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Music, Film, and Gaming

Rich

Why Is NCAA Football Becoming EA Sports College Football?

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No official release date has yet been confirmed for EA Sports College Football, although Darren Rovell did recently say on Twitter that he’s spoken to an insider at the company who has suggested that the targeted release for EA Sports College Football is 2023.

What about the name change though? Why did NCAA Football need rebranding?

With the ever shifting landscape of college football and an ongoing fight for college athletes to be able to profit from their name and likeness; the new name should allow EA Sports more creative control and freedom for the future.

The current structure of college football is subject to change, and should any major changes occur in the next few years, or if the licensing structure shifts at all in the future; by avoiding the NCAA branding altogether, EA Sports is well prepared for this and able to pivot if necessary.

EA Sports College Football will be the first college football game from EA Sports since 2013’s NCAA Football 14.

What if Ravel Morrison Could Rewind The Clock and Do Things Differently?

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Ravel Morrison recently revealed to Rio Ferdinand for the Vibe With Five podcast that if he could go back in time, he’d change 90% of his life.

Unfortunately we don’t have a time machine, but using FIFA 21 we’ve here rewound the clock on Ravel Morrison’s career, made him 17 again and offered him a chance to rewrite history in FIFA 21 career mode.

He’s starting out with Manchester United again, leaves the club on a free transfer after just one season though and it’s time to see what he does differently this time…

NCAA Football Is Officially Coming Back

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There hasn’t been a new college football video game since NCAA Football 14 on the PS3/Xbox 360. EA Sports today took to Twitter, however, bringing us the news that we’ve all been waiting on for some years now.

EA Sports is officially bringing college football back to console, with the NCAA Football name seemingly being scrapped and replaced with the series title EA Sports College Football.

Whilst there’s not been too much information made available just yet; there’s already an official Twitter account and it’ll certainly be interesting to see how frequently it gets updated over the coming weeks and months.

With a timeframe of ‘the next couple of years’ being quoted though; the return is clearly not something that’s going to happen overnight. This is going to be an ongoing project over the course of the next few years and there are multiple variables here that are subject to change.

Whilst the greenlight has been lit for the return of college sports games; there are still a lot of things to be sorted and many moving parts in the equation. Will the game include feature the names and likeness of real life players? That all remains to be seen, so the name change kind of makes sense as this college football return may not be a strict successor to NCAA Football.

EA Sports may have to do things a bit differently here, but it’s certainly exciting news that they’re working on a new college football game anyway, and we’ll definitely be covering all the updates moving forward. So definitely stay tuned both here and on our YouTube channel to find out more as this all develops!

Xbox Release Confirmed for MLB The Show 21 (Due Out April 20th)

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MLB The Show has previously always been a PlayStation exclusive. With MLB The Show 21, however, not only will it be released on Xbox as well as on PS4 and PS5, but there will also be cross-platform play on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

The game is officially set to release on April 20th, so a slightly later release than the usual cycle of releasing in mid to late March. 2020 was far from an ordinary year though, and with the game being released on both PlayStation and Xbox for the first time ever; I’m sure we can forgive them here for the slightly later release date.

As previously expected, San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. is the cover star for MLB The Show 21, and will grace the cover of both the PlayStation and Xbox editions of the game.

The Standard Edition on current gen consoles will be $59.99 USD/$79.99 CAD/£59.99 GBP/€69.99 EUR MSRP, and on next gen consoles $69.99 USD/$89.99 CAD/£69.99 GBP/€79.99 EUR MSRP. 

MLB The Show 21 is Coming to Xbox?! (Cover Leaked)

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Instagram user anerdydad appears to have leaked the cover online for MLB The Show 21, featuring San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatís Jr. as the cover star.

As the series is published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, in the past MLB The Show has been a PlayStation exclusive. When the official MLB The Show Twitter account put out a tweet earlier this month stating that MLB The Show 21 news was to be revealed in February, however, this led to major speculation online that this forthcoming announcement could be to confirm that MLB The Show 21 will also be coming to Xbox.

This would be absolutely fantastic news for sports game fans around the world, increasing the potential player base of MLB The Show by millions. And could this also mean that a Nintendo Switch version of the game may be possible in the future? We’ll just have to wait and see on that one…

How do you feel about this cover leak and the prospect of MLB The Show 21 coming to Xbox? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section and if you’re a big fan of sports games? Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel where we’re putting out weekly content!

What Happened To Karamoko Dembele’s Celtic Career/What’s Next?

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After signing his first professional contract with Celtic at the age of 15, Karamoko Dembele went on to make his professional debut for the club in May 2019, collecting a Scottish Premiership winners medal in the process as the club secured the title on that day.

There was much hype around the Celtic wonderkid and he was reportedly linked with a move to the likes of Juventus, PSG and even Barcelona. A move never quite materialised for the young winger, however, and fast-forward to 2021 he’s still at Celtic, isn’t getting much game time, and with his contract set to expire in the summer; he looks to be on his way out of Celtic Park with several clubs thought to be keen to acquire his services.

Despite being over 20 points off the pace of Rangers at the top of the table and even with a seriously depleted squad; Karamoko Dembele hasn’t really figured in Neil Lennon’s plans, and if he is to leave the historic Scottish club in the summer then it really won’t come as too much of a surprise at all.

So what’s next for Karamoko Dembele? He’s still only 17 years old and could well have an exciting career ahead of him in football, so FIFA 21 career mode has been used here to take a look at what could be in store for the young player in the future, released from Celtic at the end of the 2020-21 season and looking to establish himself in the footballing world elsewhere.

