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 the five best additions to NBA MyCAREER.
These days, it’s not fashionable to play NBA MyCAREER. It’s usually seen as a means to an end; a way of familiarising yourself with the mechanics, and grinding for VC and Badge XP to level up your player in preparation for the online scene. This is unfortunate, as MyCAREER once provided an extremely enjoyable alternative to franchise play, placing gamers in the shoes of an aspiring NBA player. Sure, the story-driven approach has been hit and miss, but some of the better tales were well-told, with impressive production values and fun mini-games.
Those aspects are still there as of NBA 2K23, though there’s been a detrimental shift in focus. The downfall began last generation, and swiftly progressed following the introduction of The Neighborhood and later The City. Still, NBA MyCAREER does remain a fairly robust mode; at least until the servers are shut down and it disappears forever! Reflecting on the history of NBA MyCAREER and the days when it was more than just a legacy mode that most use as a stepping stone to the online scene, there have been some great additions that benefitted the traditional career experience. Having played the mode extensively over the years, I’m picking these as the five 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 the player portraits in NBA Live 95 and NBA Live 96 PC.
Although our fondest basketball gaming memories come from what we accomplished on the virtual hardwood, our nostalgia encompasses everything about a title: graphics, sound effects, music, and the overall style. We fondly recall the smallest details, from the authenticity of Steve Nash lying on the floor in NBA Live 10 to Terry Mills and Oliver Miller having the same ratings in the PC version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition. When you’ve spent enough time with an old favourite to know it back to front, the most obscure details and trivia are embedded in your memories.
I’m not just trying to wax poetic with navel-gazing fluff here. I do honestly believe that, and it’s why I not only revisit games to produce Wayback Wednesday content, but also for my own enjoyment. It’s also why I don’t just do retrospective reviews, but also cover specific features and concepts in-depth. However, I’ll admit that it might seem like a flimsy justification to talk about – of all things – the portraits in NBA Live 95 and 96 PC! They are indeed an aesthetic element that are part and parcel of my nostalgia for those titles though, so 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 the rewarding feeling of finishing seasons in basketball video games.
I’ve previously said that completion is what we make it when it comes to the virtual hardwood. Indeed, I dedicated an entire article to exploring that notion. I still stand by that. While it can be extremely fulfilling to be a completionist when it comes to the games we play, it isn’t a necessity to have fun. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t collect all of the cards in MyTEAM, reach the Hall of Fame in MyCAREER, or play through to a championship in a mode representing the NBA season. As you long as you enjoyed your time with a game and feel like you got your money’s worth, that’s what counts.
With that being said, there’s great joy to be had in playing through seasons from start to finish. If you manage to play multiple seasons – either before the next game comes out, or by returning to an old favourite – it can be an even more rewarding experience. It’s a tall order, especially with a full 82-game season on twelve minute quarters with no simulation, as I’ve often aimed to achieve. No matter which settings you prefer however, there’s a feeling of accomplishment when a season is in the books, and your team is standing at midcourt raising the Larry O’Brien trophy. Even before that, of course, there’s a journey that I strongly advise everyone to savour along the way.
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.
‘Tis the season and the night before Christmas, which means it’s time for this year’s holiday edition of the NLSC Top 10 Plays! Santa and Boom the Elf tip off the proceedings with some glass-shattering action in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, and the highlights only get better from there! On top of the usual countdown, Dee has also included a bonus highlight reel of submissions that may not have made the Top 10, but will still bring you plenty of holiday cheer. Season’s Greetings, and stay tuned for a new episode of the NLSC Podcast tomorrow!
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 technical frustrations that one might encounter when retro gaming.
I love retro gaming! As I’ve said before, when I think back, I was probably born to be a retro gamer. The first console I ever played was one that came out before I was even born, and part of the 1983 video game crash. It’s not that I don’t enjoy playing new games and all the technological advances the medium has made, but my early forays into gaming have undoubtedly influenced my ability to overlook dated aspects if I still enjoy the gameplay. Some games hold up better than others – especially basketball and other sports titles – but bottom line, I can still have a blast with the classics.
Of course, over the years, that hasn’t always been easy to do. This is particularly true of older PC basketball games following upgrades to a new system. At the end of the day, retro gaming (basketball or otherwise) is still something of a niche interest within the hobby, with technical frustrations arising because it’s not kept in mind when new hardware and operating systems are being developed. Fortunately, there are usually workarounds, though they can be intimidating if you’re not technically savvy. I’ve been able to find ways to get all of my old games running for my retro gaming and content creation purposes, but there have definitely been some technical frustrations.
