Coming off the PS5 event, and our first sampling of sports games beyond the Madden 21 teaser, are we getting excited for next-gen yet?
Elliott Jenkins: Honestly, my excitement is pretty unchanged, which sounds more negative than it actually is. I am still very excited about next-gen sports gaming, and though the NBA 2K21 clip did not show us much, it very briefly sent my mind wandering in a thousand different directions on how games will look and feel. The PS5-rendered footage was impressive, but it will not be until full-on mid-game screenshots and videos pop up that my enthusiasm really takes off.
I personally thought that the PS5 event was a huge step up from the State of Play series that Sony produced, and a number of announced titles caught my eye. But I have to remain cautiously optimistic with the first few iterations of any sports game on a new console as it takes a few years before they cement their footing, such as the jump in face scans between MLB The Show 16 and ’17. I cannot wait for more to be revealed, especially in terms of MLB The Show, 2K’s new football game, and the ground-up rework for the next WWE 2K entry.
Joel Smith: I can’t say I’m anymore excited than I was yesterday. I was looking forward to seeing what the PS5 looked like more than anything, and now that we know — I think it looks like a scaled-down version of a final boss HQ in a futuristic action-adventure game — I’m back to waiting until we get more news on sports games. Based on the specs, power and “possibilities” both systems are touting, that’s where my excitement currently resides.
The NBA 2K21 20 second-ish bit didn’t anything for me whatsoever. If anything, it looks like 2K stepped up their sweat engine and Zion’s facial features close up looked good, but I doubt in game on the court he will look like that. If any excitement should be building up, it’s in hopes that we don’t get destroyed when pricing comes out.
Kevin Groves: Truth be told, the only thing that moved the needle was seeing the actual console and controller towards the end. The storm trooper look is going to be a nice accent piece in my living room. Sadly, none of the indie games really caught my eye but the 2K21 trailer was interesting. We’ve been duped before with cutscenes passed off as gameplay, but like my colleagues said above, the possibilities — especially when it comes to facial animations displaying emotion — has me intrigued.
Anything that brings the emotion of sports into play is welcomed. We’ll see what happens when the pricing is announced, but as of right now it’s a day one purchase.
Matthew Ederer: I’m not quite there yet. We knew the graphics were going to be good. It’s the PlayStation 5 after all. We’ve seen impressive sweat physics before (though to be totally fair to 2K, those were some really sweet sweat physics). I’m still very optimistic about what sports games could potentially become, and where we might be heading.
But I can’t fully geek out until we know for sure that 2K, NHL and Madden are more than just the old games with better graphics.
Josh Houtz: For months we’ve heard about the next-generation of gaming. But now that we finally have our first look at the PS5, hype is definitely starting to pick up. Sure, we saw the controller before, but the system looked better than anticipated to me. The games didn’t blow me away, but as we’ve seen in the past, a lot of games released with a new console don’t. However, as someone who isn’t a big NBA 2K guy, the 20 second clip showed the future of sports gaming, and boy was it beautiful. I’ve already started calculating in my head how I’m going to pay for both systems.
Now it’s Microsoft’s turn to show off what their next-gen system looks like, and which games they plan to debut with its much anticipated release. One thing Microsoft has going for them is the Madden 21 trade-in program, which probably won’t sway anyone’s decision, but is quite the feat nonetheless. Overall, I’m excited for the future of sports gaming.
So let’s hear it, are you getting stoked for the PS5 and Xbox One Series X yet?
