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Every EA NCAA Football cover star since 1993 (including College Football 25!)

The future of EA’s college football series may be uncertain, but for now, here’s a walk through 20 years of NCAA Football cover stars.

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Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2023 and has been updated.

EA’s NCAA Football cover stars operated on a different principle for a while compared to the spotlight athletes in other sports games. NCAA rules forbade college athletes from appearing on the cover, so you nearly always saw an NFL rookie sporting their jersey from a few years previously – usually with at least one trophy or high recognition under their belt as well. EA wasn’t afraid to get a bit silly with the NCAA franchise either. At one point, the publisher honored the community’s voice and made a mascot the star of an NCAA game.

The franchise came to a messy end in 2014, as licensing issues and debates over the appropriate use of player likenesses brought EA’s college football days to a halt.

But now? We’re so back. Here’s a walk through 20 years of NCAA Football cover stars and a look at College Football 25.

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL 25:

Every NBA 2K cover star since 1999

Let’s have a look at every NBA 2K cover athlete from the past two decades.

The NBA 2K series has been around for over two decades. Yes, the basketball sim is old enough to order a drink in every state. They grow up so fast.

We thought it best to look back on every cover athlete that there’s ever been — and there’s probably more than you think. In the early days, Allen Iverson single-handedly carried the series, but before long, loads of icons graced NBA 2K‘s cover. Some of them have done so multiple times, even. Particularly a fellow that made 23 such a famous number.

Interestingly enough, several entries feature numerous athletes. NBA 2K16, for example, has seven different cover stars — some of which only came out in specific regions. Like, Canada had a custom edition of NBA 2K18! Wild stuff.

Alright, enough chit-chat. Let’s get into it.

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Every ‘Madden NFL’ cover star since 2000

We’re looking at all Madden NFL covers from the last two decades.

Editor’s note: This post was updated for 2024.

The Madden series has been around since EA Sports released John Madden Football on MS-DOS in 1988.

For the first decade, Madden himself graced the cover. The Super Bowl-winning coach-turned-fan-favorite-broadcaster-turned-Turducken-evangelizer is also something of a master at building a personal brand. Even though he hadn’t broadcasted a game since 2009, he remained a household name thanks to EA’s best-selling franchise.

After 2000, Mr. Madden finally started to share the screen with NFL superstars. Here’s a look at every player who’s been on a Madden cover. And remember: Patrick Mahomes is among the athletes to show the “Madden Curse” is just a myth.

MORE:

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Every MLB: The Show cover star since 1997

Let’s look at every MLB: The Show cover athlete from the past two and a half decades.

For more than two decades, MLB The Show has been a strong contender for the “best sports game” crown. No doubt because Sony has heavily invested in its success for all these years.

We’ve decided to look back on the entire series and see which athletes graced the cover. By that, we mean every installment – from the original nine MLB series developed by 989 Sports, to when Sony’s San Diego Studio took over in 2006 with the “The Show” subtitle.

As a heads-up, we’re listing editions released in the United States – so no image variants from other regions. However, we’ll mention those athletes in the notes! There’s a lot of history to cover here, so let’s jump into it!

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

Every WWE video game cover star since 2000

Here’s every cover star of every WWE video game since the turn of the millennium.

The WWE video games have gone through a few distinct eras since the turn of the millennium. At first, they were producing standalone games like the WrestleMania and Smackdown! games, but eventually those all got consolidated into a single annual release known as the Smackdown vs Raw series which ran until 2011. Then series developers, THQ, closed its doors and the licence was handed to 2K Games, who have been slowly growing the scope of the games year on year, with varying degrees of success.

Being a star in wrestling is often less about how good you are in the ring, and more about how marketable you are as a personality, so the covers of WWE video games are a great way to see who was enjoying the biggest success in the company for that year. It’s an indication of the person/people that WWE trusts to sell such a huge product with their faces alone.

We’ve rolled back the clock to 2000 to see every WWE cover star over the past twenty years.

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The best VR games of 2023

The competition was fierce this year, but we’ve narrowed it down to our 10 favorite VR games of 2023, from Resident Evil to Vampire and more

The best VR games of 2023 don’t just coast along with immersion and motion controls as their big selling points, though some of them do innovative things in those areas. The medium is finally moving on from using VR as a video game gimmick, and 2023’s top picks use it to create unique experiences – in Resident Evil Village, for example – or even to augment storytelling in some respects, as Vampire Justice does. The competition was fierce this year, but we’ve narrowed it down to our 10 favorite VR games of 2023 and rattled them off below.

The best games of 2023 according to Metacritic user scores

We rounded up the best games of 2023 according to Metacritic user scores, and the results were surprising

We can talk about our Alan Wakes and Baldur’s Gates all we want, but the best video games of 2023 according to Metacritic Scores don’t quite match up with what you might expect. Metacritic is the people’s forum, the place where they can give whatever they want a 10 out of 10 and explain just what makes it so great – or leave a “game good” and nothing more. Some of the usual suspects are there – Mario Wonder, for example – but several that flew under the mainstream radar showed up as well. The variety makes it all the more interesting, so we scoured the platform and picked which Metacritic scores soared above the rest.

The worst games of 2023 according to Metacritic user scores

It’s not a pretty task, but we’ve sorted through the rubble and picked out the worst games of 2023 according to Metacritic user scores.

Going through the worst video games of 2023 based on Metacritic scores sure is a ride. While you’ve got your usual complaints – too many microtransactions, not enough to do, and things like that – there’s a streak of broken promises and severe pushback against questionable monetization that runs through most of them this year. Kickstarter backers expected more, sports fans got less, and tight publishing schedules meant some games shipped long before they should have. Then there was Activision Blizzard, whose games just did not fare well with consumers this year.

It’s not a pretty task, but we’ve sorted through the rubble and picked out the worst games of 2023 according to Metacritic user scores.

10 brilliant video games you (probably) missed in 2023

We’ve rounded up the 10 best video games of 2023 you might not even realize existed, from horror games to strategy, climbing, and more

Amid all the 2023 video games, it’s inevitable some absolute bangers would get lost in the shuffle. And there were some proper bangers, making the process of narrowing them down to 10 a pretty difficult one. We did it, though. We’ve got an award-winning indie, a thoughtful spin on climbing games, a spooky visual novel, and even a strategy game that actually respects your time, and that’s just the start.

Check out the 10 best games of 2023 you might not even know existed.

The best Steam Winter Sale deals you have to check out

We’ve rounded up some of the best Steam Winter Sale deals, from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring, to indie game gems, and more

Steam Winter Sale deals have begun, with even more discounts than we saw during Black Friday. Discounts are everywhere, on major AAA games including Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3, indie gems such as Case of the Golden Idol and Slay the Princess, and some modern classics in the mix as well. The Steam Winter Sale deals are live through Jan.4, 2024.

If you’re after other end-of-year sales, check out the Epic Games Store holiday sale and the PlayStation Store’s holiday sale.