Sport

It's commonly known that sports games are released every year and even though they provide a solid and realistic experience, they don't improve much over the last iteration. The NBA 2K series is no different but this doesn't seem to be a bad thing, rather than re-invent the wheel 2K Games have decided to make slight improvements, everything that made NBA 2K13 great has been improved.

For baseball nerds like myself, there's nothing better than spring. Fresh batches of rookies, big stars on new squads, the inevitable, if completely misguided, World Series dream of every player and fan... and of course, the arrival of the latest Out of the Park Baseball award-winning sports simulation series. And this year's edition - the 15th - is undeniably the best yet, despite what initially looks and feels like an incremental improvement over OOTP 14. As it always is in baseball, the devil is in the details - and those who've played OOTP know just how ...

Racing games can generally be played in a variety of ways. While those that love Gran Turismo the most might play it as a simulator, it's just as easy to experience it as some approximation of Mario Kart, crashing into other vehicles on long bends or swinging onto the grass when necessary. NASCAR '14 is all about tight lines and clever driving, a fact that makes it both very playable and undoubtedly niche.

Trials Fusion is the newest title in the physics-defying bike series. In this game, you have to earn medals across a variety of tracks. You earn the medals through completing these stages in a certain time, and beneath a certain crashes. If you're worried about crashing, there are a lot of checkpoints throughout, which you'll soon find are very much needed. The game gets quite difficult at the end, and earning enough medals for the next series of courses might become a struggle.

It has been a long wait. It seems like years since we received our first screens, months since that detailed, energetic Nintendo Direct... Now, it will only be a little over a week before we can all play it. It's almost Mario Kart time, and it just cannot seem to come fast enough. I had zero desire to sit down and write this up. I don't want to tell you about Mario Kart, I don't want to discuss Mario Kart, and I definitely don't want to waste valuable time editing anything about Mario Kart.

Mario and friends have been absent from the golf course since 2004. 10 years later, however, the gang is back at it. This time, your Mii is invited! Mario Golf World Tour takes everything that is good about the Mario Golf franchise and takes it to a new level.

Old-timey PC gamers might recall a game from the 80's called Shufflepuck Cafe, a science-fiction air-hockey sim with overt influences from Star Wars. The new PC game Shufflepuck Cantina Deluxe takes the same concept and allows modern gamers to experience the exotic thrills of Air Hockey... IN SPAAAAAACE!

The annual release of sport games for EA continues with the latest entry in the commercially successful Fifa franchise, Fifa 14. The sports title, developed by EA Canada, continues the series’ habit of providing solid, and addicting virtual soccer experiences that offer the closest thing to actually attending, or participating in a real live match. The franchise has ensconced itself pretty comfortably as the go-to sports video game for the majority of consumers. With Konami’s PES franchise lacking significant licensing prowess and marketing appeal, Fifa has ...

Ridge Racer 3D - now over a couple of years old - is staunch reminder of two things. First, arcade racers are awesome. More titles should drop the realism and rap music of recent racing titles and should instead employ someone to shout down the speakers at you.

While EA has cornered the market on NFL games (by default, really), 2K has appeared to do the same with NBA sports simulations. While publisher Take-Two Interactive has been accused of just releasing roster updates with these annual releases, their series has been known to take risks and tweak major gameplay elements on occasion. NBA 2K14 continues this tradition to a degree, but it's not as crafted and accessible as it should be.