Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.
NBA 2K26 dominates this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays, but other games are still in the community’s rotation, as NBA 2K25, NBA Live 19, and NBA 2K14 also make an appearance. You’ll love the variety in the highlights though, as poster dunks are joined by slick ankle-breakers, nifty passes, wild buzzer beaters, and other crafty moves. Dunks are still king of course, and to that end, this week’s countdown is capped off by a most unexpected and spectacular jam from Wizards MJ. 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 takes a look at the five biggest problems with grinding in basketball video games.
One of the main reasons that I can’t get into MyCAREER or MyTEAM in newer NBA 2K games is the grinding. It also doesn’t help that those modes are no longer available once the servers are shut down, meaning that I can no longer continue the journey and enjoy all of the progress that I made. Mind you, while I might be more inclined to sink time and effort in those modes if I could still fire them up years later, I remain discouraged by how grindy they’ve become. They’re designed to make us choose between grinding or paying, prioritising recurrent revenue over enjoyment.
To that end, grinding shouldn’t be confused with a long journey, or the need to master controls to excel at a game. It’s a specific type of gameplay loop that artificially pads out a game’s length; again, usually for the sake of encouraging microtransactions to lessen the tedium. It’s baffling – though sadly not surprising – that too many gamers defend grinding, even when it results in weaker game design and a vastly inferior experience. After all, there are some recurring drawbacks with grinding, and I’m spotlighting five of them today. Please note that while grinding is present in both MyTEAM and MyCAREER, I’m mostly focusing on the MyCAREER grind here.
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at ESPN NBA 2Night.
Although Konami has produced some classic releases that earned them a reputation as one of the most iconic video game developers, the virtual hardwood was never their best genre. That’s not to say that their basketball games have all been terrible. Indeed, their sim-arcade hybrid titles that include Run and Gun, NBA Give ‘n Go, NBA in the Zone, and NBA in the Zone 2 are nostalgic favourites for many long-time basketball gamers. They provided an experience that found a good middle ground between the more serious approach of NBA Live, and the over-the-top style of NBA Jam.
However, as sim-oriented basketball games were improving and becoming deeper and more realistic in the late 90s and early 2000s, Konami’s releases were soon outclassed. From gameplay and graphics to modes and features, they fell short of NBA Live, as well as new contenders in the space such as the emerging NBA 2K series. At the same time, Konami’s NBA games did find an audience, and some of them had their good points; or at the very least, a few interesting ideas! For better or worse, ESPN NBA 2Night is a great example of that. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 whether reviews of NBA 2K should be harsher on microtransactions.
Many years ago, I used to post bulletins about other sites’ reviews of the latest game. It’s something our founders did, and I followed their example as it certainly seemed like the logical thing to do. With the preview season at an end and a new game now available, sharing those reviews reported on its general reception, and provided our community with an assortment of professional opinions as they considered picking it up. In recent years, I’ve stopped doing that. Beyond the lack of any reciprocation as far as sending other sites traffic, I’ve been unimpressed by so many reviews.
When it came to NBA Live reviews during the eighth generation, it felt like several publications were more interested in being snarky and delighting in its shortcomings, rather than being informative and constructively critical. As for NBA 2K, while there has been more to praise, it’s also felt as though some reviewers are far too gentle and forgiving. It’s not surprising in an era of content creators and access journalism, but it’s dismaying to see major issues being glossed over. In particular, it bugs me when microtransactions are basically met with a resigned shrug, or ignored altogether. Still, it’s fair to wonder if there’s any point in reviews being harsher on microtransactions.
Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.
It’s clear that NBA 2K26 will be a fixture in the NLSC Top 10 Plays in the months to come, but old favourites are definitely still in style! No matter the game however, the community is bringing it once again with a variety of thunderous poster dunks, wild alley-oops, and exciting defensive stops. Seven different titles are featured this week, from NBA Live 2000 all the way up to NBA 2K26. On top of that, a mixture of Legends, current players, and retro roster mods are on display. Our countdown will get you hyped to hit the virtual hardwood this weekend, so 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 another list of five times that basketball video games messed up player appearances.
To reiterate a point I made in my previous article, I’m not the harshest critic when it comes to graphics. Games of all genres have come a long way since I got into the hobby, particularly the likenesses in basketball titles. When you grow up with games where players have minimal facial details and team jerseys are primarily distinguished by having the correct colours – well, maybe – you aren’t really all that bothered by a face that’s 99% accurate, or a shoe with a minor error. Those are valid criticisms of course, but they’re not at the top of my list.
