Tag Archives: MyPark

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 how my basketball gaming has increasingly involved hitting the streets to virtually hoop.

One of the most valuable life lessons I’ve learned is the importance of remaining open-minded, trying new things, and being willing to step outside your comfort zone. As someone who was a picky eater growing up, it’s been a delight to give new cuisine a chance, and discover that I have a taste for foods I was once intimidated by. Meeting new friends has introduced me to hobbies, interests, and experiences that I might not have tried otherwise. As for basketball gaming, I’ve been able to shed brand loyalty and established habits to find new retro kicks, and different ways of enjoying them.

Case in point: my recent appreciation for virtually balling in the streets! There’s plenty of irony here. First of all, playful jabs at JaoSming and his enthusiasm for Blacktop mode were running gags on old episodes of the NLSC Podcast, yet here I am enjoying the type of virtual streetball gameplay that he championed! Second, I’ve been highly critical of NBA Live’s focus on The Streets, particularly in NBA Live 19, so the last thing I expected was to get hooked on the Pro-Am Tour in NBA Live 18. I do still stand by many of my previous criticisms, but like a dish I swore I’d never eat, I’ve developed a taste for – with apologies to the Doobie Brothers – takin’ it to the streets.

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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 haunting it feels to traverse empty servers in The City and The Neighborhood.

Last year, I bid vale to the NBA 2K20 servers and its online features. In that article, I mostly focused on the increasing amount of content that we lose when servers are shut down. That’s an important topic, and obviously it’s happened again in the wake of the NBA 2K21 servers being switched off. Although 27 months amounts to supporting an annual title through two and a half seasons, it always seems to go by so quickly. If you do have any unfinished business in MyCAREER or MyTEAM, you may spend the last days of December scrambling to complete it before it’s too late.

I’ve absolutely been in that boat myself. Furthermore, as a content creator, I’ve made it a point to get as many screenshots and clips as possible for potential future articles and video features. This means having at least one more session where I go through as much of the online content and connected modes as I can, adding to my media library. Indeed, after my New Year’s Eve plans fell through at the last minute, I spent the evening of December 31st 2022 taking one last look at MyTEAM and MyCAREER in NBA 2K21. With The City and The Neighborhood in MyCAREER in particular, it was impossible not to notice the haunting atmosphere that comes with empty servers.

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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 concepts that ended up changing NBA 2K forever.

I’m no psychologist, but I’d hazard a guess and say that most of us have experienced an aversion to change at some point in our lives. Whether it’s apprehension of new surroundings, nostalgia goggles, or just plain comfort with the current arrangements, we’d prefer things not to change. Not to get too deep here – again, I’m no psychologist – but it’s important to accept change as part of life, and be able to adjust and grow. Of course, not all change is desirable, and change for change’s sake can prove to be a bad idea. Given the choice, it would’ve been preferable to leave things as they were.

We’ve seen a lot of these changes in basketball video games over the years. Many have been for the best, representing revolution and evolution within the genre. Others haven’t panned out so well. In the case of the latter, some of those concepts have only lasted a game or two before the developers scrapped them in favour of a new and better solution; or perhaps, returned to an old approach that still works best. Other concepts unfortunately stick around despite their negative impact, or at the very least, mixed results. For better or worse, these concepts have forever changed the NBA 2K series as we know it, either from a mechanical or philosophical standpoint.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off by tackling a controversial issue in NBA 2K: the use of AI Players in online modes.

I’ve covered several topics related to online modes in NBA 2K, from gatekeeping and elitism to forced grinding and a lack of matchmaking. One issue that I haven’t touched upon all that much is the use of AI Players in the online arena. As you know if you’ve played MyCAREER’s connected online modes, AI Players are utilised in one of two ways. Either they make up the numbers when there aren’t enough users to completely fill both squads, or they take the place of a user when they quit or foul out of a game so that everyone else can keep playing.

The use of AI Players in online team play modes is particularly controversial, though. It ties into the aforementioned issues of matchmaking and elitism, but there are some legitimate complaints regarding the practice. The presence of AI Players in the online modes runs contrary to their very concept, yet at the same time, it facilitates them. It’s an issue where it’s impossible to cater to two very different preferences, at least with the current options and mechanics. Moving forward, it’s an issue that NBA 2K will have to resolve, but in the meantime, let’s take a look at both the drawbacks and the benefits of AI Players in online modes, and why the matter evokes strong opinions.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a few thoughts on what basketball gaming nostalgia is going to look like in the not too distant future.

