Tag: prizes
How to Vote for the Best Sports Game of All Time and Win Prizes!
Sports gamers unite! It’s time to vote in IGN’s Best Sports Video Games Showdown Contest! We’ve created a seeded, elimination tournament featuring the 32 greatest sports video games of all-time across four ultra-competitive regions: Traditional Sports; Arcade Sports; Racing/Fighting; and Wildcard.
Fan Voting: March 29th 10am PT to April 13th 12am PT
Want a chance to win a $100 to the digital games store of your choice? Visit https://bestsportsgame.ign.com/ between March 29th 10am PT – April 13th 12am PT and make your predictions on which sports video game will win each bracket matchup. Ten (10) people who enter will win a $100 gift card to the digital games store of their choice. Visit https://bestsportsgame.ign.com/ for sweepstakes details.
Relevant Dates:
- Giveaway Entry Period: March 29th 10am PT – April 13th 12am PT
- Round 1 “Round of 32” Fan Voting: March 29th 10am PT to March 30th 10am PT
- Round 2 “Sweet 16” Fan Voting: March 31st 10am PT to April 1st 10am PT
- Round 3 “Elite 8” Fan Voting: April 5th 10am PT to April 6th 10am PT
- Round 4 “Final 4” Fan Voting: April 10th 10am PT to April 11th 10am PT
- Round 5 “Championship” Fan Voting: April 12th 10am PT to April 13th 10am PT
- Winner Revealed: April 15th at 11:59pm PT
Now onto the regions…
REGION 1: TRADITIONAL SPORTS GAME
Region 1 pits traditional sports titles against one another. These simulation-style games aim to replicate their real-life counterparts, and tend to target hardcore sports fans.
Madden 2005 (2004)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1988-Present
IGN Score: 9.5
IGN Review Blurb: “The defensive improvements alone are worth the price of admission.”
NFL 2K5 (2004)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1999-2004
IGN Score: 9.3
IGN Review Blurb: “This game rivals Madden in every way and surpasses it in feature set.”
FIFA Soccer 12 (2011)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1993-Present
IGN Score: 9.5
IGN Review Blurb: “Matches unfold with a more authentic tempo, taking it much closer to the real thing.”
PES 2016 (2015)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1995-Present (as eFootball)
IGN Score: 9.5
IGN Review Blurb: “I can’t remember ever being so consistently thrilled, surprised and delighted by a football game before.”
NBA 2K14 (2013)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1999-Present
IGN Score: 9.3
IGN Review Blurb: “A smooth-flowing piece of pro basketball simulation.”
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (2003)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1990-2015
IGN Score: 9.1
IGN Review Blurb: “One of the best multiplayer titles around.”
MVP Baseball 2005 (2005)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1995-2002 (as Triple Play); 2003-2007
IGN Score: 9.2
IGN Review Blurb: “MVP 2005 delivers the best baseball experience on the market today.”
MLB The Show ’21 (2021)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2006-Present
IGN Score: 8.0
IGN Review Blurb: “The best baseball sim you can play on any platform.“
REGION 2: ARCADE SPORTS GAME
Region 2 is comprised of arcade-style games that tend to put a spin on real sports. They boast a pick-up-and-play style unlike their more traditional counterparts.
NBA Jam Tournament Edition (1995)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1993-2011
IGN Score: 6.5
IGN Review Blurb: “The action is fast paced and intense, and by keeping the court limited to four players, the ball moves around quite a bit. Perhaps the title’s best aspect is its simplicity in game design — just grab that ball and sink it!”
Golden Tee Golf (1989)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1989-Present
IGN Score: N/A
NHL ’94 (1993)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1991-Present
IGN Score: N/A
Tecmo Super Bowl (1991)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1987-2008
IGN Score: N/A
Mario Golf World Tour (2014)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1999-2021
IGN Score: 8.6
IGN Review Blurb: “Mario Golf strikes an excellent balance of risk and reward.”
Mario Tennis Aces (2018)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2000-2018
IGN Score: 7.5
IGN Review Blurb: “Colorful and dazzling to look at and smartly balanced in its back-and-forth play.”
NBA Street Vol. 2 (2003)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2001-2007
IGN Score: 9.4
IGN Review Blurb: “More dunks, more players, more moves, more music and a lot more street.”
NFL Blitz: The League II (2008)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2008-2012
IGN Score: 5.5
IGN Review Blurb: “The League II brings many of the same conventions as the first with Clash and Unleashed moves becoming available for positive yardage and good plays on defense.”
REGION 3: RACING/FIGHTING SPORTS GAME
Region 3 features racing and fighting games. These eight boast white-knuckle, high-octane action on the road or fierce fisticuffs in the ring.
Forza Horizon 5 (2021)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2012-2021
IGN Score: 10
IGN Review Blurb: “A deep and nuanced car nirvana for revheads and auto geeks.”
Forza Motorsport (2005)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2005-Present
IGN Score: 9.2
IGN Review Blurb: “Forza is a force to be reckoned with, out-maneuvering ‘GT4′ in several respects, and beating out everything else in the sim department.”
