Every Sunday we get you caught up on the sports gaming news you might have missed during the busy week. This week we have reviews for Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2023 and Retro Goal along with write-ups on FIFA 23, NHL 23, Madden 23 and more.
Sports Gaming News
- TT Isle of Man – Ride on the Edge 3 Releases in May 2023 – Teaser & New Features Revealed
- NHL 23 Cross Platform Matchmaking Available in All World of Chel and HUT Modes
- Gran Turismo 7 Coming to PC?
- Need For Speed Unbound Trial Available For EA Play Subscribers
- Soccer Story Launches Today, Included with Game Pass
- NBA 2K23 Season 3 Starts December 2 – Full Details Here
- Shredders Releases on December 6 For PlayStation 5
- Lonely Mountains Downhill Daily Rides Season 19: Winter Rides Begins Today
- Action Arcade Wrestling Launches Arcade Gauntlet Update For Consoles
- NBA 2K23 Patch Adds More Player Likeness Updates, Fixes and Improvements to Multiple Modes – Patch Notes
- FIFA 23 Patch #5 Available Now on All Platforms to Address Gameplay, FIFA World Cup & More – Patch Notes
- Official Madden NFL 23 Roster Update For Week 13 Available – See the Changes Here
- PGA Tour 2K23 Adding Torrey Pines Golf Course on December 2
- WRC Generations Patch Provides More Fixes For Leagues, Clubs, Physics & More – Patch Notes
- PGA Tour 2K23 Patch 1.06 Adds Torrey Pines North and South Courses and More – Patch Notes
- NBA 2K23 Roster Update Available – Full Details Here (12-1)
Operation Sports Featured Articles
Earlier this year, I did a small preview of the new play style that Wolverine was starting to introduce into its Pro Basketball series. While it was early on, I could see its massive potential and the possibilities it brought with it. Not only did I see the potential for both of Wolverine’s basketball titles, but I let my imagination run wild and envisioned the football titles with fully rendered play models depicting the sport. While imagining all the possibilities is fun, we no longer need to go that route. Wolverine Studios has finally released the first title that incorporates the new animated player models in Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2023.
Major League Baseball has officially begun its yearly hibernation, awaking only during the offseason for the sporadic trades and free agent signings to come. As the MLB season ends, so does the year. As the year ends, so does the content cycle for Diamond Dynasty.
We recently got what should be the final “fresh” Featured Program with Finest of the Franchise. Finest typically signals the end of significant content drops, and SDS has already announced that December 1 will bring the Forever Program to Diamond Dynasty. This program is always a massive combination of all previous Program Bosses and allows players to earn the previous Bosses along with other goodies. After that, the wait begins for MLB The Show 23.
Whether you’re deciding to start a new franchise with a team or trying to beat other players online in versus games in NHL 23, it’s important to know who the best teams in the league are this season. While it’s easy enough for anyone to look over the list of teams in the game and see which ones have the highest ratings, those numbers don’t really tell the whole tale about a squad. With different strengths and weaknesses feeding into those NHL 23 team ratings, some of the best teams might be more or less appealing depending on your own personal preferences. You are likely also more or less killed in certain areas of NHL 23, and any given team’s roster might be able to compensate for shortcomings in areas or accentuate your positives.
Here’s a look at five teams that NHL 23 feels have a legitimate shot at hoisting the Stanley Cup at the end of the season and why they’re considered to be cream of the crop. Let’s discuss how these teams can best be used to your advantage and where you might need to be careful when you’re trying to come out on top with them.
Creating offense in NHL 23 is harder than it’s been in previous years in the series, whether playing online or versus the CPU. Unlike in the past, you can’t just set up for cross-crease looks and expect that the pass will arrive at its destination without being intercepted by a defender. Even when those passes do find the stick of a teammate, it’s no longer as much of a foregone conclusion that the goalie won’t be able to slide over and make an amazing save. This makes it imperative that you learn how to unleash the right deke at the ideal time to generate some pressure in a different way. The game has a lot of them at your disposal and practicing them in free skate will be the fastest way to get comfortable with how to execute them.
To help you out, here’s a list of how to perform all of the dekes in NHL 23 and an overview and when they can be leveraged to your advantage. You’ll also see a difficulty score out of 10 for each to give you an idea of the kind of frustration you might experience when trying to get them to work properly.
As the FIFA 2022 World Cup pushes forwards towards the knockout stages, the folks over at EA have been hard at work updating the World Cup DLC, available for free within FIFA 23. Apart from the usual updates such as faces, squad updates, and so on,there are rumors of a new set of cards set to be available within Ultimate Team (FUT). The grandest of stages, the World Cup attracts more eyes than any other sporting event on the planet. Heroes like Spain’s Andre Iniesta and Germany’s Mario Gotze etched their names into folklore legend with World Cup winning goals while moments like Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” cemented his place amongst footballing royalty. Who will be next to cement their immortality status is still yet to be determined but one thing is for sure, EA will be taking these magical moments and making them into special player cards.
Earlier this month, the good folks over at Steel City Interactive gave us the first taste of Undisputed with the first beta. I had mostly positive impressions and an increased sense of anticipation despite there being no concrete release date. As with most online betas, the goal was to introduce players to the control scheme, test the online matchmaking, and of course, collect feedback. During the course of this first beta several small tuners to help with matchmaking were added, which really helped connect us to other players. Once the initial beta closed, the team over at Steel City Interactive dropped a post-beta roundtable where the Creative Director (Ash Habib), Content Manager (Edward), and Director of Global Communications (Will Kinsler) talked about the challenges they faced and what their communication strategy would be as they near release. If you haven’t had a chance to see it you can view it here. With all that said, their content manager took to YouTube to reveal that a second Undisputed beta would be coming.
With its smooth and simplistic controls, Retro Goal — thanks in part to a brief tutorial — is as pick up and play as you can get, which makes sense considering it debuted on mobile devices first. The fast and quick action the game throws you into is a throwback to when games were primarily focused on fun first and avoided unnecessary complexities found in many AAA soccer titles.
Shoot, pass, and slide tackle pretty much covers all the basics, so it’s easy enough for children to pick up yet packs enough variety and punch for older gamers. There’s even touch-screen functionality for those who want to completely do away with analog sticks and buttons.
It’s that time of year again for race fans. The time when NASCAR teams shut down operations and embrace the few months they have off. The time when F1 has crowned a new champion and put the bow on another season. For racing fans, we know this time of year well, yet it never gets easier to handle. Thankfully for video game racing fans, the wait is a bit easier. While we struggle with the same loss of real-world racing leagues over the winter, we can at least go back and revisit current licensed and associated racing titles that dropped during the previous season.
I often enjoy doing just that during the winter, especially with officially licensed titles since we now know how the real season played out and can see how the game simulates that. With that said, there are five titles that I plan on revisiting and getting some real seat-time with during the long cold winter here in Chicago.
About two weeks ago, EA Sports released the latest patch update for Madden 23, and fans were intrigued as it promised to fix several vital issues that gamers were still experiencing. Not only would it fix the 32-team online franchise mode and some minor problems with Face of the Franchise, but it would also add the first update to EA’s highly touted NFL Live feature since the game’s inaugural release. And for us Dolphins fans, it even added a specific signature touchdown celebration. Here’s everything we like and dislike about Madden 23 patch #4, plus some impressionsfrom the Operation Sports community.
