Earlier this week, Metacritic bemoaned 2012 as a year of poorer review scores for video games than the one preceding it. Fewer titles surpassed the all-important 90—which practically guarantees job security to those who d...
Rarely considered for overall video-game-of-the-year honors, the uncommon diversity of sports video games, and the unique demands placed on them to recreate both a real-world sport and the real-life experiences associated with ...
The Video Game Awards celebrated 10 years of giving out hardware on Friday. Bet you didn’t know, or at least you forgot, who was the first winner of its Game of the Year award. Madden. Specifically, Madden NFL 2004—...
More than a year ago, Abe Stein of the Game Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reached out to me about a survey he was conducting, an examination of sports video gamers. Stein, himself a committed sports gamer, wa...
With respect and admiration for, if not apologies to, the late Ernie Harwell, here’s something adapted from his famous Induction Day speech at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Aug. 2, 1981, which itself was adapted fro...
He renamed all his teammates for his friends, he put himself on the roster and took all of the best equipment. He rebounded from painful defeats—or, eh, restarted a few here and there—and scored fist-pumping victori...
The Wii may have been the worst console for sports video games ever—not “worst major,” not “worst of its generation,” flat out the worst console for sports video games. I know it had Tiger Woods PG...
The question was put forth this past week, in a podcast where I was a panelist: Are sports video games in a golden age? “No,” seems to be the most obvious answer. Ten years ago, we had competing simulation titles in...
Brian wanted to go to Boise State. I remember that much. Eight years ago, captivated by NCAA Football 2004, I asked my closest friends from grad school to give me their preferred position and college. I was going to create all ...