Sports Games

Best Sports Games of 2009 – EA Sports Wins Them All! (Well…almost!)

Add Comment

NCAA Football 2009
The best damn college football game to ever be created, and they remembered to put the mascot mode back in where you can play as all of the mascots in the NCAA! The BCS scoring system as flawed as it is in real life—so don’t get your heads up if you favor small time teams. The create-a-player feature has been enhanced, and scouting has never been easier. Live play has always rocked on this franchise and the announcers are first rate. Sometimes it’s even more fun to play than Madden, if you like college ball that is!

Madden NFL Football 2009
You can’t get a better NFL football game than this, much to the dismay of 2K naysayers around the world! The graphics are superb and even better if you have a high definition TV. The sounds are great. The sports commentary needs work but kills the radio-style crap from the last version. Gang tackles, more intelligent players and AI, and some enhanced playbooks are win-win.

Read more >

Skate 2 – The Best Skating Game Ever Returns!

Add Comment

This game was the long awaited sequel the blockbuster, smash hit, Skate. When this game was announced that it would be coming soon for the Xbox 360, I got all tingly inside with anticipation. And, after having a chance to spend a few hours behind the controller checking out this game and what it has to offer, I must say that Skate 2 does not disappoint in the slightest bit, seriously!

The game takes place in a brand new, virtual city, New San Vanelona. After being destroyed a few years back, the city has been rebuilt. Now you must restart your career and help to bring back the local skate scene to where it once was in this great city. And you will have about double—several hundred at least—new tricks that you can learn and implement during game play.

This game offers unparalleled graphics, fast loading times, lighting quick frame rates and some of the best rendering that you will ever see in an Xbox 360 game.

Read more >

Street Fighter IV – Classic Fighting Game Comes to Xbox 360

Add Comment

Street Fighter fans rejoiced at the announcement of the long awaited return of their favorite fighting game to finally debut on the next generation video gaming consoles, namely, and for the purpose of this blog, the Xbox 360. However, I got my hands on a rental copy—as I always rent before I buy, and I rarely buy after I rent, if that tells you something at all—and I was impressed initially and disappointed greatly afterwards.

The game offers a few more characters, some that can be unlocked after you beat the game. The outfits and the graphics have been redone and offer smooth frame rates and transitions with fast loading times. However, they don’t scream high definition and are most certainly lagging behind the desired sixty frames per second of the best video games currently on the market.

The most frustrating part about this game is the controls.

Read more >

WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007: One of the Better Wrestlers You’ll Play!

Add Comment

Wrestle ManiaA Creation of Yuke's Media Creations and THQ, WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007 for the Xbox 360 is actually one of the best wrestling games that I have ever laid my grubby paws upon the controller over. The graphics are the best part of the game, by far, and are smooth, fluid, realistic and sick. The frame rates are fast, and the high definition vibes that the graphics exudes are simply hard to top, especially considering that this game was released in 2007. While the online play is glitchy and hampered by poor servers and the bandwidths of whomever you are challenging that day, the rest of the game is more ripped than Sly Stallone when he played Rambo.

You can play as any of your favorite wrestlers from the entire WWE roster, and this time around they don’t like plastic molds.

Read more >

World Championship Poker: Featuring Howard Lederer – Sweet Poker Game

Add Comment

World Champ PokerIn a nutshell this game is all things poker. So, that being said, if you are not a fan of variants the game of poker, and or, you have no idea how to play the game, this may not be a winner for you in the end. If you do, however, love the game of poker, then this game is a sweet purchase. Especially considering that you can get your hands on a used copy of this game for pretty cheap now that is has been out for a while. The graphics are pretty damn good, they offer exceptionally high details, and especially on the professional players, who look true to life.

This game offers a pretty wide variety of different poker games for you to enjoy. However, the primary focus of World Championship Poker: Featuring Howard Lederer is on the popular game of Texas Holdem. The controls are pretty basic, with exception to the betting features, which will take you some time to master.

Read more >

UEFA Champions League 2006-2007 – 259 Teams and Nothing Else!

Add Comment

UEFAThis game was touted as the most expansive and inclusive soccer title ever, but in the end fails to delivered anything more than the lauded 259 teams that they boasted during the pre launch phases of this game. You will almost never hear this blogger bashing EA Sports because they tend to bring to use the best sports games ever made for the next generation consoles; Madden, NCAA, and so forth. However, with regards to UEFA Champions League 2006-2007 this is entirely not the case!

