Reviews

Welcome to The Sunday Substitute! Like Steve Kerr in the 2003 Western Conference Finals, I’m coming back into the game after a lengthy stint sitting on the pine. Today, I’m looking to come back with a bang by reviewing the WNBA Season mode in NBA 2K20. Enjoy!

When 2K announced that they were introducing the WNBA Season mode, it was the feature I was most excited for in NBA 2K20.

WNBA Play Now was my favourite mode in NBA Live 18, and I thought the ball was in EA’s court when it came to developing a highly engaging mode for an otherwise underrepresented – and let’s be real, underappreciated – league in basketball video games. However, I was disappointed when they failed to progress the mode further in NBA Live 19.

In my opinion, 2K jumping on the opportunity to create a full season mode for the WNBA represented another telling blow in the basketball video game rivalry. But the question remains; is the mode any good?

Here are my impressions of the mode after playing an entire season on All-Star difficulty, with default sliders, controlling the Las Vegas Aces.

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The week is in the dying minutes of the fourth quarter, which means it’s time for the Sunday Substitute! It’s the article where I get some valuable minutes while the star is resting on the bench. I might not have the time to do this every week, but I like to think I’m still making a contribution to the team. It’s been a long time on the pine for me, but today I felt like I had to share my first impressions of NBA Playgrounds.

After mistakenly releasing a beta early, NBA Playgrounds was officially released on the 9^th. If you have listened to the last few NLSC Podcasts, you would know that Andrew and I were keeping close tabs on the game, as it was looking to be the spiritual successor of games like NBA Jam and NBA Street. Fast forward to now and I have played the game for several hours. I have completed all circuits, and have leveled up Bill Laimbeer, Luis Scola and Thon Maker to the Gold level. But the question remains: with all this play I have logged, what do I actually think of the game?

I must state now that I haven’t experienced the online mode in NBA Playgrounds, so my impressions are based purely on the offline content. I’m doing this initially since online experiences have tended to skew my perceptions of other video games. I don’t want to potentially give NBA Playgrounds a bad rap because of some cheese a brat online may have exploited constantly. Ultimately, the game itself is the most important thing…at least for my initial impressions. With that out of the way, let me discuss what I have liked and haven’t liked about the game so far.

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NBA 2K13 has been out for almost two months at this point, giving me more than ample time to get my hands on the game and check out everything it has to offer. As such, I feel I can finally offer a full, detailed review that touches upon the things that an enthusiastic basketball video game fan would want to know about this year’s offering from 2K Sports, for the PC platform.

2K found themselves without competition once again following the cancellation of NBA Live 13, but it was clear from the outset that they wouldn’t be phoning it in. Last season’s lockout proved to be something of a hindrance to NBA 2K12 despite its impressive historical content, but fortunately for all of us, that wasn’t an issue this year. With the NBA back to business as usual and the opportunity to hit the ground running, how is NBA 2K13 PC looking after a couple of months? Read on to find out.

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Having recently upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S-II, I decided to pick up the Android version of NBA Jam, which was released back in March. After playing a few exhibition and Campaign mode games, I thought I’d share a quick review for anyone else who may be considering picking it up for their Android device.

Being a fan of the original NBA Jam series, as well as the 2010 reboot and last year’s On Fire Edition, I anticipated that the mobile version would be a solid, enjoyable incarnation of the classic arcade basketball game, something that would be fun to play on-the-go. Just how good is it, and how does it stack up to its console brethren? Read on to find out!

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I’ve already posted several of my impressions of NBA 2K12 in the NLSC Forum as well as in our recent roundtable discussion, but after playing the game for a month and seeing all that it has to offer, I’ve decided that a full review of the PC version is in order.

NBA 2K11 provided a tough act to follow and the lockout has certainly done NBA video gaming no favours, preventing the inclusion of this year’s rookie crop and cancelling portions of the 2011/2012 season, meaning no roster movement and no games to get excited about. However, NBA 2K12 has done a very commendable job of bolstering itself for the lockout and building upon last year’s success, with improvements to gameplay and My Player along with its expanded historical content.

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Having spent almost two weeks playing NBA Jam: On Fire Edition and posting some preliminary impressions in the NLSC Forum, I’m ready to give my full review of the game. Being a fan of NBA Jam from back in the day, I was intrigued by the idea of Real AI from the very first time it was mentioned in previews, wondering just what impact it could have on the game. I was also keen to see what the game had to offer in terms of its new modes, Road Trip and the Online Arena. With enhanced gameplay, new game modes, more legends, more special teams and players and better online functionality, the question is: does NBA Jam: On Fire Edition live up to the hype?

The short answer…yes. The long answer…well, read on.

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