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End of Year Community Awards: Best Gameplay of 2014
With 2014 coming to a close it’s time to begin looking back on the developments that have taken place and award the various efforts in sports gaming. To start will be the first of the Community Awards. You can check out the winners from previous years here.
The categories to look forward to are Community Sports Game of the Year, Best New or Non-Yearly Sports Game, Best Gameplay, Best Online Play, Best Presentation, Best Franchise Mode, Best Career Mode, Best Post-Release Support, Best New Feature, Best Mobile Sports Game, and Most Disappointing Game. Kicking it off today is the award for Best Gameplay.
Winners will be revealed all at once in early January. Continue on to read over the three eligible standout titles in terms of gameplay from the array of sports offerings this year, vote in the poll, and leave any additional thoughts in the comments! Read more
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The Line Drive for December 21
The Line Drive is a weekly collection of news, links, deal alerts, and updates that didn’t necessarily warrant their own postings.
♦The next Press Row Hangout is scheduled for Monday night at 11ET.
♦The Pastapadre SGOTY, top story recaps, and Community Awards start soon.
♦The digital deal on PS4 for The Golf Club at $21 is set to end tomorrow.
♦Steam sale for Out of the Park Baseball 15 for $15 available through January 2.
♦2K Sports is not commenting on the hold-up for the Xbox One patch for NBA 2K15.
♦2K Sports has added Isaiah Austin to the free agents and MyTeam in NBA 2K15.
♦A Houston news station used an NBA 2K15 image rather than photo for Troy Daniels.
♦Bruce Lee in EA UFC now being given out for free to those who didn’t pre-order.
♦EA detailed how they created Madison Square Garden for NBA Live 15.
♦The first downloadable content offerings for WWE 2K15 have gone out.
♦New legends this week are Steve Young and Reggie White for Madden Ultimate Team.
♦New holiday-related content is being added to Madden NFL 15 Ultimate Team.
♦Sports Game of the Year was given to Super Mega Baseball by Polygon.
♦The latest Breaking Madden takes on Johnny Manziel and infinite scrambling.
♦Amazon has Forza Horizon 2 for $37.49 on Xbox One.
♦Amazon has Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare for $40 on XB1/PS4/360. -
The Golf Club Patch Includes Handicap System and Much More
The latest patch for The Golf Club continues the excellent post-release support from HB Studios since arriving digitally for the consoles in August and even before that with the PC version. The patch went out late last night on both Xbox One and PS4 and it most notably includes the highly anticipated Handicap System, a new theme, and two new courses. Remember there are only a few days left to grab it for almost half off on PS4.
♦Handicap System
♦New Theme – Countryside
♦New Game Mode – Stableford (Scoring Method)
♦Multi-plant tool in Greg Norman Course Designer
♦Optimization on all Platforms
♦Expanded Commentary
♦Ability to change Tee Box styles and colours
♦New Official Course – Flin Flon Golf Club
♦New Official Course – Great Tottington Golf Club
♦New Official Tournaments for all handicap levels – some available immediately, most progressively over the holidays.
♦New Official Tours for different handicap levels – to be released over the holiday period.
♦Colourful plants and shrubs added to Greg Norman Course Designer.
♦Bug Fixes (See a TON of them on the official blog)Here is some more info on what to expect out of the new Handicap system: Read more
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Press Row Podcast: Sports Game of the Year
The 2014 Sports Game of the Year Press Row Podcast has arrived! The complete panel goes over the list of candidates, debating both the merits and reasons against them deserving the award, before turning to the results and a discussion of how each person voted. This year there is a new category as well with one game being named the Rookie of the Year.
The Pastapadre SGOTY countdown will begin soon, as will year-in-review recaps of the top stories, and of course the 6th Annual Pastapadre Community Awards!
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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NBA 2K15 Week Eight Ratings Changes
Though the frequency of NBA 2K15 roster updates have dropped off significantly they’re still being provided regularly enough to keep the game feeling up-to-date. That’s evidenced today by a new roster that executes the Rajon Rondo trade. However updates including ratings changes have only numbered three in the last two weeks and five in the last month. Compensating for that is bigger movement influenced by more performances.Â
Check out all the changes in the spreadsheet put together here.
