Nintendo Switch Sports’ newest trailer is a pretty brief one at half a minute long, but it gets to the point, promising fun for all and showing off various glimpses of the six sports it’ll launch with- soccer, volleyball, tennis, badminton, charamba, and bowling. If you’re looking for meatier coverage, Nintendo recently also released an overview trailer for the game, detailing its local and online multiplayer, cosmetic customization mechanics, progression, and much more. Check it out through here.

Nintendo Switch Sports launches on April 29.

https://youtu.be/KRbZqcyIahk

It was a big week for physical software sales in the UK (via GamesIndustry), with multiple major releases coming out and selling impressive figures, and making for some rather surprising results in the sales charts for the region. As we reported earlier, for the first time in thirteen years, a new Call of Duty game failed to debut on top of the charts at launch, with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla instead taking the pole position.

Ubisoft announced earlier that Valhalla drew in twice as many players at launch as Odyssey did in 2018, and that, of course, has translated to raw sales data as well. The latest Assassin’s Creed game sold twice as many boxed copies at launch in the UK as Odyssey did, with 42% sales coming for the PS4 version, 18% for the PS5 version, and the remaining 40% for the Xbox versions.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War debuted in second place, with physical sales at launch down 64% from last year’s Modern Warfare. It is worth noting, however, that Black Ops Cold War set a new franchise record for day one digital sales, so overall sales for the game are likely faring as per expectations.

Meanwhile, in third place we have Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which sold 56% less than its predecessor did at launch in 2018. 71% of its sales were for the PS5 version- and this is far from the only PS5 game to break it into the charts. Other launch titles such as Demon’s Souls (No. 6), Sackboy: A Big Adventure (No. 13, with 89% sales on PS5), and Godfall (No. 16) all figured in the charts as well. That’s especially impressive when you consider the fact that the PS5 won’t even be launching in the UK until November 19.

You can check out the full top 10 for the week ending November 14 below.

1. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
3. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
4. FIFA 21
5. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
6. Demon’s Souls
7. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
9. Minecraft (Switch)
10. Watch Dogs: Legion

The game was released on September 24th 2013 in North America and on September 27th in Europe for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, iOS, Android and the PC. The game was also released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Given the power differences between the last generation of consoles (PS 3 Xbox 360 etc) and the current generation consoles (Xbox One and PS4) the game will be running on two separate engines, named Impact and Ignite respectively.

• 1. Development
• 2. Career Mode
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Limited Edition

Development

Over the years the developers of the FIFA series have been trying to create a realistic football sim. The developers have stated that they have included a variety of new elements with FIFA 14, like precision movement, greater midfield build-up and team intelligence. The precision movement brings more dynamic momentum and foot planting, as movement is calculated which each individual step.

Senior gameplay producer Aaron McHardy stated in an interview that, “We’ve been able to change the way the acceleration curves work in the game to be more accurate to the real world and preserve that momentum better. So that’s going to feel fundamentally different when you’re running around with any player on the pit. The game is more like a chess match of creating opportunities building up to the midfield than it was in previous years, which was more about running down the wing and hoping that someone was open for you to pass the ball to. Now it’s a lot more strategic. We want you to think football a lot more than we did in last year’s game.” [reference]

Team intelligence allows AI players to make better decisions and really force the player to play smarter. In an interview they stated, “One of the most memorable moments from the 2006 FIFA World Cup occurred when Argentina strung together 24 passes before scoring a fantastic goal against Serbia and Montenegro,” EA Sports revealed. The attackers knew exactly where they should be to open up the opposition and they executed flawlessly. With Teammate Intelligence in FIFA 14, players will have better decision-making and teams will play smarter on both the attack and defense to bring the beauty of the game to life.” [reference]

FIFA 14 won’t support Kinect. As Electronic Arts Sports boss Andrew Wilson stated in an interview; “We feel the evolution of that will do more for gamers this year [than motion]. We’re not quite at motion yet. We’re running some prototypes, but as yet we’re not seeing anything that universally enhances the core sports experience. Right now we’re still in a position where we see voice as the feature of Kinect that’s most relevant to FIFA. And that’s how you’ll see it this year. We did voice last year. There are new capabilities of voice recognition in the new Kinect the team is trying to utilize to make sure we take that to the next level and give you an even greater level of control through voice in the game.” [reference]

