The Friday Five

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five basketball video games where every player is able to dunk.

I realise the three-pointer is in vogue these days, but I’m all about a flashy dunk. In fact, I’m old enough to remember when the debate was between dazzling dunks and basketball bloopers! To be fair, it’s not as though the dunk has gone completely out of style. Dunks still make the highlight reels, and many gamers who play MyCAREER and its connected modes want a build that can throw it down just as well as stroke a three. Sure, it’s only two points like any other shot within the three-point arc, and analytics insists twos are bad, but many of us are still suckers for spectacular slams.

In real life, while it’s assumed that everyone who makes it to the NBA can probably dunk – even if it’s just a rim grazer – not everybody does. Smaller players who threw it down in college tend to dunk far less in the NBA, where there are bigger and stronger defenders crowding the paint. Sim games usually reflect this, with a combination of ratings and animation packages that ensure specific players will only ever perform layups. Arcade titles naturally take liberties with reality, but even a few sim-oriented games aren’t very strict about which players can slam it home. If dunks are your thing, here are five basketball video games where every player is able to throw it down.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five ideas that could really benefit the modding scene.

When it comes to our modding community, there’s never been a question of talent, passion, or fantastic releases. There have been changing trends in the community throughout the years and challenges that we’ve faced, but one thing has remained the same: people are releasing some really cool stuff. Of course, there are ways that we could improve upon what we’re doing, and how we go about it. In previous articles, I’ve discussed the need to be cooperative, collaborative, and generally helpful. I like to think that we collectively do a good job of that, but things could be better.

If you look at the most impressive modding projects in the history of our community, you’ll see that they were the work of several people. Likewise, the reason that new faces are able to get involved with the hobby is that the people that came before them were willing to share knowledge and resources in the form of modding tutorials and mod templates. I’m grateful that those individuals have made those contributions in addition to their own releases, but I believe that we can do more. To that end, today I’m suggesting five ideas that could benefit the modding community, particularly in regards to big projects, working with multiple games, and helping others get started.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five outlines the five stages that we go through every time there’s a new basketball game release.

We’re on the road to a new basketball game release, namely NBA 2K22. Obviously, we’re all hoping for the best as far as gameplay improvements, enhancements to game modes, and a fairer approach to recurrent revenue mechanics. Alright, we probably shouldn’t hold our breath on that last point! Nevertheless, the preview season always brings a mixture of excitement, intrigue, scepticism, and cynicism. We’re hoping for good news and want to be open-minded, but we’re also leery of being disappointed, having been burned by previous releases.

Of course, we gamers – and the content creators, influencers, and pundits within gaming communities – are creatures of habit. We don’t always learn from the past, though that is admittedly a very human problem. Having covered basketball games for the NLSC for twenty years now, I’ve noticed the same cycle repeating with every game and preview season. In fact, it’s so consistent that I can apply the “five stages of grief” model to the steps we collectively go through whenever a new basketball game release is looming. Do I expect to break the cycle simply by pointing this out? No, but if nothing else, spelling it out may explain why many of us feel so cynical at times.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five things that I’ve learned in the twenty years that I’ve been running the NLSC.

Yes, as of yesterday, I’ve officially been running the NLSC for twenty years! It was an overwhelming thought when I realised a few years back that I’d been running the site for as long as I hadn’t been running it, and now the scales have tipped in the other direction. As I’ve been saying as I’ve hit milestone after milestone, I don’t know how long I’ll end up running the site, except to say that as long as I’m enjoying myself and am able to put in the time and effort, I’ll keep doing it. Right now, I have no plans to stop anytime soon, as it’s both a passion and an immensely satisfying creative outlet.

Of course, even though the NLSC is about having fun with basketball video games, the task of running the site hasn’t always been fun and games! I’ve connected with some great people over the years thanks to our mutual appreciation of the virtual hardwood, had tremendous opportunities such as attending community events in the USA and Canada, and produced content that I’m quite proud of. At the same time, there has been unpleasantness, difficult people, and stressful times where I’ve thought about stepping away. Still, the tough times have been learning experiences as much as the good ones, and to that end, running the NLSC has taught me these five things.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of items that were often included in or suggested for our old Wishlists, which now seem odd and unnecessary.

If you want to see how far basketball video games have come over the past twenty years or so, one only needs to fire up an old favourite from the turn of the millennium. If you don’t have one of those games or the necessary hardware set up, you could also take a glance at our old Wishlists. So many things that we wanted to see added to the virtual hardwood have made it into games at some point, from franchise and career modes to deeper controls and retro content. Between NBA Live and NBA 2K, many of our wishes have come true.

Not all of them have of course, and while that’s disappointing in some respects, it’s arguably a good thing in other ways. If nothing else, in hindsight some of our wishes and suggestions weren’t particularly good or useful ideas. Now, basketball gaming has obviously changed, which means our needs and desires have also evolved. It’s very easy to dump on the past because as the old saying goes, hindsight is 20/20, and not everything ages well. Still, it’s funny to look back on those Wishlists, not only to see some seemingly lofty suggestions that became a reality, but also a few ideas that NBA Live and NBA 2K simply didn’t ever need to seriously consider, let alone implement.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five recalls five annoying quirks with officiating in various basketball video games.

