NLSC Your source for basketball video games.

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #497 of the NLSC Podcast!

NBA 2K24 has been out for almost a month now, and honestly, we’re not exactly having a blast with it. To that end, we join our listeners in giving the game a score out of ten, at least as it stands right now. Our disappointment with NBA 2K24 leads us to reflect on the lack of choices in the basketball gaming space, compared to the array of titles that we once enjoyed. We speculate on the reasons why no one is stepping up to offer an alternative – from design challenges to intimidation and gatekeeping – and the community also weighs in with their takes on the matter. We also note some similarities in the attitudes towards basketball gaming and real hoops nowadays.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:10:41 — 48.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

Normally I post mod releases for different games in separate bulletins, but since this is a mod with a version for both NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K24, I’m posting them together. In case you missed it, Looyh has updated his New Gen scoreboards for both NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K24. Download them both – making sure to grab the right version for the game that you’re playing – at the links below!

Looyh
2K24 New Gen Scoreboard For 2K24 (Updated to v2.0)
2K24 New Gen Scoreboard For 2K23 (Updated to v2.0)

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

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 sim-arcade hybrid genre of basketball video games.

When it comes to 5-on-5 basketball video games, I’d consider myself a sim gamer. Going back to playing NBA Live in the 90s, it was my desire to see the series strive for more realism. When I finally warmed up to the NBA 2K series, I was delighted at the authenticity in the games. Sure, there were a few rude shocks as I realised that I perhaps wasn’t as sim as I thought, and had to adjust to play a more realistic style of virtual basketball, but I loved that that was necessary. There have been some great sim titles in every era that I’ve enjoyed immensely.

At the same time, I’m a fan of the arcade style, too. I grew up playing NBA Jam as well as NBA Live, and I’d alternate between the two, depending on what I was in the mood for. To that point, while I’d call myself a sim gamer, I’m an arcade gamer as well, with many fond memories of playing both types of hoops titles. However, there is a style of basketball video game that I’ve tended to overlook through the years: the sim-arcade hybrid. These games have combined elements of sim and arcade titles to create their own style of gameplay that definitely has its place in the genre. As I’ve expanded my collection, I’ve come to appreciate these sim-arcade hybrid games.

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If you’re not subscribed to our YouTube channel, you’re missing out on all the fun that Dee and I are having on the virtual hardwood! As I mentioned in Episode #496 of the NLSC Podcast, I recently dusted off NBA Live 2001 PC and added LeBron James to the rosters, using a face that Barnsey made way back in 2001. I took on Kobe Bryant in 1-on-1 mode, and put together a highlight reel from the game. I also threw together a mod so that you can add LeBron to NBA Live 2001 PC yourself, which you can find here.

Meanwhile, Dee continued his journey through Domination in NBA 2K24 MyTEAM, taking on the Knicks Challenges. Dee discussed some of the bargain cards that he picked up in the latest podcast, including Ben Gordon and Kevin Durant, and you can see them getting the job done in spectacular fashion. All three difficulty levels are accounted for in the highlight reel.

We also connected to play a couple of games over Parsec. The first was a clash between the 2007 Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards in NBA 2K17, using Dee’s Ultimate Classic Teams Roster. That “We Believe” Warriors team is a blast to play with, and Dee’s roster is a must-have if you’re still playing NBA 2K17 PC. We also took control of the Celtics and had an epic overtime showdown with the Lakers in NBA Live 06, using my 2010 season roster. Fortunately, a couple of blunders on my part late in regulation didn’t stop us from pulling out a satisfying victory!

Check out all of those highlight reels below! Be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more great basketball gaming content, and as always, feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play.

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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.

As always, this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays brings you a little bit of everything! There are mods on display, as Steve Francis throws down a jaw-dropping dunk on the 2003 Magic in Dee’s Ultimate Classic Teams Roster. I’m back into NBA 2K14 MyCAREER, throwing lobs to Carmelo Anthony. We’ve got Kenny putting Jason “White Chocolate” Williams to great use in MyTEAM, and Rellhouse getting fancy before dishing off to a teammate for an emphatic finish in The Rec. NBA 2K24 is definitely getting more and more play, but three other games also provided highlights for the countdown this week, demonstrating how the community continues to enjoy variety. 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.

New updates have come through for NBA 2K24, specifically Patch 1.3 for New Gen, and Patch 1.2 for Current Gen (which includes PC). As always, the patches should be downloaded automatically as long as you’re online. If the latest update doesn’t come through, try restarting your console or Steam client, or checking for updates manually.

Patch 1.3 for NBA 2K24 New Gen addresses “ghost contests”, fixes stability in The City, resolves a few bugs, and makes some adjustments to progression in MyCAREER. The new patch for Current Gen also addresses some technical issues, adjusts Season XP rewards to correlate with Teammate Grade in MyCAREER games, and enhances player appearances in The Neighborhood. A larger update based on gamer feedback is still scheduled for early to mid October.

Full notes for both updates can be found below. You can also find update histories for the New Gen and Current Gen versions of NBA 2K24 over in our Wiki. Feel free to share any thoughts in the comments below, as well as join in the discussion in our NBA 2K24 Forum!

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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 Part 16 in an ongoing series looking at players who only appeared on certain teams in video games.

So, as of writing, there will be four more articles covering players who only appeared on certain team in games, following this one. That will take us through to Part 20 on the last Friday of January 2024. At one point, this was going to be the final article in the series – at least for now – but David L has come through with so many great examples that I couldn’t not write about them! There were also too many interesting stories and players who were memorable for one reason or another for me to scrap what I had already written, so instead I decided to continue this series a little longer!

