NBA Live 14

Are we excited that the Heat are still winning? Is Andrew Bynum still injured? Is it okay to make inappropriate jokes at inappropriate times? What’s the meaning of life anyway? Some of those questions are answered in Episode #22 of the NLSC Podcast, featuring your favorite trio of Leftos, Ben and myself! Join us as we discuss this week’s topics:

• There was some controversy at the end of the overtime clash between the Bulls and Nuggets. We discuss the trend of blaming officials and the instant replay rules.
• The Heat narrowly escaped Cleveland with their winning streak intact at 24, already the second best in league history. We give our thoughts and as usual, ill-fated predictions.
• The injuries to former teammates Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum are discussed. Is Kobe rushing back? Is anyone going to give Bynum a max contract?
• We wrap up the NBA discussion with the latest chapter in the Royce White saga and LeBron James’ “Knighting” of Jason Terry.
• Leftos brings up an incident at PyCon, leading us to talk about inappropriate behaviour and the appropriate way to deal with it.
• As the discussion moves to basketball video games, we briefly touch upon what is “sim” and what constitutes “realism”.
• Are we PC users jealous of features that are console exclusive?
• We speculate a little more about next gen basketball games and reflect on whether NBA Live and NBA 2K met their CGI benchmarks from 2005.

Click Play to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 2:34:35 — 82.9MB)

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If you’ve got any thoughts on the show or any of the topics we discussed, please feel free to have your say in the comments below or in this thread in the Forum.

This week on the NLSC Podcast, we react to a quiet trade deadline, talk about our recent gaming experiences and against our better judgement, offer up more predictions. Join Leftos, Ben and myself as we chat about all of that and more in Episode #19. A longer synopsis of the latest episode is as follows:

• As we are still a few months away from the preview season, news is still slow. However, there were a couple of tidbits of note from the past week.
• Since the preview season is a little ways off, we note the need to be wary of fake news and speculation being mistaken for facts.
• Following our weekly community update, we discuss Forum etiquette, particularly in regards to modders and mod users.
• Leftos provides us with some exciting news about his tools, especially NBA Stats Tracker.
• We talk about our recent experiences with basketball video games, as well as some other games that we’re playing at the moment. Ben has a couple of questions for the community.
• The trade deadline turned out to be a very quiet one, shooting down our predictions (especially mine).
• Not inclined to learn from our mistakes, we offer some more predictions for the remainder of the regular season.
• We recap and react to Sony’s announcement of the PlayStation 4.

Click Play to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 2:29:09 — 78.7MB)

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As always, we’re eager to hear your feedback and responses to the show and everything that we discussed, so have your say in the comments below or in this thread in the Forum.

Leftos, Ben and I are back this week with the sixteenth episode of the NLSC Podcast, where as always we discuss a couple of our favourite subjects: basketball, and basketball video games. There hasn’t been much in the way of news regarding basketball video games this week, so once again we indulge in a little speculation and “Wishlisting”, along with giving our thoughts on the most recent happenings in the NBA. Want a quick overview of this week’s episode? Here it is:

• There isn’t a lot of noteworthy basketball video game news this week, but our modding community has continued to do excellent work, so once again we feel compelled to give some well earned recognition.
• We offer our thoughts on the Rudy Gay trade and whether or not he’s a franchise player.
• As Leftos is a Pistons fan, we make a point of noting that the last player from the 2004 championship team is now gone.
• Talk about dependable franchise players leads to a conversation about players with attitude problems and whether or not longer stints in college would make a difference, as we touch on the subject of the NBA’s age restriction.
• We discuss other recent NBA news and rumours including the announcement of the Rising Stars rosters, Brook Lopez being named a replacement for Rajon Rondo in the All-Star Game, rumoured trades and the return of Andrew Bogut.
• As the conversation turns back to basketball video games, we talk about the things we want to see improved in Dynasty, Association and MyCAREER mode, and read out some of the community’s thoughts on the matter.
• What else do we think is important for the future of basketball video games, especially as we approach the next generation of consoles?

Click Play to listen to this week’s episode!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 2:34:36 — 75.6MB)

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As always we welcome your feedback, so please give us your thoughts on this week’s episode and any of the topics that we discussed in the comments below, as well as in this thread in the NLSC Forum.

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! For those of you who haven’t read any of my previous Friday Five columns, this is a relatively new feature where I discuss a range of topics related to basketball video games, the real NBA and other subjects that are relevant to our community, either in list or Top 5 countdown format.