Ignite, the new engine that will be used exclusively for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, will not be featured on the PC. Steve Frost the Global Communications Manager for EA Sports stated in an interview that. “Ignite will be the engine that drives our sports games on PS4 and Xbox One. It will not be used for FIFA 14 on PC.Ignite will also run NBA Live 14, EA Sports UFC and Madden NFL 25 when EA Sports announced it during the Xbox One reveal. The video uses assets pulled directly from the in-game engines, and was rendered to create this first look multi-product trailer. It’s representative of where we expect our games will be when they launch.”

EA Communications Specialist Brad Hilderbrand also commented. “Yes, given the timing and planning required for the Xbox One reveal event the EA Sports Ignite video was developed in a pre-rendered video format. We’ll be showing off the game using in-game assets at E3.” [reference]

A petition was started to feature female players in FIFA 14, but despite more than 10,000 signatures, FIFA 14 producer Sebastian Enrique stated in an interview that it won’t be happening. “It is something we have talked about but there are no plans at the moment”. For the game to feature female players, “there are lots of things we would have to change though, like the physics would be different, it would affect collisions. There are lot of things that are involved”. This included “new models and hair styles”. [reference]

Career Mode

Career mode has been retooled this time around. It includes a Global Scouting Setup through most countries. You can now search for talent all season long using the same scout, and pick from various clubs around the world as players compete in various football tournaments and battle against the best.

Gameplay

New features coming into play with FIFA 14 include the Pure Shot and Real Ball physics. New shot types include off-balance and rushed shots, with Real Ball now defining ball routes for players to kick with relative force from a distance. With these enhancements, one can now search for the best angle and approach for making shots.

Executive Producer for FIFA 14 David Rutter stated in an interview, “FIFA 14 will play the way great matches are contested with build up through midfield, tension throughout the match as chances are created, and incredible finishing. Opportunities in FIFA 14 will be rewarding and great goals will look stunning.” [reference]

Limited Edition

The “Ultimate Edition” from Amazon UK will receive 24 Ultimate Team gold packs, one per week. Each gold pack features a mix of 12 items including players, contracts, healing, badges and more, along with a special item such as a strong, valuable player or longer contracts.

The Ultimate Edition will include historic kits, Virtual Pro Boosters and an All-Star Team sponsored by Adidas with Barcelona and Argentina star – and cover man – Lionel Messi.

The Limited Edition will feature the same perks as the Ultimate Edition, but will have 2 additional rare items with the gold packs. The Limited Edition will be available to pre-order until August 1st, midnight. The Collector’s Edition features all of the above content along with a special edition Adidas EA Sports glider football, and it will be available till September 26th midnight.

Electronic Arts Sports boss Andrew Wilson has confirmed with Eurogamer that FIFA 14 will not be utilizing the Xbox One’s Kinect this year.

Here is the full statement from Andrew Wilson regarding Kinect Motion Control intergration for FIFA 14 on Xbox One:

“We feel the evolution of that will do more for gamers this year [than motion]. We’re not quite at motion yet. We’re running some prototypes, but as yet we’re not seeing anything that universally enhances the core sports experience. Right now we’re still in a position where we see voice as the feature of Kinect that’s most relevant to FIFA. And that’s how you’ll see it this year.

“We did voice last year. There are new capabilities of voice recognition in the new Kinect the team is trying to utilize to make sure we take that to the next level and give you an even greater level of control through voice in the game.”

Many people have been worried that Micosoft would shove Kinect down developers throat, well thankfully that is not the case with EA Sports so far. Let’s see where the next-generation Kinect goes in the next few years.

Let us know what you think of this in the comments below.

Check back on GamingBolt for more updates.

