NBA 2K10 Trailer

You know you’ve reached the dog days of the offseason when Greg Ostertag’s possible return to the NBA is the top story going around. To help cure your boredom, here is the official trailer for NBA 2K10.

Madden NFL 10 Review

In honor of the start of hut hut season, I’ve been playing a lot of Madden NFL 10 for my PS3 (actually the main reason I’ve been playing it is because EA sent me a copy to review!). As usual, its a great game and just as fun as when I first played Madden back in 1992 or 1993 (except there is no Thurman Thomas in it that you can a run a Halfback Swing Right play for and get a guaranteed touchdown).

If you’ve played the recent incarnations of Madden this game doesn’t offer any monumental changes – including the Madden curse, as co-cover star Troy Polamalu found out in Week 1. One change is the Pro-Take animation, that allows you to control the movement of players in gang tackles and fumbles. I really enjoy that the game constantly rates your skill levels and adjusts the difficulty of the game to coincide with your increasing (or decreasing) grasp of the game. The graphics are stunning and the audio is great, except, like in real life, there isn’t a whole lot of John Madden announcing anymore.

Of course the game offers an extensive online experience, with online leagues and the ability to update rosters (if you feel the need to have Mr. Dog Killer or The Wrangler Man in your game). All in all Madden is a very enjoyable, easy to play, and addictive game. In fact I find myself playing it instead of watching the NFL on TV, but I do kind of live in a fantasy world anyway, so that’s par for the course.

Grab the game here:

NBA 2K10: Draft Combine Review

I finally got a chance to play the much anticipated NBA 2K10: Draft Combine over the weekend. This game is a dream come true for basketball junkies craving some hoops action in the offseason. But you better have thick skin – from playing it I learned that Derrick Rose is a very mean man – he wouldn’t stop yelling at me about how bad I was playing. You try being a 6’6″ power forward from Canada trying to make it in the NBA, Mr. Rose!! In all seriousness, Draft Combine is a fun game, but you have to remember that it only costs $5 before you get too disappointed with it – the game is short, hearing the same couple of songs is annoying and the camera angles can be frustrating. But like I said, it only costs you $5.

The concept of the game is very straighforward – create a player, perform drills to improve your attribute ratings and play in 5-on-5 scrimmages where you are given tasks to perform to raise your draft stock and increase your player rating. Like I mentioned above, the game is short – you only get to play six games before it is over, and you can only create and save one player. But once the real 2K10 comes out on October 6th you can upload your create draft prospect and play him in the real game. There is also online capability, so you can take your created player online to play against other people’s creations. (something I won’t be doing since my player sucks). The whole premise of it is real intriguing and something I’d love to see 2K Sports expand on in the future. Consider it an inexpensive, sneak peak/demo of the upcoming NBA 2K10 game. The game is download only, so go to XBox LIVE Arcade or the PlayStation Network to get it.

NBA 2K10 & Draft Combine Trailers

2K Sports recently released a trailer for the upcoming NBA 2K10 game, featuring my very favourite person in the whole wide world, Kobe Bean Bryant! Also, NBA 2K10: Draft Combine dropped today for the XBox (us PS3 users have to wait until Sept 3rd to get our hands on it) so I’ve included an extensive trailer for that also. Enjoy!

NBA 2K10: Draft Combine Trailer

2K Sports recently released a trailer for NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, which I wrote about a while back. Here is a small taste of what they have in store for us when the game drops in a couple of weeks.

Button Mashing of the Future

Since we’re on a bit of a video game kick, lets continue with some news of a couple of upcoming games that are of interest to The Hoops Manifesto – NBA 2K10 and EA Sports: MMA.

First, some exciting news from our good friends at 2K Sports – NBA 2K10: Draft Combine. Rather than summarize it for you, here it is straight from the horse’s mouth. This press release was sent to me by 2K Sports:

2K Sports Announces NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, a Totally New Downloadable Game Experience

Get a taste of NBA 2K10’s all-new gameplay and My Player career mode while living the life of an NBA hopeful going through the real NBA Draft Combine.

New York, NY – July 28, 2009 – 2K Sports today announced NBA® 2K10: Draft Combine, a download-only title that will provide pre-season fun for basketball fans leading up to the fall launch of NBA 2K10. Planned for release this September on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®Network for PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system,, NBA 2K10: Draft Combine will allow fans to create their own custom player with the utmost detail and, for the first time in the NBA 2K series, begin their career by experiencing the on-court life of an NBA hopeful going through the NBA Draft Combine at the world-renowned, ATTACK Athletics gym in Chicago.

