Author Bio
Jayson YoungHome Town: Nashville, TN.
Sports: Football, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer
Games: Old: Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball, Tecmo Super Bowl III: Final Edition, NBA Hangtime, New: All Pro Football 2K8, NHL '09
Teams: Vanderbilt Commodores, Tennessee Titans, Nashville Predators, Memphis Grizzlies
OS Username: OS: wEEman33 Xbox Live: wEEman33 BSD
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Thursday, December 1, 2011
10:03 AM - December 1, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Jayson Young

Sports games, sadly, no longer come with instruction manuals. While ratings like "Slap Shot Power" need no written explanation, figuring out what attributes like "Aggressiveness" actually do on the ice can be confusing.
Buried deep within NHL 12's maze of menus, players can find detailed explanations for most of the game's attributes. Consider this ratings guide as part of the "written manual" that NHL 12 should have come with.
Read More - Explaining NHL 12's Attribute System
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
10:14 AM - November 9, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Jayson Young

In 1993, when most video games were still using hand-drawn 2D sprites, Sega debuted its new Model 2 arcade board in Japan with Daytona USA, a fast 3D racer featuring big polygons and detailed textures.
With an unheard-of 40 cars on the track and as many as eight human players racing together on linked cabinets, Daytona USA quickly became one of the highest-grossing arcade machines of all time. Linked Daytona USA cabinets can still be found in today's ESPN Zones or Dave and Buster's -- the modern-day "arcade."
Though coin-operated versions of Daytona made Sega rich, the company never produced a decent console port. The Sega Saturn version was rushed out as a launch title in Japan and North America. It featured reduced draw-distance, lots of clipping and functioned at only 20 frames per second compared to the arcade version's 60.
A Sega Dreamcast version was released in 2001, but even with redone graphics and eight total tracks, the Dreamcast version's laggy online play, poor car physics and wonky steering controls left fans of the original title disappointed.
Finally, almost 20 years after the original Daytona USA's debut, an arcade-perfect port has been released for Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network.
While the revolutionary Model 2 graphics have lost their "wow" factor, Daytona USA's memorable soundtrack and fun gameplay will have racing fans ready to drop another $10 of virtual quarters into Sega's updated Daytona port.
Read More - Daytona USA Review (360)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
02:08 PM - October 18, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Jayson Young

Games as deep and challenging and Forza Motorsport 4 typically struggle with accessibility.
Ask a gamer with no knowledge of football to pick up the sticks in All Pro Football 2K8, and he'll probably throw down the controller in frustration after a few minutes of getting manhandled.
Developer Turn 10 Studios knows that most gamers aren't certified auto mechanics. The developer's fourth version of Forza Motorsport provides a number of "training wheels" to keep beginner racers on the road, as well as modes like car soccer and car painting, which don't require any knowledge of racing to be fun.
But when it's time to take the racing assists off for some serious driving or car-tuning, Forza 4 crosses the finish line first, offering the finest racing simulator on the current generation of consoles.
Creating a simulation-style game that's accessible and deep isn't an easy task, but it's what makes Forza 4 a sports gaming classic.
Read More - Forza Motorsport 4 Review (360)
Friday, October 14, 2011
03:16 PM - October 14, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Jayson Young

Forza Motorsport 4 comes on two discs, totaling 10.6 gigabytes. Turn 10 Studios has crammed so much content into the game that it's almost overwhelming at first sight.
Career
The career mode in Forza 4 can be played in two different ways: World Tour and Event List.
World Tour challenges players to win 10 seasons worth of events against "adaptive" AI racers. The game automatically adjusts the AI difficulty to match your racing skills as you progress through the World Tour, making each event a fierce battle. World Tour takes the player through about 150 events, including standard races, multiple heats, 1 vs. 1 challenges and unusual minigames like "Car Bowling."
Read More - Forza Motorsport 4 Reviewer: New Modes Impressions
Thursday, October 13, 2011
03:31 PM - October 13, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Jayson Young

If you want to make an argument that sports games should be released biannually, look to Turn 10 Studios' Forza Motorsport franchise.
Since Forza Motorsport debuted on Xbox in 2005, the Forza series has steadily released a new entry every two years, with each title easily lapping the last.
In terms of innovation, Forza 3 has a reputation for being the franchise's smallest advancement to date. But after spending 15 hours with Forza 4, I feel confident saying that, if Forza 3 had some gamers feeling like the series was starting to spin its wheels, Forza 4 will convince car fans that Turn 10 Studios are one of the top developers in the sports industry.
Read More - Forza Motorsport 4 Reviewer Initial Impressions
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
11:29 AM - October 12, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Jayson Young

