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Coach’s Corner 3: Los Angeles Lakers in NBA Live

A new installment of the Coach’s Corner feature has been posted over on the official NBA Live website, detailing the Los Angeles Lakers’ face scanning session for NBA Live 15. In addition to showing some behind the scenes photographs of the session, the article also talks about the developers’ meeting with Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni, in which they gained an insight into his offensive strategies with an eye towards improving the depth and realism of NBA Live’s strategy and playcalling AI.

The developers also met with assistant coach Kurt Rambis, who not only provided his basketball insights for the development of NBA Live, but also spent some time reminiscing with lifelong Lakers fan and gameplay designer Scott O’Gallagher about the Showtime era and the rivalry with Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics, as well as the brilliance of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. More details on the enhancements to NBA Live’s AI will be revealed in the coming months, once the NBA Live 15 preview season has tipped off.

As always, it’s an interesting read on how the producers are picking the brains of NBA coaches to help them develop NBA Live, so check it out here and have your say in the comments below, as well as in the NBA Live 14 section of the NLSC Forum.

NLSC Podcast – Episode #74

We’ve recorded Episode #74 of the NLSC Podcast and it’s out now for your listening enjoyment (sorry, Leftos). Join Arcane, JaoSming and myself as we discuss our favourite basketball video games, ideas for future releases from EA and 2K, modding, the race to the 2014 NBA Playoffs, and more…even wrasslin’!

  • We tip things off with a couple of housekeeping matters, specifically the forthcoming mobile design for the Forum and the future of the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week.
  • Once again, we remind everyone to add their feedback to the NBA Live 15 Wishlist ASAP. We also speculate on when we think we’ll start seeing information and previews for NBA Live 15 and NBA 2K15. Spoiler: Probably not next week.
  • 2K Sports partnered with the Make-a-Wish Foundation to do something pretty cool for a young man who loves NBA 2K.
  • JaoSming takes us through some exciting developments in modding…exciting enough to get him out of bed in the middle of the night, in fact.
  • The subject of highlight plays in basketball video games is brought up. How can they be implemented without being gamebreakers?
  • We also discuss the feasibility and likelihood of career games being carried over to the next year’s release. Could it be done without cheapening the experience?
  • Kevin Durant has surpassed a scoring mark set by Michael Jordan, leading us to once again quickly revisit this year’s MVP race.
  • Speaking of milestones, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash moved up on the career leaderboards. We comment on their place in NBA history.
  • Joe Dumars is reportedly on his way out in Detroit, but is Isiah Thomas on the way in? Meanwhile, Mitch Kupchak looks to remain with the Lakers.
  • We make a few more predictions as the NBA regular season winds down, as well as weigh in on the Nets’ season sweep of the defending champion Heat. Foul or not a foul by Plums?
  • You’ll never guess what recent gaming announcement has Arcane excited! (A new Fallout game?)
  • Wrasslin’ fans JaoSming and Andrew reflect on Wrestlemania 30, the Undertaker and other events from the world of the squared circle.

Click Play to listen to the show!

As always, we welcome your thoughts on this week’s show, as well as any of the topics that we discussed. We also invite you to send in your mailbag submissions and topic suggestions here.

NLSC Podcast – Episode #73

With JaoSming hitting the books this week, Episode #73 of the NLSC Podcast is a two man show featuring Arcane and myself. Tune in for a discussion of legends in NBA Live, the latest news and results from around the NBA, and some other gaming topics.

  • We open the show by recounting some of our favourite April Fools’ Day gags from around the web this year.
  • A new BIG Moment in NBA Live 14 goes old school with Magic Johnson. Could we see legends having a bigger presence in NBA Live 15?
  • Some news and notes from the latest installment of Coach’s Corner are also discussed.
  • The NBA 2K13 servers have now been shut down. This sets us thinking: will next year’s server shutdowns render NBA Live 14 and NBA 2K14 next gen unplayable?
  • We mention a couple of housekeeping matters, including details on some forthcoming features.
  • The Miami Heat are on top of the East for the first time this season, while the San Antonio Spurs set a team record with their current winning streak. Will we see a rematch in this year’s NBA Finals?
  • Brooklyn has won fourteen straight at home and seem to be in good form at the right time. Can the Nets make some noise in the Playoffs?
  • We discuss an interesting comparison between Kwame Brown and Roy Hibbert.
  • Kyrie Irving may possibly return to action for the final few games of the season, which prompts another discussion about Aussies in the NBA.
  • The Philadelphia 76ers’ losing streak is over at 26. Our condolences to the Detroit Pistons and their fans.
  • Who’s making the eighth and final seed in both Conferences?
  • We wrap up the show with some talk about other video games.

