Tag Archives: The Prelude

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 reminiscing about NBA 2K8 making a cameo during the story in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER.

MyCAREER stories have undoubtedly been hit or miss. From the way they impact the gameplay experience to the quality of the stories themselves, some have managed to enhance the mode, while others have unfortunately detracted from it. For me, “The Way Back” – the story of NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER – was one of the stronger tales. It took us along a very different path to the NBA, with some genuinely captivating story beats. Sure, there’s a glaring plot hole that could’ve easily been avoided with only a slight change to the ending, but even that makes it interesting!

With that in mind, “The Way Back” is definitely one of my favourite MyCAREER stories. It also helps that the developers got creative in adding interactive elements beyond the usual gameplay. Not only did we have character and dialogue choices, but there were also hoops-related activities ranging from a barnyard pickup game to mini basketball at a fair. This also includes a memorable tribute to the history of the NBA 2K series, as our MyPLAYER ends up playing NBA 2K8 during the course of the NBA 2K19 MyCAREER story. 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 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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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 bad omens in basketball gaming.

I don’t believe in omens as a mystical force in the universe. However, I do believe that there are warning signs that we should take notice of, which I’ll colloquially refer to as bad omens. As far as basketball gaming is concerned, there are definitely some bad omens when it comes to an upcoming release, or the future of a series. They’re not exactly mysterious and hard to spot, but it obviously gets easier with experience. We can recognise patterns, acknowledge precedent, and employ some common sense. At the same time, it’s easy to ignore bad omens.

After all, many of us try to remain optimistic about our hobby. We don’t want to jump the gun and assume the worst, especially if our predictions and pessimism have been proven wrong in the past. Things that have seemed like bad omens have turned out to be meaningless, or in rare cases, good news. Still, it pays to err on the side of caution, and there are warning signs that we should probably brace ourselves for bad news; or at the very least, temper our expectations. Once again, experience can usually guide us, as the red flags are much easier to spot after you’ve been through a few preview seasons. To that end, when one of these five events occurs, it tends to be a bad omen.

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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 fictional players in sim basketball games.

By definition, sim basketball games are anchored in reality. Unlike arcade games, we don’t expect or desire to see mascots and other secret characters being playable on team rosters. However, we are invited to create fictional scenarios through fantasy drafts and the trades and signings of our choice in franchise play, as well as the card collecting and old school custom teams modes. We can also inject NBA Legends and classic teams into the current NBA, play inter-era exhibitions, and mod in fictional characters. The All-Time Teams in NBA 2K are ready-made fantasy scenarios, too.

In other words, sim games aren’t always serious business, or about playing with real rosters, be they contemporary or historical. That is still the default starting point, of course. Any breaks from reality that we see are either at our discretion, or intrinsic to the concept of a specific mode. Furthermore, these fictional scenarios still involve real players. We’re generally not clamouring to see completely fictional characters inserted into modes where rosters are expected to reflect reality; at least to begin with. With that being said, we have seen fictional players who aren’t placeholders take part in modes based around the real NBA. I certainly have mixed feelings about that idea.

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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 ups and downs of the early stages of MyCAREER.

It’s been an interesting, but at times frustrating, journey for career modes in NBA 2K. As popular as franchise modes became after being introduced in the early 2000s, there was undeniable interest in a similar experience from the perspective of a single player. Being an RPG style of mode, as My Player evolved into MyCAREER, it began to incorporate cinematic stories. These days, many gamers see the traditional/NBA side of MyCAREER as a means to an end; a way to grind and level up their MyPLAYER avatar for the online scene. Of course, others still enjoy the NBA career experience.

Something that has remained fairly constant, however, is that it’s a long way to the top. Sure, the grind is worse now, in no small part because it encourages paying for quicker upgrades, and boosting Take-Two’s recurrent revenue. Even if you’re willing to pay to skip the grind, it costs more than before. I’ve talked about that many times, and that isn’t really what this article is about, but it does bear acknowledging. In any case, while there are issues with pushy microtransactions, and occasionally a story that doesn’t match up with our starting ratings, the early stages of MyCAREER are about a raw prospect’s journey to success. As tough as it is, it can also be quite fun.

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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 fictional rookies that are found in the original rosters of unpatched NBA 2K12.

Fortunately, there haven’t been too many lockouts in the history of the NBA. To that point, only two of them have ever ended up cancelling games, and we’ve yet to see an entire season lost to an unresolved labour dispute. We have seen lockouts affect video games however, whenever they’ve been released as scheduled despite a stoppage. The most obvious effect is that those games have launched with previous season rosters, rather than including the offseason moves and a new rookie class that we normally expect to see. This in turn has presented some issues, and necessary workarounds.

