OS Weekly Wrap Up, Getting You Caught Up on Sports Gaming News (Jan. 19 - Jan. 25, 2020)

Jeff Botkin: NCAA Football 14 will be the lasting memory for me in the past decade of sports gaming. It was the pinnacle of college football games and was the greatest high for me, but also the lowest low after the lawsuit killed the series. NCAA Football 14 without a doubt captured the essence of college football. The ability to take a one-star program and slowly build it up with recruiting, training and a solid game plan to an elite college program was always a blast. The Teambuilder customization process allowed you to bring in custom schools and create your own unique experience as well. Hopefully this decade will bring a new installment of college football and bring back the passion and pageantry of the NCAA to gamers.

As we look forward to another decade of sports video games and new consoles, we just wanted to remind everyone that we posted our Game of the Decade feature, throughout the week. This list included the top 5 games of the decade, along with an honorable mention.

Most of the time the NHL’s selected All-Stars are also players who are near or at the top of the league in statistical categories. So, since the rosters have been announced, we here at Operation Sports thought we would simulate an NHL season in NHL 20 and compare results to see how closely EA’s hockey world matches up with the NHL’s hockey world.

I have seen multiple people on OS bring up questions about how managers in MLB The Show 20 will be handled, and I think it’s a fair question. The beta is ongoing so the developers are focused on that right now, but it will be interesting to see if we get stuck with generic managers in MLB The Show 20 for the three teams (Astros, Red Sox, Mets) dealing with the ramifications stemming from Trash Cangate.

NBA Street Vol. 2 is essentially the successor to NBA Jam — a vibrant, lightning-fast basketball game. If you’re looking for simulation basketball, look elsewhere. Street 2 is free from such trivial things as physics or gravity. Instead, Street 2 is a love letter to the aesthetics and athletic achievements that define the sport, and a genuine celebration of the art of basketball.

Mike Lowe puts some personal rules on himself as he plays, like no switching on defense, and overall this set is very much revolved around CFM mode. He integrates his sliders with some other XP sliders and really is looking to find a balance between simulating and playing the games with these sliders. In other words, if you’re really focused on getting somewhat realistic stats within CFM itself, you might really dig Mike’s sliders.

Over Thanksgiving, I stumbled upon my old copy of NFL 2K5 and wondered if I could update the rosters. Sure enough, I hopped onto OS and discovered a fruitful bounty: save files that update rosters and the franchise mode to the 2019-2020 season.

When EA Sports’ NHL Hockey debuted on the Sega Genesis in the fall of 1991, it turned the hockey video game genre on its ear. Prior to NHL Hockey, games like Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel had given console gamers a taste of pixelated hockey, but those early attempts left a lot to be desired from a realism standpoint.

Published by Boss Fight Books, NBA Jam is a look at a time gone by, and a comprehensive breakdown of one of the most classic and beloved titles in sports gaming history. NBA Jam (the book) traces a line from the days of Pong and Pac-Man to the groundbreaking success of NBA Jam (the game) in the 1990s, and then all the way to the eventual decline of the arcade industry as a whole.

It feels like NBA 2K as a franchise is at a bit of a crossroads this year. Overall, there has been much more of a split in the community when it comes to MyPlayer/MyPark/Pro-Am. Well, I should say the overall community seems somewhat split because a majority of OS folks seem to believe NBA 2K badge stacking and HOF badges are not helping the game. I tend to agree with the community on this point.

With the All-Star Game coming up in the NHL, some people may be looking for NHL 20 sliders to try and get back into the game. NHL 20 isn’t beloved this year here at OS, but I’ve heard better things about it from those who have been able to find a good set of sliders. As of now, I think it’s fair to say Al Tito’s NHL 20 sliders are enjoyed by the most people on Operation Sports.

The holidays and retro gaming go hand-in-hand as reunions of all sorts inevitably yield consistent post-holiday downtime limited by seemingly arbitrary technological restrictions. This year was no different for me. Over the holidays, I unearthed a Nintendo GameCube with a copy of what I believe to be the greatest baseball (and sports) game ever made, MVP Baseball 2005.

The reveal trailer for MLB The Show is an annual spectacle, providing hidden nuggets for the masses to digest leading up to the launch of the game. Developers will assuredly speak at great length on some of the changes coming to the game during the live Twitch streams in the coming weeks, but these are always a nice tease. With that in mind, this will serve as an MLB The Show 20 trailer breakdown (with some added notes from the livestream schedule).

So, as usual, the Operation Sports community is on the prowl, and this is a good catch as it relates to real MLB The Show 20 minor leaguers potentially being included in the game. I was trying to confirm this theory, and was looking in the wrong spot of the Portland Sea Dogs clips in the trailer, until forum user “bcruise” told me to look at the UI.

After the reveal trailer and the livestream schedule being announced, how are you feeling about MLB The Show 20 at this moment?

2020 marks the 20-year anniversary of the console that many consider to be the single best ever created: the PlayStation 2. Think about that for a second. Thankfully, mostly due to the console’s proliferation and popularity, a fully complete PlayStation 2 console can be had for next-to-nothing at yard sales and thrift stores. Even better, a fully complete PlayStation 2 and WWE Here Comes the Pain can be had for much less than the cost of WWE 2K20.

We’re all still in a sort of holding pattern as it relates to EA Sports UFC 4. We know it exists and it’s happening, but we’re still waiting for details. With that being said, I’ve enjoyed following this cool take on an EA Sports UFC 4 wishlist that’s been ongoing on our UFC forums.

There’s a big NBA 2K20 MyTeam tournament happening on January 25. There have been four qualifiers leading up to this tournament, and now the single-elimination event will be held to crown one winner from PS4 and one from Xbox One. From there, those two players will go to NBA All-Star Weekend to compete for a chance at $250K. It’s a massive reward for the one person lucky enough to win it all.

While the NBA 2K League may get most of the headlines when it comes to the world of organized team sports gaming, there’s been a recent push to expose more people to the potential of 6-on-6 team hockey through the ongoing Caps Gaming Showcase hosted on Battlefy. The tournament is being played through the World of Chel mode in NHL 20 and has teams of 7 players (including one alternate per team) from across the United States and Canada squaring off against each other over an 8-week regular season.