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What were our favorites in each genre in 2012?

FIFA Soccer '13 - Winner

FIFA ’13 is the bar of excellence that every other sports franchise should aspire to reach. Refining old favorite features and a few significant additions easily made FIFA ’13 the year’s best sports game.

Online play, for one, has been refined with better match making and a better reward system than previous versions. Playing against an amazing player as a beginner is now less likely, although you should probably steer clear of online mode as long as you can wait, so that you won’t want to rage quit as much. Yet rage quitting is so much more frowned upon -- thankfully -- than in previous versions: in FIFA ’13, rage quitters do not gain any experience or coins that they would have from completing the match. Similarly, ultimate team players lose out on a game in their contracts. Plus, the player gets a loss anyway. As a player who saw many opponents of his friends rage quit and made his friends lose out on valuable experience, the improved online play is a welcome refinement.

With another year under its foot, the ultimate team has become a kind of a religion amongst hardcore footballers. FIFA has improved the auction process, particularly on the internet, where players can use a web browser to house and search for all of their auctioning needs. For those who don’t know about this feature, it turns Fifa into a kind of soccer card game, where you can open packs, trade cards, and either buy or sell cards as well. Each player’s value seems to more accurately reflect their real-world value in FIFA ’13, although meticulous auctioneers can still find great deals on the best players in the world.

Even with the great amount of care taken to existing features like these, EA listened to fans who clamored for even more improvements. Take tactical-free kicks for example. Many more options are now available to make free kicks more realistic, like dummy runs and creeping the wall. First touch controls on the ball have been added, a double-edged sword for players used to previous versions. Nevertheless, the realism and importance to the game cannot be overstated. Smart attacking physics also add an important level of play, which makes midfielders like Xavi or Ramires more useful. Players like these can always find or create an option at the attack, so skilled players will rarely be left without an offensive option for a goal. In fact, their great vision can often let a game turn into a beating.

Finally, it seems the fans have unanimously approved of the most important addition to FIFA ’13 -- skill games. Many a report on players becoming addicted to these skill games have been reported. Sad to say that it could become an epidemic. Leaderboards and their inclusion on the loading screen before games has made them eminently accessible, both a gift and a curse for addictive personalities. For new players, the many different skills can help a player become more comfortable quickly. For improving fans, coming back to the skills over a period of time can be surprising when seeing how well their skills have improved after a few short weeks.

As a parallel to these great passes, it is surprising to see how far EA has come in a matter of years. Hopefully they will be able to improve the few lagging issues that may still exist in the coming years, because they are very close to making a perfect FIFA.

Write-up by Patrick  Kijek

NBA 2K13 - Runner Up

NBA 2K is the only basketball game series to currently have an annual outing. Without a rival series to compete with, one could assume that 2K Sports would get lazy in development and make minimal improvements each year. This couldn’t be further from the truth as the NBA 2K games have made huge strides over the last few years. Each year the gameplay becomes more realistic, the graphics and player models get a nicer coat of polish, the commentary gets more dynamic, and the features keep expanding.

NBA 2K13’s in-game commentary is the truest testament to this year’s improvements. With the same commentary cast as previous entries, there is a huge focus on the tiny details. They go beyond simply listing player stats from previous seasons, and dive into discussions of the players' careers, personal history, and highlights of plays or events from the year before. Amar’e Stoudemire of the New York Knicks infamously injured his hand when he punched a fire extinguisher during the 2012 playoffs; the commentators in 2K13 jump on this discussion when playing as the Knicks. Even more impressive is the way conversations are seamlessly woven throughout the in-game conversations. Sometimes the commentator will mention a player’s history, then comment on the current game’s events, only to later continue the conversation and say something along the lines of “To continue what I was saying before…”. This attention to detail and realism makes NBA 2K one of the top sports games year after year.

The most notable improvement comes in the improved presentation and game modes. The My Career mode’s difficulty has been tweaked to be more accessible to the casual basketball fan, but still challenging and rewarding for the most hardcore. It also features more functionality to emulate the life of a basketball player off of the court. For the NBA Draft, you meet with various team General Managers, discuss your goals and desires in the NBA, and try to find the squad where you fit best. Once you’ve been drafted you can meet with the team GM at anytime to discuss team issues -- whether it be disagreeing with the Coach’s play style or requesting a trade. Beyond that, your fans and team chemistry change based on your on-court and off-court decisions. After each game you answer questions in a press conference that influence how your followers and teammates feel about you. You even have a Social Media feed where you can see tweets from fans showing what they like and dislike about your play style.

NBA 2K13 is an addicting and realistic game that somehow manages to get the one-up on the extremely impressing 2K12 entry. It’s no wonder why EA Sports surrendered its white flag to 2K Sports and have yet to emerge with a competing NBA title. 2K13 is the best basketball game ever made, and arguably one of the best sports games ever made.

Write-up by Vic Roman