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (2001)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1997-Present
IGN Score: 9.8
IGN Review Blurb: “The finest racing, the best cars and the highest-quality automotive audio-visual feast available on any gaming system anywhere.”
F1 2010 (2010)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2000-Present
IGN Score: 8.5
IGN Review Blurb: “As visceral a take on the art of threading 600bhp through less than half a tonnes’ worth of steel, carbon fiber and rubber as a console’s ever seen.”
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2010- Present
IGN Score: 9.0
IGN Review Blurb: “It completely embraces that spirit of adolescent madness and just runs with it.”
UFC Undisputed 3 (2012)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2009-2012
IGN Score: 9.0
IGN Review Blurb: “The sheer amount of new content in UFC Undisputed 3 is staggering.”
Punch-Out!! (2009)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1984-2009
IGN Score: 8.8
IGN Review Blurb: “Little Mac comes out of retirement to give Wii owners something that’s both familiar and fresh.”
Fight Night Round 4 (2009)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2004-2011
IGN Score: 8.8
IGN Review Blurb: “The champ has returned to reclaim the title.”
REGION 4: EXTREME SPORTS / WILDCARD GAME
Region 4 is loaded with games beyond simple categorization. It’s a high-adrenaline grab bag of extreme sports, management sims, and more.
Mario Kart 8 (2014)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1992-Present
IGN Score: 9.3
IGN Review Blurb: “The best kart racing game Nintendo has made in a long time.”
Wii Sports (2006)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2006-Present
IGN Score: 8.4
IGN Review Blurb: “It’s probably the most fun you and a bunch of friends are going to have around a console”
Rocket League (2015)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2015-Present
IGN Score: 8.0
IGN Review Blurb: “A rare example where the execution of a simple, absurd idea is so strong and so engaging that it doesn’t need a ton of extra features around it.”
Football Manager ’23 (2022)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2004-Present
IGN Score: N/A
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (2000)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1999-2020
IGN Score: 9.3
IGN Review Blurb: “One of the best games to ever grace this or any console.”
WWE No Mercy (2000)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 1999-2012
IGN Score: 9.0
IGN Review Blurb: “A terrific game from top to bottom.”
Skate 3 (2010)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2007-2010
IGN Score: 8.0
IGN Review Blurb: “Still the most impressive virtual representation of skateboarding around.”
SSX Tricky (2001)
Franchise’s Lifespan: 2000-2012
IGN Score: 9.0
IGN Review Blurb: “Tricky’s stylized distortion of reality for the sake of fun is what videogames are supposed to be about.”
Adverstisement by The U.S. ARMY
Want to Win $2,000 in Prizes? Join IGN’s Ultimate Sports Gaming Showdown Contest, Pick the Winners and Take Home Prizes
When it comes to debating the Greatest of All Time, no one’s more spirited than sports fans. And when it comes to naming the G.O.A.T. of sports video games you won’t find a more passionate, opinionated audience than sports gamers.
That’s why IGN partnered with the U.S. Army for the Best Sports Video Games Showdown that kicks off with an epic bracket featuring 32 sports video games divided into four ultra-competitive brackets.
Between March 24th and March 28th, we’ll invite IGN fans to select their guesses for each phase of the bracket with the hopes of correctly selecting the greatest sports video game.
The best part? You can walk away as the grand prize winner if you manage to correctly predict how the fan-voted bracket unfolds. Be All You Can Be and put your prediction skills to the test.
To make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to win big – keep reading for details on how to enter. And if you want to know why we chose the games featured in this bracket, tune into ign.com and youtube.com/ign to watch our bracket livestream on March 27th at 10:00am PT.
Sign Up for the Contest and Win Big
Be All You Can Be and visit the https://bestsportsgame.ign.com/ between Friday, March 24th and Tuesday, March 28th, and submit your 30 predictions for the bracket. Then starting March 29th, we’ll kick off 5 rounds of fan voted polls across IGN platforms. Each poll will put the bracket matchups head-to-head, determining whether or not your submitted predictions are correct. You’ll score points for each game you guess correctly during each of the 5 rounds of the IGN fan vote. Check your scores on the leaderboard at https://bestsportsgame.ign.com/
One (1) contest winner will receive an Xbox Series X, a PS5, 32 sports game titles and a one-of-a-kind IGN champion’s jersey to strut around in while bragging about your victory. And if you miss out on the top prize, don’t fret! The top ten runners-up will receive a $100 gift card to the digital video game store of their choice.
FILL OUT YOUR BRACKET: Head to https://bestsportsgame.ign.com/ between March 24th (at 12am PT) and March 28th (11:59pm PT) and follow these four easy steps:
- Click the “Submit Your Predictions” button.
- Make your predictions (you must make predictions across all 60 match-ups to qualify).
- Enter a username (which will be shared on bestsportsgame.ign.com’s public leaderboard), your full legal name, and a valid email address.
- Click “Submit Your Predictions” (note: predictions can’t be changed once submitted).
