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The official EA Sports YouTube channel has posted a video offering a behind the scenes glimpse at the scanning technology that’s been used in NBA Live 15. Art Director Paul Kashuk and Character Director David Auclair speak quite candidly about the graphical shortcomings of NBA Live 14, and their determination to improve the visuals in this year’s game.

Interestingly, the video also mentions that the team scanned jerseys as well as faces, in an effort to properly represent wrinkles and stitching. It’s definitely worth a watch, so check it out below, or catch it here on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded video.

Don’t forget to check out the first screenshot with all six player headshots here, feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below, and join in the discussion here in the NBA Live 15 section of the Forum.

After seeing the quality of player faces in today’s screenshot of NBA Live 15, I wanted to make a quick comparison between it and NBA Live 14. Needless to say, it is like night and day. I did have some issues with player emotions in my comparison screenshots, but you get the idea. We are going from something that was pretty terrible quality (especially for a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One game) to headscans. Let’s just hope the improvement carries over to gameplay and animations as well, as promised in that Open Letter last week.

To check out the comparisons hit Read More. I have the comparison image and a gif that automatically flashes between the two images as well.

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The first screenshot of NBA Live 15 has been revealed, featuring the six player headshots that were blurred out in the previously posted teaser image: Paul George, Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo, James Harden, Blake Griffin, and Stephen Curry.

Comparing the faces to NBA Live 14, there is definitely a large improvement to say the least, thanks in no small part to the face scanning sessions that have taken place in recent months. It remains to be seen whether any other details about NBA Live 15 will be revealed during E3 but in any event, we have our first glimpse of the game.

Check out the screenshot below, or here in the Screenshots section of our newly launched NBA Live 15 subsite. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below, as well as join in the discussion here in the NBA Live 15 section of the NLSC Forum.

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This is Dumb Mondays, starting the workweek off with silly facts or some of my opinions and predictions that you may or may not find interesting. This week I am sharing a dumb opinion and will be looking for and responding to your comments throughout the week.

Let the 2014 hype train begin! Going into E3 we finally got our first tastes of NBA 2K15 and NBA Live 15 with both games releasing something on the first day of the NBA Finals. NBA 2K15 teased and dropped a video on us, and NBA Live 15 went with another Open Letter from Sean O’Brien. Both directly and indirectly stated the directions or themes of the upcoming games and started their hype trains in different ways. So why do I feel like NBA Live 15’s open letter got me more excited for that game than NBA 2K15’s fantastic spot with Kevin Durant and popular NBA 2K Youtubers?

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A bulletin has been posted on the official NBA Live Facebook page, announcing that the first NBA Live 15 screenshot will be revealed tomorrow at E3. The post is accompanied by a blurred teaser image featuring some player headshots, which would appear to be Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo, James Harden, Blake Griffin, Stephen Curry, and a sixth player in the upper left corner that’s a little more difficult to identify.

NBA Live 14’s graphics were widely criticised for being below expectations, a criticism that the development team has openly acknowledged and pledged to rectify beginning with NBA Live 15. During the past few months, the team has shared photographs from player face scanning sessions via the official website and social media accounts, giving an insight into the technology and process behind capturing player faces.

It remains to be seen whether any other details about NBA Live 15 will be revealed at E3, though we do know from Sean O’Brien’s open letter that we’ll be learning more about gameplay come July, with further insights being provided throughout August and September. NBA Live 15 will be released in North America on October 7th.

Tip off your week with a bunch of new file additions for NBA 2K14 PC! Today we’ve got FIBA faces, retro courts and much more, all of which you can pick up at the links below.

