2013 Sports Game of the Year Awards

In a year of transition, the small batch of sports games still standing took diverse approaches to their annual titles. Some stayed in the current-gen space, making small but meaningful improvements (MLB 13: The Show) or largely treading water (NHL 14). Others like FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, and NBA 2K14, had the daunting task of straddling the line between current and next-gen. The pool of sports games also shrunk with the cancellation of the MLB 2K and NCAA football franchises. In this tumultuous year, which games rose to the top of the sports rankings? Read on to find out.

Best Gameplay: MLB 13: The Show

Like a five tool player, MLB 13 achieves greatness on the baseball diamond by honing its fundamentals. The refined timing window makes it easier to make contact with the ball, the fielding continues to be excellent, and the pitching system is easy to learn without sacrificing the depth it needs to be realistic or challenging. All of this adds up to create an authentic baseball simulation.

Best Franchise Mode: FIFA 14

EA's flagship sports game has room for improvement with its franchise mode. Creating more robust reserver and youth systems, tuning the player morale system so it's more attune to playing time and roster composition, and creating competition between teams for players in the transfer window would all go a long way toward improving the experience. But even with these areas of deficiency, FIFA 14 is our choice for best franchise mode thanks to the way it reacts to your actions. Whether you're sniffing around a player on the transfer market, squabbling with a disgruntled second teamer on your roster, or putting together an impressive run in the league tables, the in-game media is there to cover it, making you feel like a true manager in the spotlight. 

Best Career Mode: NBA 2K14

Taking a page out of Sony's NBA 06: The Life game, Visual Concepts raised the stakes for career modes with the next-gen version of NBA 2K14. The mode has plenty of rough spots (especially the acting), but the thrill of living the life of an NBA player both on and off the court more than makes up for the deficiencies. Managing relationships with your coach, general manager, teammates, agents, and rivals on your way to NBA stardom is a riveting experience we hope Visual Concepts doubles down on in 2014.

Click the next page to find out which sports games we thought offered the best multiplayer, best presentation, and biggest disappointment.

Best Multiplayer: FIFA 14

With Ultimate Team, cooperative seasons, 11v11 pro club competitions, and head-to-head seasons, FIFA 14 offers a dazzling array of options for competitive gamers who like to test their mettle online. Best of all, the server performance is almost always stable. 

Best Presentation: NBA 2K14

Visual Concepts operates without an official broadcasting license like ESPN or TNT. While this irks some fans who wish for the most realistic presentation possible, we think that even without a partner Visual Concepts creates the best presentation in the genre. Like every other sports game, the commentary gets repetitive over the course of playing several hundred games, but at least the crew of Kevin Harlan, Clark Kellogg, Steve Kerr, and sideline reporter Doris Burke discuss fresh new topics every season, and the deftness with which the developers stitch the commentary around the on-court action should be emulated by every other sports developer. The game intros and stat packaging also bleed professionalism.   

Biggest Disappointment: NBA Live 14

After several years of postponements and outright cancellations, NBA Live finally came out of hibernation in 2013. Judging from the final product, it probably could use at least a couple more years of incubation. With inadequate franchise and career modes, unintelligent commentary, stunted gameplay, and lifeless animations, NBA Live 14 seemed like an amateur athlete trying to guard the hall of famer across the court - NBA 2K14.  

Best Mobile Sports Game: New Star Soccer

Sure, this game technically came out in 2012, but with all the improvements developer New Star Games added to the experience in 2013, it may as well be considered an annualized sequel just the same as any Madden or FIFA title. The best soccer game available on mobile platforms boils down games to key plays and tasks you with juggling on- and off-pitch responsibilities, not unlike NBA 2K14's career mode. 

Read on to learn who won our legacy award, good riddance award, and sports game of the year award.

Legacy Award: NCAA Football

When a group of former college athletes teamed up to sue EA and the NCAA over the use of their images in the college sports games, we assumed they just wanted their fair share of the profits generated by the partnership. The unintentional end result, however, was the death of college sports games. Though Madden always got the bigger marketing push, NCAA held its own as a destination football game, introducing innovations like a multi-user online franchise mode, a browser-based team builder, and a career mode that started in high school. We're going to miss you, NCAA. 

Good Riddance Award: MLB 2K

We're not sure why 2K Sports struggled so mightily to transfer the success it found in making an NBA game to the MLB franchise, but given the sorry state of the last few titles we're happy to see the license get relinquished. Sony fans are already set with the solid MLB: The Show series, but Xbox owners are likely hoping to see someone else step into the vacuum to give them a hardball option. Maybe MLB's recently announced R.B.I. Baseball resurrection can help fill this void. 

Sports Game of the Year: FIFA 14

Game Informer's best sports game for the third year running, FIFA 14 defends its title with strong gameplay that improves shot taking, expanded career options, and stable online play. Given the impressive run this dynasty is making, other sports titles (including EA's own Madden and NHL) have a long ways to go to unseat it as the best of the best.