The Gameplay and Content

MLB 13: The Show packs a whole lot of new content for baseball fans to enjoy and the game also introduces something called “Beginner Mode”. Beginner Mode makes the game much more accessible to newbie players who have played any of the previous MLB games. It’s a fantastic feature that you can turn on and off, when you play the game it makes everything easier. However, the better you get at hitting the ball, or pitching the harder it gets later on. The system adjusts difficulty of the game on the fly, if you learn quick how to play the game and get better at it, then the difficulty will start noticeably become harder.

If you are more of a slower paced learner and it takes you time to get good at something then the difficulty won’t be bumped up as much. Thanks for beginner mode, it makes the game much more less intimidating for those are interested in trying out the series for the first time and it also makes it a lot more interesting as the challenge gets harder.

MLB 13: The Show has finally created a Post-Season mode. Main purpose of this mode is to let the player jump straight into Post-Season without having to wait for the actual season to be over. You can play Post-Season with either 1 team or all of the 10 teams, it will also track your entire run of the games into the World Series. You may play Post-Season in single-player, head-to-head, co-op play and the game supports PlayStation Move if you’re interested in playing a different way. A lot of players have been asking for a game mode that let’s them just jump straight into post-season and the developers of MLB have finally made that dream come true.

For first time players will be able to play Online Home Run Derby mode cross-platform on their PS3 and PS Vita if they wish. The only biggest drawback of this is that Online Home Run Derby is the only mode that you can play cross-platform. PS Vita version is not included in the PS3 version, you have to buy them separately. Its kind of unfortunate , because the developers had a great opportunity to take an advantage of cross-platform play and it would let them sell more copies if they included the PS Vita version with the PS3 version, however that is not the case here.

As far as the game mode itself, it’s a ton of fun if you just like playing to make home runs and see how many you can get with your favorite player. You can choose different team stadiums to play on, pick any players how many rounds you want to go for. MLB 13: The Show packs pretty much every MLB team you can think of with all the major players in them. If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to score a crazy amount of home-runs with any of the Yankee players in a home-run derby, then here is your chance.

The Show Live mode is one of the more interesting game modes. This mode let’s players play exhibition-based games that are taken from MLB.com, it lets you play real world matches. The Show Live updates calendar event takes and new things on daily basis, as soon as you see an upcoming match on the calendar it will tell you which teams are playing and what players have taken which positions.

All of the statistics will be provided, that includes commentaries on previous match ups and everything else you can think off. Have you missed a favorite match that you wanted to play-out ? You can scroll back the calendar dates and play any of the matches that been played in the past. This is great stuff for the baseball fans.

Road to the Show  is another great addition to the game. This mode is quite unique compared to others, it let’s you create a custom player, choose his position in the game and of course let’s you pick a team. What different about this mode is that the whole thing is based on a single baseball player and you play as that person on the field. The camera views are completely different and you have control over him depending on whatever position you picked. You can make him to be the guy who’s a batter, pitcher or just a dude who chills on the 3rd base trying to catch a ball. For MLB 13: The Show RTTS recieved the most upgrades, better camera views, addition of leaderboards, a full revamp of audio/game presentation flow and new controls for baserunning and fielding.

New to MLB 13: The Show is the Season mode, Season mode let’s you play out an entire season with 1 or all of the 30 teams. You can play this also play this in co-op if you wish for a more social experience even though you’re going against an AI. The goal of this gameplay mode is to start a season at Spring Training and get your teams to the World Series.

The Franchise mode is the same for the most, expect with the addition of a new training system and a few other small things. The new training system let’s you pick what you want the player to be constantly training at throughout the course of the season as you play. Franchise Mode is more for player that like team management, you can fire/hire people, trade players with other teams and so on. If you like think that game managing is more of your style of baseball play then this is the mode that I’d recommend you play.

League mode is similar to the franchise mode expect that it’s online and much more social. You can create or join a league and have up to a total of 29 other plays join you in your conquest for the World Series. The League owner plays the same role as the GM in the franchise mode. The GM can kick people from his team, invite someone else, create a league lobby for people to socialize and so on. The new additions to the League mode is the scheduling system, new creation options, manual advancement, a new way to view game history and the ability to scrimmage against opposite league players.