This game does have a few nifty features, however. You can choose from all 259 teams worldwide, and there are about fifty other side missions that you can complete in the team managerial modes. However, if you screw up too many missions, you will get fired and have to start all over again. The graphics are okay, but the controls need some vast improvement.

Read more >

Top Spin 3 – One of the Best Tennis Games of All Time!

Add Comment

Top SpinLeave it to 2k Sports and PAM Development to actually make a game that seriously outdoes the prior title, Top Spin 2, and really delivers an action packed, intense, realistic as all hell tennis game that will surely put all others in the dust in its wake, namely Virtua Tennis, which has had some trouble competing with the Top Spin titles in the past. And the late June release of Top Spin 3 saw the world of video gaming tennis change forever on the next generation consoles, especially the Xbox 360!

The only drawback to this version, over the past titles in this trilogy, is that there are some pro players that are exclusive to each console, some are only available on the Xbox 360, and others are only available on the PS3. But, considering how extensive the roster of pro players is on both consoles, who really cares, right?

Read more >

Fight Night Round Three: Decent Boxing Game for All

Add Comment

Fight NightThere has been seemingly a great lacking of good boxing games for the Xbox 360 gaming console. Ask me why, and I really cannot tell you because I don’t know. I myself was never the biggest fan of boxing video games, but I have dabbled in them from time to time—enough to know that for a long while there were not very many boxing games were that all that great for the Xbox 360. That was, of course, until EA Sports released Fight Night Round 3, which changed the way that I thought about boxing games on the next generation consoles.

Fight Night Round Three is actually a rather intense game that is filled to the brim with superlatives. You begin as a character that you can create which is essentially a rookie that has poor boxing skills. You will have to train your character, via training modes, and add skill points to them in order to even get them to the point where you will be able to go six rounds without hitting the floor.

Read more >

UEFA EURO 2008: Quite Possibly the Best Soccer Game Ever!

1 Comment

Best Soccer GameThe world of soccer loving enthusiasts, neophytes and protagonists long awaited the May 19, 2008 arrival of the best soccer game on the planet earth: ‘UEFA EURO 2008.’ And the wait was actually well worth it because the makers of the game, Electronic Arts, was busy developing a newer, better and more capable graphical engine that is smoking hot to the eyes and offers lighting speeds on the Xbox 360.

Keep in mind that EA is already notorious for making the other football game greats, the entire Madden franchise. So it makes perfect sense when you really think about it that they are also the purveyors of the best European football games…right? Why any other video game company even tries to break into this market that is rightfully dominated by EA is beyond me? But now on to the game review, shall we?

In UEFA EURO 2008 you are allowed a maximum team control; you are in total command.

Read more >

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is a Major Letdown!

Add Comment

Pro EvolutionI am not sure what exactly Konami was trying to accomplish here when they released this early 2008 version of the newest, and supposedly hyped to be, latest and greatest Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, but I can tell you that right off the bat, this game is a major letdown for all! Sure you get to play with all of the pros that you have grown to love—that is if you are a fan of this sport. And the game offers plenty of interesting, if not traditional, game modes for fans to enjoy.

But, I think they overdid it a little bit with their production and development budget because the frame rates seem to lag and sag, a bit slower than the 2007 version of the same game. How this happens when you are advancing to a new edition of a game that is built off the same platform, I cannot say. But this one does.

Read more >

Top Spin 2 – 2k Sports Finally Offers a Sequel to their Bestseller

Add Comment

Top Spin 2Considering that this game was originally released towards the end of March, 2006, and was one of the earlier games on the Xbox 360, Top Spin 2 is not all that bad. In the tried and true tradition of simulation sports games that have made 2k Sports famous as a developer, this game offers the same thing that all lovers of this company have come to expect when they release a new sports game; with the exception to the horrible piece of crap that was All Pro Football – but hey who is counting, and yes, we do forgive you for that insult 2k.

Read more >

Virtua Tennis 3: Cool Game, Great Graphics!

