Tag Archives: Green-or-Miss

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 a few thoughts on difficulty levels, and the impact they can have on basketball game reviews.

There’s a very old video game trope that has been dubbed “Easy-Mode Mockery” over on TV Tropes. In short, it’s when a video game makes fun of you for playing on the easiest difficulty setting. At its most benign, perhaps the easiest difficulty level will be accompanied by an insulting message or image. In extreme cases, playing on an easy difficulty will lock you out of certain content, such as the true ending. Infamously, one of my favourite adventure games – Monkey Island 2 – advertised its easy mode as being “suitable for video game reviewers”. Take that, critics!

All jokes aside, I’m not one for gatekeeping and elitism. Video games are meant to be enjoyed, and if hitting the virtual hardwood on an easier difficulty level is fun for you, don’t let anyone bring you down (but probably don’t brag about dominating the game on Rookie, either!). In fact, with the way many games cheat to allow the CPU to be challenging on the Superstar and Hall of Fame difficulty levels, it’s not always a very satisfying experience. To that point however, if you are reviewing a basketball game, you must play it on those tougher difficulty levels as well. Contrary to Monkey Island 2’s snarky jab, video game reviewers shouldn’t just be hooping on the easiest setting.

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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 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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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #591 of the NLSC Podcast!

Last week saw the release of the NBA 2K26 Gameplay trailer and developer blog, providing us with our first look at and insight into the on-court experience in this year’s game. As such, this week we react to the trailer – which had a very interesting song choice that was rather nostalgic for us! – and break down the gameplay blog point-by-point, from the new motion engine to Green-or-Miss shooting to AI improvements. We certainly have a lot of thoughts (and a couple of concerns) following the first in-depth preview of NBA 2K26, but we will reserve final judgement until we get our hands on the sticks. The community had a lot to say as well, so we also read out impressions that our listeners shared with us, as well as some other comments that we’ve seen on social media.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:13:14 — 50.6MB)

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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!

As promised, this week has delivered our first look at gameplay in NBA 2K26. An in-depth developer blog spotlights the biggest improvements this year, while the first official trailer has given us a glimpse of the game in action.

NBA 2K26 will feature a new motion engine that’s powered by ProPLAY. Interestingly, the blog boasts that skating has basically been removed thanks to the new tech in this year’s game. Controls have been expanded to include some new elusive moves on offense, and defensive AI has been shored up. Notably, shooting is now Green-or-Miss across all game modes, except on lower difficulty levels offline. The windows for Green Releases will also scale according to difficulty, and will be more forgiving in team-control modes (and conversely, less forgiving in competitive play).

As you’d expect, the NBA 2K26 gameplay trailer showcases the game from cinematic angles. This does make it difficult to gauge the level of improvement as obviously the chosen clips show the game in the best possible light, but as usual, it’s a well-produced trailer. Some of the jerseys that are set to debut this year are on display, along with some familiar faces in new places. The choice of “Song 2” by Blur is certainly an interesting choice of music as well.

I’ve summarised the key points of the gameplay blog below, though as always I’d recommend giving it a read for the full scoop. Dee and I will naturally have plenty to say on the NLSC Podcast, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out that summary below, along with the gameplay trailer. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, as well as join in the discussion in our NBA 2K26 Forum!

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