In recent episodes of the NLSC Podcast, we’ve been discussing old basketball games and reflecting on our nostalgia. We’ve talked about the different nostalgic phases that we go through, as well as some of the games that influenced the way we approach the virtual hardwood. We also recorded a big two part episode for the 25th Anniversary of NBA Live, which was a lot of fun. As much as I enjoy playing the latest game and other recent releases, I also like to revisit old favourites and reflect on the history of the genre. It’s one of the reasons I do Wayback Wednesday every week.

However, I’ve recently been wondering what basketball gaming nostalgia is going to be like for recent titles as they get older. Will they inspire the same kind of fondness that we older gamers have for an NBA Jam or NBA Live 95, or will they be discarded and dismissed? Will we, and especially the younger gamers who are growing up with these titles, see fit to revisit them the same way we like to dust off the old titles that we love? Perhaps most importantly, will it even be viable to revisit those games and their experiences that captivated us for hours on end? My feeling is that nostalgia for basketball games is going to look and play out somewhat differently moving forward.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five reasons for 2K to reactivate the old servers for previous NBA 2K titles.

As online modes and content have become more popular in basketball video games, it’s become a much bigger deal when servers finally get shut down. Not only is online play rendered unavailable, but any single player experiences that relied on connected content also become inaccessible. Early on in this generation, online MyCAREER games were intended to become offline saves once the servers were shut down. This infamously didn’t work properly for a lot of gamers in NBA 2K14, with many still being unable to access their saves once the servers were reactivated.

Since then, 2K has simply decided to follow the original plan of declaring that any online saves are “retired” once support for a game ends. It’s understandable that 2K doesn’t want to support games indefinitely, given the cost and resources involved. That doesn’t stop gamers from expressing their desire to see the old servers switched back on though, and interestingly, Chris Manning has even publicly mentioned that he’s advocated for such a thing to happen. Obviously there are a lot of reasons why it’s unlikely, contrary to clickbait videos claiming LD2K “confirmed” it. Nevertheless, there are also reasons why it should at least be considered, and here are five of them.

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at the affiliations in MyPARK.

The Playground has never been my main mode of choice – Pro-Am is more my speed when it comes to NBA 2K online – but I’ve had some fun with it over the years. More to the point, it has become one of the most popular modes in the game, and through the introduction of The Neighborhood, a major part of the main MyCAREER hub. From its introduction as The Park in NBA 2K14 to its rebranding as MyPARK and subsequently The Playground, the mode has gone from an online offshoot of NBA 2K’s career mode to its own fully fleshed out and immersive experience.

As much focus as it receives and as popular as it is, however, not all Playground gamers are completely satisfied with its evolution. One aspect that was left behind in the MyPARK era is affiliations. It’s not uncommon to see Playground gamers asking for the return of MyPARK affiliations in response to 2K’s Tweets, though as of NBA 2K20, it’s yet to make a return. What was it, and why was it so popular? 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! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off by firing up NBA 2K17 and NBA 2K18 to see if anyone is still playing them online.

Unless 2K plans on extending their support for NBA 2K17 beyond the 27 months the company pledged following the controversy surrounding NBA 2K14, the game’s servers will be shut off at the end of this year. That gives anyone who is still playing the 2016 release a couple of months to get as much out of it as they can before online support finishes. Anyone still playing NBA 2K18 will have a little longer, as its servers aren’t due to be shut down until the end of 2019. This approach essentially affords each game two seasons worth of online support, plus three months.

While that won’t appease everyone, it’s a reasonable assumption that most gamers will have moved on to a new release in that time. Indeed, we can assume that a bulk of the fanbase has already moved on to NBA 2K19, but how many people are holding out and still playing NBA 2K18? For that matter, how many people have stuck with NBA 2K17 for the past couple of years, or picked it up again? I recently booted up both games on PlayStation 4 to see if I’d find many people still active in MyPARK and Pro-Am Walk-On, rather than hooping it up in NBA 2K19. The results were certainly interesting, at least on the Australasian servers.

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Episode #245 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Join Kenny and I as we catch up on an eventful week of basketball gaming news, discuss what we’ve been doing on the virtual hardwood, and give our thoughts on the first week of the 2018 NBA Playoffs.

On this week’s show…

• EA’s chief design officer Patrick Söderlund recently spoke out about the company’s reputation, and their intent to rehabilitate their image in the wake of the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 controversy. We discuss how continuing to adopt a consumer-friendly model with NBA Live will surely benefit the brand moving forward.
• A deal has been struck to broadcast the NBA 2K League exclusively on Twitch, which certainly seems like a good fit. Once again, we consider the League’s potential impact on the rest of us as we look ahead to NBA 2K19.
• Saber Interactive has announced NBA Playgrounds 2 for a Summer 2018 release. We’re excited and hopeful for the sequel, but there are some key areas where it must show improvement.
• Namo Gamo has released Basketball Classics on Steam Early Access. This new retro-inspired basketball gaming experience has a lot of potential, and is already quite impressive.
• Our Week in Basketball Gaming included taking on more challenges in NBA Live 18’s Ultimate Team, and a return to NBA 2K17. NLSC GrindTime may have also played its last session of 2K Pro-Am, at least for a while.
• We wrap up Episode #245 of the NLSC Podcast with some discussion of real basketball, including Andrew Bogut heading home to play in the NBL, the first week of the 2018 NBA Playoffs, and Ben Simmons’ Rookie of the Year credentials.

