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The Tuesday Triple

The Tuesday Triple: How We Handle Realism in Basketball Video Games

This is The Tuesday Triple! Originally, it was JaoSming’s answer to The Friday Five, but now that he’s at Visual Concepts working on 2KTV, it’s up for grabs whenever I have a topic that I’d like to cover in three points instead of five, or I can’t think of five items for a list or countdown. On this occasion, I’m using it to talk about how we handle realism in basketball video games.

Da_Czar’s creed sums it up in six words: Don’t play video games, play basketball. It’s a catchy slogan, the perfect mantra for anyone who wants to see basketball video games become as realistic as possible. For anyone who considers themselves a “sim gamer”, they’re words for us – and the developers, for that matter – to live by. Six words to eloquently and succinctly sum up what we want: realism in basketball video games, from top to bottom.

Do we really, though? Do we appreciate the realism that’s already present in basketball video games? Do we truly realise what realism means for the basketball gaming experience? Do we really know what we want?

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No Dumb Monday or Tuesday Triple This Week

Due to dumb excuses (watching Super Mario World speedruns instead of writing papers), I was unable to make time to write my weekly articles. I was thinking of doing a late release but no.

Since I did spend too much time watching speedruns (thank you for the introduction SGDQ), I will drop off one of the Dumb Facts I never got to. Super Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach were in NBA Street V3 for GameCube. Seriously, that a pretty sweet cameo for the NBA Street series.

Other than that, I don’t have much for you all this week. As we’ve said in the podcast, things have been expectedly quiet and the topics to write about have been lacking. So maybe I will change things up a bit for The Tuesday Triple for the summer since my attempt to overthrow the king that is The Friday Five has failed. Enjoy your week!

The Tuesday Triple: Why Next Gen Sucks Now

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

We are about seven months into the latest generation of PlayStation and Xbox consoles. This also means that we have experienced about seven months of next-generation NBA basketball games with NBA 2K14 and NBA Live 14. Both games have had a pretty interesting year, from fantasy team modes that make you want to open your wallet again, to online issues and unmet potentials from both games. Still, I would say that both games started the latest generation of basketball videogames on a mostly positive note, it’s just too bad that both games suck now. Hit Read More to find out why.

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The Tuesday Triple: My Basketball Gaming Pipe Dreams

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

I have been active in the NLSC community for almost 9 years now and there are still these unattainable pipe dreams that I have and simply cannot let go of. I have made Street mods for damn near every PC basketball game since NBA Live 2005, I did my best to help to narrow the modding ability gap with all the tutorials I have done over the years, and I have gotten to assist great tool makers like Leftos and Vlad create the modding tools we use today. I have done a lot, but there are at least three ideas I have that I know will just never happen for me.

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The Tuesday Triple: NBA 2K15 PC Speculation

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

When I was writing yesterday’s Dumb Monday I realized there are three different outcomes of NBA 2K15’s release on the PC platform. It could be a PlayStation 4/Xbox One port, a fully-featured PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 port, or the same watered-down port we have received year after year. Perfect for a Tuesday Triple right? So let’s get the hype train on the tracks and the speculation tinfoil hats on, I am going to try and predict how the community would react to each of these possible releases.

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The Tuesday Triple: Vita Remote Play

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

About a month ago I found an auction on eBay I couldn’t pass up. I finally got a PlayStation Vita, the current portable console from Sony, for a little more than $90. It was a great deal and I got very lucky with how great the condition is for something I got for so cheap, used. Since NBA 2K13 was the last basketball game to come out for the old PSP, I wasn’t getting this for playing virtual basketball on the go. I wanted it for Remote Play with my PlayStation 4. For those unaware, you can stream from the PlayStation 4 to the Vita and play without a controller or a TV. So now that I have had plenty of time to play NBA 2K14 and NBA Live 14 with it, I figured I would give some of my impressions of Remote Play basketball.

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The Tuesday Triple x3: More NBA Video Game Commercials

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

Andrew featured his favorite non-gameplay NBA video game commercials in his latest Friday Five, I was a bit disappointed. I liked three of the seven he linked in his article, specifically the 2K14 next gen commercial with LeBron, and 2K11’s MJ’s Greatest Moments and Signature Moves. The rest, including Jordan showing off his many rings, just, I don’t know, didn’t resonate with me. So in response, I am going to triple the content of this Tuesday Triple with the following 9 great NBA video game commercials.

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No Dumb Monday or Tuesday Triple This Week

Due to dumb excuses, I was unable to make time to write my weekly articles. I was thinking of doing a late release but I think just waiting until next week is the better option.