Konami's third and final Bobblehead title functions both as a stand-alone minigame and as an unlock key for the roster editor feature in MLB Bobblehead Pros, which Operation Sports reviewed in July.
Read More - MLB Bobblehead Battle Review (360)
Friday, October 7, 2011
02:13 PM - October 7, 2011. Posted by Steve_OS. Written by Jayson Young

Late Thursday night, a user on the Backbreaker forums posted a correspondence via private messaging with the head developer of the Backbreaker franchise, Todd Gibbs:
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As of Friday morning, the official Backbreaker forums are down for maintenance, but the original post can still be seen via Google's cache feature.
If this is in fact the end of Backbreaker on consoles, at least the series retired a winner, with June's stellar Backbreaker: Vengeance, still available on Xbox Live Arcade, and on Playstation 3 in the PAL region.
Friday, September 23, 2011
04:03 PM - September 23, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Caley Roark

The NBA 2K12 demo hit earlier this week and while the demo seems to be quite stripped down, our staff writers still have some thoughts on the game this year. While you can't always trust a demo, we're going to try to be your shining light through the storm -- read our thoughts after the jump.
Read More - NBA 2K12 Demo Roundtable
Thursday, September 22, 2011
10:50 AM - September 22, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Jayson Young

I'm only a few days into NHL 12, and already the game's much-touted "Full Contact Physics Engine" is revealing itself to be glitchy, annoying and completely unrealistic.
The right-stick body checking isn't at blame. It's the retuned "instagib" hip check R3 button, which one-hit kills anyone who happens to graze the polyester on your player's jersey while he's -- or this year, she's -- treating opponents to a full moon.
Read More - Hip Checks Hurting NHL 12's Realism
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
10:54 AM - September 21, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Caley Roark

Our own Kelvin Mak, Jayson Young, and Caley Roark check in today with their takes on the Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 Demo. Do they think the series has recaptured the magic of days long past? Find out after the jump.
Read More - Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 Demo Roundtable
Monday, September 19, 2011
10:36 AM - September 19, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Caley Roark

Our very own Caley Roark, Jayson Young, Kelvin Mak, and Dustin Toms check in today with their thoughts on the FIFA 12 Demo. Check out their thoughts and let us know yours!
Read More - FIFA 12 Demo Roundtable
Thursday, September 8, 2011
11:41 AM - September 8, 2011. Posted by MMChrisS. Written by Jayson Young

NFL Rivals, a new NFL licensed version of Natural Motion's hard-hitting Backbreaker franchise, launched today on the Android and iPhone platforms for $2.99.
Coinciding with the sport's real kickoff, NFL Rivals offers a unique scheduling feature that pits teams against their real-life opponent for that particular week. Playing as the Tennessee Titans in week one? Expect to face an onslaught of men in teal running roughshod through Jacksonville's stadium thanks to NFL Rivals' GameDay feature.
NFL Rivals is no simple reskin of past Backbreaker mobile games. Natural Motion CEO Torsten Reil assures fans of the series that, "all the content in NFL Rivals is new, from Waves to Challenges to social features."
Other social features include a 32-team online leaderboard that keeps track of which NFL team is scoring the most points globally.
So whether you're a veteran of Backbreaker's previous cellphone outings, or entering the franchise as a rookie, NFL Rivals looks ready to improve upon Backbreaker's mobile user base of seven million players.
Here's a lengthy gameplay clip:
Monday, September 5, 2011

Reil clarified in a second tweet that the screenshot was from an iPhone version of Backbreaker, though no further details about the picture were revealed.
Could this mean that a NFL edition of Backbreaker: Vengeance is in the works for iPhone? Stay tuned to Operation Sports for more news on Natural Motion and the Backbreaker franchise as the story develops.
You can see a full version of the screenshot here.
Monday, July 18, 2011

Jayson Young wants to tell you all about the whimsy locked away in MLB Bobblehead Pros. Hit the link below to read his review of this downloadable baseball title.
Read More - MLB Bobblehead Pros Review
Monday, July 4, 2011
01:17 PM - July 4, 2011. Posted by ChaseB. Written by Jayson Young

Jayson Young celebrates Independence Day with a gushing review about Backbreaker Vengeance.
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Read More - Backbreaker Vengeance Review