FIBA Baller
FIBA Cyberfaces 2K14/13 – Eloy Vargas (Dom Republic PF/C)
FIBA Cyberfaces 2K14/13 – Charles Lombahe Kahudi (France SG/SF)
FIBA Cyberfaces 2K14/13 – John Holland (Puerto Rico SG)

retroman
1992-1994 Hartford Civic Center in Hartford
1990-1996 The Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit
1990-1995 Market Square Arena in Indianapolis
1988-1990 Miami Arena in Miami
1989-1993 Bradley Center in Milwaukee
1993-1998 Bradley Center in Milwaukee
1991-1992 Madison Square Garden IV in Manhattan
1992-1994 Madison Square Garden IV in Manhattan
1989-1994 Orlando Arena in Orlando
1988-1994 Spectrum in Philadelphia
1989-1993 HemisFair Arena in San Antonio
1985-1994 Seattle Center in Seattle
1990-1991 Tacoma Dome in Seattle
1994-1995 Tacoma Dome in Seattle
1986-1991 Salt Palace in Salt Lake City

TGsoGood
Masaryk Court

Kevin Parker
Chandler Parsons Face

MikeChiang3
My Custom Soundtrack (Updated to v4.0)

Welcome to the thirteenth installment of the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week! This is a weekly feature in which we invite the community to submit their best highlight videos from NBA Live and NBA 2K, for a chance to have them featured in a Top 10 countdown compiled by Lean.

More great highlights are coming your way in Week #13 of the NLSC Top 10 Plays, including the usual assortment of rim rattling dunks, crafty moves, and a couple of plays that are a little out of the ordinary. Check it out below, or watch it here on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded video.

We’ve had to lock the original Top 10 thread for the moment, as an issue with Lean’s webspace has caused it to be flagged for malware by Google. While we have resolved the issue at our end and the thread is safe, for everyone’s convenience we have created a new thread in which you can post your submissions in the meantime. Once Google has reviewed and unflagged the original thread, we’ll merge it with the new one, but for now please use the new thread and get your submissions in for the next countdown ASAP!

The efforts to bring NBA 2K10 PC up to date continue with a new jersey update for the New Orleans Pelicans by TGsoGood. Check it out at the links below!

TGsoGood
New Orleans Pelicans 2014 Away Jersey

Murat continues to release retro face packs for the Decade of Rosters project for NBA Live 2003, ensuring that players who are missing faces no longer have to go without. Pick up the latest pack at the link below!

Murat
Retro Cyberface Pack 14

Get ready for some more great file additions for NBA 2K14 PC! Today we have retroman’s latest retro arenas, new faces from R4zoR, and a Team USA mod by franmansr. Download them all at the links below.

retroman
1988-1992 Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte
1990-1993 McNichols Sports Arena in Denver
1993-1998 McNichols Sports Arena in Denver
1988-1994 The Summit in Houston
1989-1991 Great Western Forum in Los Angeles
1991-1995 Great Western Forum in Los Angeles
1995-1997 Great Western Forum in Los Angeles
1996 Great Western Forum in Los Angeles
1999 The Forum in Los Angeles
1986-1991 Madison Square Garden IV in Manhattan
1979-1992 Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix
1989-1993 King County Multipurpose Domed Stadium in Seattle
1988-1992 Hartford Civic Center in Hartford
1997-1999 Great Western Forum in Los Angeles

R4zoR
Jan Vesely Face
Hollis Thompson Face
Justin Hamilton Face

franmansr
USA 2K14 V1

I’m a little late in posting this, but the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of NBA 2K14 have received the shoe update that was previously announced. 17 new shoes in total have been added to the game; check out the full list below, after the jump.

A few of the shoes – namely the Nike LeBron XI iD, Jordan Melo M10, Li-Ning Way of Wade 2.0, Li-Ning Pirate Evan Turner Edition and Nike Kobe IX Premium Reflex – are available in the MyPLAYER store. All other shoes can be assigned in the Edit Player menu. As per Ronnie 2K, the shoes are assigned to the player that wears them in real life, and cannot be worn in MyCAREER.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! This is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to basketball video games, the real NBA or another area of interest to our community, either as a list of five items or in the form of a Top 5 countdown.

The NLSC was founded as a fansite for NBA Live, a series that we still cover to this day. In recent years, we’ve also expanded our coverage to the NBA 2K series, as well as NBA Jam (primarily the recent releases from EA Sports). However, there have been several other NBA and basketball video games released over the years, some of which I covered in a previous Friday Five.