James Harden and Russell Westbrook have joined the elite 90+ club while Marc Gasol is on the brink and likely to make it sooner rather than later. Other Significant movement has affected positively Steph Curry, Kyle Lowry, John Wall, Mike Conley, and Tyson Chandler. Those taking hits include Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, Tony Parker, and Joakim Noah.
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Madden NFL 15 Roster Update #17 Details
The roster update for Madden NFL 15 that follows week 15 of the season is available now on all systems. Rob Gronkowski gets the most significant move reaching 99 overall. He joins J.J. Watt there with Richard Sherman the verge of making it back any week now. Aaron Rodgers drops out of the 99 club after a rough game against the Bills. Check out the full slate of changes made in the roster update with the spreadsheet here.
Ray McDonald, now accused of sexual assault and having been cut by the 49ers, remains on the team’s roster. Checking back on other troubled players from the season Ray Rice has not been added to the free agent pool despite his reinstatement and somehow Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy remain active on their respective team rosters in the game.
Among players on the rise this week are Vontae Davis (+1 to 96), Kyle Williams (+1 to 96), Dez Bryant (+1 to 96), Mario Williams (+1 to 95), Drew Brees (+1 to 95), Terrell Suggs (+1 to 94), Tony Romo (+1 to 93), Nick Mangold (+1 to 93), Sheldon Richardson (+1 to 92), Bobby Wagner (+1 to 91), Chandler Jones (+1 to 90), Joe Flacco (+1 to 89), Khalil Mack (+1 to 89), Odell Beckham Jr. (+3 to 88), Reggie Nelson (+2 to 88), Glover Quin (+1 to 88), Alex Smith (+1 to 87), and Eli Manning (+2 to 85).
Names that take a hit in the update include Jordy Nelson (-1 to 96), Jamaal Charles (-1 to 96), Robert Quinn (-1 to 96), Cameron Wake (-1 to 95), Reshad Jones (-1 to 92), Josh Gordon (-1 to 91), Philip Rivers (-2 to 90), LeSean McCoy (-1 to 90), Julius Thomas (-1 to 90), Justin Smith (-1 to 90), DeSean Jackson (-2 to 89), Antoine Bethea (-2 to 89), Colin Kaepernick (-2 to 81), Jay Cutler (-2 to 79), and Johnny Manziel (-2 to 75).
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EA Sports UFC Now Available in EA Access Vault
As announced last week EA Sports UFC is now available as one of the games in the “Vault” with EA Access on Xbox One. Subscribers to the service will have unlimited playtime with the complete game – essentially it’s “owned” digitally until the subscription is allowed to expire.
UFC joins Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, Need for Speed Rivals, Peggle 2, Battlefield 4, Madden NFL 25, and FIFA 14 in the “Vault”. Other perks to EA Access include 10% off all digital purchases and six hours of early play with future games in the days leading up to their respective releases. The subscription cost is $30 yearly or $5 on a monthly basis.
The timing of the addition was somewhat surprising given that UFC has only been out six months, is still being actively supported (six patches/18 new fighters to date), arrives in advance of Christmas possibly cannibalizing some sales, and has value that won’t degrade as quickly given that it’s not a yearly release.
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The Daily Dish for 12/17/14
In the latest episode of The Daily Dish summarized thoughts on Super Mega Baseball following its release, new jerseys have been added to NBA 2K15 but the Christmas ones are completely inaccurate, a patch arrived recently for NBA Live 15, make sure to vote the poll that went up to judge anticipation levels for MLB 15: The Show features, a digital deal on PS4 is available for The Golf Club, and the $30 sale on NBA 2K15 continues through Amazon.
Referenced in the video
♦NBA 2K15 XB1/PS4 $30 at Amazon
♦Super Mega Baseball Review
♦Super Mega Baseball Walkthrough Video
♦MLB 15: The Show Feature Poll
♦NBA Live 15 Patch Details (EA Sports)
♦The Golf Club Digital Deal on PS4
♦NBA 2K15 Adds Inaccurate Xmas Jerseys
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