1 Comment

Virtual TennisEarly 2007 saw another fruitful attempt by Sega to garner industry praise, yet at the same time, this game, like many other Sega endeavors, seems to be lacking in far too many places to really get them the kudos that they were driving for in the end. I will credit them with a great attempt at making a decent and fun tennis game. This game offers many of the pro players, save for a few of the top players, which obviously didn’t not get the money they wanted from Sega in order to sign off on the game, but the selection is enough to make most gamers happy. And, you can easily create your own rookie player, which is what I prefer to do anyways!

The best part about this Xbox 360 game is that it fully takes advantage of the sixteen graphical pipelines offered by the console, providing intense and greatly detailed, high definition graphics that scream quality.

Read more >

The Bigs: Blue Castle Games, Visual Concepts and 2k Sports Strike Out Big Time!

Add Comment

The BigsWhen it comes to shoddily produced and developed, professional sports games that fray from the standard simulation variety, you will always hear me bitching about it! For two reasons: one they are never as good as their simulation counterparts; and two: they want sixty bucks for a half-assed game. Well, this notion rings true to life when it comes to the baseball flop, The Bigs for the Xbox 360. The game features ridiculously oversized, bobble head like players with childish controls and no real narrative with the exception to goofiness. Sure, the graphics are really spicy, the plays are easy to pull off and the game is really cartoon-like and arcade styled, but that does not equation to a hit game by any means. The fact of the matter is that most lovers of sports and sports games want something true to the nature of the game, and not this arcade crap!

Read more >

NBA Live 08 - Better Basketball Game All-Around for the Money

Add Comment

NBA LIve 08There were some significant changes that were made with regards to NBA Live 08 that made this game a winner over the last version that was released in 2007. The first thing that really made this game stand out for me was the massively improved graphics that it offers—which truly are eye popping, exceptional and very high definition. The players will actually sweat, and beads of their sweat will fall from their bodies and hit the floor—yeah it is that realistic.

Read more >

NCAA Football 08 – One of the Finest College Football Games Ever!

Add Comment

NCAA FootballThe year 2008 saw many sport game hits for the Xbox 360 console, and this one stood tall and proud at the top of the bunch. NCAA Football 08 for the Xbox 360 was the finest college basketball game to ever be created. Featuring all 118 divisional teams and every single conference, how could they ever go awry? And considering that the game also has many improvements over the 2007 versions, needless to say, I was immediately hooked upon popping this sucker into my console. Of course, if you are not a fan of the sport of college football, then you need not read this review nor play this game. For all of you that are, however, here is my scoop.

There are some great added features that are prevalent in this game: namely, the scouting feature which allows for you to scout players from high schools and junior colleges from region to region, and add them to your list of potentials.

Read more >

NBA Street Homecourt – Original Game that has Much to Offer!

Add Comment

NBA StreetI really dug the idea behind this game, because all other basketball games are doing the same thing, and so from time to time EA will try to verge from the trodden path and offer us all something original. And unlike NFL Tour—EA’s Madden variant—this game actually rocks and socks…big time! For example there are several special moves like the Triple Dunk, a two play combination shot that requires perfect execution to implement, and can leave you falling on your hump if you fail to do it right. The main controls are very solid and fluid and easy to learn, comprising mostly of using the X and the Y button to bust out amazing combination moves in the styling of an arcade game.

The narrative and main theme is also solid: take the battle to the street court against current NBA all stars to see who gets the best of whom. And the game features more than ninety different parks to play in and the graphics are amazing. The frame rates are fast, and the player models are realistic.

Read more >

NFL Tour: What Does this Game Suck!

Add Comment

NFL TourAfter creating the monster hit that has spawned twenty years and has been available on nearly every gaming console known to man, EA for some reason always tries to outdo themselves with football games for the Xbox 360—when clearly they should just stick to their surefire winner: Madden. But, at any rate, they decided to make this piece of crap, arcade-styled football game, and yes, it does indeed suck, especially when compared to Madden. Basically take Madden and really dumb it down, cutting it to a fourth of its potential. Then make the graphics worse. Then offer cheap plays on both sides of the ball, where you can hit opponents and penalties are nearly nonexistent. In fact, about the only thing that rings real in my mind, with regards to this game, is that you are playing football.

The playbooks suck and are really tiny, offering few plays. The buttons are so simple; it’s like a game that your two year old brother could master in minutes.

Read more >

NCAA March Madness 07 – Awesome College B-Baller!

