All sports video games are educational in some way; even MLB The Show will teach me new things about hitting every year. But the video game that both educates me and develops me as a fan of the sport is really doing its job, regardless of the visuals and gameplay fidelity (which are still take-it-for-granted impeccable in F1 2019).
Staples like Road to the Show and Diamond Dynasty, the card-collection/fantasy baseball suite now in its eighth year, are the two biggest reasons to pick up MLB The Show 19. They are brimming with variety and fun experiences both big and small.
And, while the story-based campaign and leveling system provide plenty of thrills, it takes about 50 hours to actually get to the real shit. The endgame is where I can now choose between playing as a sniper, a bomber, or a non-specific character who can do a bit of everything, and join up with other super-achievers to take down a tougher gang called the Black Tusk.
Newcomers might surprise themselves how much they really can handle in a tough-as-nails driving sim
FIFA 19's selling points may be subtle or incremental but, again, that's because the bedrock of this game has been so deep and so strong, for so long
The real fun of NBA Live 19 is out in The Streets, with my new friends from two different leagues, fitting together their styles with my star's, and then running that back all the way to 2 a.m.
Codemasters still delivers enough immersion and participation in this fantasy to keep it from feeling repetitive, even if on paper, it sounds like it should be.
After giving it a few days, I felt like I understood what Madden 19 was asking of me and that the challenge it posed was one worth growing into, and the game makes a strong and varied appeal to keep trying across its multiple deep modes of play.
Super Mega Baseball 2 feels like a true sequel: same cast of heroes and villains (lookin' at you, Andre Candela), some new threats and interlopers, and a new journey to enjoy.
R.B.I. Baseball 18 tries to be a fun arcade-style sports video game with some big features expected of so-called sim titles. And it winds up struggling with both goals.
Even with simplified grappling and submission controls carried over from the last edition, EA Sports UFC 3 is probably the least pick-up-and-play game in the sports genre. It takes real dedication, and understanding of one's fighter, to draw out the game's virtues. But they can be found in the anticlimax of a career bout that ends in a fraction of the time spent training for it. For those who can take a staggering punch and remain focused on their game plan, EA Sports UFC 3 is as close as it comes to professional fighting, without the bruises and welts.
Need For Speed Payback doesn't do many favors for itself. It's a fun racing game whose flashy story would be fine if I felt like I was building a blinged-out career worthy of it. Instead, I felt driven toward pure stats upgrades, heedless of what the car was or what it looked like.
FIFA 18 is still seductively deep and delivers excitement. It gave me the feeling that there is still so much to learn about what appears to be a rather straightforward sport, and that the game would gladly help me understand. This is always the time of year when I ask myself why I don't just spend all of my time playing FIFA, and FIFA 18 poses the question more forcefully than ever.
NBA Live 18 is best for a very personal brand of basketball, focusing on a created superstar and the moves that make him stand out in a game that skews more toward individual play than teamwork.
The no-frills quality of NASCAR Heat Evolution meant NASCAR Heat 2 had to show a little more than just great racing this year, and it does in spots. There's a lot of variety in NASCAR Heat 2, it's just more immediately seen in things like the one-off races or online multiplayer.
F1 2017 is a game that's as much fun to think about as it is to play, and as intriguing to plan out and strategize as it is to race. And it is a lot of fun to race, because so much of F1 2017's enjoyment comes from things built up over time, not the year-to-year bullet-point features of video gaming.
Madden NFL 18 doesn't shake up its gameplay but the new story mode is a success.
I've never been more charmed by a racing video game and I could not recommend any other more than Dirt 4, to anyone of any ability. Dirt 4 is a joy.
NBA Playgrounds stifles any above-the-rim action promised by placing condition after condition on the gameplay
The first chapter's conflicts and outcomes may be conventional, but so were the the ones in the weird comic books my best friend's older brother stored in bread bags, which we'd read as fast as we could before he got home from football practice to terrify us. The feeling of wanting to read the next issue is just the same, too.