No Place for Lionel Messi in the FIFA 21 Team of the Year?!

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In this world nothing can be said to be certain… Except for Lionel Messi being in the EA Sports Team of the Year. Or at least that was the case prior to FIFA 21 anyway!

The FIFA 21 TOTY has now been revealed, complete with a large number of the usual suspects. Manuel Neuer has been the selected in goal, the defence consists of Alphonso Davies, Sergio Ramos, Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, and the midfield three selected this year is Joshua Kimmich, Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes.

With this year’s vote there was no space in the team for the Argentinian magician though, apparently, with the attacking trio instead consisting of Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski and Kylian Mbappé.

By his own standards, Lionel Messi hasn’t had the greatest of years, granted, and at the age of 33 he’s perhaps beginning to show some signs of slowing down and no longer quite being the absolute superstar of world football that he once was. Whilst both he and Barcelona might not be as good as they once were, however, Lionel Messi is still a phenomenal footballer and his omission from the FIFA 21 Team of the Year comes as quite a shock.

If we look at overall goal contributions in 2020; it paints quite an accurate picture of who belongs in this team, with Robert Lewandowski far ahead of the competition with 60 (45 goals and 15 assists), and Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo taking up the second and third spot respectively with Messi providing 50 contributions (26 goals and 24 assists) and Ronaldo 49 (41 goals and eight assists).Kylian Mbappe admittedly wasn’t too far off the pace, with 45 of his own (26 goals and 19 assists), but a definite question still remains as to whether or not he truly deserves his place in the team ahead of one of the greatest players to ever play the game.

How do you feel about Lionel Messi’s omission from the FIFA 21 Team of the Year? Was it justified in your opinion? Or does Lionel Messi decide his place in the spotlight alongside the likes of Crstiano Ronaldo, Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section, and if you’re a big fan of sports games then you might just enjoy our videos on YouTube, too!

Should Sports Games Be Released Every Other Year?

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With the annual release of sports games, the changes that occur year on year are often fairly minimal, so could we be better served as consumers then if instead of being released every year, sports games were only provided with major updates every other year instead?

In PES 2021, Konami issued a season update, essentially just providing a fresh lick of paint to PES 2020 with updated kits and rosters. They put this down to “the sheer scale of everything we are aiming to achieve for our next gen debut”, and if PES 2022 is a successful follow up then this could perhaps be an idea for other sports game developers to explore in the future.

If we look across at the way that things are done with the Call of Duty franchise for example; those games are released annually, but they have multiple different developers working on them. Call of Duty World War 2 was developed by Sledgehammer in 2017, Black Ops 4 by Treyarch in 2018, Infinity Ward then developed Modern Warfare in 2019, and it was then Treyarch that developed Black Ops Cold War in 2020. So three different lead developers over the course of four years, and with each lead developer there’s always at least a two year window between releases, alleviating the pressures that sports game developers currently have with the expectation of a new game to be released every single year.

So rather than releasing a minimally updated sports game each year and marketing it as an entirely new product; other companies could maybe follow Konami’s PES 2021 blueprint and release a new sports game one year, offer a roster update the following year, and charge a reduced price for people to download the latest update to the rosters and aesthetics.

It certainly seems like a move that would be in consumer interest anyway, and this could be an interesting direction for more sports game developers to explore in the future.

How do you feel about this idea? Were Konami onto something with the PES 2021 season update and could this potentially be the future of sports gaming?

A KFC Gaming Console is Coming… That Keeps Your Chicken Warm?!

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When the PS5 and Xbox Series X were officially released last month, few would probably have predicted that a third next-gen gaming console would soon be hitting the market, reportedly capable of up to 240fps with support for 240Hz output on 4k displays. And even fewer would have anticipated that the company leading the charge behind this 240fps gaming beast would be… KFC?!

KFC have joined forces with Cooler Master and there’s even an official landing page for the product for those (understandably) doubting its legitimacy. Complete with the world’s first built in chicken chamber, chicken grease and high end electronics sounds like a potential recipe for disaster. Could this really work though and will this new KFC gaming console be hitting the market very soon? We’ll just have to wait and see.

We’ll be covering all the news and updates on our YouTube channel as and when they’re announced though, so if you’re curious to hear more then definitely go and check it out and consider subscribing with notifications so that you never miss an upload!

Could PES 2022 Be the Best Football Game Ever?

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With PES 2022 there are a number of promising reasons to believe that this could end up being the greatest football game ever released.

Konami have previously spoken about the “the sheer scale of everything we are aiming to achieve for our next gen debut”, and with PES 2022 set to be the first PES game released on the new Unreal Engine; this is an extremely exciting time to be a fan of Konami’s football simulation series.

There’s also the continued development of Master League to look forward to, and it should be very interesting to see what Konami has to offer with its first football game of the brand new console generation.

So much more can be achieved now with the PS5 and Xbox Series X that was not previously possible with the last generation of consoles, and with multiple different factors working in Konami’s favour; PES 2022 could end up being a real shining example of what can now be achieved with sports games and what we should maybe expect to see from them moving forward.

Will PES 2022 be the best football game ever? That remains to be seen, but the signs are certainly strong and this feels like a real make or break year for Konami after prioritising their next-gen debut and releasing PES 2021 as a season update.

Much will be expected from Konami with PES 2022, there’s massive pressure on them to perform, but with all factors considered PES 2022 should in the very least end up being one of the best football games we’ve seen in a while.