Add Comment

NCAA March MadnessAnd who says that nothing good ever comes out of Canada, when this game was created by EA Canada, in cooperation with Electronic Arts – and boy is this a college basketball monster, especially for its time. Everything is the same about this game from the last, but they made some noticeable changes. Like the added Intensity Control feature, which will augment the reaction of your players based upon the crowd response. So play in an away game and get booed, and your players will suffer. Play at home and rile up the crowd and the basketball world is your oyster—very true the inklings of the college basketball phenomenon that drives games.

The online play is still lacking, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too right? The ability to create custom playbooks is flawless, and greatly adds to this game’s potential.

Read more >

NHL 2K8 – Awesome Hockey Game, but not Without its Faults!

Add Comment

NHL 2K8This late 2007 early 2008 game that was published by 2k Sports and created by Visual Concepts / Kush Games offers much in the realm of both hockey and frustrations that left some fans annoyed. The graphics are the best part, and are in the famous simulation style that defines 2k Sports games. And keep in mind that the ocean like choppiness was greatly minimized, which has been a classic notion for 2k games in the past.

While the graphics are better and the game play is better, the controls are still greatly lacking and will take some time for any gamer to become accustomed to. This is mostly due to weird combinations of controls for shooting that incorporate using both trigger buttons simultaneously. However, they did add the new ‘Shot Stick’ feature, which allows you to use the analog stick to aim your shot; sheer genius. And several newer game modes have also been added to this version, like ones that will allow for you to enjoy classic hockey matches from days past.

Read more >

Major League Baseball 2K7 – Fine Looking Game for the Times!

1 Comment

Major League Baseball 07Now keep in mind that this game was originally released towards in early 2007, but, nonetheless it is still a game that is available for the Xbox 360, and as being such, I will give it my review. And yes, I did play this game for a bit, although I am the first to admit that I love football over any other sport, however, that does not mean I am unable to see good baseball game when I do.

MLB 2k7 is of course brought to you by good guys over at 2k Sports—which is basically a Sega post console venture. The game offers greatly improved and revamped player AI, amazingly improved animations, and basically puts to shame all other baseball orientated games to date. The pitching routine was greatly modified and now you can even select where your pitch will break. They also included pitchers and their specific arm tendencies to make it more realistic.

Read more >

NCAA Football 2009 – Bonsai for College Football!

3 Comments

NCAA Football 09If you are as big of a fan of the college football that makes or breaks the season for your favorite team every year, as I am, then you will automatically appreciate a game that is of the caliber of NCAA 09. And once again, the cats over at EA Sports really show that they know exactly what they are doing when it comes to making great sports games, because this is the third in a row that has really rocked my world and popped my eyes! No kidding! I was significantly impressed when I had a first look at the 2007 version of the game for the Xbox 360, which left me whole heartedly addicted and craving for more. And to be honest, the interface of the NCAA franchise—as is delivered by EA—has always rang true to my heart more over Madden’s, even though there are minute differences between the two.

The graphics have undergone a remodel and feature faster frame rates, more detailed player models and highly detailed stadiums.

Read more >

Top Three Xbox 360 Sports Games of All-Time

1 Comment

EA SportsWhile there are many different gaming companies that will constantly strive to make sports games for the Xbox 360 gaming console, rarely can they ever hope to touch the prowess and twenty years of video gaming history that the juggernaut, EA Sports currently holds. And, to be quite honest, when EA is consistently one of the top game makers in the world, and for good reasons too, is there really any point in trying to best them when they have better designers and developers, more industry clout and a far surpassing budget that dwarfs any fledgling companies? Nope. That is why you will never really see any other good sports game – because EA makes all of the good ones and shuts down the competition.

Read more >

Madden NFL 08 – Was the Best NFL Game Ever

3 Comments

I know I know, you are all wondering what in the hell would prompt me to write about Madden NFL 2008 when the 09’ version is already out. Simple. Because I aim to review ultimately all of the Xbox 360 games that were ever released for the console. New or old, good or bad. In the US or in Europe – I want to play them all and write about them all. Enough Said. So with that out of the way, I must honestly tell you that I spent ample amounts of hours behind the screen of Madden NFL 2008. It was, by far the greatest football game of all time. Period. And I know what some of you naysayers are thinking. What about 2k Sports and what about the fabulous 2k football series that was inadvertently canned when Madden – or shall I say, EA sports – was awarded the exclusive NFL franchise rights for video games, which if I remember correctly won’t expire until sometime in 2010. So, given that 2k can’t make a real NFL game, and that All Pro Football stinks worse than a sweaty football jersey, all we have is Madden. And it is the best football game out there.

