Tag Archives: Competitive

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 reflections on how there are times that I miss dice roll shooting mechanics in basketball video games.

At this point, it’s a safe bet to say that Green Releases will remain a fixture of NBA 2K’s shooting mechanics moving forward. It’s just a matter of how they’re handled, and whether there are any additional controls and mechanics such as shot aiming or rhythm shooting with the right stick. In recent years, the “Green or Miss” approach to shooting has been particularly contentious. On one hand, it rewards skilful input with a guaranteed result (blocked attempts notwithstanding). On the other hand, it’s not necessarily accessible, or preferable for offline play.

It’s funny to revisit the discourse around Green Releases back in 2017, when Mike Wang spoke of a desire to wean gamers off of the idea that they should be guaranteed baskets. “Green or Miss” certainly goes against that aim, demonstrating how attitudes have changed as NBA 2K has increasingly catered to the online scene. Personally, I’m in favour of Green Releases being guaranteed, very good or near-perfect releases still being reliable, and then progressively lower odds of success as the timing gets worse. To that point, while I wouldn’t change the approach of Green Releases always being successful, I must admit that I sometimes miss the old dice roll shooting mechanics.

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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 reflections on the joys of co-op play, which demonstrate that two hoop heads (or even more) can indeed be better than one.

So, I’ve previously spoken out in defense of single player experiences, and I do stand by that. As someone who essentially grew up as an only child – my half-brother is sixteen years older than me – I’ve often treated video games as a solo activity. Many of my all-time favourite games are single player, or can be enjoyed just as much alone as when playing with other people. Thanks to season, franchise, and career modes, to say nothing of fun ideas for exhibition games, I’ve made many fond memories balling out alone against the CPU, rather than with or against anyone else.

My immediate circle of friends not being passionate hoop heads like me was also a factor here. Of course, basketball became very popular back in the 90s, so there were times that I hit the virtual hardwood with friends growing up, particularly in arcade titles. As such, I wasn’t always playing NBA Live or NBA Jam solo. On top of that, my cousin Clinton and I were (and still are) very close and share a love of basketball, and would play a variety of hoops games religiously when he came to visit every school holidays. We always played co-op, and so when Dee and I started teaming up in our Parsec sessions, it was a familiar experience that I’m glad to partake in again.

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