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.

So, here we are at the 2015 NBA Conference Finals. The Golden State Warriors have just gone up 2-0 on the Houston Rockets, the Cleveland Cavaliers will look to go up 2-0 on the Atlanta Hawks today, and most people seem to be expecting to see the Warriors take on the Cavs in the NBA Finals. This year’s NBA Playoffs haven’t been without controversy or criticism – when are they ever? – but on the whole, I feel it’s been a fairly entertaining postseason.

Since we’re down to the final four and inching closer and closer to finding out who will be the 2015 NBA Champions, I thought I’d take a look back at the predictions I made in The Friday Five at the beginning of the Playoffs, and see how I fared. Getting predictions wrong has become something of a running gag for us on the NLSC Podcast, but did I do a better job in written format? Read on to join me in revisiting my 2015 NBA Playoffs predictions!

Read More »

A new roster has come through for NBA Live 15, with line-ups that have been updated through May 21st, 2015. The latest roster contains more than 1200 ratings changes, along with 11 player accessory updates. For a full breakdown of all the changes, be sure to check out this spreadsheet.

J.R. Smith is in the spotlight this week, as his performance in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ second round series with the Chicago Bulls earned him a one point improvement to 81 overall. If his play in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals is any indication of the groove that he’s in, it’s likely that he’ll be receiving another boost in next week’s roster.

Speaking of the Chicago Bulls, six of their players dropped one point overall, after struggling in their season ending series with the Cavaliers. Joakim Noah was singled out in EA’s bulletin, noting that he averaged just five points per game on 33% shooting.

As teams have been eliminated from the Playoffs, their rosters have been reset to their “prime” line-ups, ignoring any injuries. While this is certainly a welcome decision, we do sorely need the ability to customise rosters and reset injury flags in NBA Live 16.

If you have any thoughts on the latest update, feel free to post them in the comments section below, as well as in this thread in the NBA Live 15 section of the Forum.

With no interruptions in sight this week, we’re sticking to our regular schedule with the release of Episode #117 of the NLSC Podcast! Join Arcane and I as we discuss a couple of recent issues in the world of NBA Live 15 and NBA 2K15, the latest results from the 2015 NBA Playoffs, and open up our mailbag to talk about some more of your suggested topics.

• In honour of David Letterman’s impending retirement, we present the Top 10 Things Every Basketball Gamer Does!
• We cover some of the recent content updates for NBA Live 15 and NBA 2K15, and revisit the issue of difficult jumpshots in NBA Live 15, post-patch.
• No new retro games in Andrew’s collection this week, but a happy ending as far as getting the problematic copy of NBA Street Vol. 2 to work.
• The Chicago Bulls have gone fishing. Has Tom Thibodeau’s tenure in the Windy City come to an end?
• A spectacular collapse saw the Los Angeles Clippers give up a 3-1 series lead to the Houston Rockets. What’s next for them?
• We catch up on the rest of the NBA Playoffs to date, give our predictions for both Conference Finals series, and discuss Game 1 of Warriors vs. Rockets.
• After almost forgetting all about it, we talk about this year’s NBA Draft Lottery. We don’t buy into any conspiracy theories, but we do feel sorry for New York Knicks fans.
• We chat about the future of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Story Threads section of the Forum, and Kevin Garnett.
• Episode #117 closes with a Tweet from a less-than-impressed Kobe Bryant.

Click Play to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:11:05 — 35.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Have some thoughts on the latest episode? Sound off in the comments below, or here in the Forum. Also, if there’s a topic you’d like us to discuss on the next episode of the NLSC Podcast, feel free to hit us up in this thread.

Arcane and I will be recording Episode #117 of the NLSC Podcast in about twelve hours, so this is a final call for any topic suggestions/mailbag questions. Last week we got some great suggestions and had a lot of fun talking about the stuff that you wanted to hear us talk about, so if there’s anything you’d like us to discuss this week, please let us know ASAP!