Read more >

FIFA Soccer 2007 – Best Soccer Game of 06’/07’

1 Comment

It’s rather unfortunate I must say, that when you can only find one decent soccer game to play for the entire fiscal year of 2007. But at least the one that I am about to tell you all shabby is perhaps, in my opinion at least, one of the better soccer games that you will ever play, and quite possibly the best ball kicking game of the year 2007. Surprisingly, this game was a joint venture by EA Canada and their US publisher, and counterpart, Electronic Arts. And in the candid EA tradition, it saw the first light of day in early October of 2006 – just like all of the sports games that EA makes, which are almost always released the yearend prior to the actual year that they represent.

I know…it’s weird that they do that. Back on track here, EA pulled out all of the stops when it comes to FIFA 07’ by introducing a greatly vamped up graphics engine, many glitch fixes that drag down the prior versions of the game, better looking stadiums and more of them, and more elusive moves that you can use with your players.

Read more >

Five Reasons to Play: Tony Hawk's Project 8

Add Comment

Personally, I was originally THPS (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) fan when the game was first released for the PS1 (Play Station one) and the Xbox gaming consoles. However, as the game has become more intense, they have faltered away from the classic arcade style of controls, in favor of a more realistic approach to the game. Some people were turned away from this. I myself, must admit, that after they started changing the way that the game was laid out, I was also a little perturbed and peeved, but upon finally giving Tony Hawk's Project 8 a real chance at might and muster on my Xbox 360, I must say, that I was dubitably impressed. And if that wasn’t enough, I feel the need to present five candid and viable reasons as to why you should play Tony Hawk's Project 8.

Most Realistic THPS To-Date
Reason number one is simple. This is by far the best Tony Hawk game to-date when it was released. Better tricks and lots of them. More intense graphics. Much more to do.

Read more >

Rockstar’s Table Tennis is Great Fun

Add Comment

I have had the distinct pleasure of playing and reviewing hundreds, actually thousands of video games over the years. With that cat out of the bag, obviously I know a good game when I see one, and I know a terrible game when I play one. Rarely will a game that the narrative of which surrounds a table tennis game, that is mostly popular in Asia today, ever entertain me. However, when it comes to Rockstar’s (makers of Bully, and the amazing Grand Theft Auto games) they rarely disappoint me, even if they are still not incapable of making a lousy game from time to time. Check out Manhunt, probably their greatest failure, and yes I will add a review of that game at a later date. However, Table Tennis, in my humble opinion, is a surefire win for Rockstar, even if the game never sold that many copies.

If you ever thought that you could take ping pong passed the entertaining aspect of beer pong, you will find out very quickly that you can indeed do so with Table Tennis for the Xbox 360. Think Tiger Woods Golf meets Ping Pong.

Read more >

Skate – Finally, a Realistic Skateboarding Game!

5 Comments

I know that all of you skateboarding junkies are already dropping five bucks at the local video game store to get your hands on a preorder copy of the new Skate, Skate 2, but before that comes out, all that you have is Skate—okay well Skate 2 just came out and it rocks, and it will obviously be featured in a future blog review, once I have a chance to play it. However, that does not take away from how amazingly kick ass that the first version of that game is, Skate. I grew up with a professional skater for an older brother, who owned a skate park, his own skateboard company and who sponsored me to skate, even though I sucked.

While my brother was busy getting filmed in popular skateboarding magazines like Thrasher, and winning competitions, I was still trying to figure out how to do a kick flip. So, the closest that I—and many other avid fans of skating with my same dilemma—could get to being a pro skater like my older brother was to play the popular Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater for the original Play Station.

Read more >

My Picks for Best Xbox 360 Video Games of 2007/2008: Part One

Add Comment

If you find yourself constantly perusing the gaming isles at your local used video game store, wondering what used games are worth actually whipping out your wallet and blowing your hard earned wad on, it can be an aspect that is rather fraught with difficulty my many friends. But there are some games that come along from time to time that truly offer the very best in the next generation video gaming console experiences that can be had. That being said, I aim to help you better blow that wad you worked oh so hard to attain by offering to you my constantly updated picks of the best Xbox 360 games of all the years 2007-2008, so you can be better equipped to buy the right used game, instead of getting home and regretting your recent purchase. So here are two more to whet your pallet with.