This week, I’m taking a look at five more basketball video games that you may have forgotten, or indeed never knew about. If nothing else, they haven’t been talked about in a while, so let’s go back through basketball gaming history and reflect on some titles that aren’t quite as well-known or popular as NBA Live, NBA 2K, or NBA Jam, but are interesting to look back on nevertheless.

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NBA Live Executive Producer Sean O’Brien has posted another open letter to the community over on the game’s official website, in which he talks about NBA Live 15. In the letter, Sean acknowledges some of the shortcomings of NBA Live 14, specifically naming the visuals and the depth of gameplay, and reiterates that the team has been working hard to make progress in both of those areas.

He also mentions the head scans that have been taking place in recent months, the development team’s meeting with coaches to get their insight into strategy, and the goal of improving the flow and responsiveness of the gameplay in NBA Live 15. Further details on gameplay will be coming in July, with in-depth insights being posted through August and September.

Finally, the letter confirms the release date for NBA Live 15 is October 7th (the same as NBA 2K15), on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Add your thoughts in the comments below, and join in the discussion here in the Forum.

It was announced during the latest NBA 2K14 live stream with Ronnie 2K and LD2K that some NBA 2K15 content would be shown at some point during Game 1 of the NBA Finals. We speculated on what that content might be in Episode #81 of the NLSC Podcast; would it be the “OMG Trailer”, Part Two?

It turns out that we were wide of the mark however, as the content turned out to be a “Most Valuable Players” spot, in which some of the top gamers in the NBA 2K community echoed parts of Kevin Durant’s MVP acceptance speech, accompanied by footage of NBA 2K14 next gen. The spot also mentioned the pre-order bonuses for NBA 2K15: 5000 VC, a throwback Kevin Durant MyTEAM card, two MyTEAM card packs, and custom MyPLAYER leg sleeves inspired by Durant.

While it may not be the glimpse of NBA 2K15 that a lot of people were no doubt hoping for, the preview season has certainly tipped off. Check out the spot below or watch it here on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded video. Have your say in the comments below, or join in the discussion here in the Forum.

With the NBA Finals upon us and E3 right around the corner, we’ve certainly got a few things to talk about in Episode #81 of the NLSC Podcast. Join Arcane and I as we speculate on NBA Live 15 and NBA 2K15, cover a couple of other news items from the past week, and make our predictions for the rematch between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat.

• We open with a couple of housekeeping notes regarding future episodes of the Podcast, the Wiki, and a celebration of the 20th Anniversary of NBA Live.
• A few more issues have arisen with the NBA Live 14 rosters, but a new update will apparently be coming through at some point. We’ve also been told that these issues should be ironed out for NBA Live 15.
• Neither NBA Live 15 or NBA 2K15 have been officially announced for E3, but we expect there’ll be some news coming out of the event. We speculate on what we might see.
• We’ll be getting a look at NBA 2K15 during Game 1 of the NBA Finals. “OMG Trailer” Part Two, perhaps?
• We’re holding our last NBA 2K14 Steam key giveaway. Get your entries in before next Wednesday!
• Moving on to this week’s NBA discussion, we recap and react to the end of the Conference Finals. What’s next for the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers?
• Because we’re so good at predictions, we make our picks for the rematch between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs.
• The Los Angeles Clippers could soon be sold for $2 billion, but Donald Sterling is looking to sue the NBA. We take another look at the controversy and the “freedom of speech” arguments that are being made.
• On that note, we discuss some comments by Mark Jackson that have recently come to light, which may have ultimately cost him his coaching job with the Golden State Warriors.
• Looking ahead to the offseason for a moment, we consider some of the big moves that might happen. Yes, we make some more predictions!
• We wrap up the show with some talk about a few other games that we’re interested in at the moment.

Click Play to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:25:32 — 46.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

As always, we welcome your thoughts on this week’s show, as well as any of the topics that we discussed. Have your say in the comments below, or here in the Forum! Mailbag submissions and topic suggestions are also welcome, so feel free to hit us up in this thread.