After covering some more obscure players in Part 15, Part 16 features names that are – with one exception – far more recognisable to fans who know their NBA history. Of course, their phantom stints can still easily fly under the radar. A couple of them are looser examples of players who only appeared on certain teams in games as they do have a prior stint with the club in question, but their return didn’t come to fruition outside of the virtual hardwood. As such, they do still qualify as phantom stints. Again, that’s probably what I should’ve called this series in the first place! In any case, let’s look at five more players with phantom stints that video games have preserved.

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The latest NBA 2K23 mod releases feature a custom scoreboard by Looyh, based on the one in NBA 2K24 New Gen. Check it out at the link below!

Looyh
2K24 New Gen Scoreboard For 2K23

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

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 original All-Time Teams that were featured in early NBA 2K titles.

The concept of All-Time Teams is naturally a staple of sports discussion. Which franchise could field the best lineup with all the players that have ever worn their uniform? Who can boast the best all-time starting lineup? Who would prevail in a showdown of stars, if they could all be together on the team in their prime? Such What Ifs are impossible to conclusively prove in reality, but they’re a great idea for fantasy matchups in video games. Even in the early days of NBA Live modding, the community was creating Legends and All-Time Teams rosters.

Those projects have remained popular over the years, so it’s no surprise that with all of the other historical content in NBA 2K, All-Time squads were eventually added for each franchise. As I noted when I covered those teams in a previous article, while the concept was nothing new, it saved us a lot of time by ensuring that certain players and assets would be in the game by default. However, I neglected to mention that NBA 2K18 wasn’t the first game in the series to feature All-Time Teams, as a few such squads were unlockable in earlier releases. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #496 of the NLSC Podcast!

Many of our all-time favourite basketball video games are still in the rotation, and this week we connected on Parsec to revisit two of them: NBA 2K17 and NBA Live 06 PC! We reflect on the strong points of each game and why they hold up so well years later, as well as the satisfying feeling of playing them with mods that we created! We’re also interested in the community’s all-time favourite hoops titles, so in this week’s mailbag, our listeners tell us which ones they still hold close to their hearts. We’ve also got some tips regarding affordable cards in NBA 2K24 MyTEAM – while advocating for No Money Spent, of course – and a couple of customary cheap plugs.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:12:23 — 50.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

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 importance of matching the original aesthetic when creating mods.

Do I even need to say that mods are awesome? In this community, we’re well aware of how modding can enhance basketball video games. It’s something that people around these parts have been doing since 1996, and the work has only become even more impressive over the years with bigger and better projects. We’ve updated rosters to keep old games current, taken games back in time to replay classic seasons, and revamped games to turn them into completely different leagues. Smaller mods have still made a big difference too, fixing inaccuracies and enhancing details.

Needless to say, it takes practice to develop your modding skills, especially if you’re working with textures and models. Furthermore, if you’re updating a logo, or adding a missing portrait or jersey, then you’ll also be aiming for conformity as well as quality. That is to say, the goal is to create mods that seamlessly blend in with the original aesthetic, appearing as though they’re official assets that were always there. Indeed, the best mods often don’t even look like mods – but for knowing that their content isn’t in the original game – because they’re crafted to fit in so well. It’s why it’s important to hone our skills and techniques so that we can properly match that original aesthetic.

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Today’s NBA 2K24 mod releases feature a couple of concept jerseys by Dyop Dyop, and a New Gen scoreboard by Looyh. Check them out at the links below!

Dyop Dyop
DET Pistons Concept Uniforms – DyopDyop
ORL Magic Concept Uniforms – DyopDyop

Looyh
2K24 New Gen Scoreboard For 2K24

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

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.

Not surprisingly, we’re starting to see more and more highlights from NBA 2K24 in the NLSC Top 10 Plays. That’s not to say that people aren’t still playing other games though, as this week’s assortment of powerful posters and awesome alley-oops also come courtesy of NBA 2K23, NBA 2K19, NBA 2K14, and even Fox Sports NBA Basketball! It’s also great to see a variety of modes and some mods on display. It underscores one simple fact about basketball gaming: as long as you’re enjoying your time on the virtual hardwood and creating memories, that’s what’s important. With that being said, 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 gimmicks in basketball gaming that didn’t last very long.

A common complaint about features, mechanics, or modes in basketball games is that they’re “gimmicky”. Of course, it’s possible to describe the more positive attributes of basketball games as “gimmicks”, in the sense that they’re selling points. However, we usually reserve the terms “gimmicks” and “gimmicky” for features and mechanics that we feel deserve the negative connotation. They’re the aspects of basketball games that add little value, and perhaps even detract from the overall experience. It’s why we say we want to see real improvements and great additions, and not just gimmicks.

Unfortunately, basketball games have experimented with ideas that turned out to be more gimmicky than beneficial. They’re not alone in that regard, though. Other genres of video games, television shows, films, social media platforms…not every idea will be a winner, particularly if the concept wasn’t necessarily intended to be beneficial to the audience. Some ideas are certainly creative and merited a try, but didn’t pan out as well as hoped. The good news is that although we’ve seen a number of questionable gimmicks in basketball games, many of them didn’t last too long. They either evolved into a better concept, or were dropped very soon afterwards, as in these five examples.

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Today’s NBA 2K14 mod releases feature a custom concept court for the Brooklyn Nets created by Tshirtinshorts, and Baskonia jerseys by Pasha46. Check them out at the links below!

Tshirtinshorts
Brooklyn Nets Custom Court

Pasha46
Baskonia 2023-24 Jersey Set

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.