To say that the Internet has had a major impact on video gaming is a grand understatement. One of the ways it has changed gaming is its ability to put developers in direct contact with their customers, giving gamers the opportunity to provide feedback that shapes future releases and aids in post-release support. We basketball gamers have been doing that for some time now, but we don’t always make the best use of the opportunity. These are the things we should avoid doing, the five ways we give bad feedback to basketball video game developers.

Read More »

The lucky thirteenth episode of the NLSC Podcast is out now for your listening enjoyment. This week, Leftos and I are joined by Ben (aka Arcane), following reports of his resignation that were greatly exaggerated, as we catch up on the week in basketball video gaming news and the latest goings on in the real NBA. A synopsis of this week’s show is as follows:

• Ben is welcomed back to the NLSC Team after never actually stepping down, so we spend some time getting to know him.
• NBA 2K13’s All-Star Weekend content is now available as DLC for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 users. We offer a few thoughts on that.
• We briefly recap a couple of news items from the past week, which include a new official roster for NBA 2K13 and the shutdown of online services for NBA Live 10 and NBA Jam.
• The Sacramento Kings may be moving to Seattle to become the new Supersonics, tipping off our NBA discussion for the week.
• The Lakers broke their six game losing streak and we ponder how far they can actually go this season.
• Rookie of the Year talk prompts us to mention Damian Lillard and of course, Andre Drummond.
• Dunks and the Dunk Contest are discussed. With no JaoSming around, I rail against throw-ins, at least in the Contest.
• Leftos tells us about the joys of running from zombies.
• I manage to remember all our social media addresses in closing the show, a marked improvement from last week.

Click the Play button below to listen to the Podcast!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 2:58:56 — 81.9MB)

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We hope you enjoy the show and as always, we invite you to give us your thoughts and feedback in the comments below, as well as in this thread in the NLSC Hub section of the Forum.

The NLSC Podcast is back with episode number twelve! Leftos and I are your hosts once again and after a brief catch-up following the holiday season, we get down to discussing the latest news and rumours surrounding NBA Live and NBA 2K, some community news and notes and the latest goings on in the real NBA. A quick overview of Episode #12 is as follows:

• We’re back! We both had a nice holiday break, we hope you did too.
• Arcane has stepped down from the NLSC Team and his post as a moderator on the official forums; we thank him for his contributions and wish him well.
• Leftos provides an update on his latest tools for NBA 2K13 and the Stats Tracker for NBA 2K12.
• NBA 2K13 received two new rosters last week, opinion is still generally lukewarm at best.
• EA Sports are ending online support for NBA Live 10 and the 2010 reboot of NBA Jam. We ponder whether it means anything for NBA Live 14 and once again speculate a little on the next game.
• We move on to this week’s feature discussion, the Royce White saga in Houston.
• A few other NBA related topics are discussed.
• I close the show by forgetting our Twitter handle. (Hey, it’s not like I maintain it or anything…)

Click the Play button below to listen to this week’s episode!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 2:23:45 — 72.5MB)

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We’re glad to be back and looking forward to continuing to bring you a new episode each week throughout 2013. We hope you enjoy the latest episode, please feel free to add your comments below or in this thread in the Forum. You can also continue to discuss the situation with Royce White here in our NBA & Basketball Talk section.

Welcome to The Friday Five, a new weekly feature here at the NLSC! As the name suggests, this is a feature that will be appearing on Fridays, discussing five items in list/countdown format. Topics will naturally cover issues related to basketball video games, as well as the real NBA and other subjects that are relevant to our community.

For this first edition of The Friday Five, I’m counting down the five things I believe that basketball video games should look to avoid in future releases. Please note that I’m focusing on specific gameplay-related items that I feel are still an issue even in the best basketball games, rather than making general statements such as “sucking”, “being cancelled” or anything else that obviously goes without saying.

Read More »

As JaoSming noted here in the NLSC Forum, a recent service update from EA Sports has confirmed that their online support for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of NBA Live 10 and the 2010 reboot of NBA Jam will cease as of January 11th, 2013. Online support for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition will continue until further notice.

Online support for NBA Live 10 has run a little longer than usual, as a result of the extended hiatus the series has been on since 2010. The game also received Dynamic DNA updates through the 2010/2011 season, following the cancellation of NBA Elite 11.

While the decision to shut down online services is the result of declined usage weighed up against the cost and effort required to maintain the servers, it’ll be interesting to see whether the shutdown of online support for NBA Live 10 is being done, at least in part, in anticipation of a release later this year. While Andrew Wilson made reference to “next year’s game” when announcing the cancellation of NBA Live 13 and EA Sports does still have the NBA license with a view to making more NBA games, an NBA Live 14 has not yet been officially confirmed or announced.