For example, the 16-bit version of NBA Live 96 included the expansion draft, as well as codes to easily replace Roster Players with rookies (and Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and assorted Legends!). Only one player in NBA Live 99 – Peja Stojakovic – could win Rookie of the Year in Season mode, though the official PC patch did add the Class of 1998, and any created rookies were also eligible for the award. NBA Full Court Press also received an official roster update. And then, there’s NBA 2K12, and its fictional placeholder rookies that stood in for the Class of 2011 until the lockout was lifted and a patch was released. 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 by making a case for releasing basketball video game demos.

It’s strange how when I think of basketball video game demos, they feel like such an antiquated concept. That may be because video game demos in general have fallen out of vogue – much as shareware did – but it hasn’t actually been that long since we had a demo for an upcoming hoops title. The last NBA Live demo came in 2018, while we had a small preview of NBA 2K21 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Now, that is indeed going back a few years at this point, but for some reason those demos don’t immediately come to mind. Instead, demos seem like a relic of the 90s and 2000s.

Of course, one could very well argue that that’s when basketball game demos were far more relevant. There was legitimate competition between NBA Live and NBA 2K right through to the end of the decade. The preview season for both games began around June, and there was a steady stream of information as they competed for attention and pre-orders. There was value in both companies dropping a demo a few weeks before the full version was released, to show off a few key improvements and possibly change some minds. Even with NBA 2K’s virtual monopoly over basketball gaming, however, I maintain that there’s still value in providing a pre-release demo.

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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 taking a look at five devious practices in basketball video games.

I’m not one for conspiracy theories as a rule, but when it comes to devious practices in basketball video games – and gaming in general for that matter – there’s no need for wild speculation anyway. Publishers are shockingly, brazenly open about their anti-consumer practices these days, mainly because they’ve become normalised. As such, whenever you bring up a troubling issue, there’s a swarm of smug shills waiting to tell you that this how gaming is now and that it’s just business, as if you don’t understand the concept of a billion dollar corporation being concerned with making money.

As I’ve said before, I prefer to stand with my fellow gamers, rather than blindly defend companies that will happily take advantage of their customers. Yes, video game development is a business, but to that end it’s providing a product that we can evaluate in terms of quality and value for money. Good, valuable video game critique requires looking through the spin and hype to identify flaws and drawbacks, including devious practices. The problem is that some of those devious practices are dressed up as generous and beneficial features, in order to disguise their motives and deflect criticism. Even when they are useful, it’s important to recognise the deviousness.

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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 events that will shake your confidence in a forthcoming basketball game.

Although we can sometimes seem like a cynical bunch, I believe that a majority of basketball gamers do want to see a great new game every year. Sure, there’s a certain catharsis in a smug “I told you so”, but when it comes down to it, I expect most of us want to at least be satisfied with, if not blown away by, the latest release. It’s wise to keep our expectations realistic, and not get our hearts set on something that hasn’t been promised. At the same time, we can still be optimistic without getting carried away, or ignoring troubling signs.

To that point though, there are warning signs that we must pay attention to. These are the events that shake our confidence in a game, and for good reason. While it’s easy to jump to conclusions, there are recognisable patterns and red flags when it comes to the development of basketball video games. The longer you play them, and the more preview seasons that you experience, the better you get at recognising those signs. Also, while social media giving us access to the devs has been great for feedback, it can also leave us concerned about the people responsible for our favourite games. One way or another, these events will shake our confidence, and dampen our enthusiasm.

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Episode #384 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Derek (aka Dee4Three) and I are your hosts for this weekly podcast that’s all about basketball gaming.

The cover players, release date, and pre-order bonuses for NBA 2K22 have been revealed, confirming leaks and speculation, and drawing some boorish comments about one player in particular. Unfortunately, the PC version will be a prior gen port once again this year, and we have some thoughts to share on that. Despite the remarks of one wannabe content creator, PC gamers have a right to be dismayed…and to play NBA 2K, for that matter. The lack of a demo on all platforms is likewise disappointing. Elsewhere, a Tweet mentioning a partnership between LeBron James and EA has people talking, though we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves (again). We also touch on Steam Deck, and some listener responses to last week’s mailbag topics.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:15:29 — 52.2MB)

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Join in the conversation in the comments below, or here in the Forum! Additionally, feel free to hit us up with any feedback on the episode, as well as mailbag questions and topic suggestions for future shows. For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. The show also comes out on our YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe for future episodes and other video content.

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 NBA 2K10 Draft Combine.

Our journey to the league in NBA 2K’s career modes has taken many forms. We’ve played in Rookie Showcase games, guided Freq from high school through to the pros, experienced a college career with Pres, and took a long road through China and the G League as AI. We’ve even made it to the NBA after leaving basketball behind to be a DJ, and then drawing attention in a streetball tournament. The Draft Combine has been featured in a couple of stories (including NBA 2K20’s tale), serving as another way to prove ourselves on the virtual hardwood and raise our Draft stock.