Please keep in mind that topics such as the NBA Draft Lottery and ongoing NBA Playoffs are a given, along with any major basketball video game news from the past week. We’d also like to keep topics related to our content – basketball video games and real basketball, primarily the NBA – and avoid covering the same topics each week as much as possible, though there will of course be some overlap and recurring segments.

Having said that, if you have any specific suggestions, let’s hear them! Feel free to post them in the comments section below, in this Forum thread, or hit us up on our Facebook or Twitter. Thanks as always to everyone who tunes into the NLSC Podcast on a regular basis, Episode #117 is coming your way very soon.

We have one new file addition for NBA 2K13 PC today, as dtd has uploaded a custom title screen featuring LeBron James. You can download it at the link below.

dtd
LeBron James Title Screen

NBA 2K11 remains one of the most popular games in the NBA 2K series, and as such, we’re still getting the occasional upload for it. If you’re still playing the PlayStation 3 version of the game, be sure to check out a new update from Jeffx, featuring end of season rosters.

Jeffx
Jeffx’s NBA 2K11 End of 2015 Season Rosters Feb 2015 (PS3)

We’re finishing up the week with some new file additions for NBA 2K14 PC, including updated rosters, player faces, and more. Download them all at the links below!

RamBu
Stephen Curry Face
Cleveland Cavaliers CavFanatic Jersey

PrinceJohn
Enes Kanter Face

dtd
LeBron James Title Screen
Fictional Utah Jazz Court

THEUNTAMEDBEAST
LeBron James HD Face & Tattoos (Updated to v2.0)

2KShiftLeader
2KShiftLeader’s Real 2015 Roster (Updated to v2.4)
2KShiftLeader MyPLAYER “Kevin Carter”

A new roster has come through for NBA Live 15, featuring lineups that have been updated through May 14th, 2015. The roster also contains more than 1400 ratings changes, and seven player accessory updates. For a full breakdown of all the changes in the May 14th roster for NBA Live 15, check out this spreadsheet.

The two players in the spotlight this week are Zach Randolph of the Memphis Grizzlies, and Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Randolph’s steady scoring for the Grizzlies has resulted in a ratings boost that brings him up to 86 overall, while Tristan Thompson’s production in place of the injured Kevin Love has bumped his overall up to 78.

As always, feel free to add your thoughts on the latest roster in the comments section below, as well as in this thread in our NBA Live 15 Forum.

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.

The old saying suggests that you should save the best for last (as does a popular song by Vanessa Williams). In that respect, I’m actually working backwards with this series of Friday Five articles on basketball video game cover players; I’ve already covered the “cursed” cover players, followed by the best cover players, so this week, I’m listing my picks for the five worst basketball video game cover players that we’ve seen so far.

Now, keep in mind that this is all subjective, personal bias is certainly a factor, and when I say “worst”, it’s in comparison to other cover players. Outside of vandalised entries on Wikipedia, we’ve yet to see any benchwarmers join the list of players who have graced the covers of basketball video games. Having said that, let’s get to my list of the five worst basketball video game cover players!

Read More »

Arcane is feeling better, so we’re back with Episode #116 of the NLSC Podcast! This week we’ve got a fair amount of action to catch up on with the 2015 NBA Playoffs, as well as some noteworthy tidbits on NBA Live 16 and NBA 2K16 to discuss.

• Are we due for some big NBA Live 16 news in the next month? A recent Tweet from a senior animator on the game has given us cause to speculate.
• What are our expectations of NBA Live 16 at this point? Which of our most desired improvements are we most likely to see?
• The latest episode of 2KTV dropped a couple of hints about improvements the development team are looking to make in NBA 2K16. It was brief, but we liked what we heard.
• E3 2015 is just over a month away. Do we expect NBA Live 16 and/or NBA 2K16 to be there?
• In this week’s retro basketball gaming discussion, Andrew lists his latest eBay pick-ups.
• We recap the 2015 NBA Playoffs to date, and offer up a few more predictions. We haven’t done too badly so far…by our standards, at any rate.
• Speaking of predictions, we make a couple of picks for the NBA Finals. As always, we take no responsibility for any jinxes!
• Do we disagree with any of this year’s regular season award winners?
• Monty Williams’ firing, new logos and jerseys, and the upcoming NBA Draft lottery round out this week’s NBA discussion.