Diamond Dynasty 

Diamond Dynasty is one of the core multiplayer modes in MLB 13: The Show. Diamond Dynasty lets players create a custom team from scratch, give it a name, location and of course let’s you customize every single team member on the roster. The team customization is really robust, you can create your own custom logo with a full logo editor, your “Away” and “Home” uniforms and so on. For the players you can change their first and last names, change their physical looks and even give them any player numbers.

You will probably spend a good few hours or so just customizing your team and making everything from the start. One of the most unique things about this game mode is that you also have something called “Budget Bonus”. Budget Bonus are points that you can earn as you play the game and complete certain in-game set of achievement goals (Not PS3 Trophies).

Once you have a achieved certain goal you will be rewarded a set amount of budget bonus points depending on the achievement, you can then later use these points to invest in your players individual and train them to become better at whatever it is that you desire.  You can also of course just manage your roster in general, change up player rotations and so on.

There is also something called Dynasty Player and a MLB Player. Dynasty Players are you’re long-term investment players that you train over a long periods of times, MLB players are something that you can activate and use right away using the MLB collection cards and usually are used for quick and short term plays.

You can trade, buy, sell collection cards with other players, or you can purchase packs of cards via PlayStation Network by using budget.  At the beginning you’re pretty much forced to use your custom created team, but once you start earning budget by pitting your team against a computer or head-to-head versus play online. You can also buy stadiums and train your players.

The ranking in Diamond Dynasty works just like the Elo system that is currently implemented in many popular online multiplayer competitive titles. MLB 13: The Show is no short of providing a robust multiplayer experience the developer has thought of pretty much everything they possibly can and executed it very well. Diamond Dynasty will last you a while, if you’re a huge fan of the previous series and cannot wait to get started on competitive online baseball play then this is your answer.

Every five games you play your team will be re-evaluated for placement in one of the five divisions, the five divisions are: Spring Training, Season Series, Division Series, Championship Series and World Series. So depending on how good you play you will always be re-evaluated every fifth game for a new placement.

Customization

The amount of customization in MLB 13: The Show is quite overwhelming. You can create and customize your own roster, modify sliders and even edit every single baseball player’s animations. Sliders allow you to change things like solid hits, contacts, power, timing, foul frequency, pitching, and plenty of more things. This basically makes the game completely editable, if you are looking to farm trophies then you come in here and chance sliders towards your favor.

Every slider is also separate for the human and computer controller, you can basically make your players have the lowest amount of possible foul plays and have the best hitting power and pitching while completely making the CPU weaker. This is awesome, if you’re having a hard time playing the game, you may mess around with these settings to make the game more easier or harder for yourself. The roster customization lets you can edit any of the teams and pick which the players pitching rotations and lineups. Overall the customization is pretty deep, you can also customize very specific things in some of the game modes if you wish.

Presentation

MLB 13: The Show is most likely the best looking baseball game you’ll ever play today. Not only does it look fantastic and plays well, it’s also presented in a great manner. Good looking menus, fitting soundtrack and in-game visuals are all well done. Everything from characters animations, sound effects and character models look and sound all top notch. The only small complain is the way the crowd looks. The crowd is completely 2D and it makes the game almost look like an older sport game where they didn’t have the technology to support more detailed crowds. This is a bit disappointing because it ruins the overall presentation in the stadium as you play the game. Everything looks great in the game and then when you see the crowd you just want to cringe a little bit.

Overall

MLB 13: The Show is the best baseball game on the market period. The game provides different ways of playing it, it allows you to edit the game that suits your personal play-style and the overall flow of the baseball games. If you’re a person who just enjoys a robust single-player baseball experience then there is plenty of ways to satisfy that hunger with the amount of game modes and customization this game provides. If players are looking for a deep competitive system then they can find that in the Diamond Dynasty mode where they can developer their own custom-made team as time progresses. Thanks to the game’s overall slick presentation, outstanding depth this game will keep the baseball fans busy for a long time to come and possibly until the next season starts which will be on the PlayStation 4.

The game was reviewed on the PS3.

