We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on how the ninth generation has been a disappointment for me so far.
I was eager to get a PlayStation 5 as soon as possible back in 2020, and was fortunate enough to snag one during the second wave of pre-orders at my preferred retailer here in Australia. It was essential in order to cover the Next Gen version of NBA 2K that tipped off the ninth generation that November, and there are obviously other games that I’m interested in as well. However, to be completely honest, the ninth generation has been a significant disappointment for me so far. None of the NBA 2K titles on PS5 have held my attention for an entire year, nor have I been tempted to revisit them.
To that point, I’ve mostly been using my PlayStation 5 to play MyCAREER in NBA 2K14! It’s not just the virtual hardwood that’s left me feeling uninspired by the ninth generation, either. I was also disappointed by Mortal Kombat 1, though not so much for its gameplay. This is where somebody might suggest that I’ve “outgrown” video games, or that I’m simply out of touch with modern trends. Given some of the trends that have emerged in video games – basketball or otherwise – I’d actually consider that to be a point of pride! Look, I can’t deny a couple of Grumpy Old Man opinions, but when it comes to the ninth generation, I truly believe my disappointment is justified.
Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.
When it comes to the eternal “dunks or three-pointers?” question, I still choose dunks…well, most of the time. There is one way that a trey can potentially outrank a slam in a countdown of spectacular highlights, and that’s when it wins a game as part of a miraculous finish. This week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays features a couple of highlights demonstrating that exception in the Dunks vs. Three-Pointers debate, courtesy of Dee and the NBA Live 2001 Legends! You’ll also see a devastating denial at the rim, sweet streetball moves on the blacktop, and a variety of poster dunks, from seven different games. Let’s get to the action!
What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.
Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five teammates who were once traded for each other, and the video games that feature those stints.
While it’s become far more common – and some would say, acceptable – for stars to change teams nowadays, it’s always been somewhat rare for players to spend their entire career with one club. Even if a player does stay put, they’ll end up playing with a host of different teammates throughout the years. Between the players that join the team they’re on and the teams that they may go on to join, old rivals will become teammates, former teammates will reunite, and superteams will form, giving us plenty of interesting lineups to talk about…and of course, play with in video games.
Needless to say, trades also break up duos and teammates who no doubt enjoyed playing with one another. We’ve even seen former college teammates get traded for each other during the Draft, as Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison were back in 1998. A trade where former teammates end up being swapped for one another gets you thinking, specifically whether the reverse has ever happened. In other words, have any players who were once traded for each other later become teammates? It has indeed happened, and since I explore such trivia through the lens of the virtual hardwood, here are five traded players turned teammates, and the games featuring those pairings.
From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #535 of the NLSC Podcast!
While there have been some outstanding basketball video games throughout the years, none of them have been universally liked, and sometimes you just won’t vibe with a title that most other gamers seem to enjoy. This week, we join the community in discussing some of the games that have been popular with our fellow virtual hardwood enthusiasts, but for one reason or another, we just couldn’t get into. We also share some more stories of playing real basketball, and react to an illuminating article that details some of the sneaky tactics that occur behind the scenes in games with pushy recurrent revenue mechanics, some of which may well be employed by Take-Two.
Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:42:05 — 70.5MB)
To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!
Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.
During Episode #534 of the NLSC Podcast, we teased an authentic Michael Jordan highlight from a session with the 1997 roster mod for NBA 2K10. You’ll find that spectacular dish in this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays, but it’s not MJ’s only appearance in the countdown! Marcus Camby also threw down a dunk inspired by His Airness (with a little Dr J. in there as well), courtesy of the NBA Live 2001 Legends. Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant pulled off an impressive circus shot in NBA 2K7 for the and-one. A handful of other historical players also display some dazzling moments across eight different titles this week. Let’s get to the action!
What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.
Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five players who retired after a video game’s roster cut-off date.
The roster cut-off date – aka the “accurate as of” date – is ultimately responsible for a lot of basketball video game trivia. Phantom stints, rare stints, unrepresented stints, player absences…it all comes down to the rosters being locked on a specific date as a game is being finalised for launch. A major trade or signing late in the offseason is all it takes to leave a game notably outdated, or indeed with a glaring inaccuracy, such as Michael Redd infamously returning to the Milwaukee Bucks after NBA Live 2003 PC went gold. Yes, I know I bring up that example a lot, but it’s a really fun one!