Is there a more unpopular figure in professional basketball than the referee? Perhaps the commissioner, but game-to-game, the officiating is what tends to draw the most complaints. We never want to see our favourite team lose thanks in part to a bad call, and there have been incidents over the years that have led us to question how far the officials will go in trying to influence the outcome. Of course, as my old coach always told us, you can’t rely on the officiating being perfect if you want to win games. It’s true, though it doesn’t lessen our frustration with questionable calls.

Poor officiating is something that’s difficult to represent on the virtual hardwood, as we’re already at the mercy of so many other gameplay mechanics. To that end, bad calls in basketball video games tend to be more the product of undesirable tuning and technical issues, or a deliberate attempt to maintain competitive balance, rather than an intentionally realistic element. It’s just the way it goes in most games that represent the rules of basketball realistically, but certain titles do have some annoying quirks in their officiating. Well, they’re annoying when they happen to you. When you benefit from them, you’ll probably feel like you’ve got a Scott Foster on your side!

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five weird quirks that you can find in basketball games from the 90s.

As someone who was born in 1984 and thus grew up and became a teenager in the 90s, I have a lot of nostalgia for the decade. It’s become a popular decade to hate on, perhaps because it’s the one that people were starting to feel nostalgic for as social media really took off. Perhaps if the Internet had been a bigger thing earlier in the 90s, 60s and 70s nostalgia would be the popular subject of scorn instead. Then again, I suppose people have been railing against nostalgia for as long as they’ve been feeling nostalgic. History suggests that both of these feelings are cyclical, and inevitable.

With that being said, while nostalgia goggles are rose-coloured by design, it doesn’t mean that there’s no truth or accuracy in holding the past in high regard. No, not everything in the 90s was wonderful, but there were great shows, films, and video games, and it was a tremendous era for basketball. Combining those last two things, there were some very important basketball games released during the 90s that paved the way for even better titles. They were great for their time, and some are still quite playable today. Those 90s basketball games do have some weird quirks though, which we’re highly unlikely to see ever again. Of course, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five things that are simply too awesome to ever happen in future basketball games.

Having compiled several Wishlists and been in many discussions with my fellow basketball gamers over the years, I can say with confidence that as a community, we have some awesome ideas for the games that we’re so passionate about. I can also attest to the developers having great ideas of their own, and I would suggest that the times we’ve been surprised by awesome features is proof of that. Not everything is feasible though, and video game development isn’t as easy as many people still seem to think it is. There are technical challenges to overcome, as well as limitations.

This is something that most of us come to understand the more we learn about video game development. We realise that certain ideas – awesome though they may be – will be challenging to implement. Of course, that doesn’t make it any less disappointing that they may never come to fruition. Furthermore, there are awesome features and changes that will very likely never happen for conceptual reasons, some of which aren’t particularly consumer-friendly. Now, I’ll be glad to be proven wrong about any of the ideas I’m discussing here today; that’d be awesome! It’s a long shot though, as seeing these things happen in future games would definitely be too good to be true.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five issues that keep sneaking back into NBA 2K games.

Look, video game design is more difficult than a lot of gamers believe it to be. I know it sounds like I’m stating the obvious, but it bears repeating because there are people out there who seem to think creating the perfect basketball title is as simple as typing plain English into a word processor. Even more cynically, there’s a belief that the developers are capable of creating a much better game, but intentionally holding back on doing so in order to sell next year’s release. I can see the thought process behind that, but if creating a near-flawless game were feasible, it would’ve happened already.

What I’m getting at here is that video game development is challenging. Developers do care about making a great game – the suits may not, but the people actually putting in hard work absolutely do – and they want us to enjoy the fruits of their labour. In all fairness, NBA 2K has maintained a consistently high level of quality throughout the years. Even some of the more problematic and controversial releases over the past decade are still a far cry from being the worst hoops games ever made. There are some legacy issues that manage to keep sneaking back into new NBA 2K titles though, and with a new generation upon us, now is the time to shut them out.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is another list of cover players that you may not recall being the face of a game.

In my first Friday Five article on cover players that you may not recall, I focused on international/alternate covers that likely flew under the radar for even the keenest of hoops gamers. For Part 2, I’m focusing on players who were the main/only cover athlete for their respective titles, but due to either their standing in the league at the time, their game being somewhat overlooked and forgotten, or a combination of the two, they’re less likely to be remembered for being cover players at one point. That’s not to say nobody recalls their appearances on covers, but it’s easy enough to forget.

Looking back, there have been some unusual and surprising cover players. There are explanations, of course. As basketball games have become more popular, the choice of cover player has become more significant, if only as an indication of the strength of the brand. Younger players who grew up with video games naturally tend to be more excited about endorsing them, likely viewing them the same way older players looked upon appearing on a Wheaties box or the cover of Sports Illustrated. On top of that, when there were more NBA games on the market, not every title could secure a top star. With that being said, here are five more cover players that may surprise you.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five basketball gaming opportunities that developers missed out on.

