Zox, Author at VG Strategy

NCAA Football 14 Cover Vote Cheating

News came out of EA Sports’ NCAA Football 14 twitter account earlier today that voting irregularities a.k.a. cheating has taken place in the cover vote between Texas A&M’s Ryan Swope and Michigan’s Denard Robinson. Apparently some fans have taken the vote so seriously that they created thousands of fake FaceBook profiles to cast extra votes.

Apparently the event that trigger the investigation took place yesterday when Denard Robinson was leading by almost 7,000 votes. Within a matter of hours, that lead had been wiped out and Ryan Swope had taken over. An investigation into the matter by EA Sports apparently uncovered the fake profiles.

This certainly could have been avoided had EA Sports decided to use a different platform to host the voting. It is notoriously easy to manipulate FaceBook’s polling feature.

There is still no word on how exactly the fake voting impacted the standing or whether it was just on the Texas A&M’s side. Voting closes tomorrow and we’d expect to get an answer by then.

Who did you vote for? Let us know in the comments section.

Madden NFL 25 Release Date Confirmed

Madden NFL 25 will be available starting on August 27th, 2013 on the PlayStation 3 and the XBOX 360 game consoles. Most fans expected this year’s game to be titled Madden 14 but EA Sports had different things in mind and named the game Madden 25 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Madden NFL video game franchise.

Earlier in the week, our favorite Madden tips provider, Madden-School.com confirmed that we will indeed see Madden 25 on the last Tuesday in August. A few years back, it was common practice to release the NFL game around the 10th of the month or so. EA Sports decided to push the release date back in 2011 due to the NFL lockout and apparently liked the late August release date better as they have kept it there for the past 3 years.

EA Sports does run a program which they call “Season Ticket” which allows hardcore gamers the chances to get the game 3 days early in exchange for a $25 yearly subscription. If you can’t live without Madden, that is an option you may want to explore.

Demos for sports video games usually come out anywhere from 2 weeks to 1 month before the actually game. Look for the Madden 25 demo to make its way onto PSN and XBOX Live sometime in early August.

We do have a Madden 25 wishlist up on our forum so if you want to get your ideas in front of the game developers, feel free to leave your ideas.

Jadeveon Clowney Should Have 99 Rating in NCAA Football 14

South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney, the all but certain #1 overall NFL draft pick were he allowed to enter this year, deserves the elusive 99 overall rating in NCAA Football 14. On top of his mind boggling statistics and highlight clips from last year, the news came out today that the 6’6″ 275 pound defensive end also ran a 4.5 40 yard dash.

If players still in college were allowed to be on the cover, he would be as close to a sure thing as there is. Unfortunately, due to NCAA rules that can’t happen. Nonetheless, Clowney should be comparably more dominant in NCAA Football 14 than Demarcus Ware in Madden 25.

Even though the NCAA Football series does not come out with player names, look for #7 on South Carolina to be the most effective and highest rated defensive player over the last decade.

NCAA Football 14 comes out on July 9th, 2013. Ryan Swope and Denard Robinson are still battling it out via a fan vote to decide the cover athlete. Look for Jadeveon Clowney to grace the cover of NCAA Football 15.

Who else do you think deserves the 99 overall rating in NCAA 14? Let us know in the comments section.

Custom Playbooks Must Be Added To Madden 25 CCM

One of the biggest letdowns in Madden 13, outside of the non-existent import NCAA Football draft class feature, was the inability to use custom playbooks in connected careers mode. It seems the only reason it was left out was simply a lack of time. There is no such excuse with Madden 25 given that they have had an additional year now to develop it.

If EA Sports had to choose only one game mode to allow custom playbooks in, logically it would make the most sense to have custom playbooks in connected careers while leaving the feature out of regular ranked games. In regular ranked games, you have to play with a team that has a playbook built specifically for them. For example, the New England Patriots playbook takes advantage of the Patriots personnel while the formations and plays are, for the most part, realistic to what you’d see the Patriots run on any given Sunday.

That is not the case in connected careers mode. For example, that same Patriots team in a connected careers setting could be completely different 5 years in. Tom Brady and his wide receivers will have retired, you may have drafted a stud running back and have a terrible passing game. All of the sudden, you have an offense that is nothing like the Patriots playbook and doesn’t take advantage of their personnel at all. You may not be able to identify your offense with any specific team’s playbook at this point. This is where a custom playbook in Madden 25 connected careers would come in handy.

To be clear, we are not advocating getting rid of custom playbooks in regular ranked games. Instead we are arguing that it must be included in all games modes that Madden 25 has to offer. Most importantly, though, is connected careers.

The other 2 features that are essential to connected careers, are the ability to change playbooks without retiring your coach and the addition of a practice mode that will allow you to practice with your team more than 1 time per week.

If you agree with these ideas, hit the like, tweet, or +1 button below to show your support!

MLB 13 The Show Now Available

The wait is finally over! MLB 13 The Show is available in stores throughout North America. You can pick up a copy of The Show this year on both the PS Vita as well as the PlayStation 3. Those of you waiting to get the game on the upcoming PlayStation 4 will probably be disappointed. Nevertheless, look for MLB 14 The Show to be on the PlayStation 4 this time next year.

XBOX 360 fans still won’t be able to play the most popular baseball video game on the market. Instead they will have to settle for another year of the MLB 2K series which has been struggling recently. MLB 2K13 comes out today as well but there is still no indication that anything has been improved from last year’s version.

Andrew McCutcheon of the Pittsburgh Pirates will be on the cover of the United States version while Joey Bautista will grace the cover of the Canadian version.

Over the past few years MLB The Show has been one of the highest rated sports games by both the media as well as common fans and most pre-release reviews indicate that we should expect the same attention to detail in MLB 13 The Show.

What is the first thing you will test out when you get a copy of the game? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

NBA 2K13 Roster Update (Week 18) Available

2K Sports has released another roster update this week for NBA 2K13 that includes the addition of PG Patrick Beverly to the Houston Rockets as well as the return of veteran guard Derek Fisher making a return to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Former Syracuse standout and current Cavaliers point guard Dion Waiters received a 6 point increase from 71 overall to 77 overall. Other notable increases include Tony Parker going up to 87 overall while Ty Lawson and Stephen Curry are now rated as 85 overall guards.

There seems to be a bias toward adjusting ratings of guards while largely ignoring players at the power forward or center positions. Hopefully this trend will be reversed in future updates. Show the big guys some love!

Suns interim coach Lindsey Hunter is still not on the sidelines in NBA 2K13. There is no word yet on when we can expect that to take place.