Click Play to listen to the show!

As always, we welcome your thoughts on this week’s show, as well as any of the topics that we discussed. You can hit us up in the comments below, as well as here in the Forum. We also invite you to send in your mailbag submissions and topic suggestions here.

Coach’s Corner 2: Star Players in NBA Live

A new installment of Coach’s Corner has been posted over on the official NBA Live website, focusing on the Oklahoma City Thunder. While showing some behind-the-scenes photographs of the Thunder players getting their faces scanned for NBA Live 15, the article notes the reunion between gameplay designer Scott O’Gallagher and rookie centre Steven Adams, who both played professionally in New Zealand.

Thunder head coach Scott Brooks also spent some time providing the NBA Live developers with an insight into game-planning and strategy, acknowledging the benefits of the talented roster at his disposal and the freedom that it allows. The article notes that this is something the developers are looking to utilise in NBA Live moving forward, in terms of set plays versus freelance motion.

As always, it’s an interesting read to get an insight into the further development of the series, so give it a look and feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below, as well as in the NBA Live 14 section of the NLSC Forum.

The Tuesday Triple: Wishlist from Other Games

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

After reading Andrew’s Friday Five last week on why we do wishlists, I couldn’t help but think more about what other features are missing from our yearly NBA basketball video games. So rather than look at past games and features that have been missing in action for years like yesterday’s Dumb Fact Monday, I thought I would look at other sports video games and steal some ideas from them. So here are 3 features I would like to see in NBA Live 15 or NBA 2K15 that are from other sports video games.

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The Friday Five: 5 Reasons We Compile Wishlists

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! This is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to basketball video games, the real NBA or another area of interest to our community, either as a list of five items or in the form of a Top 5 countdown.

It’s Wishlist Season again here at the NLSC! As you may have already seen, we’ve started compiling our Wishlist for NBA Live 15 and in this week’s Tuesday Triple, JaoSming outlined some of the things that he wants to see in NBA Live 15 and NBA 2K15 alike.

Of course, the concept of the Wishlist does invite some scepticism, as a contingent of basketball gamers are unsure that it’s worth all the effort, or that it will make any difference to the upcoming games. I take a far more optimistic point of view however and see the Wishlists as an important undertaking for our community, to help improve the games that we’re so passionate about. As such, this week’s Friday Five highlights the importance of our Wishlists, as I take a look at five reasons why we compile them.

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NBA Live 14 Tips & Tricks Hub

EA Sports has added a Tips & Tricks Hub to the official NBA Live 14 website, featuring all of the videos and articles demonstrating strategies and the game’s controls that they’ve posted in recent weeks. Whether you need help with shooting, dribbling, post play or defense, the Tips & Tricks Hub has you covered.

As always, we invite you to join in the discussion in the NBA Live 14 section of the NLSC Forum, as well as add your thoughts in the comments below. Don’t forget that we’re also compiling our Wishlist for NBA Live 15, which the NBA Live Development Team at EA Tiburon is keeping an eye on. Be sure to post your constructive feedback ASAP!

NLSC Podcast – Episode #71

A couple of us are feeling a bit under the weather this week, but we were still eager to get together to talk basketball and basketball video games. Tune in to Episode #71 of the NLSC Podcast, featuring Arcane, JaoSming and myself, along with special guest Vl@d Zola Jr.

