News & Updates
  • FIFA 15 Six Hour Trial Now Accessible Through EA Access
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    Posted September 18th, 2014 at 10:00 am 2 Comments »

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    FIFA 15 through EA Access on Xbox One is now available to download as a timed trial. Subscribers to the service will get six hours of play time before it expires with the timer ticking down whenever the game is loaded regardless of whether it is being played, menus are being navigated through, or if there is any activity taking place at all. So make sure to exit out and close the application from the Xbox One home screen when not in use.

    The trial will expire on Tuesday regardless of whether the six hours have been used when a full copy will be required to continue playing. Game saves are stored on the hard drive so records online and progress in Career, Ultimate Team or any other modes will carry over. The complete game is accessible during the trial period.

    EA Access was announced in late July and is exclusive to the Xbox One only because Sony has declined to offer the service through PlayStation 4. It includes the “Vault” which offers unlimited play with some older games from the company’s catalog, 10% off all digital purchases, and the ability to play games up to five days before they release with a limited timed trial. EA Access is $30 for a full year or $5 month-to-month.

  • Desyncs Continue to Plague H2H Games in Madden NFL 15 Online Franchise
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    Posted September 18th, 2014 at 8:00 am 15 Comments »

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    You may remember a recent declaration from EA Sports that they had fixed a desync issue in Madden NFL 15’s Online Connected Franchise head-to-head games. Unfortunately that hasn’t turned out to be true at all. They’re still widespread and severely damaging the enjoyment and long-term potential of online leagues.

    Suggestions on how to avoid a desync have ranged from making sure the two users have the same visual settings (tackle cone, kicking arc, ect) to locking into a single camera angle. Ultimately there doesn’t seem to be a common thread causing it. Maybe it happens more when the settings aren’t the same between both sides, but desnycs are happening when they are a match and sometimes don’t occur when they aren’t. I’ve played games through to completion with camera toggle on and switching back and forth between the various angles throughout, yet last night with all settings the same experienced a desync with under two minutes remaining.

    Almost an hour just wasted, and while CFM has a ton of great features, the lack of an ability to assign a sim win to a specific team makes the situation even worse. That’s a devastating outcome and the type that ruin leagues and turn people away from them. Sadly it’s not an isolated incident. Many have voiced their problems in gaming forums and social media, and our Press Row Podcast league has experienced quite a few – and we’re only up to week four now.

    The initial diagnosis from EA was that the desnycs were a result of having the different visual settings. They claimed it would require a patch and then surprised with the note that it had been addressed in a server-side update. The problem with that isn’t only that it’s not fixed, but if EA believes it’s only being caused by visual settings even something they deploy in an upcoming patch may not take care of it.

  • The Daily Dish for 9/17/14
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    Posted September 17th, 2014 at 5:15 pm 5 Comments »

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    Today’s Daily Dish tackles a number of topics starting with what EA Sports is likely to do with Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy in the Madden NFL 15 roster update later this week. It then moves on to cover the face scanning feature that is being introduced in NBA 2K15, the return of NHL 2K as a mobile game, and two demos making news this week with Forza Horizon 2’s out now and a delay on the one that had been scheduled for PES 2015.

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  • Face Scanning Coming to NBA 2K15
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    Posted September 17th, 2014 at 10:30 am 19 Comments »

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    EA Sports debuted the “Game Face” feature now seven years ago, but the company never invested in updating it and lately have phased out of most of their titles. Game Face utilizes webcams or actual photographs of people to craft created player faces in games. It has always been hit or miss, with some severe problems along the way, but also some decent representations of users or even celebrity recreations that led to some legal concerns.

    While the NBA 2K series has offered up arguably the most compelling career mode in sports games in recent years it’s lacked that personal connection where a created player could look just like a user. That will be changing this year as face scanning is introduced in the Xbox One and PS4 version of NBA 2K15.

    Using the Kinect or PlayStation 4 Camera people will now be able to scan themselves into the game for their MyPlayer for use in MyCareer, The Park, and MyGM.

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  • NHL 2K Returning on Mobile
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    Posted September 17th, 2014 at 8:30 am 5 Comments »

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    No, it’s not making a comeback to battle EA Sports’ NHL series, but NHL 2K has been resurrected to land on mobile devices this fall. The game is being developed in partnership between Virtuos Games and Visual Concepts which is the same arrangement that produces NBA 2K on mobile. It will be available for iOS and Android devices.

    What you see now for mobile games is primarily free-to-play, but NHL 2K (also like NBA 2K) will sell for $8 instead. Modes include MyCareer, Winter Classic, 3-on-3 arcade, and turn-based online shootout. The company is also pledging to update rosters throughout the season.

  • The Daily Dish for 9/16/14
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    Posted September 16th, 2014 at 5:30 pm 1 Comment »

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    The latest Daily Dish looks ahead to the next Madden NFL 15 roster update, welcomes in T.J. Lauerman (@ThatSportsGamer) to explain the loss of “Trade Offers” from FIFA 15 Ultimate Team, and goes over the new additions making it into FUT 15.

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  • FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Loses One Feature But Gains Several New Ones
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    Posted September 16th, 2014 at 2:00 pm 1 Comment »

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    Coming on the heels of an announcement that “Trade Offers” are being removed from Ultimate Team in FIFA 15 due to account security concerns, EA Sports has rolled out a list of additions being made to the mode this year.

    Those include the ability to play friends in “Seasons”, acquiring players on loan, a “Physical” player attribute, and the chance to plan out future squads in advance.  Read more

  • NBA 2K15 Cavs Player Intro Video
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    Posted September 16th, 2014 at 10:00 am 25 Comments »

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    2K Sports today released a new trailer for NBA 2K15 that shows off the player introduction sequence for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Check out the starting lineup intro which has the first look at Kevin Love with the team, the crowd holding a bunch of Kyrie Irving “Big Heads” (looks like its limited to just one player) and a slimmed-down LeBron James in the video below.

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