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 the defunct and relocated teams that are fun to play with in older games.
If it isn’t obvious from producing a weekly Wayback Wednesday feature, as well as playing old favourites with Dee4Three on Parsec and discussing them on the NLSC Podcast, I love revisiting basketball games from multiple eras, and bringing them back into my gaming rotation. Sometimes I get on an extended kick with a game, as is the case with NBA 2K14 for PlayStation 4, while other titles I just like to throw on for an exhibition or two. Whether I’m playing solo or with Dee, those exhibition games always raise an important question: who to play with, and against?
Obviously, our favourite teams – the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics – will always be an option. Of course, there are some Bulls and Celtics teams throughout time that aren’t as fun to play with, while other teams are far more intriguing. However, more and more, I find myself being drawn to the defunct, relocated, or re-branded teams in older basketball video games. 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 frank thoughts on poor community managers, and community hires forgetting where they came from.
This is one of those articles that are difficult to write without sounding bitter, grinding an axe over sour grapes. And, to be fair, there is a touch of bitterness when it comes to this topic. However, while “you sound bitter” is a tired yet effective ad hominem, it doesn’t disprove a point; particularly when someone has a legitimate grievance. As someone who has tried to represent the community to the best of my ability whenever I’ve had the opportunity to do so, I have strong feelings about the way company reps handle themselves…especially if they were once “one of us”.
Things have unquestionably changed in the community since I took over the NLSC in August 2001. Companies are more selective about whom they work with, but not in a way that benefits gamers. Instead of connecting with people dedicated to constructive and honest feedback on behalf of gamers, they grant access to content creators who are willing to promote – or indeed, shill – and have a big enough audience to make it worthwhile. It makes sense from a business standpoint, but it’s eroded the goodwill that community programs once fostered. When it’s someone you used to know as a member of the community, it’s hard not to feel like you’ve been stabbed in the back.
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.
This week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays isn’t just about dunks, but don’t worry; there are plenty of incredible slams to get you hyped up for a weekend of basketball gaming! However, you’ll also find defenders being left in the dust in The Rec, big defensive plays being made at the other end, and cold-blooded clutch performances. Additionally, five different games are represented in this week’s countdown, ranging from the original NBA Street on PlayStation 2 right through to NBA 2K23 Next Gen. If you’re hitting the virtual hardwood this holiday season, make sure you’re capturing your best moments so that you too can give the gift of highlights!
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 modding pipe dreams.
Even though I haven’t been regularly modding for about a decade now – and to that point, does time ever fly! – I can’t help brainstorming ideas for projects. Maybe I’m looking for the one that will inspire me to get back into the hobby on a more regular basis. Maybe I like the idea of getting back into modding more than making the necessary commitment to a large project, especially after experiencing such burnout after all those years of working on roster updates for NBA Live PC. If nothing else though, I enjoy sharing those ideas, in case it inspires someone else to explore them.
For all the wonderful mods that have been made over the years, there are a few ideas that we haven’t fully explored. There are some games that didn’t receive as many releases, mostly because the necessary tools came later in their release cycle when everyone was ready to move on. Some ideas just weren’t possible at the time, but may be worth revisiting now that we have better tools and more knowledge. And of course, there are the modding ideas that remained pipe dreams because they were simply too ambitious or time-consuming, but could still happen if the interest and dedication is there. As such, I’m throwing out five more ideas for the community’s consideration.
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 the introduction of the All-Time Teams in NBA 2K.
In many respects, NBA 2K18 was a turning point for the series. MyCAREER added The Neighborhood, a concept that has since evolved into The City. While it wowed gamers when it was unveiled, it’s unfortunately taken the mode in a direction that has less and less relevance to basketball. It also introduced a new motion system that in the opinion of many NBA 2K gamers – and I’m among them – is inferior to games that came before it. Paying for haircuts, a MyPLAYER character who gave up basketball to be a DJ, B-Fresh…in short, NBA 2K18 isn’t one of the series’ strongest releases!
At the same time, it unveiled a welcome addition to the series’ complement of retro content: the All-Time Teams. It’s all too easy to dismiss the All-Time Teams as one of the weaker ideas for bonus squads in NBA 2K, merely combining already-licensed historical players with current stars. As a concept, it’s nothing we haven’t already done with roster mods, going right back to the early days of NBA Live on PC. However, All-Time Teams are an important expansion of the retro content in NBA 2K, even if they aren’t as exciting as specific classic teams. 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 a few thoughts on focusing on what I find fun in basketball gaming.