Nevertheless, I still notice visual oddities and inaccuracies. It’s highly unlikely to ruin my experience compared to buggy and broken gameplay, but glaring issues do stick out like a sore thumb. Whether it’s a poor likeness or there’s been some mistake with their face texture, some games have really messed up when it comes to the appearance of a player or two. That can be funny to point out and look back on of course, which brings us to this latest instalment in a series all about messed up player appearances. It’s difficult to top Giannis Antetokounmpo in NBA Live 14 when it comes to a lack of visual fidelity, but I’m sure you’ll agree that these players didn’t look their best.
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at players who ended up being notable names in the free agents pool in video games.
In a previous article, I mentioned that a number of future Hall of Fame players and other notable names have appeared in the free agents pool in various titles. Needless to say, they stand out among the selection of veteran journeymen and other far less prominent players. It was undoubtedly weird to see those all-time greats, multi-time all-stars, and other notable mainstays in the league languishing in the free agents pool. Once again though, they facilitated countless roster projects. Of course, it also led to some strange sights when CPU teams picked them up in franchise modes!
Obviously, there are reasons that notable names have occasionally turned up in the free agents pool of video games, particularly towards the end of their careers. Also, because older games came out on different platforms at different times, there were differences in their rosters. As such, not all versions of a game featured the same notable names among their array of unsigned free agents. I can’t pass up a chance to discuss NBA history when there’s a connection to basketball gaming trivia, and there are definitely some interesting stories here. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 online play encourages a mindset of “on to the next one”.
During our discussion of the presentation developer blog for NBA 2K26 in Episode #592 of the NLSC Podcast, we once again broached the idea of 2K bringing back the Pressbook in a future game. While it isn’t absolutely essential for offline gamers who can easily pause to use instant replay and Photo Moments, it’d still be handy to have. It would be even more useful in online play, since it would provide cinematic replays and stills that would otherwise be impossible to capture. While we both like the idea, Dee made a very important point about the mentality of many online gamers.
He pointed out that when it comes to online play, a lot of people take the approach of – to quote a Jay-Z song from the NBA 2K13 soundtrack – on to the next one. In other words, there’s no waiting around to reflect on your last game and to view screenshots and highlights from it, as is often the case in offline gameplay. As someone who did play online for several years, Dee is absolutely right here! Even though I’m still in favour of it returning, there’s no question that the Pressbook might not be very popular with online gamers, despite how fun and useful it could be for content creation. When it’s all about moving on to the next one though, the sentimentality just isn’t there.
Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.
With NBA 2K26 already in gamers’ hands thanks to the early access provided by the Superstar and Leave No Doubt editions, this year’s game is already making an appearance in the NLSC Top 10 Plays! Of course, the community is still eagerly playing other favourites new and old, as this week’s countdown also features highlights from six other games going right back to NBA 2K6. Whatever you’re playing this weekend, another spectacular Top 10 will pump you up to hit the virtual hardwood. 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 noteworthy shortcomings with roster editing over the years.
Although comprehensive modding projects generally require external tools to achieve the level of detail we desire, it still helps to have robust in-game roster editing on PC. As for console releases, the in-game customisation functionality is all that we have to work with. In the best case scenario, we can put those functions to good use to create everything from minimalist projects to custom rosters that are surprisingly deep given the lack of custom art files and external modding. Unfortunately, several titles have severely limited what we can create in-game.
Alternatively, some shortcomings don’t stand in the way of creating the project that we envision, but may make roster editing more cumbersome than it should be. If nothing else, there might be some minor inaccuracies that don’t affect the on-court experience, but are nevertheless annoying for those of us who are sticklers for detail. I’ve talked about limitations to roster editing before, such as an inability to assign or edit certain bio data, and those certainly are frustrating shortcomings. However, for this list, I wanted to focus on some roster editing shortcomings that don’t necessarily receive a lot of attention, but have undoubtedly bothered modders over the years.
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Jam Extreme.
I remember the excitement I felt when I saw a promotion for NBA Jam Extreme in a magazine. NBA Jam Tournament Edition had already solidified my love of Jam, so I was naturally keen on the prospect of a new game with updated rosters. The promo used the game’s cover art: a shot of Shawn Kemp soaring to the rim and throwing it down over Hakeem Olajuwon. The Reignman was actually my cousin’s favourite player growing up and thus I’d become a fan of him as well, so making Kemp the face of NBA Jam Extreme gave it some extra coolness right out of the gate.