Click Play to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:33:22 — 46.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Have some thoughts on the latest episode? Sound off in the comments below, or here in the Forum. Also, if there’s a topic you’d like us to discuss on the next episode of the NLSC Podcast, feel free to hit us up in this thread.

Big news – or at least, some news – might be coming for NBA Live 16 within the next month.

JC Delannoy, senior animator and gameplay software engineer on the NBA Live Development Team, posted a Tweet stating that “things are going to get interesting for the next month”.

Things are going to get interesting for the next month. #nba #NBALIVE

— JC Delannoy (@jcdelannoy) May 12, 2015

While JC may simply be referring to the work that’s going into the game behind the scenes, his Tweet could certainly be hinting that information and perhaps even some previews of NBA Live 16 are coming our way in the very near future. It should be noted that E3 will be taking place from June 16th to June 18th this year, and of course, the NBA Finals always present an ideal opportunity to showcase teasers of the upcoming NBA games.

Given JC Delannoy’s role as senior animator, his hints at something “interesting” may bring good news about the animations in NBA Live 16, which would definitely be welcome in light of one of the main criticisms of NBA Live 14 and NBA Live 15. Ty Stover, a marketer at EA Sports, also posted a Tweet about “big things brewing”, but as he also handles marketing for Madden, that could easily be referring to today’s news about Madden 16, and have nothing to do with NBA Live 16.

We’ll be sure to post any details and preview media as they become available, but in the meantime, feel free to sound off in the comments section below, as well as in this thread in the NLSC Forum. Thanks to 22cedric for the heads up!

Unfortunately Arcane was a little under the weather last week, so we weren’t able to record a new episode of the NLSC Podcast. However, we anticipate getting together to record a new episode within the next couple of days, so you can expect Episode #116 to be out this week.

Naturally, we have a few things in mind to talk about, including the tidbits on NBA 2K16 in the most recent episode of 2KTV, and of course the latest results from the 2015 NBA Playoffs, but we’d also like to invite our listeners to submit some topic suggestions and mailbag questions. As I’ve said before, we want to make sure that we’re putting out an enjoyable show and not only talking about the stuff that interests us, but the stuff that you want to hear about, too.

So, feel free to post your suggestions in the comments section below, as well as in this thread in the NLSC Hub! You can also hit us up on Facebook or Twitter, if you’re active on those social media platforms.

Today’s new file additions for NBA 2K14 PC include a HD face and tattoo update for LeBron James, and freshly updated rosters. Download both releases at the links below!

THEUNTAMEDBEAST
LeBron James HD Face & Tattoos

2KShiftLeader
2KShiftLeader’s Real 2015 Roster (Updated to v2.3)

Developers Mike Wang and Scott O’Gallagher are the guests on the latest episode of 2KTV. In addition to recapping their first round simulation and discussing the second round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs, Mike and Scott also offer up a couple of tidbits on NBA 2K16.

Mike mentions that he’s working with his engineers to make chemistry a bigger aspect of the game, a point Scott reiterates in mentioning that there is a focus on making NBA 2K16 more about the team. The episode isn’t up on YouTube as of writing, but if you have the PC, PlayStation 4, or Xbox One version of NBA 2K15, you can fire it up and check out the episode from the main menu.

It’s a little early so we haven’t launched our NBA 2K16 section yet, but discussion of this year’s game is currently welcome in the NBA 2K15 section of the Forum, so feel free to post your thoughts there, as well as in the comments section below. Also, don’t forget to join in the Wishlist discussion taking place in this thread!

We’re finishing up the week with a few new file additions for NBA 2K14, including rosters, a custom title screen, and a face update for DeAndre Jordan. Please see below for all the download links.

dtd
John Wall Title Screen

2KShiftLeader
2KShiftLeader’s Real 2015 Roster (Updated to v2.2)

RamBu
DeAndre Jordan Face