heavy than where it began. Over the course of this last set of updates alone players went up a combined 175 overall and down just 63 overall for a net gain of a staggering 112 points.
Those moving up significantly include Kevin Durant (+1 to 96), James Harden (+2 to 95), Anthony Davis (+1 to 95), Russell Westbrook (+3 to 93), Stephen Curry (+1 to 92), Kyle Lowry (+2 to 90), Dwyane Wade (+2 to 89), Jimmy Butler (+2 to 87), Jonas Valanciunas (+4 to 85), and Draymond Green (+3 to 82).
Among the players dropping are LeBron James (-1 to 96), Dwight Howard (-1 to 88), Carmelo Anthony (-1 to 88), Blake Griffin (-1 to 88), John Wall (-1 to 87), Derrick Rose (-2 to 85), Deron Williams (-4 to 81), and Bradley Beal (-2 to 79).
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Three New Articles on Sporting News
I’ll be contributing articles regularly going forward to Sporting News and the first three went up this week. The idea is to write there for a more general audience – many of the themes and practically all of the pertinent information having already being covered here but presented in a different manner – and tie it in more with relevancy in the sports world.
One article is on Super Mega Baseball which beat the odds not just in becoming a fantastic game but in even getting off the ground to begin with. The second is on the loss of the NCAA Football series and how the excitement surrounding the College Football Playoff is another sad reminder of that. Finally there is a write-up on a court ruling that allows a lawsuit from retired players over past unauthorized use of likenesses in Madden to go forward.
♦Late Season Call-Up Super Mega Baseball Beats the Odds
♦No Video Game in Place to Capitalize on the College Football Playoff
♦Lawsuit Over “Madden” from Retired Players Proceeds vs Electronic Arts
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