Click Play to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:42:49 — 70.7MB)

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Have some thoughts on the latest episode? Got a mailbag question or topic suggestion for the next show? Sound off in the comments section below, or join in the discussion here in the Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki.

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a video of what might just be the worst pass in the history of The Playground and MyPARK, and a few thoughts on the circumstances surrounding it.

As discussed in Episode #230 of the NLSC Podcast, Arcane and I have been heading to The Playground for a few games after wrapping up our sessions of 2K Pro-Am with the NLSC squad. We’ve enjoyed a victory over a couple of Playground veterans, and after donning our Gatorade t-shirts, also managed to rack up five wins to earn some bonus VC. In some respects, our time on the online virtual blacktop in NBA 2K18 has been more enjoyable than our recent Pro-Am games, which have been rather rough. However, there was a moment of particular frustration after the ball was checked to Arcane, and his pass to me went completely awry.

I now present to you what may be the worst pass in the history of The Playground, and indeed, any mode of basketball gaming.

While miscues like that do make basketball games more realistic, I’m not sure that any NBA player would mess up a pass that badly, in that particular situation. It’s one of my main gripes with NBA 2K18’s gameplay, and something that often happens in our online games. In an effort to inject more realism into the experience, errors like that will happen at random, often feeling very artificial and predetermined as a result. Notice how my player doesn’t even try reaching out to catch the pass! We’ve had similar experiences in 2K Pro-Am with players being unable to catch or accurately throw what should be easy passes, time after time.

There is merit in having mistakes and sloppy moments in basketball video games, in order to make them feel more dynamic and realistic. However, in a situation like this, you just end up feeling cheated by the game. Moving forward, I’d like to see miscues and mess-ups handled in a way that feels less canned, and more in tune with both a player’s abilities and the action on the court. The Winner’s Outs rule in 2v2 on The Playground can make things tough enough when you’re facing a couple of cheesy players, without the game being against you as well. As it stands, we definitely found ourselves having a Shaqtin’ a Fool moment on this particular occasion.

Episode #221 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! We’re in the final countdown to the release of this year’s games from EA Sports and 2K Sports, and Arcane and I have plenty to talk about with a big update to the NBA Live 18 Demo, as well as the release of The Prelude to NBA 2K18.

On this week’s show…

• The NBA Live 18 Demo has received another update. On top of making some further gameplay tweaks, it also added updated rosters, and two additional teams to Play Now: the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets.
• EA Access subscribers on Xbox One are currently enjoying a ten hour trial of the full version of NBA Live 18. Their streams and impressions suggest further improvement over the demo, which is great news.
• A Game Informer article provided us with a few details on this year’s MyCAREER story ahead of the release of The Prelude, and some further information about The Neighborhood.
• In the wake of a somewhat flat trailer, The Prelude has been released, along with the MyNBA2K18 companion app. We tip off our impressions with a few thoughts on face scanning.
• We’re not impressed by the lack of customisation options, nor the decision to put more content behind a VC paywall. It’s a continuation of a disheartening trend that began in NBA 2K17.
• The story in this year’s MyCAREER mode leaves something to be desired. Although we like the general idea of being able to pick our team, the plot, acting, and characters are rather corny, with one character in particular being a bit uncomfortable.
• Although the brevity of The Prelude was disappointing, the gameplay was a highlight, and demonstrates some pleasing improvements that have us looking forward to the full version of NBA 2K18.
• We wrap up Episode #221 of the NLSC Podcast with Our Week in Basketball Gaming, which featured NLSC THRILLHO’s final 2K Pro-Am game for NBA 2K17, and the acquisition of a long-coveted MyPARK trophy.

Click Play to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:50:16 — 75.8MB)

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Have some thoughts on the latest episode? Sound off in the comments below, or here in the Forum. Also, if there’s a topic you’d like us to discuss on the next episode of the NLSC Podcast, feel free to hit us up in this thread.