  • Vl@d and JaoSming take us through the latest developments for RED MC. Some awesome stuff is in the works!
  • EA Sports continues their face scanning for NBA Live 15, while also meeting with NBA coaches to gain more insight into their strategies to better hone the game’s AI.
  • A quick glimpse at some dunks being motion captured for NBA 2K15 leads to a discussion on dunking in basketball video games.
  • The full roster of NBA Legends is now available in NBA Live 14 Ultimate Team. We talk a little about what we want to see in the future as far as Legends in NBA Live are concerned.
  • We can honestly say, JaoSming had the worst luck when it came to the random gift Locker Code that’s currently available for NBA 2K14.
  • We’re giving away some digital copies of NBA 2K14 PC. Listen to the show for full details on how to win the first Steam code, and get your entries in ASAP!
  • Phil Jackson is now officially president of basketball operations for the New York Knicks. Michael Jordan thinks he’ll do a great job…do we?
  • Kyrie Irving is injured again and may be done for the season. Let’s hope there’s no NBA Live equivalent of the Madden curse.
  • We recap the last week in the NBA, including teams that are hot, teams that we jinxed, and teams whose losing streaks we’re definitely not taking responsibility for.
  • The Miami Heat have hit a bit of a rough patch, though it made for an exciting finish against the Brooklyn Nets last week. On a side note, ESPN fails at trivia.
  • We touch briefly on March Madness. Our brackets will surely be busted.
  • Episode #71 closes with some talk about Sony’s new virtual reality endeavour, Project Morpheus.

Click Play to listen to the show!

As always, we welcome your thoughts on this week’s show, as well as any of the topics that we discussed. You can hit us up in the comments below, as well as here in the Forum. We also invite you to send in your mailbag submissions and topic suggestions here.

The Tuesday Triple: A Wishlist for Next Year

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

This is the best time for basketball video game communities to put out their wishlists for NBA 2K15 and NBA Live 15. You can see in our Forums that the EA developers are looking for your wishlist items for next year’s game. This is one of my favorite times of year when it comes to our basketball video games. We get to wonder what next year will bring, get excited as we near our first teasers just a couple months away, while also enjoying the best of college and professional hoops. So rather than highlight my three most wanted specific features for next year’s games, I want to put out my three wishlist overarching features that affect the game as a whole rather than a specific tweak or mode addition.

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Coach’s Corner 1: Face Scanning in NBA Live

EA Sports has debuted a new series of articles over on the official NBA Live website, titled Coach’s Corner. In the first installment, we get a behind-the-scenes look at face scanning, something they’ve been doing throughout the season in anticipation of adding better faces to NBA Live 15.

The article also mentions that Gameplay Designer Scott O’Gallagher has had the opportunity to sit down with coaches such as Frank Vogel of the Indiana Pacers, where he’s been able to get an insight into their team’s offensive and defensive strategies and philosophy. This information, along with feedback from players during the face scanning sessions, allows the NBA Live development team to tweak and fine tune the game’s AI.

Give it a look and feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below, as well as here in the NBA Live 14 section of the NLSC Forum.

NLSC Podcast – Episode #70

Join Arcane, JaoSming and myself for Episode #70 of the NLSC Podcast! Despite being a few months past the release of NBA Live 14 and NBA 2K14, and a few months out from the preview season of NBA Live 15 and NBA 2K15, we find ourselves with a fair bit to talk about this week.

  • NBA Live 14 received a major roster update last week. A bulletin was also posted, addressing the lack of updates so far and providing us with the inside scoop on Synergy data.
  • How important is it that we compile the NBA Live 15 Wishlist? What impact can we expect to have?
  • We talk a little about our week in basketball gaming, consisting mostly of BIG Moments in NBA Live 14, The Park in NBA 2K14 on PS4 and JaoSming’s Street Career mod for NBA 2K14 PC.
  • JaoSming takes us through some recent modding developments, including Vl@d’s upcoming tool, an unexpected development for NBA Live 2004, and a couple of other projects.
  • Moving on to the NBA, we take a look at some teams that have been struggling, as well as some teams that have been on fire.
  • Phil Jackson has reportedly agreed to join the New York Knicks’ front office. Can he make a difference?
  • Should fights be allowed in the NBA? Marcin Gortat thinks so.
  • Games can now actually be streamed without problems on the NBA Australia portal…well, it’s worked once, at least. Last week’s offering was Gerald Green’s career night in the Phoenix Suns’ win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
  • We wrap up the show with some talk of other stuff we’ve been playing, as well as non-basketball games that we’re looking forward to.

