Catching up with the latest highlights, listening to a bi-weekly podcast about your favorite sports team, and playing twice a week at an amateur level is not enough for you?
Fear not, you’re not alone, and you’re certainly not weird; you’re just one of the hundreds of millions of sports fanatics dotted around the planet.
If you’re looking to fill a sporting craving, there’s nothing better than a great, AAA sports-based Xbox game. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best sporting titles on the platform to enjoy this year; read on to find out what they are.
PGA Tour 2K23
For those of us of a certain age, when we think of golf games, our minds either jump instinctively to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 or Wii Golf. Things have come on since then, PGA Tour 2K23 is the latest installment of the annual PGA Tour series, and it is a superb game.
Featuring a truly immersive and in-depth career mode in which you can create your own pro and guide them from obscurity to superstardom, PGA Tour 2K23 also features the best graphics of any golf game on the market.
Enhanced ball physics and an increased roster of licensed players and courses make this the ideal game to get you in the mood for the 2023 Masters – the latest Masters odds closely reflect the rating of each player within the game, highlighting just how much research goes into the creation of it.
(Everything you need to know before teeing off on PGA Tour 2K23.)
MLB The Show 23
North American sports fans know that the best sports games made tend to be baseball-inspired, which makes the annual release of MLB The Show a hotly anticipated event. Depending on when you’re reading this article, the game may or may not be released yet.
If it is, head straight on over to your Xbox Game Pass and download the game, where it is free at no extra cost to subscribers for a third year running. As well as packing in all the features that fans have come to love in recent years, this latest iteration of the game will include Storyline: A New Game Experience.
This mode will feature the Negro Leagues of the early to mid-20th century, which were set up to segregate white players from African-Americans. In featuring this mode of MLB, The Show 23 will pay homage to some of the game’s great, forgotten players like Jackie Robinson, Buck O’Neil, and Satchell Page.
(The Negro Leagues feature allows baseball fans to explore some of the game’s forgotten superstars.)
FIFA 23
Every year soccer fans complain about FIFA, and every year they rush to the store to buy the latest release from EA Sports.
This year the game was somewhat of a collector’s edition, with a licensing row with the world’s governing body FIFA meaning the game will be rather annoyingly branded EA Sports FC next season.
In recent years the FIFA series has been criticized for not updating its offering to fans and for releasing each year with the same bugs and issues that had plagued previous incarnations of the game.
This year it seems as though the developers have listened to fans, as FIFA 23 has been the most playable and enjoyable game in the series for years. Updated impact physics adds an element of realistic chaos, making the game feel less formulaic than before.
In addition to that, players can now enjoy the top tiers of women’s football in England and France, which is a welcome addition.
(The inclusion of the WSL and Division 1 Feminine are welcome inclusions in FIFA 23.)
Madden 23
Whilst there is not too long to wait for the latest release of MLB The Show, football fans will have to wait until later in the year for Madden 24. In the meantime, though, there’s nothing wrong with making do with Madden 23.
Released late last year, the most up-to-date version of the series features the best gaming mechanics so far and, fortunately for our eyes, has an updated color scheme. In homage to the game’s twentieth anniversary, Madden 23 features the man it was named after on the cover and opened with a historic NFL Legacy Game.
Taking on board criticisms about previous year’s releases, Madden 23 focuses more on the on-field action than ever before, and the result, whilst not groundbreaking, is refreshing and results in a Madden game that, for the first time in years, is fun and engaging to play.
(The legacy John Madden game that pays homage to the legend himself.)