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.
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 predictions that were made while simulating through twenty seasons in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER.
From their earliest appearances, multi-season modes in basketball video games have provided us with the opportunity to simulate into the future, and in doing so, make some wild predictions. Although my cousin and I had a blast actually playing through a season in NBA Live 2000’s Franchise mode, we also had an interesting afternoon simulating through the full 25 years. What’s really wild to me looking back is that the once far off year of 2024 is now the present! In fact, that might just be tougher to get my head around than any of the fictional outcomes in that simulation.
Franchise modes have generally advertised their length, but career modes have been less forthcoming about their endpoint. As such, it was something that I was curious about when I ran some experiments in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER way back in March 2019 (seriously, where does the time go?). I discovered that there is indeed a forced game over after twenty seasons, as well as the answers to some other questions that I had. NBA 2K19 MyCAREER is now only available in a limited offline state, but I’ve kept records and screenshots of my time with it, including that 20-year simulation. To that end, it produced some wild predictions that I certainly have my doubts about!
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 some designs in 2K Pro-Am that seemingly predicted the future.
Allowing gamers to customise the branding for their 2K Pro-Am squad has had mixed results. It’s a fantastic idea that enhances the mode, inviting creative designs. For less mature members of the community however, it’s encouraged edgy shock humour and creative workarounds of the profanity filter. When NLSC THRILLHO was active in the 2K Pro-Am scene, it was always a roll of the dice as far as the designs we’d see whenever we loaded into a road game. No, we weren’t tearfully offended, but we did roll our eyes at immature humour that rendered our screenshots and clips unusable.
Mind you, sometimes the edgelord jokes and images that bypassed the content filter were the least of our worries. Again, we’d just roll our eyes, scoff, and then get down to business. That wasn’t as easy with the messy designs that were such an eyesore that it was disorienting trying to keep up with the action, as players blended into the court and similar jersey colours made it difficult to tell teammates from opponents. To that point though, some of those designs that we encountered in 2K Pro-Am in NBA 2K16 and 2K17 predicted the future of NBA branding! 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 reviving the retro modding scene, and how we could best accomplish that.
Given that my dissatisfaction with the most recent releases in the NBA 2K series has pushed me towards retro basketball gaming – however you want to define that – I’m obviously intrigued by the prospect of reviving the retro modding scene. To reiterate a point I made when I discussed the definition of retro gaming, retro modding means different things to different people, but broadly speaking, I’d suggest that it refers to nostalgic favourites that the community has largely moved on from, but a dedicated contingent of people still revisit and have interest in modding and using mods for.
As far as the specific titles, we can name some popular examples here. NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14 are two of the most modded games of their generation, and they hold up well. There’s a ton of nostalgia for the later NBA Live releases on PC, especially NBA Live 2005 and NBA Live 06, with NBA Live 2003 and NBA Live 2004 being up there as well. NBA 2K11 has some untapped potential, and is a game I’ve seen gamers cite as one they’d like to see benefit from more retro modding. NBA 2K17 and NBA 2K19 are two recent classics that gamers want to keep alive. I love the idea and support the initiative, but to make it happen, we must keep a few things in mind.
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.
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 timeline that led to the rosters and branding in the PC and PS1 versions of NBA Jam TE.
It’s interesting how many of us who grew up playing video games in the 90s can have different memories of the same title, depending on which platform we played it on. These days, multi-platform releases tend to be identical for the most part. Even when it comes to the cross-generational NBA 2K games these past few years, there are familiar gameplay mechanics in the eighth and ninth gen versions, not to mention shared roster updates and seasonal content. Conversely, back in the 90s, staggered release dates for the same title across various platforms led to interesting differences.
The various iterations of NBA Jam provide some fun examples. Depending on which revision was present in your local arcade, or which home port you played, you’ll recall different squads. These revisions and updates continued with NBA Jam Tournament Edition, infamously resulting in the fourth arcade revision including a cancelled trade. NBA Jam TE was ultimately updated through two NBA seasons by the time the final home ports for PC and PS1 were released, with that timeline leading to an interesting evolution in the rosters and team branding. 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 reflections on buying VC for the first time in years, and how it bummed me out to do it.
The first time I spent real money on VC was in the PlayStation 4 version of NBA 2K14. Intrigued by my first look at MyTEAM, I figured I’d drop a few bucks on it and try my luck. I had one very lucky pull – a 1993 Michael Jordan card – but it was quite clear that generally speaking, it’d be a poor investment. I also splurged on some VC in NBA 2K16, 2K17, and 2K18 in order to upgrade my MyPLAYER to be ready for the online scene sooner. Beginning with NBA 2K19 however, I began adhering to a strict No Money Spent policy. I found great satisfaction in not giving in to the pressure.