“We’re giving our dedicated NBA 2K fans an incredible opportunity with NBA 2K10: Draft Combine,” said Greg Thomas, senior vice president of sports development for 2K. “Gamers will have exclusive access to online content and get to test drive NBA 2K10’s new gameplay features, advanced player progression system and the all-new My Player career mode before the game launches this fall.”

Features of NBA 2K10: Draft Combine include:

· Building custom players by working with a mentor, the 2K Insider, and increasing their NBA stock through a variety of challenging basketball drills and 5-on-5 games.

· Over 300 different signature customizations, including player-specific shooting animations, dunk and dribble packages and more to allow each created player to have his own unique personal style.

· Ability to strengthen all parts of the created player’s game with a variety of drills, such as shooting, post offense and defense, attacking the basket, dribbling, challenging shots, boxing out for rebounds and more to progress through the NBA Draft Combine.

· Organized games that will allow players to gain valuable skill points and offer a variety of specific in-game objectives that will need to be accomplished in order to gain them. At the end of each game, a full analysis will be available for gamers to review their player’s performance and strategize their further improvement.

· All players created in NBA 2K10: Draft Combine will wear a special patch on their uniform throughout the rest of that player’s career to denote that they have completed the NBA Draft Combine.

· Online leaderboards to track the highest ranking custom built players, and where a player stacks up against the competition.

· Opportunity to unlock special achievements on Xbox 360 and trophies for PLAYSTATION 3 system.

· Fans can take their custom built players from NBA 2K10: Draft Combine and use them in the all-new My Player career mode in NBA 2K10 launching this fall, allowing them to continue their journey of becoming an NBA legend.

NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, developed by Visual Concepts, is planned for release in North America, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and India this September on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 (400 Microsoft Points) and PlayStation Network for PLAYSTATION 3 system ($4.99). For more information about NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, please visit www.2ksports.com/games/nba2k10dc.

Obviously that is very exciting news for hoopheads, video game addicts and draftniks like yours truly. The Hoops Manifesto will be all over this on its release and will give you a full review of it.

Also announced this week was some more news on EA Sports: MMA, which is scheduled to drop in 2010. Among the announced fighters for it are Fedor Emelianeko and Randy Couture, but with no UFC fighters on the roster, will the average fan be interested in buying it (especially considering how good a game UFC Undisputed is)?

If you can’t wait for either game to drop, here are links to the pre-orders:

Pre-order NBA 2K10 Here

Pre-order EA Sports: MMA Here

Tiger Wood PGA Tour 10 Review

I suck at putting. Not real-life putting – I haven’t played real golf in over a decade, and I’m decent enough at the mini variety. No, I suck at virtual putting. And to add insult to my injury, the announce team in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 like to remind me of this fact.

My three and four-putt woes are in no ways a fault of the game, as the new “precision putting” feature, where you use the same putter regardless of the distance of the putt, is pretty easy to use. You basically line up your putt and pull back on the joystick to hit the ball. My main problem is that I rush through it and don’t take enough time lining things up. My lack of patience is probably why I don’t have any desire to play real golf either.

If you’ve played past incarnations of the Tiger Woods game you know what to expect – there aren’t a whole lot of massive changes to this year’s game. Now, I reviewed the game on the PS3 so I can’t comment on the Wii version of it (unless Nintendo wants to send me a free Wii system of course – holler at me Nintendo!). Most of the major changes this year for the XBox/PS3 version take place online, where you can play live tournaments with real-time weather conditions and even play real-world tournaments as they happen, matching up your scores with the pros. The U.S. Open at Bethpage Black is one of six new courses in the game, bringing the total number of different links up to 16. Another fun feature is the “dynamic attributes” of your created golfer. Depending on how you do during a round, your various skills will increase or decline. And Tiger’s long-time coach Hank Haney is in the game to give you drills to improve your skills.

The actual gameplay is pretty easy and intuitive, and with four different difficulty levels it is easy for anyone to pick it up and master it pretty quickly. The game pretty much offers all that you could hope for in a golf game. But, with that being said, it still is just a golf game, so non-golf fans might get bored with it pretty quick. As an added bonus, if you buy the game you’ll get a free subscription to Golf World or Golf Digest magazines (unless you live outside of the U.S. like me).