I realise that sounds like a strange thing to say. Whether it’s a video game or any other hobby, the point is to enjoy the time you’re spending with it. It doesn’t make sense to not have fun! And yet, that is something that happens with video games, particularly newer releases. I promise this isn’t just another rant about microtransactions, although they undoubtedly play a major role in this. Modes like MyTEAM and MyCAREER are designed in a way that intentionally limits the fun if you intend not to spend, and that’s an issue that was created by the adoption of recurrent revenue mechanics.
However, it’s bigger than that. Even when you’re past the unpleasant grind, indeed even if you pay to skip it, modern basketball games aren’t as fun as they should be. Moreover, ideas that should be fun in theory end up detracting from the enjoyment, either because of the looming shadows of microtransactions and FOMO, or simply less than optimal design. The frustrating part of that is how easy it is to get hooked despite these obvious pitfalls, which of course is completely intentional. However, once you can break free of that spell and start focusing on what is fun, basketball gaming will return to being the enjoyable pastime that it should always be.
Welcome to another week of The Sunday Substitute! It’s a collection of articles where I document some of my basketball video game memories. Once again, I’m continuing with my series within a series: The MyPLAYER Transaction Report.
Part 4 of The MyPLAYER Transaction Report is where my interest in career modes starts to wane. I begin to load manage my gaming habits, spending my time more evenly between the modes. Rather than completing seasons, my eyes are more firmly on PSN trophies. As a result, there’s only one completed season here, and it’s spread across two entries.
There are some noteworthy moments here, though. I’m involved in my first-ever trade, and I played for both 2022 NBA Finals teams in the same season, the Warriors and the Celtics. It’s also very Junior-centric, with three different builds across NBA 2K21. Can you believe I had five builds in NBA 2K21 all up?
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.
A heavily-guarded three-pointer is impressive, we’ll marvel at a circus shot, and a gamewinner at the buzzer will bring us out of our seats. At the end of the day though, what makes an exciting highlight reel in basketball, virtual or otherwise? Dunks, dunks, and more dunks! This week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays is packed full of slams, courtesy of titles representing the current NBA, classic NBA, and college basketball. By all means keep those other highlights coming, but as I’m sure you’ll agree, you can’t go wrong with dunks!
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 reflecting on five weird outcomes in my various franchise and career games over the years.
There are many ways to play franchise modes in basketball video games. I’ve always preferred a more straightforward approach: take control of a team with current rosters, leave injuries and CPU trades on (assuming they’re optional), and play through the season to create my own reality. While this may be more conventional than a fantasy draft or using a heavily customised roster, it’s not immune to weird outcomes. Sim engines are prone to producing unexpected results, from season standings and Playoff outcomes to weird league leaders. Obviously, this happens in career modes as well.
Of course, when we’re talking about realism and weird outcomes with sim engines, it isn’t easy to define what that actually means. Results and player movement may not reflect reality, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re unrealistic in nature. In real life, we do see puzzling trades, bewildering awards and All-Star snubs, and teams that are surprisingly better or worse than expected. Some outcomes are unlikely, but weird things do happen practically every year in the NBA. With that being said, sim engines do produce some illogical and weird outcomes that are unrealistic and highly unlikely given the circumstances. Here are five examples that I’ve encountered.
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 2K13.
As a 90s kid who grew up with NBA Live, that series has been the focus of several of my retrospectives. In addition to Wayback Wednesday features, I’ve also covered every NBA Live as part of our 25th Anniversary celebrations. I haven’t celebrated NBA 2K’s milestones in the same way, mostly because while I do consider myself a fan of the series now, I don’t have the same nostalgia for and experience with it going right back to the beginning of my basketball gaming. Games like NBA 2K14 and even NBA 2K11 have only become some of my all-time favourites in retrospect.
However, there are NBA 2K titles that I’ve played enthusiastically from launch, and am nostalgic for. Indeed, this year marks the tenth anniversary of the first 2K title that I was hooked on from day one: NBA 2K13. While the cancellation of NBA Live 13 was another blow for EA Sports, it opened up an opportunity for me to expand my basketball gaming horizons, and Visual Concepts didn’t disappoint. Even putting aside my personal affinity for NBA 2K13, I believe it’s one of the strongest releases in the NBA 2K series. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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