Madden NFL Football 2009
This game was actually released in early 2008, despite the title.

Read more >

Three Instant Xbox 360 Classics that Will Make All Gamers Happy!

Add Comment

There are so many different Xbox 360 games and so little time to yap to you about all of them and their definitive greatness. However, after giving myself a most certain case of repetitive strain injury or RSI – I have finally had a chance to play hundreds upon hundreds of Xbox 360 games, and all so that I can gripe and laud the best and the worst. This time around, its to tell you of some of the better Xbox 360 games that I have had the distinct pleasure of playing over the years, and trust me, they are damn good games that will make you know that yes, while there are so many cruddy games that can be released, there are in the same sense, an equal amount of decent games.

Read more >

College Hoops 2k8 – College B-Ball Games Don’t Get Any Better!

1 Comment

After getting screwed out of the NFL franchise by rival sports video game production company, EA sports, 2k Sports only had a few other options. One of those options being: produce better other games that can truly allow for them to level the playing field and establish themselves as a firm and a solid competitor in the sports video gaming market. And that is what they have exactly proceeded to do with their lauded and currently leading college basketball franchise, College Hoops. Now on to the next portion of their series for the year of 2008, 2k has churned out another surefire winner with College Hoops 2k8 for the Xbox 360.

The graphics are freaking incredible as has been demonstrated with other past sports games endeavors from 2k, who chooses to focus more on the realistic, simulation application of sports games, over the latter arcade styled approaches.

Read more >

Brian Lara International Cricket – There is a Reason Why Americans Love Baseball

Add Comment

I find myself once again perplexed at the oddity of useless games that somehow see the light of day for the Xbox 360 gaming console. And under that premise, I understand fully why they would release a soccer game for the Xbox 360, as America and nearly every other continent around the world hosts at least one or more pro soccer teams. Okay, that’s cool, I dig it, even if soccer is not my big thing; well it was in elementary school, but today I am fan of the real game of football, the NFL.

That being fully disclosed, when it comes to Brian Lara International Cricket I am entirely perplexed, as stated above. How in the heck does the game of cricket even have enough of a following in the European sector to warrant the costly production of a video game follow up? Well in reality it does not, so it comes as no shocker that Brian Lara International Cricket was perhaps one of the biggest gaming flops in the history of video gaming, and more importantly in the entire history of sports games that have been released for video games.

Read more >

Blitz: The League – Quite Possibly Worse than All Pro Football

Add Comment

If you read the blog entry below on the shoddy workings of the enormous football flop by 2k Sports, All Pro Football 2k8, then you already know that any video game company that tries to make a football game without have the rights by the NFL is going to already be destined for a most certain failure. That being said, for some reason unbeknownst to me or the masses, the cats over at Midway Games and Point of View deciding that they would create a game to join its retarded brother gathering dust in the discount bin that is labeled ‘$2.99 Clearance’ at the local video game superstore. And that game is Blitz: The League.

Much like its 2k counterpart, the makers of this sloppy excuse for a football game had no idea what they were doing, and did not have the rights to use the NFL logos, images, players, teams, coaches, etc. So, yet another no-name game is released that thinks it can compete with the ruler of the football video game lands: Madden.

Read more >

All-Pro Football 2K8 – An All-Around Insult to Football Video Games

Add Comment

Where to start here…because the roots of this uninventive piece of garbage straggle all the way back to nearly the year 2000, when EA Sports was awarded the exclusive NFL license, one that essentially allowed for them to monopolize the video game market for all NFL games, and no other video game company was allowed to created any game bearing the NFL logos, teams, or players – Only EA Sports. Thanks NFL for ruining all fair competition in the video game market as it relates to football. So here is the real scoop on this tragedy.

EA sports vied for the exclusive NFL rights to create football video games in the likeness of the NFL. Their competitor, 2K Sports (owned by Sega) had always released their own version of the NFL game, which offered an entirely different feeling over EA’s Madden. To be honest, I preferred the 2k games because they offered a more simulation style football whereas the Madden games were more in the style of the arcade.

