OS Weekly Wrap Up, Getting You Caught Up on Sports Gaming News (Sep 13 - Sep 19, 2020)

If you’re still riding that high after watching Osaka and Thiem claim US Open titles, maybe you’re wondering what tennis games are on the horizon. If that’s the case, Prince is here to give you a quick outline of everything you need to know about Tennis World Tour 2 before it comes out.

Doug Flutie’s Maximum Football 2020 is just days from release at this point. We posted the official gameplay trailer yesterday, and Prince is here with a Doug Flutie’s Maximum Football 2020 preview of sorts where he just wants to let the uninformed know what’s up for this year.

Matt is back today with a quirky top 5 list. This one is the top 5 sports in non-sports games. The idea here is that some non-sports games have sports mini-games embedded in them, and Matt has gone out and crowned five of the best ones in existence.

Brian is going to be trying to do a new thing where he looks at created content from OS and beyond and talks about what he thinks of all that goodness. This could be sliders, rosters and so on. He starts off today with a look at a Madden 21 custom roster on the Xbox One. This is a roster from leeC2812 (@CML2812 on Twitter) and the roster is called REALISTICROSTER21.

Released worldwide on August 28, 2020, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions blends anime with soccer as you follow the exploits of Tsubasa Ozora in the series’ first game since 2010’s Captain Tsubasa: New Kickoff. Released on the PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, this new Captain Tsubasa game has that old school Nintendo NAMCO feel mixed in with modern anime graphics, and it’s all tied together by a captivating story filled with companions and rivals. Before we jump into this Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions review, it’s important to understand the background story for those of you not familiar with the origins of Tsubasa.

NBA 2K21 MyTeam is a bit overwhelming this year — and this is coming from a seasoned pro. There’s new modes, different gem tier divisions and an entirely new currency (XP) to worry about. But the “too much” from my convoluted title to this article is actually about the frustrations of re-learning how to shoot — probably the most essential skill in a basketball game. That being said, let’s start chatting about things in this early days NBA 2K21 MyTeam review.

This year’s NBA 2K21 MyCareer story follows Junior, son of beloved neighborhood hero Duke. Aptly named “The Long Shadow,” Junior is a talented and raw baller turned football player who has spent endless nights on the blacktop being trained (and arguably bullied, only like an athlete father could) to surpass his father Duke. Duke, voice acted by Jesse Williams, was a top-tier talent who didn’t quite make it all the way to the league after falling short in both the NCAA National Championship game and in his aspirations for the NBA. After the death of his father, Junior is persuaded to leave the gridiron behind and step back onto the hardwood. In doing so, the inevitable comparisons begin. Let’s take a look at what 2K has given us this year in this NBA 2K21 MyCareer review.

It’s been some time since the last simulation-based monster truck game was released, but NACON and TEYON are looking to change that with the upcoming release of Monster Truck Championship. The goal is to deliver a title that is fun, over the top and simulation-based. On the surface, those buzzwords seem to be at odds with each other. But in the world of huge machines, massive power and incredible driver skill, it makes more sense why that’s the angle being taken here.

BMX The Game situates your rider in the heart of Barcelona. Throughout the environment, there are plenty of bowls, ramps, pipes, benches, and more to achieve different scores and gain rewards. With this game being in early access, I did anticipate there being a few bugs here and there as well (and there were). But my ultimate goal when playing early access titles is to determine the variety and depth available while still assessing its potential. With a BMX title, this can be especially tricky because physics are so important and there is not much to compare the game to in the genre. Still, gameplay will determine how realistic and fluid the BMX experience is here, so let’s get into this.

Madden started slowly with Longshot and Face of the Franchise: QB1. I would say these were not quite what many had hoped. Longshot was all story more or less, and it was a decent first attempt, but the second year was worse in general. QB1 started off really strong to me, but then it faded very quickly. However, what the hope was here for me was that a foundation was built for the future of Madden. So, how would the Face of the Franchise this year?

Okay, so this one isn’t all that new and perhaps not even that big of a deal to most. However, to me this is just so unnatural looking and completely stupid to see. Starting at the :17 second mark — where the New York Rangers defender is chasing Sidney Crosby and after when the Philadelphia Flyers defender is doing the same — you just see the goofy unnatural AI sucking the realism out of the game. To see the two defenders defending/chasing the play the exact same way with both hands on their stick, arms not moving, is just a little thing that should be cleaned up.

When Konami announced its decision that eFootball PES 2021 would be a season update, many of us were split as to whether or not this was good for the future of the series. On one hand, a two-year development cycle while we’re in the midst of transitioning to next-gen seems like a smart calculated approach. Rushing to make two versions of the game on separate systems could be a recipe for a disaster. Throw in the new Unreal Engine that was announced for PES 2022 and the risk probably outweighed the reward for Konami. On the other hand, is an update of PES 2020 good enough to play for two years? It’s time to find out in this eFootball PES 2021 Season Update review!