And then of course, there’s the name itself: NBA Jam Extreme. Back in the 90s, the word EXTREME often implied that something was cool with a capital C (or a capital K, because again, it was the 90s!). In short, twelve-year-old me had ample reason to be hyped for a new NBA Jam game. As it turned out though, I never got to play NBA Jam Extreme back in the day, as I instead moved on to NBA Hangtime. Honestly, I’d have to say that that was for the best! Nevertheless, it was interesting to finally get my hands on NBA Jam Extreme all these years later. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 video game retrospectives that are rather lacklustre.
Presently, I’m covering at least one game per month with an in-depth retrospective for Wayback Wednesday. I’d like to increase that number while also covering other retro-themed topics, but time is a factor when it comes to producing those features. I want to spend ample time with a game that I’m revisiting before I talk about it, especially if it’s one that I didn’t grow up playing and thus have less familiarity with. I also want to be as detailed as possible, not only covering all aspects of the gameplay, modes, and features, but also any relevant history and interesting trivia.
To that end, beyond getting my hands on the sticks, I’ll also do some research. That often leads me to contemporary reviews, and of course, some other retrospectives. I try to avoid reading other people’s opinions before I’ve formed my own, but it’s still fascinating to see what’s been said about a game. It allows me to discuss how it was originally received, and whether my views match the consensus. Sometimes my take is very different, and that’s completely fine! Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, though opinions carry more weight if they’re well-reasoned. With that in mind though, I’ve encountered some incredibly lacklustre basketball video game retrospectives.
Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.
With this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays falling on what would’ve been Kobe Bryant’s 47th birthday, it’s only appropriate that the Mamba take the top spot with a fantastic throwback of a throwdown! Speaking of throwbacks, Michael Jordan also shows up a few times in the countdown, which is always a welcome sight. Four different games are featured this time around, ranging from NBA Showdown ’94 to NBA 2K25. As always, these highlights will get you in the mood to hit the virtual hardwood yourself, so 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 that MyCAREER has impacted other modes of play in the NBA 2K series.
MyCAREER remains one of NBA 2K’s most popular modes along with MyTEAM. To that point, both modes inspire weird tribalism between factions of NBA 2K gamers, with ardent fans of MyCAREER insisting that no one plays MyTEAM, while MyTEAM diehards claim that no one is playing MyCAREER or its connected modes. I know, I know; it’s not meant to be taken literally. It’s just a passive-aggressive way of declaring support for your chosen mode, and mocking people who play something else for choosing “incorrectly”. Honestly though, that’s no better!
Besides, even if you don’t play MyCAREER – and as someone who grew weary of the grind, that’s completely understandable – it’s still relevant to what you play in NBA 2K. From integrated content to gameplay design, what happens in MyCAREER has an effect on other modes. While that sounds bad – and in some cases it certainly may be undesirable – MyCAREER and its connected modes can positively impact the rest of the game. Other times, it’s a fairly inconsequential detail, or a fun Easter egg. And yes, the integration between MyCAREER and other modes can even be mutually beneficial! Here are five examples of MyCAREER having a far-reaching impact.
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m pondering another historical NBA What If, specifically what if Kobe Bryant broke the all-time scoring record?
Even before he became a star, many people had correctly predicted that Kobe Bryant would go down as one of the all-time greats. There’s a reason that he was tapped to be the cover player and namesake of the NBA Courtside series, and also appeared on the cover of NBA Action 98 – a forerunner of NBA 2K – while still a bench player in his second season. Robert Horry certainly believed in his young teammate back then. I recall a magazine article published during the 1998 season that quoted Big Shot Bob’s claim that Kobe Bryant would be the one to finally break the all-time scoring record.
While that prediction didn’t come true, it wasn’t too far off the mark! Kobe ended up joining the 30,000 point club, finishing his career third on the all-time scoring leaders after surpassing Michael Jordan. Throw in his countless incredible performances and career accomplishments including five rings, and it’s no wonder that a lot of fans felt that Bleacher Report ranking him as the 11th best player in history was insulting. That raises an interesting question: would Kobe Bryant have a different legacy if he had in fact broken the all-time scoring record? Let’s take a look back…way back…
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