Tag Archives: Multi-Season Play

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 things that frequently spoil multi-season modes in basketball video games.

So, I’ve explained why I strongly believe that multi-season modes are awesome, and I stand by that. I wouldn’t maintain an interest in them if I didn’t! However, I also won’t pretend that they’re perfect and that nothing can spoil the experience. Please note that when I say spoil, I don’t necessarily mean that the mode is completely ruined and no longer capable of being enjoyed. Again, if these were insurmountable issues, then my interest in multi-season modes would soon evaporate, and even after all these years, that obviously isn’t the case!

Nevertheless, there are quirky things that are annoying or detract from the intended experience in some way. Even if they ultimately don’t stand in the way of enjoying multi-season modes, they’re among my pet peeves in some of my all-time favourite basketball video games, and issues that I’d prefer future games to avoid. In other words, if you were to ask me what are my least favourite aspects in some of my favourite modes and games, the issues that I’m discussing here are definitely on that list! I adore multi-season modes and will always recommend them as a fun way to play basketball games, but be warned: these are some issues that you might encounter.

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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 a list of five things that make multi-season modes in basketball video games awesome.

Growing up with the basketball video games of the 90s, I was able to experience some classic releases and see the genre evolve in some big ways from year-to-year. That of course includes the introduction of multi-season modes. If you go back and look at our early Wishlists for NBA Live, you’ll see that we were keen to see Season mode expand into an experience that lasted several years, and truly allowed us to play GM. Our wish was granted in NBA Live 2000 PC, and since then, multi-season franchise and eventually career modes have become staples of NBA Live and NBA 2K.

For gamers who prefer online team play and competitive modes in general, playing several full seasons against the CPU may not sound like a lot of fun. Gamers who prefer the card collecting modes may also not find the structure of the NBA-oriented modes to be all that appealing. For that matter, anyone who’s satisfied with a single, isolated NBA campaign may not feel the need to continue into Year 2 and beyond. It should be noted that these are all valid opinions and ways to experience basketball games, but as someone who has really enjoyed the extended journey that franchise and career play offers, I’ll give you five reasons why multi-season modes are so fun.

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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 matching MJ in Year 6 of my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER.

Obviously, simply saying that I’m reflecting on matching MJ is a huge spoiler for how Year 6 of my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER turned out! Of course, I’ve already revealed that via my story topic, and a highlight reel of the 2019 NBA Finals. To that end, this column isn’t intended to keep everyone in suspense about the results, but rather to share my thoughts as I continue to play through a full MyCAREER in NBA 2K14 for PlayStation 4. Although I did take a break to play some other games that captured my attention, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I returned to complete my latest season.

While Year 6 did bear some similarities to the Drive for Five in my fifth season, in other ways it once again proved to be a unique journey with its own ups and downs. From vying for statistical feats, to players getting injured, to contending with different matchups in a league that’s seen a variety of changes over the course of six seasons, I was definitely as invested in Year 6 as any prior campaign. Even though the cutscenes didn’t exactly reflect it, I actually felt like a veteran who’s been around the block a few times; a feeling that I enjoyed as it made the year special. And so, on top of matching MJ with six titles, here’s how Year 6 of my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER went down.

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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 reflecting on how we’ve now reached the end of Franchise mode in NBA Live 2000 in real life.

To quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – a classic film that I surprisingly haven’t referenced more often in my various articles – “life moves pretty fast“. That may not sound like a particularly profound piece of wisdom, but it is funny how a date that once seemed so futuristic is suddenly the present. In the 90s, the future draft picks in the 2000s that were being thrown into trades seemed so far away. Of course, back then the Year 2000 sounded incredibly sci-fi in general. Then it arrived, and apart from some very old computers rolling back to 1980 on their calendar, 2000 felt very much like 1999!

Around the turn of the millennium, we received one of the all-time great basketball video games: NBA Live 2000. The crowning achievement of the original NBA Live development team still holds up, especially the PC version which also brought us the first iteration of Franchise mode. Sim heads had been longing for multi-season play, and after NBA Live 99 gave us a small taste of the concept, Franchise in NBA Live 2000 truly delivered the goods. With the ability to play or simulate up to 25 seasons, we could reach the once faraway year of 2024! Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 trade confirmation pop-up in NBA Live 2000’s Franchise mode.

The evolution of basketball video games has resulted in the revamping or complete disappearance of features, both big and small. To that end, if you’re a veteran of the virtual hardwood, there’s bound to be at least one feature from an old favourite that you miss in newer titles. Of course, sometimes it doesn’t take long for a useful feature or gameplay mechanic to disappear. We’ve seen numerous short-lived features, some of which are unique to the games they appear in. They may not be popular or even absolutely necessary, but our desire to see them return makes them Wishlist staples.

I have a shortlist of such features, but one of the first that always comes to mind is the trade confirmation pop-up in the very first Franchise mode in NBA Live 2000. It was such a fantastic detail, yet it was gone the very next year, and has never returned in any games since. Not only that, but the concept doesn’t seem to have ever been picked up by NBA 2K, or the Season and Franchise modes in any other series for that matter. This may seem like a very esoteric feature to cover, but if you’ve played Franchise in NBA Live 2000, you’ll know why it matters. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 playing half a decade (and counting) in NBA 2K14 MyCAREER.

It’s wild that my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER is now in Year 6. That would’ve been unthinkable just a few years ago, as it took me a long time to warm up to the game! On top of that, I began a proper playthrough of the mode for a Wayback Wednesday feature posted in August of 2021, and by October that year, I’d decided that finishing my rookie season would be a good way to say goodbye to MyCAREER; at least for the moment. Three years later, I’m not only still playing that game, but I’ve finished four more full seasons on top of that!

There’s no doubt that it’s become one of my all-time favourite basketball gaming experiences. NBA 2K14 still holds up superbly on the sticks, and while MyCAREER is missing a few key features that I’ve enjoyed in later iterations of the mode, I also appreciate its simplicity and focus on the NBA. As far as the journey itself, I’ve been impressed by how each season has held my attention and provided its own subplots, even though the cutscene-driven story basically concluded after my rookie year. It’s been fascinating to see how the league has changed, and also, how some things have stayed the same. As I’m sure you can tell from my recaps, it’s been a fun half decade.

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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 thoughts on the rewarding feeling of finishing seasons in basketball video games.

I’ve previously said that completion is what we make it when it comes to the virtual hardwood. Indeed, I dedicated an entire article to exploring that notion. I still stand by that. While it can be extremely fulfilling to be a completionist when it comes to the games we play, it isn’t a necessity to have fun. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t collect all of the cards in MyTEAM, reach the Hall of Fame in MyCAREER, or play through to a championship in a mode representing the NBA season. As you long as you enjoyed your time with a game and feel like you got your money’s worth, that’s what counts.

With that being said, there’s great joy to be had in playing through seasons from start to finish. If you manage to play multiple seasons – either before the next game comes out, or by returning to an old favourite – it can be an even more rewarding experience. It’s a tall order, especially with a full 82-game season on twelve minute quarters with no simulation, as I’ve often aimed to achieve. No matter which settings you prefer however, there’s a feeling of accomplishment when a season is in the books, and your team is standing at midcourt raising the Larry O’Brien trophy. Even before that, of course, there’s a journey that I strongly advise everyone to savour along the way.

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