Now, excuse me while I go and practice my putting so announcer Scott Van Pelt stops making fun of me.

Buy it here:

My fellow Canadians can get it here:

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Fight Night Round 4 Review

I stopped being a boxing fan quite a few years ago. I enjoyed the sport back in the days when every Mike Tyson PPV was an event due to his boxing, and not biting, skills. Plus when my hometown hero Lennox Lewis ruled the roost I obviously paid attention. But the million different title holders in a million different weight classes and the rise of MMA pretty much squashed any enthusiasm I had for the sweet science.

So it was with a little trepidation that I popped in a copy of Fight Night Round 4 on my PS3 to review. The fact that I love the UFC Undisputed game made me even more doubtful that Fight Night would be able to hold my attention for long. As is usually the case, my concerns were unnecessary. Surprisingly, I love Fight Night as much as I love UFC Undisputed, perhaps even more. When I played an earlier version of the game years ago I found it difficult to master using the joystick on the controller to throw punches. Now it seems so natural, I can’t imagine button mashing instead. You want to throw a right jab, you push the controller up and to the right. A right hook, you hook the joystick up and to the right. Pretty simple stuff.

While the graphics aren’t as good as UFC Undisputed, they aren’t bad either. Most of the classic fighters that are in the game look pretty realistic, and if you want to create your own fighter you can even upload photos onto the game – nice touch. As you probably know if you’ve seen the commercials (or from the box for the game) Fight Night allows you to do “dream matchups” pitting some of the sports legends against one another, regardless of weight class or era. So if you’ve always wondered who would win, Tyson or Ali, you can now find out (sort of, in a virtual way).

My favourite part of the game is the legacy mode, where you create your own fighter and try to rise through the ranks to become a champion. Or if you can’t be bothered to create your own pugilist, you can use one of the legends in the game, with their skills stripped down, and try to bring them back to the top.

After playing Fight Night Round 4 for a while you will feel like you’ve actually boxed for 10 rounds. My eyes are bleary and my thumb sore as I attempt to write this post.

Grab yourself a copy here:

Amazon.com – PS3: Fight Night: Round 4

Amazon.com – XBox: Fight Night: Round 4

Amazon.ca – PS3: Fight Night Round 4

Amazon.ca – XBox: Fight Night Round 4

New Items Marked Down! Shop the UFC Sale

MMA Manifesto – UFC Undisputed Review

Forgive me if you’ve heard this before, but it must be said again – UFC UNDISPUTED IS A FANTASTIC VIDEO GAME. In fact, it is the best fighting game I’ve ever played and one of the best sports games I’ve had the pleasure of bashing the buttons to.

What makes the game so fantastic is the realistic way that it portrays MMA. A large part of that is due to the graphics, which are stunning. All your favourite fighters are rendered true to life, right down to the tattoos and cauliflower ears. Mike Goldberg, Joe Rogan and Bruce Buffer are all along for the ride, so the audio is true to life also. And, most importantly, the action is about as realistic as you can get, without actually getting your face punched or kicked in. Of course there’s blood and cuts and contusions, and the knockouts are as gruesome as they are in real life, with limp, twisted bodies hitting the canvas. Transitions, clinching, striking and submissions are just as realistically rendered and fairly easy to pull off and get the hang off. But, like in real life, it’s the knockouts that are the real seller here.

While most of the big name UFC fighters are in the game (as well as some surprise additions like Tito Ortiz and Andrei Arlovski), the career mode is the feature of the game you’ll probably get the most enjoyment out of. You create your own fighter, decide on what disciplines he will specialize in, and then hop into the Octagon and fight your way up the ranks until you get a title shot.

Of the top of my head, there really isn’t anything wrong or needs improving in the game – it is about the best representation of MMA that a video game is capable of at this point in time (I’m sure after a couple of more years of innovation this game will look archaic). UFC Undisputed is an addictive game – the type of game that you can pop in one evening and before you know it the sun has come up the next morning (or so I’ve been told). And of course I’d want my faithful readers to become addicts also, so I’ve included helpful links below to go and grab a fix yourself.

Amazon.ca – PS3: UFC 2009: Undisputed

Amazon.ca – XBox: UFC 2009: Undisputed

Amazon.com – PS3: UFC 2009 Undisputed

Amazon.com – XBox: UFC 2009 Undisputed