Needless to say, if a player abruptly retires after a game’s roster cut-off date, that also leads to a rather noticeable inaccuracy. When I discussed players who had remained active in games after their careers ended in real life, I noted that Larry Johnson was an example of such a player. While the other players I mentioned in that Five were still under contract and on the injured list when the games in question were released, LJ retired on October 10th 2001; after NBA Live 2002’s rosters had been set, and too late to be accounted for. Here are three other All-Stars, along with a couple of notable role players, who retired after the roster cut-off date and thus remained active in games.
We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on how inaccurate stats can be a real turn-off for those of us who are sim heads.
Even though sim basketball gamers have somehow come to be considered “casuals” by gatekeeping denizens of the competitive online scene, there are still plenty of virtual hoopers who prefer the NBA side of video games. Sim heads are more likely to prefer franchise play and the traditional career mode experience, where a realistic style of play is more viable. Of course, opting for realism across the board is easier said than done. After all, in franchise and career modes, that means playing a full 82-game season on twelve minute quarters, which can be a daunting prospect.
It’s something that I’ve done in multiple games now. In my ongoing NBA 2K14 PS4 MyCAREER, I’m playing on full quarters and have yet to simulate a game as of my sixth season, and it’s been a more rewarding journey as a result. That’s how I feel about all of my games where I’ve played through at least one season from start to finish, but to that point, I can attest to it being a lengthy process. Even if you never feel bored, it can still be challenging to find the necessary free time. This is why the simulation function and shorter quarter length options are so useful, but for hardcore sim gamers, the inaccurate stats they produce can be difficult to get your head around.
Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.
It’s always interesting to see which motifs emerge each week in the NLSC Top 10 Plays, and this week, it seems to be NBA 2K14! The game is well-represented in the countdown, including a play that spotlights a 2024 season update for one of the most modded games in the history of our community. Speaking of mods, the Classic Seasons project for NBA 2K19 also produced a highlight featuring the Indiana Pacers of the 90s. NBA 2K24, NBA 2K23, NBA 2K16, and NBA 2K15 were also in the rotation for gamers this week, leading to another assortment of spectacular virtual hardwood moments. Let’s get to the action!
What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.
Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.
Something that’s become very obvious over the years with the NLSC Top 10 Plays is that the community isn’t just about pulling off cool moves on the virtual hardwood, but also celebrating a love of basketball and the history of the NBA. Unfortunately we’ve lost some Legends over the past couple of weeks, namely Bill Walton, Chet Walker, and Jerry West. They can live on in video games of course, and indeed this week’s countdown features a couple of highlights paying tribute to Walton and West, in addition to other stars past and present putting on a show. Rest in peace, and let’s get to the action.
What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.
Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five brief stints that somehow managed to be captured in basketball video games.
At this point, I’m sure that I sound like I’m on a constant loop whenever I refer to basketball video games as interactive almanacs. I can’t help it; it’s a fitting term that describes what it’s like to browse the rosters in an old release! Of course, games will vary as far as being an accurate resource. If nothing else, they can capture some very brief stints – and in some cases, phantom stints that didn’t result in any official on-court appearances – which may not be apparent if you don’t know your NBA history. To that point though, they’re still fascinating glimpses of the league at that time!
In older games, between revised releases, ports to different platforms, and publishers releasing games at various points during the season rather than everyone aiming for a pre-season launch, titles set in the same year – and even different versions of the same title – could easily feature inconsistent rosters. To me, that’s only made those games an even more entertaining window into the past, especially when they preserve some brief stints! Those can certainly occur in games that were released close to opening night, but games that were released later stood a better chance of capturing an even rarer stint that resulted from a midseason move. Here are five noteworthy examples.
From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #532 of the NLSC Podcast!