Read more >

2006 FIFA World Cup - A Kicking Game with Great Features

Add Comment

Perhaps one of the best soccer games ever created, or as the English and Europeans fondly refer to it as ‘football’ – but let’s not confuse this with the hard hitting, helmet busting, pad wearing, strength and conditioning protagonists that comprise the real ‘Football’ teams in the United States. That banter aside, if you are into soccer, then you are constantly on the lookout for a decent soccer game. And to be honest, most video games that came before FIFA World Cup 2006 really blew. Many suffered from the always present lack of consistent AI features, not to mention poor graphics, shoddy play calls, and glitches galore. But this all changed with the April 24th, 2006 release of FIFA World Cup, a joint effort by Electronic Arts and their counterpart EA Canada studios; hey leave it to the Canadians to bring us the best soccer game. But that still does not make up for the lavish song perusing of Bryan Adams.

FIFA 2006 is by far the most inventive and realistic, massive soccer game ever to be created.

Read more >

College Hoops 2K7 - A Classic College B-Ball Monster

Add Comment

If you care to take a visit back in time with my dear readers, just a few years mind you, all the way back to the ancient video gaming days of the candid year of 2007, when the dudes over at the 2k Studios decided that they would avidly release their version of the best college basketball game ever – and boy did they awe us with a superb rendition of what is perhaps on the more realistic of college basketball games to ever be released, prior to the newer versions that is, for the Xbox 360 gaming console.

They most certainly had the next generation video gaming mindset plugged in when they went to work on what would later become one of the better selling sports franchises, as 2k forged a name for themselves in the realm of sports game other than football, because EA Sports had acquired the exclusive NFL license, which still does not expire until sometime in 2010 – sigh, at which point we will hopefully once again see more than just Madden on the shelves the local video game store.

Many Fixes Prevalent in 2k7 over 2k6
Firstly, when

Read more >

Top Three Xbox 360 Games of 2008

Add Comment

So many games, so little time to burn out your thumbs and acquire a case of RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) playing them. But if you are like me, and your wrists are more worn out than a ninety year old carpenter, then you already know that there are ample amounts of great games that were released for the Xbox 360 during 2008. Of course, it would be far too lengthy for me to ever truly list them and yap about all of them for you in this blog. So I have been forced to boil it down to what I believe are the top three Xbox 360 games of 2008.

Top Three Xbox 360 Games of 2008
Grand Theft Auto IV:
This game truly takes the wholly cake and the icing too for the best damn game ever to be created. You play a cunning and illegal Russian immigrant who must forge his way through the unforgiving alleyways of New York City, dubbed Liberty City for this game. You can pretty much do everything.

Read more >

NCAA 2009 Versus Madden 2009 – Why Are There Differences?

1 Comment

If you are a football nut and you are a hapless fan of the EA Sports football franchises, then you already know that there are some pretty major differences between the juggernaut games that represent the college and the professional football versions of the popular sports—in their video game format. And seeing how both of these popular games are both developed and designed by teams at the EA Sports buildings, and how they both drive off the same engine for a basis, how in the heck are there, and more importantly why are there so many differences between the interfaces and game play options.

They are both made by EA so What Gives?
Both games were developed by the EA Sports studio, which is responsible for creating all of the sports games in the EA franchise. But they vary greatly when it comes to game play. For example, NCAA 09 will allow you to massively sub out players when you are kicking the crap out of a lesser team, but Madden does not.

Read more >

Madden 2009 for Xbox 360 Still Needs Some Work

Add Comment

The NFL loving sports fanatic world of video gamers eagerly anticipated the release of EA Sports Madden NFL 2009 for almost an entire year. But after hurriedly ripping the shrink wrap packaging off and discarding the Microsoft seal, I was abound with joy and the similar letdown that I have experienced with all previous Madden Franchises. And it seems that the dudes over at EA, while they have made a pretty decent video game, have also made it entirely clear that they do not keep their ears to the ground when avid gamers complain of common problems with their games. That being said, here is my scoop on Madden NFL 2009 for the Xbox 360 gaming console.

What they Did Wrong – Or Could do better!
I know that they only have about twelve months at best to release the next version of the game, but how do you go backwards when you already have a 20 game series of platforms and code to build on? For starters the training mode in the Franchise game play is terrible. Last year’s was great, the graphics were good and the players looked real.

Read more >