Every Sunday, we will get you caught up on the sports gaming news you might have missed, during the busy week. This includes the latest videos from our content team, featured articles from the staff and new trailers.
Sports Gaming News
- Ice League Hockey Update Adds Career Mode, Legendary Difficulty and Much More
- Forza Horizon 5 Update Adds Sign Language Support, New Vehicles, Stunts & More – Patch Notes
- Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2022 Launches on March 11
- FIFA 22 Patch 6 Available For All Platforms – Patch Notes
- SnowRunner Crocodile Pack and Patch 16.1 Available Today – Patch Notes
- 2K Partners with PlayVS to Bring NBA 2K esports to High School Leagues
- MLB The Show 22 Trailer – Celebrating Latin-American Talent
- Shredders Snowboarding Game Coming to Steam, Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass on March 17
- WWE 2K22 MyRISE and 2K Showcase Trailer and Ringside Report #3
- NHL 22 Patch 1.5.0 Available Today – Patch Notes
- RiMS Racing & Bassmaster Fishing 2022 Available to Play Through the Weekend with Xbox Live Free Play Days
Operation Sports Videos
Wondering who made the WWE 2K22 roster and who was omitted? Take a look at the video to see the entire roster for the game including a few since-departed WWE Superstars like Braun Strowman and Cesaro.
Brian sat down with a WWE 2K developer Terell Carter to deep dive the new MyFaction mode in WWE 2K22. Plenty of questions are asked, and you can get a look at various aspects of the mode as well. This certainly has hints of other MyTeam and Ultimate Team modes out there, but I can certainly see the appeal of it within a wrestling game.
Coming off the tech test and gameplay livestream for MLB The Show 22, it feels like the right time to talk about my biggest long-standing gameplay pet peeve in The Show, and that is the high sinker. In general, specific pitch types that should not be thrown up in the zone – namely sliders, curveballs, sinkers (and by proxy, sometimes 2-seam fastballs), and even changeups – have been far too effective for too long.
Operation Sports Featured Articles
Sadly, the gameplay hasn’t changed drastically since the last update, which for the most part concentrated on bugs and visual oddities. Any improvements can be attributed more to gaining familiarity with a game that differs from eFootball PES 2021 Season Update. New button inputs, such as having sprint tied to the right trigger, took some time to get used to. Either way, the adjustment is one of muscle memory and of no actual change on Konami’s part. Dribbling is a bit different than the last time we saw PES, but it’s probably one of the only bright spots in a game full of missteps. Player switching and awareness are still awful. The once proud ball physics have regressed, and the brilliant individuality that made PES what it was over the years is gone. Version 1.0.0 is supposed to be the important game saver that brings such amenities like “Sharp Kick” but it’s long overdue and worthy of its own section here.
For those unaware, Italian-based developer Kunos-Simulazioni has released the next-gen upgrade to Assetto Corsa Competizione. Back in September of 2018, the original game was released on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. In my review, I talked about my love for the title, but unlike the PC version, the last-gen graphics were slightly disappointing. Kunos and 505 Games are now looking to rectify the issue with a next-gen upgrade release, hoping to match the quality seen and felt on the track with the overall look of the game. Even better news is that current owners of the last-gen version of ACC get the upgrade for free, and all statistics and DLC transfer as well. Since its release last week, I have spent some time reacquainting myself with the title in hopes that new hardware could bring the console version closer to its PC counterpart.
Some improvements that are making an impact include whipping around a corner turn and the interaction with the embankments feeling more organic. It also feels like there is a stronger connectivity between the wheel and the track surface. The hill physics also felt improved in how the weight of the bike and my approach had bigger residual effects on the landing and acceleration afterwards. With one caveat, it also feels like your interactions with other riders has improved for the most part. Coding the interaction with a group of riders in high-speed action is not an easy thing to pull off with a realistic feel, and while previous iterations of this franchise have delivered an admiral replication, the changes here could easily be seen and felt.
The overwhelming number of courses available to play in PGA Tour 2K21, especially considering all of the ones created by talented members of the community, can make it hard to decide which virtual links you should hit up next. I’ve recently tried to help out by highlighting some of the better fantasy courses and mini-putt designs if you’re seeking something a little different. But PGA Tour 2K21 also has plenty of real courses that have been meticulously recreated. As always, you would be wise to check out the course list curated by the fine folks over at the premier online competitive PGA Tour 2K21 website, TGC Tours, where they are always dedicated to listing only the best courses. With that in mind, I’m also putting together my own list of the best US courses in PGA Tour 2K21 right here.
Anyone who has played even just a short amount of time online will know that not only is it absolutely necessary to have as many badges equipped as possible from a competitive standpoint, but there are are also an inordinate number of different ones that can all buff specific abilities. A cynic could easily look at NBA 2K‘s approach the last several years and draw the conclusion that they’ve made the pursuit of badges so integral to the game that it’s become way more important to have the right badges activated at the highest HOF level than it is to have any sort of skills on the sticks. At times, it can seem as if they function more like superpowers than anything resembling basketball fundamentals since some have less in the way of real parallels than others. It’s significantly more realistic and believable, for instance, that someone could become better at boxing out someone for a rebound than it is to suggest that someone with an Intimidator badge can use his mere presence to get players to routinely miss easy dunks.
The AI in GT7 was touted as a huge step forward, if not genre defining. While I would not go that far with the praise, I can safely say that the AI is much more competitive on the higher levels of difficulty than in past versions of the Gran Turismo franchise. I still cannot describe the AI racers as being elite adversaries, but the AI in GT7 does now make a strong effort to block attempts to pass, retain or gain back position, and often will go out of its way to leave you very little space to maneuver around them. I found the level of fairness to be, well, very fair. Rarely did a digital competitor ever intentionally come down on me or try to take me out with what I would deem a shady tactic. In fact, they seemed to go out of their way to race extremely clean — to the point where we could all remain friends after we took off the racing suits.
Okay, so there’s a lot to dive into here, but I do want to mention the explanation SDS gives for what the PCI represents still remains confusing to some degree. The PCI is not meant to signify the barrel of your bat, rather it’s more there to showcase where you’re looking — and explain the tendencies of the hitter you’re using. This is fine, but it also doesn’t make much sense then why you can hit balls that you’re not even looking at outside your PCI, or why a “perfect” hit more or less means you hit the ball in the middle of your PCI. Regardless, the PCI range will now be dynamic this year, and I really love the sound of that change. The “dynamic” part basically comes down to the PCI shrinking in size as you start trying to move that PCI outside the strike zone. In other words, it will be harder to make good contact on pitches outside the zone, and that PCI will shrink even more for those who have poor contact ratings and so forth. The idea here is that the developers want to reward people with good eyes even more, and thus you want to swing at good pitches — not bad pitches.
With the PS5, and to some extent the Xbox Series X, still relatively hard to get, the split between gamers playing on different console generations is rather large. This has a large impact on FIFA’s main player base, FUT, and other modes such as Pro Clubs. The amount of clubs, especially as you reach the higher divisions, are rather scarce, and that means you’ll often play the same clubs over and over again. With Konami still working on crossplay for eFootball 2022, EA is looking to beat them to the punch by making it available in FIFA 23. Bringing together PlayStation, Xbox, and the PC communities is a huge bonus for esports as well as friends who might play on different consoles.
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Published: Mar 6, 2022 12:00 pm