Which basketball video games made you fall in love with the genre? This week, we join the community in reminiscing about the titles that got us hooked on the virtual hardwood, our go-to teams and players, and some of the special memories that we made with them. This includes sharing some stories about fake articles based on our seasons, and an unlikely comeback for a Boston Celtics legend during the 1995 campaign in NBA Live 95 PC! Speaking of the Celtics, we also share a few thoughts on the 2024 NBA Finals, which leads us to recall some of the underdog Boston teams from the mid-to-late 90s and early 2000s, and discuss notable moves and Draft picks the team made during their rebuilding attempts.
Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:16:38 — 53.0MB)
To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!
Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.
When promoting a feature such as the NLSC Top 10 Plays, I don’t want to fall victim to the overuse of superlatives. I mean, if you call every countdown the best one ever, it quickly loses its meaning. With that being said, this week’s selection truly is a treat! Posters that show off contact dunk animations with oomph, a perfectly-timed putback, a gamewinner, some of the biggest names in the history of basketball doing their thing…tell me that isn’t exciting! With five different games on display from NBA 2K14 to NBA 2K24, as always, you’ll want to pick up a controller after watching these highlights. Let’s get to the action!
What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.
Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five ways to improve the great resource that is Basketball Reference.
Since it was launched in April 2004, Basketball Reference has become an essential destination for hoops fans. Whether you’re looking for player statistics and bio data, league records, team rosters, or pretty much anything else you’d ever want to know about the NBA, ABA, WNBA, and other leagues, the site has you covered. Over the years, Basketball Reference has constantly added features and data to become an even more valuable and entertaining resource. It’s also powering the basketball version of Immaculate Grid, a fun daily grid-based trivia game that I really enjoy.
Needless to say, Basketball Reference has also become an essential resource when creating roster mods for basketball video games. No matter whether you’re making a current roster or retro season mod, there’s no doubt that you’ll be browsing Basketball Reference for the information you need. It’s certainly quicker than the old methods of looking up almanacs, magazines, trading cards, and previous video games, as we did in the early days of our modding community! However, there are a few ways that Basketball Reference’s resources could be made even better, especially for people creating rosters. If it’s at all possible, I’d love to see these additions and enhancements.
From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #531 of the NLSC Podcast!
With EA Sports College Football 25 generating some positive buzz with gamers, could it lead to EA Sports bringing back its college basketball series as well? For that matter, could the enthusiasm and a successful launch lead to NBA Live finally making its return as EA seemingly looks to expand its lineup? This week, we join the community in discussing EA Sports potentially returning to the virtual hardwood, whether we’d prefer an NBA or college basketball game, and some of our expectations for such a comeback. We also name our all-time NBA enforcer starting fives, and pay tribute to the late, great Bill Walton, who sadly passed away last week following a battle with cancer.
Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:25:00 — 58.7MB)
To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!
It’s time for another round-up of recent uploads to the NLSC YouTube channel! For those who aren’t aware, in addition to the NLSC Podcast and Top 10 Plays of the Week, Dee and I frequently upload basketball gaming highlight reels from games we play together over Parsec, as well as our solo sessions. Here’s what you may have missed from late April through to the end of May!
As Dee and I have discussed on the podcast, we’ve been connecting to play some co-op games of the Super Nintendo version of the original NBA Jam. Our favourite team to use thus far has been the Phoenix Suns with Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson, and to that end, Dee has uploaded footage from our game against the Washington Bullets. We also connected to play Basketball Classics and had an exciting head-to-head game that went down to the wire, and began a Road Trip in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition with johnz1’s NBA Jam: Legends On Fire Edition mod. Be sure to check out those uploads from Dee to see how much fun we’ve been having with Parsec!
Meanwhile, I’ve been uploading the latest highlight reels from Year 6 in my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER to the NLSC YouTube channel, including an assortment of the best plays from Games 41-50, a big comeback victory, a dunk and alley-oop fest against the Clippers, and the 2019 All-Star Game. I also had some fun dusting off NBA Live 09 to play with FIBA teams, namely a showdown between Australia and Slovenia.
You can check out all of those videos below! Once again, be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel if you haven’t already, as Dee and I are committed to bringing you regular highlights and video essays in addition to the podcast and weekly countdowns of the community’s Top 10 Plays. As always, feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play, and we’ll do our best to get them into the rotation ASAP!
NLSC Your source for basketball video games.