To make up for the lack of articles, I guess I can mention one little Dumb Fact. With the hiring of bedwardsroy19, he joins Leftos as the latest NBA video game community member to be hired by 2K. bedwardsroy19 and Leftos, coincidently or not, are the only 2 community members I have had the opportunity to chat with (about NBA games) on my YouTube Channel; including the PC Meets PS3 series using bedwardsroy19’s rosters and many other videos with Leftos. So if you want a job at 2K, let me know when you want to talk NBA video games on my channel, heh.

So I hope you enjoyed that Dumb Fact, thanks for understanding the lack of articles this week. Feel free to check out past weeks’ entries using the Features dropdown above, have a great week!

The Tuesday Triple: My Favorite Hype Videos

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

Like I said in yesterday’s Dumb Monday, we are just a few weeks away from E3 which may give us our first looks at NBA 2K15 and NBA Live 15. While the information dropped may be lacking, both 2K and EA will be looking to kickstart their hype-trains for the upcoming games. In the spirit of whatever teaser or screenshot we might get, I am going to list off my top three short videos for NBA games that got me hyped up for the next game.

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The Tuesday Triple: Awesome Old Mixes

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

Just like the wishlists, mix articles go best in groups of 3. So accompanying articles on my favorite MomentousCeltic mixes and my favorite mixes that I made, I am going to list three of my favorite “old” mixes. “Old” is a weird way of classifying these videos because I know Shady00018 has older ones, but I do feel like there is this subjective line about three to four years ago before the big YouTubers got popular. It will work well enough for this article’s purposes at least, so enough writing, let’s watch some mixes.

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The Tuesday Triple: A Blacktop Wishlist

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

I have done two wishlists already this year, but this is The Tuesday Triple, so a third one is needed. Some may be getting a bit, sick, of me talking about my favorite mode, Blacktop. I am not going to deny that I bring it up a lot, but someone has to. So if I have the opportunity to shine some light on Blacktop in hopes that more people might give it a shot and enjoy it, or at least stop calling for its deletion in favor of more disc space, then I will probably keep featuring it. With that, let’s take a look at three realistic and reasonable wishlist items for NBA 2K15’s Blacktop mode.

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The Tuesday Triple: Best Arcade Gameplay in Sim Games

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

I have noticed a couple of articles lately that cover the lack of arcade sports titles coming out. Not including the roster updates for the mobile version, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition was the last arcade basketball game to come out, in 2011. With the NBA Street, NBA Ballers, and really any other non-traditional basketball series missing in action for almost 10 years now, fans of this subgenre have had to deal with either playing the same games with outdated rosters or relying on fan updates. Personally, I have gone a different route. Each year I turn the annual simulation release into the arcade game I want it to be, and here are the three I think transform the best into an arcade game.

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The Tuesday Triple: Popular Modes I Barely Played

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

Blacktop mode this, Blacktop mode that. I talk a lot about my favorite mode and rarely talk about the many other modes that NBA 2K and NBA Live games feature. For the most part, if I don’t know enough about a topic, I will shy away from discussing it. In the same way you will probably never see me get into cyberface or shoe patching, I try to stay away from the many discussions about simulation gameplay, accessory accuracy, or the other parts of these games that I don’t feel confident enough giving my opinion on. So, for today’s Tuesday Triple, I am going to take a look at some popular game modes that I have either skipped completely, or only played once or twice.

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The Tuesday Triple: Annoying Community Trends

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

I am very happy with our patching community, I just want to make that clear before starting this article. We are a generally helpful and kind bunch of individuals who are commonly connected through basketball video games. Add the fact that we an international community that spans all types of cultures, and we have something truly special. Now, there are some common trends that will pop up every once in a while that annoys me to my core. These are minor pet peeves and not something I want to try and force to change around here. That said, here are my biggest annoyances with our patching community.

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The Tuesday Triple: My Three Best Mixes

This is The Tuesday Triple, where I attempt to break down random topics into three points, and maybe an “and one” if I need it. Similar to the established Friday Five by Andrew, the topics will be related to basketball video games and their communities as a whole.

Before I start the very small countdown of my favorite mixes that I made, I want to remind new readers that I did a Tuesday Triple on MomentousCeltic’s Mixes. While my mixes are no where near as well done as MC’s, or any of the current mix making elite seen on YouTube, they still hold a lot of sentimental value to me. I actually underestimated how many mixes I have made over the years, and some of the favorites I had in mind for this article have aged terribly since I last watched them. Nevertheless, here are my three favorite basketball video game mixes that I made as of today.

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