I continued that approach in future games, while encouraging my fellow gamers to do the same. That hasn’t changed: I despise the pushiness of microtransactions in NBA 2K, and how the quality of the on-court experience suffers if you want to take the long road. However, I must admit that as far as buying VC myself, after abstaining for several years, I gave in. While it isn’t one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever done in my life – I’ll keep those stories to myself, thank you very much! – I certainly wasn’t pleased that I did it. There was a reason for it, but even so, I do regret my lack of patience, and participation in a practice that continues to ruin the NBA 2K series.
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.
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 roster updates for NBA Full Court Press.
While Microsoft’s NBA Inside Drive series was respectably popular in the early 2000s, many long-time gamers may forget about its predecessor, NBA Full Court Press. It’s understandable, of course. Its name didn’t spawn a series of titles like Inside Drive, Live, 2K, ShootOut, and so on, and it was also exclusive to PC. Additionally, although it has its strong points and it’s interesting to revisit it today, it didn’t have the best gameplay or most well-designed modes. I’d suggest that Microsoft made similar mistakes with NBA Inside Drive 2000, before the series took a big leap with 2002.
One of the interesting aspects of NBA Full Court Press is that it was a 1997 season title that featured 1996 season rosters. A few years earlier, it wouldn’t have been unusual for a game to launch without updated lineups and a new rookie crop, but that approach had fallen out of vogue by 1996. I’ve previously covered NBA Full Court Press with a retrospective back in 2018, but the issue of its outdated rosters deserves another look; especially because there were actually some official roster updates that I neglected to mention! 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 requiem for ICQ.
Alright, so this topic isn’t strictly related to basketball gaming, but hey, it’s my column and I’m essentially the editor-in-chief here, so who’s going to stop me? Besides, ICQ is certainly relevant in the history of our community, as plenty of people who were around in the early days – me included – used it to chat with each other. Indeed, for those of us who were online in the late 90s, ICQ was likely one of our first instant messaging clients along with AOL Instant Messenger, aka AIM. I’m guessing that most of us haven’t used the program in years, but ICQ has remained active as of 2024.
Until now, that is. On May 24th 2024, it was announced on ICQ’s official website that the service will be shut down on June 26th, after almost 30 years. As someone who used ICQ back in the day, I’m compelled to become the latest person to eulogise this vestige of 1990s internet. Considering that we’ve also been around since 1996 and will now outlast ICQ, it also has me thinking about the passage of time; what’s come and gone, and what the internet has gained and lost over the years. I realise that this isn’t Wayback Wednesday, but nevertheless, I wanted to reminisce about ICQ and reflect on its impressive longevity, as well as my nostalgia as an Elder Millennial.
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.
Poster dunks never get old in real basketball, and they’re just as evergreen in the NLSC Top 10 Plays! Of course, when it comes to these highlights, it’s not just about the powerful and stylish finish at the rim. There’s also the crafty moves that set up the slam, from baseline spins to having the ball on a string, crossing over and weaving through traffic. While dunks definitely dominate the countdown, you’ll also find other acrobatic moves, incredible passes, and another gamewinner. As for variety, six different games are on display this week, from NBA Live 2004 through to NBA 2K24. 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 basic features in basketball video games that we take for granted.
There are a number of basic features in a modern basketball game that have become firmly entrenched as essential, at least if you want the game to be good! The genre has come a long way, and even though I still have tremendous fondness for the early classics, I’m also aware of their shortcomings. Of course, many of the basic features that were once innovations did come along in the mid to late 90s, so we’ve had them for decades now. To that point though, it’s all too easy to take some of those basic features for granted, especially if you didn’t grow up with the more primitive titles.
“Primitive” is the operative word here. When video games as a whole were in their infancy, those first steps towards what we have now did feel like huge strides. On top of that, technical limitations meant that games couldn’t have the same level of depth and detail as they do now, or even a couple of generations ago. Nevertheless, it’s still interesting to look back at some early basketball video games – as I obviously enjoy doing for Wayback Wednesday – and note how some of the basic features that we now take for granted are nowhere to be found. This doesn’t mean that we can’t and shouldn’t criticise modern games, but it’s a reminder of the progress that’s been made.
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 basketball games that saw updated releases, and other unusual editions.
Official patches are a touchy subject in gaming discourse nowadays. Many gamers believe that games are released with less polish because they can be fixed post-launch with patches, including day one updates. Gamers have also grown weary of constant updates, especially when patches are often several gigabytes in size. These concerns and criticisms are understandable, and I generally share them. At the same time, it’s inevitable with games becoming larger in scope. Furthermore, it’s preferable to a time when games rarely received patches on PC, and never received them on console.
Of course, even before patches existed in their current form and were generally PC-exclusive, games did receive fixes and updates. From different revisions of arcade ROMs to a second run of discs and cartridges containing a newer version of a title, many games back in the day received updated releases. This included being re-packaged as some kind of special edition: classics and bestseller lines, compilation packs, and so on. To that end, there have been some updated releases and unusual editions of basketball games over the years. Let’s take a look back…way back…
NLSC Your source for basketball video games.
