Press Row Podcast - MLB The Show, MIA Arcade Games, Listener Questions

[Steve_OS]

The 82nd edition of the Press Row Podcast features most of our regular panel back in action after trips across the country to PAX East and elsewhere! MLB The Show kicks off the conversation as the panelists discuss their current experiences and anticipation for the upcoming PS4 release. This is followed by a look at the current state of arcade sports games, then a whole host of topics from questions submitted by listeners, including the Madden 15 trailer, next-gen NHL, and much more. Plus, as an added bonus, the winner of our Press Row Podcast NCAA March Madness tournament Andrew Hoculik (@MyAngryCommute) gets to make an appearance for his victory!

Joining us this week:

• Owen Good, Polygon (@owengood)
• Kat Bailey, US Gamer (@The_Katbot)
• Chris Sanner, Operation Sports (@ChrisSnr)
• Samit Sarkar, Polygon (@samitsarkar)
• TJ Lauerman, ThatSportsGamer (@ThatSportsGamer)
• And your host, Richard Grisham, GamesRadar/OXM/@GAMER (@richgrisham)

Send us your feedback! We love to hear from you and can’t wait to read your stuff on the air in a future episode. Do it one of these ways:

1) Follow the show on Twitter at @PressRowPodcast and send us some Tweets while you’re there
2) Email the show at [email protected]
3) Respond to this post

Also, the Press Row Podcast is now available on iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/...ow/id563624090) and Stitcher Radio (http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/oper...ss-row-podcast), so subscribe to it and rate it too!

Enjoy the show!

Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes

If you can't view or listen to the embedded player below, please click here.

[Vermin]

Way to go, Huck City! Nice win.

[OSGuy321]

Totally agree with Kat that EA is missing an opportunity by not bringing Madden to PC. It's all about the Steambox going forward.

[jyoung]

I disagree with the notion that older arcade sports games lacked depth.

NHL Hitz 2003 had a lengthy franchise mode where you created an entire team from scratch then went through a gauntlet of fantasy teams to earn the right to join the real NHL. Once you made the NHL, you could play full NHL seasons with your created team. The game was also packed with fun multiplayer mini games, along with many unlockable jerseys, character models and arenas.

NFL Blitz 2001 had a full season mode, in addition to neat features like create-a-player, create-a-team and create-a-playbook, none of which are present in the Xbox 360's NFL Blitz remake.

Tecmo Super Bowl III let you create a full team of players, whose attributes started out terrible, but could gradually be improved by having success in the multi-season mode, which even had a free agency system at the end of each year.

When Andrew Wilson says that EA "tried" to revive the genre with half-baked games like 3 on 3 NHL Arcade and Madden NFL Arcade, it's like the Miami Marlins' owner, Jeffrey Loria, saying that he tries to win a World Series.

The budgets and developmental effort that were put into EA's recent arcade projects, like the Marlins' payroll, tell a completely different story about what they've "tried" to do in recent years, which is to simply make lots of money while cutting lots corners with substandard products.

[driddy]

Completely disagree on not buying digital copies of sports games. The trade in value for sports games past 6 months is horrible, and with the publisher's tendency to remove features (ahem custom soundtracks), some of these older games are priceless. I see these games moving towards minor updates / roster packs in the future so not having to put a disc in the system is a plus.