In the very first iteration of career mode – then called My Player – the combine was the starting point for the whole experience, tipping things off before the full game was even released. The NBA 2K10 Draft Combine offered gamers a sneak peek at the mode as well as an opportunity to get a head start, though only on console. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 lists five questions that remain unanswered in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER, and considers some possible explanations.

Having completed a season for the ages in Year 2 of my NBA 2K19 MyCAREER, I’m ready to move on from the mode in NBA 2K20. Since writing that Monday Tip-Off article, I have played a few games in Year 3 to see what the roster is like. It’s been interesting, but the possibility of a threepeat hasn’t been enough of an incentive to play many more games, or even try simulating most of the season. As the NBA 2K20 demo and full game loom on the horizon, I feel done with NBA 2K19 as a whole, let alone a mode where I’ve finally achieved a sense of closure.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t reflect on my experiences with MyCAREER, and the concepts that it’s explored this generation. For example, I admittedly have a love-hate relationship with the story-driven approach. I believe it has its problems, but it’s also been creative and at times thought-provoking. It’s invited various theories, and even suggests the possibility of its own cinematic universe. Before I close the book on MyCAREER, I’d like to discuss some unexplained aspects of the story in NBA 2K19. Note that these unanswered questions didn’t ruin the experience in my opinion, so this is just me having some fun with plot holes and other oddities.

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2K has announced that the NBA 2K20 Demo will be available on August 21st 2019, going live at 12:01 AM Pacific Time. It will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, but not PC. Contrary to the limitations in The Prelude in previous years, it seems as though we’ll be able to try out more than one build before the full game is released.

Starting on August 21st at 12:01 am PT, you can get an early start on your MyCAREER while testing out the new MyPLAYER builder and hitting the court two weeks ahead of the game’s launch by downloading the NBA 2K20 Demo. In the NBA 2K20 Demo, you can try out multiple MyPLAYER configurations to create the player that best fits your play-style, which will be carried over to NBA 2K20 at launch on September 6th. The NBA 2K20 Demo will be available exclusively on Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

This certainly comes as good news, as previous glimpses of the game via The Prelude offered little in the way of replay value, forcing gamers to choose one Archetype to trial in a single playthrough of the early stages of MyCAREER. Providing the opportunity to test out more than one Archetype has been a common request, so it’s nice to see 2K taking the community’s suggestion on board. As yet, there’s no word on whether or not any changes have been made to Archetypes this year.

Another controversial issue that has dogged The Prelude in recent years is that its gameplay settings are juiced up, providing an inaccurate snapshot of what to expect in the full game. This is obviously something we won’t know until after we’ve played both, but hopefully this year’s demo will take a more honest approach.

What are your expectations for the NBA 2K20 Demo? Have your say in the comments below, and join in the discussion here in the NLSC Forum!

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 times that PC gamers have missed out when it comes to the virtual hardwood.

Due to the popularity of the PC platform in our community, it’s all too easy to forget that it isn’t a priority for sports video game developers. Consoles account for a bulk of the annual sales, making PC sports gamers a niche within a niche. That hasn’t stopped us from having a lot of fun with the games that have come out on PC though, thanks in no small part to what our modding community has been capable of throughout the years. Furthermore, if you go back and look at the history of NBA Live on PC, there was a time when those releases could be considered the definitive version.

Unfortunately, playing on PC has sometimes led to missing out on content, or certain games altogether. From a developer’s perspective, consoles provide the convenience of standard hardware and digital platforms, as well as more security when it comes to piracy. Developing for the PC is more challenging due to differing hardware, as well as distribution methods. Even when the former hasn’t been a barrier to getting a PC release, the latter has prevented it from receiving the same level of support, including downloadable content. We’re fortunate enough to still get basketball games on PC, but here are five times that we weren’t so lucky on the platform.

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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 some experiments in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER, and the discoveries about the mode that they’ve yielded.

Once again, despite my belief that I was over the career experience on the virtual hardwood, I’ve ended up playing MyCAREER extensively in NBA 2K19. It’s been a fun and rewarding experience this year, and I’ve enjoyed grinding my way up to 90 Overall without buying any VC, completing the first season and bringing another virtual championship to Chicago, and more recently, hitting 92 Overall and maxing out all my Badges. The online experience hasn’t been stellar this year, but I can say that I’ve enjoyed much of what the single player portion of MyCAREER has to offer.

Spending so much time with MyCAREER has piqued my interest in finding out more about the mode. In addition to the observations I’ve made over the course of playing my main game, I’ve also run a few experiments with additional saves. I’ve wondered whether certain events are scripted and consistent, if there’s a game over should you play or sim long enough, the mechanics of the Daily Prize Wheel, and even the speed of the bikes. Through those experiments, and a thorough playthrough of the mode, I’ve compiled some information about MyCAREER that I hope will be both helpful and interesting to gamers who may have similar questions about all of its ins and outs.

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