505’s Backbreaker sits somewhere in the middle ground.

Judging by the title and the games presentation, Backbreaker appears to be a game that will have over the top tackles, people running around on fire, and fireworks going off as receptions are made. Instead we have a realistic attempt at an over the top gameplay style.

Confused? So I am.

The first thing you will notice when you play Backbreaker is the camera. Backbreaker uses a close 3^rd person camera to try and simulate the feeling of being on the field. The only problem with this is that the camera is not realistic to what it is like to be on the field, and because it is locked 3^rd person, makes just running around quite tricky. In real life, even with a helmet and face mask, you still have about 160 degrees of vision, no TV can emulate your peripheral vision, and because of that a more wide angle camera is always a better compromise. The problem with the fixed 3^rd person is that when you try to do a simple loop around another player, the camera shifts completely.

So for example, in real life, if you were running to a person who was in front of you, but there was an obstacle in the way, you would loop around the obstacle, but keep your head facing your target. In Backbreaker, your neck cannot move. So as you run around that obstacle, you are now looking into the stands, and have no idea if the thing you are running towards has moved.

So does a fixed 3^rd person camera seem more realistic, no. And not to mention, this already troublesome camera proves to be nearly impossible to handle when you are switching players. Because you are so close to the action, and everything is so hectic, when you switch players, you have absolutely no idea who, or where you are. It’s not like in most football games where a birds eye camera just moves over to another player, keeping a similar perspective of the field. Instead, its like you are swapping positions with another person.

Example number 2, imagine if you were standing in a room with 21 other people, all mingling around doing different things, and you suddenly swapped places with a random person. You are completely discombobulated for a few seconds, and in that time the play is already over.

I actually found that if I missed a tackle as my “primary” player, that it was more effective to just let my AI do the rest on their own.

The game also boasts for its realistic physics engine that makes every tackle unique. This would be very interesting if this game actually had Backbreaking tackles. I’m sure that every once and a while you will score a good hit that will send someone flying, but most of the time you just watch two rag dolls tumble to the ground on top of each other. Not very exciting. Also, given how mundane most of the tackles are, I really don’t see the need for a replay video to come up after every hit.

The Euphoria engine boasts Realistic Tackles

You literally have to watch skip a replay after every down.

The game does take a unique approach on how you control your player. The right stick functions similar to the right stick in the Skate series, meaning that specific flicks, half and quarters circles will make your player perform their actions. In addition to this there is the right triggers “Aggressive” Mode, in which your player can perform more aggressive as opposed to evasive maneuvers. There is also focus mode (left trigger), which helps the QB focus in on his receivers while passing.

This mechanic is interesting, but at the same doesn’t doesn’t pack enough punch to really hook you in and make you want to keep playing.

Although, the two most interest peeking aspects of this game are Tackle Alley, and create a team.

Because the Madden Franchise has bought out the licenses for the official NFL rosters, competing games have been forced into creating fake teams and players for their Football universes. If you are the type of player who is looking for this kind of customization, Backbreaker promises a “powerful” logo editor, uniform editor, custom player and team names, with the added bonus of being able to bring these custom teams online.

I cannot vouch for how “powerful these editors will be, but unless you are hardcore into customization, this is probably something you are just going to fool around with once or twice.

Tackle Alley is a lot like this

The Tackle Alley is a mini game where you start off holding the ball, and you try to run down the field and evade defenders. Each time you get by, you are respawned on a more difficult wave, which changes the number of defenders, where they spawn on the field, and how they act towards you. The game promises 100 waves of Tackle Alley. This mode will definitely serve as a great time killer when you aren’t in the mood to play regulation matches.

Aside from flashy music and visual style, Backbreaker offers nothing groundbreaking to the football genre. Most hardcore fans are going to stick with Madden, and I feel this is because football games are more about being the commander of a team. Football as a sport is played more through choosing the right plays, subbing in and out players, and controlling draft picks. Backbreaker attempts to go for the more personal experience, stressing the control of the actual players on the field.

Backbreaker hits the stores June 1^st, and I can say I would be glad to see it compete well against the tyrant Madden series.