Sports Gaming News Weekly Wrap-Up - Biggest Flaws of NHL 22, FIFA or EA - Who Needs it More?

Every Sunday, we will get you caught up on the sports gaming news you might have missed, during the busy week. This includes the latest videos from our content team and featured articles from the staff.

Sports Gaming News

• Hot Wheels Unleashed Free & Premium Content Coming Soon – Details, Trailers & Screenshots
• Football Manager 2022 Xbox Edition Features and Upgrades Revealed
• FIFA 22 Patch #2 Coming Soon – Patch Notes
• FIFA 22 Patch #2 Pitch Notes
• NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition Available Today, Exclusively on Apple Arcade
• NBA 2K22 Season 2 Build Your Empire Starts on October 22
• NBA NOW 22 Available Now on Mobile Devices
• Cricket 22 Video – New Gameplay Mechanics and Controls
• NBA 2K22 Patch 1.7 (PS5/Xbox Series X|S) & 1.5 (Xbox One/PS4) Available – Patch Notes
• F1 2021 After the Apex – Episode 2
• Man City, FC Barcelona, & More Pros to Compete in FIFA 22 Challenge Today at 2:00 PM ET
• Official Madden NFL 22 Roster Update For Week 7 Available – See the Changes Here
• WRC 10 October Update Available – Patch Notes and New Trailer
• Football Manager 2022 Beta Available Now
• Play F1 2021 Through the Weekend with Xbox Live Free Play Days
• NHL 22 Roster Update Available Today (10-21)
• Riders Republic Trial Allows 4 Hours of Play Time Through October 27
• Legend Bowl Adds Coach Mode in Latest Update
• Gran Turismo 7 Behind the Scenes Trailer – Automotive Culture

Operation Sports Videos

• NHL 22: The Five Biggest Flaws

EA Sports has delivered a solid iteration of NHL, and it has even made a solid transition to next-gen consoles. However, it has its flaws, and so here are five of the biggest ones that hold NHL 22 back this year.

Operation Sports Featured Articles

• Madden 22 NFL Scouting Update Review: Good Foundation but Not Worth the Wait

Madden franchise mode fans had to wait a couple months for the hotly anticipated Madden 22scouting update. This scouting feature is one that many of us have put a lot of hope into as we hunger for a franchise mode experience that taps back into the glory days of Madden‘s franchise mode — glory days that are many years in the past. The problem with announcing additions to a franchise mode in a sports video game and then asking your fans to wait for it is that it can often lead to inflated and unjustified expectations.

• The Ongoing Help Defense Saga in NBA 2K22 (Part 1)

At the end of September and rolling into October, an NBA 2K22 patch/update was instituted to mostly touch on elements not related to gameplay. However, one “fix” that was put in place had to do with how AI defenders would defend cutters coming out of the corners. This was put in place for the “comp” scene for the most part, but it seems to have had an impact on the NBA 2K22 help defense in some other ways that are at times confusing and negative.

• The Ongoing Help Defense Saga in NBA 2K22 (Part 2)

In part one of this two-part series, I went through why the patch was necessary and discussed game development a bit. In part two, I want to dive more into the patch itself and NBA 2K22 help defense as a whole.

First off, is this just a “bug” or not? This is a communication issue to some extent with the patch notes (or 2K simply does not know), but the change to how the AI helped from the opposite corner should not have led to the issues we’re now seeing with a general “stickiness” defenders have to players without the ball. Of course, game development being how it is, your one change can lead to 1,000 new issues, and so this change could just be a bug rather than “as designed” at this juncture.

• FIFA and EA: Who Needs Who More?

Once again, licenses are at the forefront of the virtual soccer discussion, but this time the ramifications could be significant. If you’re unaware, the licensing agreement between EA Sports and the FIFA organization recently expired. Instead of renewing it as EA has done in the past, they seem to have taken a more cautious approach to see if it’s even worth renewing it, especially since the rumored cost to renew is now beyond the old price of $150 million/year. That amount of money, even for a company as massive and a game as popular as FIFA, is nothing to sneeze at. While EA has and will certainly be able to afford this fee in the future, is it really worth it?

We’ll see you again next Sunday with more sports gaming news, videos and featured articles.