As previously announced, 2K held a live stream event for NBA 2K18 titled Run The Neighborhood. As it turns out, The Neighborhood is the name of a new experience in this year’s game that combines MyCAREER, MyPARK, and 2K Pro-Am. The three popular modes are now connected in an open world setting, where MyPLAYERs live in the titular Neighborhood. There will be several locations to visit, including stores and The Playground. Some of the key points include:

• Players will be able to level up no matter which mode they play, whereas in previous games this was primarily achieved through grinding in MyCAREER.
• There is an over-arching meta game called Road to 99, which rewards players for improving their Overall Rating. A unified Badge system across MyCAREER, Park, and 2K Pro-Am has also been implemented.
• There are primary and secondary MyPLAYER Archetypes, including pure and hybrid styles. There are 189 Archetypes in all, each of which have their own assortment of attainable Bronze, Silver, and Gold Badges.
• While the traditional MyPARK experience is gone, it’s still available in the form of pickup games that you can find in the open world of The Neighborhood.

Check out the trailer for Run The Neighborhood below, or catch it here on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded video.

We’ll be able to get a preview of NBA 2K18 via The Prelude, which will be released on September 8th. The MyNBA2K18 companion app with face scanning functionality will be released a day earlier on September 7th. What are your thoughts on the new open world career mode? Have your say in the comments section below, and join in the discussion taking place here in the NBA 2K18 section of the NLSC Forum!

As reported by The Gaming Tailgate and Operation Sports, the listing for NBA 2K18 on EB Games Australia has leaked a few new details about this year’s game. The information has since been removed from the listing, but a screenshot has preserved the details that were revealed, which are as follows:

Episode #217 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Join Arcane and I as we provide our impressions of the NBA Live 18 Demo and Companion App, share our thoughts on some other NBA Live 18 and NBA 2K18 news items from the past week, and talk about our recent activities on the virtual hardwood.

On this week’s show…

• Shortly after we finished recording last week’s NLSC Podcast, the Companion App for NBA Live 18 was released. How does it compare to the NBA Live 16 app, and how did our face scans turn out?
• The NBA Live 18 Demo is out now. In one of our longest segments to date, we provide some in-depth initial impressions of our first hands-on look at this year’s game from EA Sports.
• NBA Live 18 is now available to pre-order, with a 33% discount on offer. There also appears to be a Deluxe edition of the game, though no further details are available at this time.
• Wrapping up the NBA Live 18 news, the full soundtrack has been released. Notably, some big names have contributed tracks this year.
• The second Developer Diary for NBA 2K18 provided us with a look at the gameplay, as well as an insight into the aesthetic improvements in this year’s game. We also have some hands-on impressions from the community, more screenshots, and mention of amiibo compatibility.
• We’ll be getting another edition of The Prelude before the release of NBA 2K18, but it’s reportedly different to last year’s demo. Naturally, that news invites speculation.
• Episode #217 of the NLSC Podcast wraps up with Our Week in Basketball Gaming, which included a troubleshooting fail (albeit with a happy ending), a brewing rivalry for NLSC THRILLHO, and an elusive PlayStation Trophy.

Click Play to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:45:32 — 72.5MB)

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Have some thoughts on the latest episode? Sound off in the comments below, or here in the Forum. Also, if there’s a topic you’d like us to discuss on the next episode of the NLSC Podcast, feel free to hit us up in this thread.

Episode #216 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Join Arcane and I as we discuss the news of the past week, including the NBA Live 18 demo and WNBA teams, the NBA Playgrounds Roster Unlock DLC, and a couple of NBA 2K18 snippets. And as always, we tell a few stories about our past week in basketball gaming.

On this week’s show…

• The NBA Live 18 demo will be coming out next week, August 11th. We’ve also found out a little more about The Streets portion of The One.
• EA Sports has also announced that all twelve WNBA teams will be included in NBA Live 18. We feel it’s a pretty good idea, and speculate on the future of additional content in NBA Live.
• The latest NBA 2K18 screenshots are looking very good, with some noticeable improvements to a couple of players. For what it’s worth, we’ve also found out a few more player ratings.
• A couple of interviews have provided us with some snippets of information regarding improvements to gameplay and MyPLAYER Archetypes in NBA 2K18, as well a few additional details on the new story in MyGM.
• Saber Interactive has released a Roster Unlock for NBA Playgrounds. The idea definitely has merit and it’s something gamers have been asking for, but not everyone is happy about it.
• NBA 2K17 is the highest selling Take Two sports title to date. It’s also raking in higher than expected revenue from microtransactions.
• Our Week in Basketball Gaming has included some fun moments and satisfying victories in 2K Pro-Am and MyPARK, and more enjoyment out of an old school fantasy approach in Play Now.
• We wrap up Episode #216 of the NLSC Podcast with some NBL talk. Yes, really!

Click Play to listen to the show!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:36:56 — 66.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Have some thoughts on the latest episode? Sound off in the comments below, or here in the Forum. Also, if there’s a topic you’d like us to discuss on the next episode of the NLSC Podcast, feel free to hit us up in this thread.