NBA Live Developer and former Advisory Council member and professional basketball player Scott O’Gallagher was recently profiled in the Orlando Sentinel. The article details Scott’s background and professional basketball career, as well as his involvement with EA Tiburon through the Advisory Council and his eventual hiring as a member of the Development Team. It also contains quotes from Scott on his new dream job, as well as praise for his work from Katherine Coulhart, Communications Manager for EA Sports.

Thanks to 22cedric for the heads up here in the NLSC Forum. How many of you out there currently aspire to work in the gaming industry, either developing a basketball title or another game? Let us know and have your say on the Orlando Sentinel article in the comments below.

The ninth episode of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Leftos and I are your hosts once again and despite anticipating a shorter episode with fewer topics to discuss, we ended up recording our longest episode to date, as we discussed the latest NBA 2K13 news, the future of the NBA Live series once again and our thoughts on the latest happenings in the real NBA. Topics include:

• The official patch v1.02 is out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of NBA 2K13; what is the reaction?
• What do we think of the laundry list of fixes outlined in the patch notes?
• We speculate briefly on when the patch might come out for the PC version
• The latest news from the modding community for both NBA 2K and NBA Live is also discussed
• A disgruntled former Madden developer has let loose on Twitter, prompting a little discussion
• The aforementioned Twitter rant also contained a couple of NBA Live tidbits, so we once again discuss the future of the series
• We discuss the controversy between the Spurs and the league last week, and declare whether we’re on Team Stern or Team Popovich
• A few other NBA related topics are pondered and commented upon

Click the Play button to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:56:33 — 57.9MB)

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We hope you enjoy the show as much we enjoyed recording it! Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, as well as in this thread in the NLSC Hub.

Episode 8 of the NLSC Podcast is coming your way today! Leftos and I are your hosts again this week, as we discuss a multitude of topics relating to NBA 2K13, our modding community, the future of NBA Live and the current NBA season. Topics include:

• The Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3 versions of NBA 2K13 have received an official patch, but when will the PC get it?
• Speaking of official updates for the PC, we still haven’t received the November 17th update. We’re less than pleased about it.
• We discuss the PC version’s place in the pecking order, while keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn’t get phased out.
• Our modding community continues to do great work and make good use of our upload facilities.
• We’re approaching 300 files for NBA 2K13 in our database…can we hit 500 by the end of the year?
• The topic of the week is realism in modes like Association and Dynasty. How much realism do we want to see? What else needs to be done for more realism?
• NBA Live comes up in conversation and we talk about how it could bounce back in the coming years. Dynasty Mode improvements are mentioned once or twice.
• What’s going on in the real NBA this week?
• Last week’s Question of the Week is discussed and a new one is presented.

Click the Play button to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:32:58 — 43.1MB)

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We had intended to release a shorter episode compared to last week’s return after our hiatus, but we ended up running long as we were enjoying our discussion; we hope you enjoy it too! Feel free to have your say in the comments below, as well as in this thread in the NLSC Hub section of the Forum. Don’t forget to give us your answers for this week’s Question of the Week!

Kotaku has a new article up discussing the NBA’s stance on EA not releasing a simulation NBA game for the third straight year. Thankfully, it appears that the NBA is allowing EA, and Tiburon, to work out whatever issues they’ve been running into with the series for the next version of the game, stating;

We are obviously disappointed that EA will not be releasing NBA LIVE 13 this year, but have been assured by EA that the next release of NBA LIVE will meet our mutual standards of excellence.

Of note, that statement does not confirm that NBA Live 14 will be the next game, so whether or not EA will be taking the rest of this console generation off or not is still open to speculation.

Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below, or in this Forum thread.

The cancellation of NBA Live 13 has raised several questions about the future of the NBA Live series. As it stands, EA Sports are currently looking to continue to build upon the game as they eye a comeback next year with NBA Live 14 and as such, they are looking for fan feedback. Two members of the NBA Live Development Team, Postgame and OGSPORTS, have been interacting with us in the NLSC Forum and soliciting feedback in a variety of areas.

We invite anyone willing to give constructive feedback to join in these discussions, as this is a great opportunity for our voices to be heard. Keep your eye on this thread and check out Postgame’s insights here in the thread discussing the cancellation of the game. At their suggestion, we’re also compiling top ten lists of things we want to see in each area of the game. Hopefully we can have a positive impact on the future of the series so please be civil, be constructive and get involved!