OS Weekly Wrap Up, Getting You Caught Up on Sports Gaming News (Jan 10 - Jan 16, 2021)

Sports Gaming Universe is here to showcase the Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 2 fight with 10 different simulations of what could happen at UFC 257. Using EA Sports UFC 4 as the testing ground, check out the many permutations of the fight here.

This video comes from Unique Mazique and his son Unique Mazique Jr. They collaborated on this 100 percent NBA 2K21 complete fictional roster that also includes 30 unique teams. There are more than 440 fictional players and no NBA representation besides what 2K doesn’t allow you to eliminate.

The staff vote was relatively split here, but we ended up giving the Best Career Mode in 2020 award to NBA 2K21 and its MyPlayer mode. We did not differentiate here between next gen and current gen, but obviously they are different (minus the story mode components overall) between the two versions. That being said, we felt either version still ended up being at the top of the list here, but it was close. NHL 21‘s revamped career mode was in the discussion, and then Road to the Show and F1 2020‘s career mode also came up. We did not consider UFC, Madden, or FIFA for very long here, but all three also have some interesting elements.

Well, this ended up being one of the few split decisions from this year’s voting. The community went one way with the Worst Sports Game Trend in 2020, and the staff went another way. Since our staff voting still determines who “officially” gets the award, that means our voting wins out in the headline, but we’ll get to the community as well here. That being said, the Worst Sports Game Trend in 2020 was the AI somehow getting dumber — even as we went to next-gen consoles.

It may not have always felt like it, but last year was a step forward for single-player modes in sports games. I know that can be hard to believe in a vacuum because one of the biggest stories of the whole year was #FixMaddenFranchise and the continuing fallout there, but there were some positive signs for single-player folks. I don’t feel like we’re crazy for feeling that way either because the community and staff both voted for a recommitment to single-player modes as the Best Sports Game Trend in 2020.

I always have to preface this award by saying that we leave the management sims out of this category because obviously Football Manager or OOTP would win it every year if we did not. With that in mind, the community and staff believe Super Mega Baseball 3 deserves the Best Franchise Mode in 2020 award.

This year, the staff voting was tough to get a handle on because a lot of good games came out, but no one specific game blew everyone away. The same seemed to hold true with the community vote as the voting was rather spread out. However, pluralities won out in both the staff and community vote, and thus, MLB The Show 20 is the 2020 Sports Game of the Year.

First off, I think it is safe to say we can all agree that in 2021 professional sports and their regular seasons in general will be like no other. The NHL is certainly no exception, with new divisions, new back-to-back scheduling against the same opponent, playing only within your division, fewer games played in total — 56, and a modified playoff format — not to mention the helmet sponsorship decals and the sponsorship division naming rights. Furthermore, expanded rosters/taxi squad are now a thing as well.

Last year, the official EA Sports NHL 20 season simulation predicted that the Boston Bruins would hoist the Stanley Cup. The Boston Bruins had enjoyed a great deal of team success leading up to that prediction, so it was clear to many inside the NHL world, and even the casual hockey fan, that the the Bruins had strong Stanley Cup odds. In other words, it was not too outlandish to see the EA Sports 2020 simulation.

Honestly, I didn’t even want Baron Davis. The starting point guard spot on my team was already reserved for galaxy opal Dwyane Wade, and initially, getting B-Diddy looked like too much of a hassle. But heading into the final weekend of Season 3, I kind of fell back-a**words into most of the cards needed simply through having fun and playing the game. Except of course, for pink diamond Richard Jefferson.

Last week, EA Sports dropped a patch for Madden 21. There were various fixes in it, but on next-gen consoles, the biggest point of interest was that it was supposed to address the secondary issues with the next-gen version of the game. These issues included secondary players looking lost on the field, and showing the aggressiveness and reactions of a sloth way too often. While the last-gen version of Madden had its own set of issues, they were nothing that were comparable to how inconsistent the secondary issues were on the PS5 and Series X versions.