There were several very notable new features this year in sports gaming, with some titles trying to arrive back at something that resembles feature parity with the old generation of games and others simply adding to an already full arsenal.
We asked OS readers to vote on their favorite new features of 2014, and here are the award winners.
Gold - MLB 14 The Show: Year to Year Saves
OS’ers were quite pleased with the year to year saves feature, which allows you to take your saves from this year’s edition of
MLB The Show into next years. No longer will your virtual player suffer from a short lifespan, you’ll be able to take your progress from this year and move it into next year without any issue. Amazingly, this is something no sports game has really tried before — and its something which was long overdue.
Silver - NBA 2K15 MyLeague
To say that OS’ers simply wanted a regular multi-season mode back in
NBA 2K15 was an understatement. When the announcement was made last year that association mode was meeting its demise on next-gen, I’m pretty sure we all ran for the nearest bomb shelter anticipating a massive storm of complaints — which certainly materialized. Fortunately, the highly customizable MyLEAGUE mode in
NBA 2K15 made its appearance this year to great fanfare, getting it the Silver Medal from OS readers.
Bronze - MLB 14 The Show: Quick Counts
Games in
MLB The Show were long, drawn out affairs — sometimes taking over an hour on even the fastest settings to fully complete a nine-inning game. Thanks to quick counts, you can now move through a game fairly quickly, with some games taking less than 15 minutes to complete. Sports gaming has always had a
Call of Duty problem in the sense that playing a full game always meant dedicating a lot of time for a singular result — whereas games in other genres can generate results and progress in factors of 10 minutes, not hours. For that reason, OS’ers saw fit to award Quick Counts the bronze medal in our readers vote.
What do you think? Do you agree with your peers or do you think OS’ers got it wrong? Sound off in the comments!