Click Play to listen to the show!

Please feel free to give us your thoughts on this week’s show, as well as any of the topics that we discussed. You can hit us up in the comments below, as well as here in the Forum. We also invite you to send in your mailbag submissions and topic suggestions here.

NLSC Podcast – Episode #69

We’re a little light on basketball video game news this week, but there’s plenty going on in the NBA to talk about. Join Arcane and myself for Episode #69 of the NLSC Podcast!

  • NBA Live 14 has received a post-trade deadline roster update, but it’s a few days out of date.
  • We’re collecting feedback for our NBA Live 15 Wishlist. Start posting your ideas and suggestions ASAP!
  • A few noteworthy players have been bought out and subsequently picked up by other teams. We give our thoughts on those late season signings.
  • We also take a quick glance at some recent winning and losing streaks, while expressing our support for former Australian Boomers head coach Brett Brown in his current gig with the Philadelphia 76ers.
  • LeBron James had a big night with 61 points, though Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins wasn’t as impressed as others were by the performance. Do we agree with the Human Highlight Film?
  • Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash may be done for the season. Should they even consider returning at this point?
  • New NBA commissioner Adam Silver had some interesting things to say at the 2014 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. We comment on some of his ideas.
  • We wrap up this week’s show with some talk about the games we’ve been playing lately, basketball or otherwise.

Click Play to listen to the show!

As always, we welcome your thoughts on this week’s show, as well as any of the topics we discussed. Feel free to hit us up in the comments below, as well as in this thread in the NLSC Forum. We also invite you to send in your mailbag submissions and topic suggestions here.

NBA Live 15 Wishlist Thread Now Open

We’re now in the process of compiling our Wishlist for NBA Live 15, to send in to the NBA Live Development Team at EA Tiburon. After talking to a couple of the developers, we’ve changed up the format a little this year, so that we can provide the best and most comprehensive feedback possible.

We’re asking that everyone post their top ten wishes/suggestions for the game (15 at the very most), elaborating on any points as necessary. Remember, simply saying things like “better gameplay” doesn’t tell the developers what we want to see fixed and improved upon.

Check out our NBA Live 15 Wishlist thread here in the NLSC Forum for more details, and start posting your feedback ASAP!

The Friday Five: 5 Things I Want To See In NBA Live 15

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! This is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to basketball video games, the real NBA or another area of interest to our community, either as a list of five items or in the form of a Top 5 countdown.

As you may have heard in our chat with NBA Live 14 Gameplay Designer Scott O’Gallagher, the NBA Live development team at EA Tiburon is eager to get our feedback on the current game and the official patch, as well as our ideas and suggestions for NBA Live 15. As such, we’ll be compiling our NBA Live 15 Wishlist very soon.

I’ll be going into more detail when I create our official NBA Live 15 Wishlist thread in the NLSC Forum, but since Scott and the rest of the developers are interested in hearing each of our top five to ten suggestions for the game, I thought I’d use this week’s Friday Five to get the ball rolling and briefly talk about some improvements for the next NBA Live. Without any further ado, here are five things I want to see in NBA Live 15.

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NLSC Podcast – Post-Patch Chat with NBA Live 14 Dev Scott O’Gallagher

NBA Live 14 Gameplay Designer Scott O’Gallagher returns in another special edition of the NLSC Podcast, in which he chats to Arcane and myself about the new title update that’s just come out for NBA Live 14 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. We talk about the various fixes and enhancements included in the patch, the reactions to NBA Live 14 so far, the face scans for NBA Live 15 and much more.

Click the Play button below to listen to the episode! As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this special edition of the NLSC Podcast in the comments below, as well as here in the NLSC Forum. For those who may have missed it the first time around, you can check out our pre-release interview with Scott here.