SCORING:
- Round 1: 16 possible correct answers worth 30 points each (480 points max)
- Round 2: 8 possible correct answers worth 60 points each (480 points max)
- Round 3: 4 possible correct answers worth 120 points each (480 points max)
- Round 4: 2 possible correct answers worth 240 points each (480 points max)
- Round 5: 1 possible correct answer worth 480 points (480 points max)
Tie Breaker: In the event of a tie, the user who most closely predicts the ratio of fan votes between the two final game titles will be declared the winner. In the event users make a guess that is equidistant from the actual percentage split, the user whose guess is under will qualify as the winner.
Secondary Tie Breaker: If multiple users are tied after the initial Tie Breaker, the winner will be determined by who was the first to submit their bracket selection on the IGN site.
Track Your Score: Contest entrants can track their score on the public leaderboard at bestsportsgame.ign.com. The bracket and public leaderboard will be updated approximately 24 hours after fan voting closes on each round of voting.
Relevant Contest Dates:
- Entry Period: March 24th 12am PT to March 28th 11:59pm PT
- Round 1 “Round of 32” Fan Voting: March 29th 10am PT to March 30th 10am PT
- Round 2 “Sweet 16” Fan Voting: March 31st 10am PT to April 1st 10am PT
- Round 3 “Elite 8” Fan Voting: April 5th 10am PT to April 6th 10am PT
- Round 4 “Final 4” Fan Voting: April 10th 10am PT to April 11th 10am PT
- Round 5 “Championship” Fan Voting: April 12th 10am PT to April 13th 10am PT
- Winner Revealed: April 15th at 11:59pm PT
- In the event a winner can not be verified by April 15th, the winner reveal will be delayed.
Remember, you can’t win if you don’t play! So head to https://bestsportsgame.ign.com/ between March 24th (at 12am PT) and March 28th (11:59pm PT) to submit your 32 sports video game predictions!
How the Brackets Were Created
When it comes to picking the top 32 sports games of all time, there’s a treasure trove of titles to choose from, and the debate can get heated real fast. So we turned to an assortment of IGN staffers including our publisher, our Head of Features, and our Head of Social Media (to name a few), to select and seed the games competing for G.O.A.T. status.
We took into account critical consensus, IGN staff favorites, and a game or franchise’s overall popularity, dividing them into four talent-rich brackets: Traditional Sports, Arcade Sports, Racing/Fighting, and Wildcard.
To keep it balanced and varied, franchises can only have one representative — so each selection serves as the face of that series. So, if MVP Baseball 2005 makes the cut, it will represent the entire Triple Play/MVP series. Lastly, no mobile sports games are included in the bracket.
How to Watch IGN’s Best Sports Video Games Showdown Bracket Announcement Live Stream
If you’re fired up to watch the 32 game deliberations in our Best Sports Game of All Time livestream, join our hosts Alan Wheeler and Ben Watts on Monday, March 27th at 10:00 AM PST on IGN’s YouTube, Twitch, IGN.com, Twitter or Facebook. They’ll be joined by members of the U.S. Army esports Team who will discuss the brackets and which noteworthy sports games didn’t make the cut.
Remember, you can’t win if you don’t play! So Be All You Can Be and head to https://bestsportsgame.ign.com/ between Friday, March 24th and Tuesday, March 28th to submit your 32 picks/predictions.
Advertisement by The U.S. ARMY
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2022’s ‘Earthshot Prizes’ Recognize Five Innovative Responses to Climate Change
The annual awards were created by Prince William to fund projects that aim to save the planet. Each winner will receive £1m ($1.2m) to develop their innovation…. “I believe that the Earthshot solutions you have seen this evening prove we can overcome our planet’s greatest challenges,” Prince William said during the ceremony. “By supporting and scaling them we can change our future,” he said.
1,500 projects were nominated, according to the event’s web site. Here’s the five winners:
A Kenya-based company producing stoves powered by processed biomass (made from charcoal, wood and sugarcane) that “burns cleaner, creating 90% less pollution than an open fire,” while cutting fuel costs in half.
The Indian startup behind Greenhouse-in-a-box. “Plants in the greenhouse require 98% less water than those outdoors and yields are seven-times higher,” explains the site, while the greenhouses themselves are 90% cheaper than a standard greenhouse, “more than doubling farmers’ incomes [while] using less water and fewer pesticides.”
A Queensland-based program to expand the network of rangers using drones to monitor reefs and wildfires while sharing information and innovative ideas.
London-based start-up Notpla, which created a plastic alternative made from seaweed and plants that’s entirely biodegradable. (The seaweed used in its production also captures carbon twenty-times faster than trees.)
The company 44.01 removes CO2 permanently by mineralising it in peridotite, accelerating the natural process by pumping carbonated water into peridotite underground. (Unlike carbon storage, “mineralizing” CO2 removes it forever, making the process safer, cost-effective, and scalable.)
Five prizes will be awarded each year until 2030.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Seven researchers from Irish universities take home Lero prizes
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