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Madden NFL 15 Stream on Ultimate Team
EA Sports is wrapping up the live streams for Madden NFL 15 with attention turning to Ultimate Team. This one follows a series of others on gameplay, presentation, and Connected Franchise. For those interested in Ultimate Team it offers a more detailed look at the new features coming to the mode this year. The company also released a few new blogs about how to become a “MUT Master” and changes to managing lineups. Read more
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Tap Sports Baseball Releases on Mobile
It seems as though baseball is the most represented sport in mobile because it’s the most natural fit for a team-based sports game. A new entrant arrived today in Tap Sports Baseball that stands out from the crowd due to the team behind it.
Tap Sports Baseball comes from the makers of Your Turn Football which was my personal favorite mobile sports game last year and one of the very few that proved to be compelling for a long stretch of time. It was a turn-based multiplayer game that on the surface was simple to play but timing and strategy had a great impact on the outcome. Your Turn was anchored with a realistic nature that in some ways represented football even better than Madden. What it most notably lacked was any type of single player mode or licensing.
Those areas and others have been addressed with the new game. Tap Sports Baseball includes MLBPA licensing, so it’ll have real players but not any of the teams or league branding, and a way to play single player games. It retains the turn-based gameplay and team building aspects. Many of the excellent design decisions present in Your Turn also appear in Tap Sports. It’s free and can be downloaded for iOS through iTunes or Google Play for Android.
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Sony Announces Share Play for PS4
At Gamescom yesterday Sony announced some details on the PlayStation 4 v2.00 console update due out this fall. One new feature will be Share Play, which allows someone who owns a game to invite a friend to play along with them even if that friend doesn’t own the game.
The best way to think about Share Play is like a “virtual couch”. PlayStation 4 will create an online local co-op experience by allowing you to invite a friend to join your game—even when they don’t own a copy of it. With this first-of-its-kind feature, you’ll be able to play games with a friend just as if you were together in the same room. Let’s say that with games… you’ll be able to invite your friend online to play against the Miami Heat for the championship as the San Antonio Spurs in NBA2K, tackle the challenging Towerfall Ascension Quest Mode together, or aide, heal, and protect you as Igniculus in Child of Light’s local co-op mode.
With Share Play, you can even jump into a game to assist a friend. For example, if there is part of a game that you can’t quite finish, you can invite a friend to take over your controls. Like handing over the controller to a friend on your couch, your screen will be shared as your friend gets through the part of the game that has been giving you trouble—can’t get past that part in The Last of Us: Remastered when you’re hanging upside down? Get a little help.
The ability to join a friend’s game without owning it was most recently mentioned at E3 in relation to Far Cry 4’s co-op and the intriguing possibilities it would open up for sports games as well as whether it was realistic for them was tackled in this article. In the video podcast below I’m joined by T.J. Lauerman (@ThatSportsGamer) to talk about Share Play and what it could mean for sports games in the future.
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Gamescom Trailers for NHL 15 and FIFA 15; NHL Demo Out August 26
New trailers for NHL 15 and FIFA 15 have come out of Gamescom coinciding with the Electronic Arts press conference and the first day of the event.
With less than four weeks to go EA has yet to show gameplay or clarify the feature set even with rumors swirling that EASHL and GM Connected may not have made the transition to the Xbox One and PS4. That didn’t change at the press conference but some other news was made.
There will be a demo for NHL 15 and that is set to release on Tuesday, August 26. It will feature a Stanley Cup Finals rematch of the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings with two minute periods. The demo will also include practice mode, adjustable difficulty and camera angles.
For FIFA 15 the new trailer focuses on goalkeepers which are said to be revamped with “over 50 new save animations, improved AI and a new realistic player model”. Read more
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The Golf Club Sets Price and One Release Date
Earlier this month HB Studios announced a likely date of the digital-only release of The Golf Club with hopes it could be out earlier. That has turned out to be the case on one of the consoles. The Golf Club will release Tuesday, August 19 on Xbox One. That date will also see the game leave “Early Access” for full PC release on Steam. The PlayStation 4 version is said to launch “later this month” so that one may land on the previously expected August 26 date.
The price of The Golf Club will be $34.99. The game is unlicensed and features an extensive course creator and the ability to share courses with all regardless of platform, no loading times between holes, and online Tours and Tournaments. It’s a unique entry into the space for many reasons that include being self-published, all golfers possessing the same abilities and the complete lack of microtransactions. The company plans to update and evolve the game over time without charging more for any improvements or new content.
For those with both consoles, that may be unsure which to buy on, some specs were released that may be worth considering. The Golf Club will run at a higher resolution on PS4 (1080p) than Xbox One (720p). The framerates are close but may be slighter higher on XB1.
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Press Row Hangout: EA Decides Against Releasing a Demo for Madden NFL 15
EA Sports made it official yesterday that there would be no demo for Madden NFL 15. Poor timing, that coincided with the EA Access subscription service moving out of beta and becoming available to all on Xbox One, compounded the frustration which was expressed by many through social media, news sites, and forums.
I was joined by Rich Grisham and T.J. Lauerman to discuss the development on a special edition of the Press Row Hangout. What the lack of a demo means for Madden 15, for the future of traditional demos, and the relation to the EA Access program.
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Concern Grows Over Possible EASHL Omission from NHL 15 on Xbox One and PS4
Unlike many other sports titles this year NHL 15 will be releasing on the Xbox One and PS4 will extra development time behind it. That has resulted in somewhat higher expectations, and while media impressions have generally been positive EA Sports has actively hidden gameplay and been vague about the feature set. Only one brief video exists from E3 and the features list released only highlights new additions and not what will carry over.
It’s far from unusual that every feature being carried over would not be documented in a features list for the upcoming product. In fact that is the norm unless improvements are being touted to said features. However some evidence is beginning to surface creating suspicion that one hugely popular mode in NHL 15 may not have made the transition. Read more
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Full Soundtrack for NBA 2K15
2K Sports today revealed the full listing of songs included on NBA 2K15. Last month the company announced that Pharrell Williams selected the tracks this year, coming off previous editions of the series which had soundtracks that were put together with the help of LeBron James and Jay-Z. 2K15 features songs from Red Hot Chili Peppers, One Republic, Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest, No Doubt, The Black Keys, and many more.
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