Madden Predicts the Super Bowl, and Everything Else You Missed in Sports Games This Week

We’ve got patches, “free” games, and updates on future titles to go through today. While there is no massive piece of news this week, there is actually plenty to recap from the week that was.

It’s also Wild Card Weekend in the NFL (along with coach firings galore), and this means football is front and center for a lot of the video game news.

For those who want to read any premium newsletters, you can do so with the 30-day free trial. We talked about the “non-negotiables” for various franchise modes in this week’s edition.

If you want to hang with your fellow OSers, join the OS Discord. If you sign-up for the premium newsletter, send a direct message to either Rob S (thekernelpop) or ChaseB (chucklesbiscotti) on Discord, and either one of us will add you to the extra Supporters area on Discord, and we have a snazzy role and badge to give you on there, too.

We also have an official OS app! You can download it now on Google Play and iOS. We have put out multiple updates the past couple weeks. We also have a survey up now if you want to give feedback on the app.

Finally, we’re running a giveaway with the prize being a 12-month subscription to PlayStation Plus. You can enter up until January 24.

FOOBAWWWWWW

Since it is the start of the playoffs, of course it’s tradition to let Madden simulate the NFL Playoffs. I would say how the simulation ended up would be one of the more shocking Super Bowls results — even in this weird year where every team is flawed.

I think you can make the case for just about anyone not named the Steelers to come out of the AFC, but the idea that the Chargers would not find a way to miss a kick or get four more offensive line injuries is a little hard for me to fathom.

On the other side, I don’t put much past either the Eagles or Seahawks defenses, but unless the Eagles magically get better playcalling and their running game back on track, it’s hard for me to see them getting out of there when the NFC is way more stacked with quality all-around squads.

However, it’s about playbooks and personnel in Madden more than anything, so it tracks that the Birds get back to the big game. For the record, the 7-seed Chargers body the Birds and take home the title to right the wrongs of the Natrone Means era.

There is also a small patch that hit Madden this week:

On the gameplay side, it just fixed up a couple exploits people were abusing online, but this was more a cosmetic and abilities patch — the F7 Pro Helmet along with new F7 Pro facemask options are available now.

If you want to play Madden for free (well, “free”), then you can play it through Amazon Luna for a month between January 10-February 10 if you’re a Prime member. Luna is a cloud gaming service so you need good internet, and you’ll need to use your own controllers (or phone if you’re insane) to play them.

Among other “free” games, Need for Speed Unbound is on PlayStation Plus as of this week. This version of NFS has not been updated in years at this point, so I’m a little surprised it’s just now getting to a PS Plus service (albeit, it was on EA’s monthly service well before this).

Looking beyond Madden and free games, Spear Interactive released a bunch of development updates for Varsity High School Football:

Those interested in joining the playtest can sign up and back the project through Patreon. The full release is planned for Xbox and PlayStation, but testing is currently limited to PC on Steam, and that includes this playtest.

Other Patches

EA Sports FC 26 also has lengthy patch notes out for its latest update. Here is their breakdown of how AI defending will be altered:

There are other changes for FUT, career mode, Clubs, and the PC performance of the game as well.

NBA 2K26 got a new patch this week, too. It is full of cosmetics and likeness changes as always, but not a ton of tangible changes on the court otherwise:

• Hair Dynamics Updates

  • Jae Crowder

  • Alyssa Thomas

• General Hairstyle or Likeness Updates

  • Devin Booker

  • Christian Braun

  • Taylor Hendricks

  • Tyler Herro

  • Kyle Kuzma

  • Jared McCain

  • Jamal Murray

  • Josh Okogie

  • Gui Santos

  • Marcus Smart

  • Jabari Smith Jr.

  • Klay Thompson

New Games Coming

The biggest release coming out in the next month is Mario Tennis Fever. The last couple releases have not hit the highs of the first couple versions back in the day, but it’s still been a fun game to play online (when it works).

A bunch of new racket types is the biggest gameplay addition coming to the game. The rackets will do different things on the court, and so this is their way to try and keep gameplay fresh by essentially having different power-ups/loadouts.

I’ll always be there to scope these games out, so I’m looking forward to its February 12 release date.

The other sports game coming soon is Speedball. It has been in early access before this, but now will launch on Xbox, PS5, and PC on January 27. Speedball has been kicking around in early access for years, so it is a big moment for the game.

The best comparison for it is basically full-contact handball, and it’s available on Steam right now.

On The Horizon (Rumors)

Finally, a couple tidbits that are firmly in the rumor mill for now. WWE purchased AAA in the recent past, so it makes sense there are leaks already coming out that AAA wrestlers are coming to WWE 2K26. There are also some women’s wrestlers among the rumored roster leaks.

Finally, the end of this month holds perhaps the most interesting reveal to come. Forza Horizon 6 is still in development, and there is an Xbox Developers Direct on January 22 that will supposedly have new info about that racing game.

Horizon 5 was a massive game for Xbox, so one could argue this is one of the biggest games Microsoft has to offer right now. We should get our first look at the gameplay and how Japan is looking at this Direct.

Until next time y’all. And, as always, thanks for reading.

-Chase