The phrase “hindsight is 20/20” aptly reminds us that it’s easy to suggest alternative strategies and solutions after the event. All of the information is now apparent to us, and we have tangible results to evaluate and critique. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t have awareness and foresight in the moment. Furthermore, even with the benefit of hindsight, lessons don’t always stick. To that end, we may recall another useful idiom that was coined by George Santayana, but is often misattributed or paraphrased: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

I’m sure that you’ll agree that this applies to the many missed opportunities we’ve witnessed in basketball gaming. The full scope and impact of squandered chances and design choices isn’t always realised until years later, but we’re usually aware that it’s a bad idea at the time. As the years go by, it doesn’t get any less bewildering that these opportunities in the basketball gaming space – whether we’re talking sim or arcade games – are missed. These missed opportunities range from including appealing and beneficial content to fostering goodwill and creating excitement within the basketball gaming community. Here are five opportunities that developers let slip away.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five more players that appeared in more video games than real NBA games.

It’s been a while since the last entry in this series about players whose appearances on the virtual hardwood outnumber the amount of games they officially played in the real NBA. I’ve covered some interesting examples of such players in the previous three articles, but since then, I’ve continued to build my basketball video game collection, and have pored over the rosters to find other players who hold this distinction. There are quite few of them, and I compiled a comprehensive list in anticipation of writing future instalments of this series.

However, I’ve actually whittled the list down to a smaller number that doesn’t include every single example. Although there are at least 80 players that I could discuss here (including the ones I’ve already mentioned in previous articles), not all of them have an interesting story. For the most part, it’s the same tale: they made the cut when a game’s roster was being finalised, but were released soon after and never played a single game. Noteworthy and kind of cool for them, but it’s a repetitive tale to tell. Instead, I’ll probably end up covering around half that number in my articles as I’d like to focus on the most interesting stories, beginning with these five players.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five corrections to previous articles that I’ve written.

Guess what? I’m not perfect. Just ask former Forum members that we’ve had to show the door for one reason or another; especially the ones that email me long diatribes, or bash me in social media and blog posts! Alright, maybe don’t listen to them. For all my faults, I’d like to think I’m not the wretched stain on humanity that they paint me as being. Wry potshots at disillusioned denizens of days gone by aside, I do make mistakes. I’m not infallible in my knowledge of basketball and basketball gaming, and to that end, occasionally I’ve erred and failed to double-check for accuracy.

I’d also like to think that my features, be they articles or videos, have continued to improve. I’ve been able to develop a style, hone my writing and editing skills, and devise some interesting topics to discuss. At least, I hope that’s been the case! I’ve also made it a point to ensure that I do the necessary research regarding details that aren’t widely known, or otherwise embedded in my memory. However, there are still times when I’ve trusted my recollections when I shouldn’t have, as well as a few things that I didn’t know until I expanded my basketball video game collection. In the interests of transparency and accuracy, here are five corrections I’m making to previous articles.

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five annoying quirks with instant replay in various basketball video games.

If you had to name the key components of a basketball video game, or any sports title for that matter, instant replay would definitely be on that list. Of course, it’s also very easy to skip over, as it’s a function that we sometimes take for granted. We certainly notice when it’s absent though, as was the case in the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 06. Whether we want to re-watch an incredible play again and again from different angles, capture a video or screenshot, or take a second look at something that didn’t seem right, it’s great that we can pause and rewind the last minute or so of the action.

Because there doesn’t need to be much depth to the functionality of instant replay, it hasn’t really changed much throughout the years. For the most part, that hasn’t been a problem. However, the lack of innovation in the instant replay functions of basketball games has resulted in a few annoying quirks continuing to pop up through the years. We can usually work around them and they’re not necessarily big problems if you aren’t a content creator. Nevertheless, I imagine that long-time basketball gamers will recognise the annoying instant replay quirks that I’m describing here today. With that being said, let’s roll it back and take another look at them!

Read More »

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a breakdown of five decisions that have to be made when making retro season mods.

When I discovered the NLSC in August 1997 via an Altavista search – yes, before Googling was a thing! – I was enthralled by modding, or patching as it was called back then. As I’ve said before, the ability to give my created Michael Jordan actual bio data and edit the jersey numbers of original players was honestly mind-blowing. Like a lot of gamers, I’d tried to keep the rosters of my favourite game up to date, but the editors that our founders made opened up the possibility of creating detailed roster modifications and then sharing them with other people. I was hooked.

As the current roster update for NBA Live 96 also featured retro season rosters, I discovered that concept at the same time, and it likewise drew me in. I went on to create several current roster updates over the years, as well as a few retro season mods. With official updates handling the current rosters – quibbles with their quality aside – big retro projects are more in vogue these days. We’re seeing some fantastic retro rosters for recent NBA 2K titles, and I love it! Speaking from experience, there are a few decisions that you have to make when you’re preparing to make retro season mods, in order to have the best chance of success. Today, I’m outlining five of them.

Read More »