Press Row Podcast

One of the busiest weeks for gaming news every year has come to a close for 2016. E3 and EA Play offered up a prime opportunity for publishers to reveal trailers and new features for their upcoming suite of games. In the case of EA Sports that meant info on a story mode for FIFA 17 and Franchise improvements for Madden NFL 17.

A new mountain sports game called Steep was revealed, a sequel to The Golf Club was announced, and Forza Horizon 3 debuted a trailer along with details on its feature set. Beyond just games Microsoft made the biggest news with the announcement of a new console that'll be out late 2017.

Bryan Wiedey and Rich Grisham get together in this episode of the Press Row Podcast presented by Hit The Pass to talk over reactions to everything that happened, the state of E3 and its accompanying press briefings, and whether sports video games can ever become successful in the world of eSports.

On the show this episode:

Bryan Wiedey (@pastapadre), Pastapadre/Hit The Pass/Sporting News
Rich Grisham (@richgrisham), Out of the Park Developments/Hit The Pass

Direct download: Press_Row_Podcast_Episode_180.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:39am EDT

Feature announcements for upcoming sports games are an annual tradition out of E3. This year EA Sports has revealed a major new mode for FIFA 17 and a bevy of improvements and additions for Franchise mode in Madden NFL 17. In this episode of the Press Row Podcast presented by Hit The Pass those announcements are covered with guests from the development teams of both games.

Up first from FIFA 17 are Matthew Prior and Aaron McHardy to discuss the just announced story mode "The Journey" and what the new Frostbite engine will mean for the game. Then Madden NFL 17 designer John White joins the show to go through what's new for Franchise mode this year, which includes a new way to play through games faster and a real-time score ticker.

On the show this episode:

Bryan Wiedey (@pastapadre), Pastapadre/Hit The Pass/Sporting News
Rich Grisham (@richgrisham), Out of the Park Developments/Hit The Pass
Matthew Prior, EA Sports
Aaron McHardy, EA Sports
John White (@EA_White), EA Sports

Send us your feedback! We love to hear from you. Do it one of these ways:
1) Follow the show on Twitter at @PressRowPodcast and @HitThePass and send us tweets
2) Email the show at PressRowPodcast@Gmail.com

Direct download: Press_Row_Podcast_Episode_179.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:24pm EDT

Take a look at wishlists for almost any annualized sports game and you'll see fans requesting changes to commentary. It's an area of the video games that is one of the most difficult to reproduce from actual televised broadcasts. Once a commentary team is in place developers hesitate to make major changes, as the audio libraries continue to build year-by-year and priorities inevitably are directed elsewhere. Scrapping and starting over is rare.

The Madden NFL series is one of the few that has done so however - and multiple times in the last decade. The latest is about to take place as Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis will be replacing Jim Nantz and Phil Simms with Madden NFL 17.

Rich Grisham interviews Gaudin and Davis, along with Madden producer Christian McLeod, in this episode of the Press Row Podcast presented by Hit The Pass. The group discusses everything from how the antiquated commentary system has been "blown up" for Madden 17, why Gaudin and Davis were selected for their respective positions in the booth, how commentary may differ from mode-to-mode, examples of some bizarre lines they've had to record, and the work that will be done regularly during the season to update commentary.

On the show this episode:

Rich Grisham (@richgrisham), Out of the Park Developments/Hit The Pass
Charles Davis (@CFD22), Fox Sports/NFL Network
Brandon Gaudin (@BrandonGaudin), Georgia Tech/Westwood One/Turner
Christian McLeod (@CMcLeod_EA), EA Sports

Send us your feedback! We love to hear from you. Do it one of these ways:
1) Follow the show on Twitter at @PressRowPodcast and @HitThePass and send us tweets
2) Email the show at PressRowPodcast@Gmail.com

Direct download: Press_Row_Podcast_Episode_178.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:49am EDT

While basketball fans may be excited that NBA 2K17 will be out earlier than ever before with its move up to mid-September, it only further compresses the window where the majority of the sports games for the year are released. Within a four week span, six major sports games will go out, and there may be even others still yet to be announced.

In this episode of the Press Row Podcast presented by Hit the Pass, the discussion centers on what has led to this situation coming about, how it affects publishers and consumers, whether it's unhealthy for the sports gaming genre going forward, and how it could possibly be fixed.

On the show this episode:

Bryan Wiedey (@pastapadre), Pastapadre/Sporting News/Hit The Pass
Rich Grisham (@richgrisham), Out of the Park Developments/Hit The Pass
Owen Good (@owengood), Polygon

Send us your feedback! We love to hear from you. Do it one of these ways:
1) Follow the show on Twitter at @PressRowPodcast and @HitThePass and send us tweets
2) Email the show at PressRowPodcast@Gmail.com

Direct download: Press_Row_Podcast_Episode_177.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:32am EDT

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