OS Weekly Wrap Up, Getting You Caught Up on Sports Gaming News (Feb. 16 - Feb. 22, 2020)

Recently, Phil Varckette sat down with former wrestling legend and fitness instructor Stevie Richards. The interview came together after Richards released what’s now becoming a yearly video where he discusses his love for NFL 2K5 while using the newest rosters from Operation Sports (major props to OS user tdmavens and everyone else who helps out with that project every year). Richards was gracious enough to spend a little time talking with Phil about his love for 2K5, what he thinks about the NFL exclusivity agreement, and his passion for video games.

It has been a long road back from the days of Dirt to Daytona, World of Outlaws and Dirt Track Racing 2 (all from 2002), but if the initial iteration of Tony Stewart’s Sprint Car Racing is any indication, we may be in store for another run of games in the genre. TSSCR certainly has its issues, but overall does an extremely solid job of conjuring up memories of past glory days spruced up with shiny new graphics.

OS never ceases to amaze when it comes to trying to keep old games alive. Started all the way back in 2007, this thread about College Hoops 2K8 Legacy mode stories still gets hit up today with new updates from folks.

For those unaware, in a recent Madden 20 MUT House Rules, a “playcall cooldown” was introduced, along with a playcall limit. It has returned once again, and so I want to ask this time: are you interested in playcall cooldowns and playcall limits?

When I play MLB The Show, my franchise experience consists of playing every inning of every 162 game season. That being said, each year I look to begin my journey with a new franchise, and every MLB team has a storyline you can run with. A variety of offseason roster moves have changed depth charts on several franchises that will give you unique challenges to look forward to. Whether you decide to start off with an established powerhouse or rebuild and make a run with an underdog, here are some of my MLB The Show 20 franchise mode team selections.

There was a thread that popped up on OS yesterday that was featuring Major League Baseball 2K12 in 2019 with updated rosters and various other mods courtesy of MVPMods. The video comes from YouTuber BSG Network. The video is months old, but it popped up just now due to the appreciation for the crowd/stadium audio and the advertisements.

Some of you folks might be getting deep into your MyLeague journeys at this point and thus running into some of the heartier bugs the mode has to offer. Early in the year, there were some gnarly bugs that wrecked RFAs, especially for rookies finishing up their first contracts. A patch did smooth out some of the NBA 2K20 salary cap issues, but controlling all 30 teams is still somewhat necessary if you want to have more league-wide parity and fewer good players sitting idle in free agency after a couple offseasons.

The top five Diamond Dynasty players at every position were revealed today on San Diego Studio’s stream for MLB The Show 20. As a reminder before we get to the players, the card arts for certain players won’t be updated until they play for their new teams. In addition, the ratings for Diamond Dynasty are different than the ones for other modes. So while Mike Trout has one rating in Diamond Dynasty, he will have a 99 overall rating in the main game. On top of that, certain players will probably have a primary position change (guys like Cody Bellinger and Gleyber Torres), but until they officially play at those positions, they will retain their original primary position.

While many of us were busy with Valentine’s Day activities, Konami continued its post-release support of eFootball PES 2020 by releasing Data Pack 4.0. While the good majority of updates were cosmetic items such as new kits, boots and faces, there were a few gameplay updates sprinkled in too.

Big Ant Studio has a bit of a tough job trying to fill a niche market for tennis. They are in many ways the closest thing to a big-time developer creating a tennis game, but they don’t have the same big-money resources that 2K and EA have for games like Madden and NBA 2K. With that in mind, while the community for tennis titles may be smaller than that of say football, soccer or basketball, the community is just as passionate about its sport.