Posts Tagged ‘year in review’
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The biggest sports gaming stories of 2016
Every year it’s important to look back on developments within the sports gaming genre, not just as a reminder of what has happened, but as insight into the direction individual franchises are going and the trends within the industry that will impact them all. 2016 was a year that saw strong efforts across the board from major publishers and more independent developers making their way in to cover the abandoned arcade-style games and various niche sports. The broken release schedule...
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End of Year Community Awards: Best Franchise Mode of 2016
The voting is now open for Best Franchise Mode of 2016 in the annual Pastapadre Community Awards. This category was originally controlled by EA Sports with NCAA Football and Madden winning the first four years. The last two however have been taken by NBA 2K after the creation of a highly customizable offline franchise to pair with the online-connected one. NBA 2K17 looks to make it a three-peat with the offline MyLeague and online MyGM both contributing as unique franchise experiences. Th...
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End of Year Community Awards: Best Online Play of 2016
The next category to open in the annual Community Awards is for Best Online Play. This one has naturally been dominated by EA Sports due to struggles online from the other major sports game publishers. NCAA Football took it once and Madden is on a streak of five straight wins. The number of ways to play online has continued to expand with Madden NFL 17 which just as importantly features one of the most consistent experiences in terms of online performance. There's regular Head-to-Head, Dr...
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End of Year Community Awards: Best Team-Building Mode of 2016
The next category to open up in the Community Awards is for the mode that has become one of the most popular ways to play sports video games and it's the manner in which revenue is being made by companies to keep them afloat. Ultimate Team was introduced in 2009 by EA Sports and has continued to evolve from its original form through nearly all their titles, with other developers copying and putting their own spin on the model. Last year MLB The Show won the award for its reinvention of wh...
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MLB The Show 16 named 2016 Sports Game of the Year by Press Row Podcast
The latest episode of the Press Row Podcast revealed the Sports Game of the Year winner for 2016 as MLB The Show 16. A panel of nine judges contributed to the voting and The Show appeared on eight of the ballots. This represents the second win for the franchise in the five years of the award being handed out. Madden NFL 17 emerged as a contender for the crown finishing higher than it ever has before while a slip-up by NBA 2K17 prevented the series from being able to capture back-to-back vict...
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End of Year Community Awards: Best Presentation of 2016
The next category to open up for voting in the annual Pastapadre Community Awards is for Best Presentation. This is yet another area that the NBA 2K series has dominated. In fact it has won it all six years and no other game has even come close percentage wise to toppling it. The biggest impact to presentation for NBA 2K17 came with the addition a of rotating set of announcers and sideline reporters. There are now a total of 11 personalities actively contributing to the series during game...
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End of Year Community Awards: Best Career/Story Mode of 2016
The third category to open in the annual Pastapadre Community Awards is for Best Career/Story Mode. This is an area of the games that has seen an evolution in recent years from the traditional career mode of playing through seasons as a single player and improving attributes to one that incorporates an expansive narrative. The award for Career Mode has only ever been won by NBA 2K and MLB The Show and the former is going for a three-peat now. (more…)...
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Press Row Podcast: 2016 Sports Game of the Year – Episode 200!!!
It's episode 200 of the Press Row Podcast! After reflecting on the milestone four years in the making, attention turns to awarding the 5th Annual Press Row Podcast Sports Game of the Year. The top three games of 2016 are revealed, the panel reacts and discusses the reasoning behind them landing where they did, and later get to the games that didn't place while also bringing up a few unconventional sports games that received votes. It's a supersized episode covering just about everything t...
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