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NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week: February 3rd, 2024

NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.

We have a rare treat in this instalment of the NLSC Top 10 Plays, as a highlight from NBA Elite 11 took the top spot! It’s the only cancelled game featured here, but there are also a couple of often-overlooked titles on display. Indeed, the countdown tips off with a two-way play from Total NBA ’96 (aka the first NBA ShootOut), and you’ll also see an awesome jam from the session of ESPN NBA 2Night that Dee and I played; one that surprisingly wasn’t waved off with a charging call! That’s just scratching the surface of another exciting Top 10 filled with great moves and spectacular dunks. Let’s get to the action!

What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.

The Friday Five: 5 Reasons I Won’t Stop Retro Gaming

The Friday Five: 5 Reasons I Won't Stop Retro Gaming

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 reasons why I have no intention of putting a stop to my retro basketball gaming habits.

One of the best things that I’ve done to enhance my enjoyment of basketball gaming in recent years is to avoid the annual grind in MyCAREER, freeing up time to play some old favourites. Dee has obviously been a great influence in that regard, as we’ve connected to play a variety of classics over Parsec. It’s reminded me of how I used to enjoy going back to older games or sticking with one for more than a year, especially when I was disappointed with the latest release. Of course, my enthusiasm for retro basketball gaming has now made it tougher to spend time with newer games.

I have no regrets, though. I still gave NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K24 ample opportunity to impress, knowing that they might not, and that I had other options if they didn’t. To dust off a very old but nevertheless wise saying, I’ve learned to not put all of my eggs in one basket. I don’t feel defeated or robbed of a good time if the latest NBA 2K isn’t entirely to my liking. Beyond my interest in other genres, I have a huge collection of basketball games to fall back on if I’m itching to hit the virtual hardwood. While I do obviously have an interest in the future of basketball gaming, I’m finding plenty of reasons to return to old favourites, as well as seek out some new ones. Here are five!

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Wayback Wednesday: NBA in the Zone Retrospective

Wayback Wednesday: NBA in the Zone Retrospective

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 NBA in the Zone, developed and released by Konami.

The sim-arcade hybrid genre of basketball video games is one that I’ve really come to appreciate in recent years. I didn’t play many of them growing up, as I preferred NBA Live for its more realistic approach to the sim style, and NBA Jam for its definitive arcade experience. While I ultimately still prefer games that are firmly sim or arcade in their style of play, sim-arcade hybrid titles undoubtedly have their place. The best ones strike a fun balance between a realistic depiction of basketball, and exaggerating the action for looser, up-tempo gameplay that takes a few liberties with accuracy.

Because they occupy a middle ground between simulation and arcade games, there are a handful of games that could be considered sim-arcade hybrids. And 1 Streetball is definitely in the conversation, mixing 5-on-5 gameplay with some power-ups and slightly exaggerated dunks. NBA Live 2003’s wackier elements arguably make it a candidate, though it’s still mostly sim at its core. When I think of prime examples of sim-arcade hybrid games though, Konami’s hoops titles are what come to mind, and that includes NBA in the Zone. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Monday Tip-Off: Fear & Losing in NBA 2K

Monday Tip-Off: Fear & Losing in NBA 2K

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 a fear of losing and having a bad time in NBA 2K’s connected modes has poisoned the online scene.

It’s been a familiar sight since the introduction of The Neighborhood in NBA 2K18. Plenty of MyPLAYERs running around or just standing there idly, while others wait at the Got Next spots, hoping in vain to get the numbers to play a game. Meanwhile, in The Rec, MyPLAYERs enter the locker room, only to quickly exit before a game can begin. Naturally, you stand a much better chance of getting a game if you’re with friends, but the hub world concept is intended to encourage gamers to socialise and form impromptu squads for pick-up games. It hasn’t quite worked out that way!

To put it bluntly, there’s a fear of losing in MyCAREER’s connected modes. No one enjoys losing of course, but when the fear of taking an L is so great that you’d rather not even play, that’s a big problem! At the same time, there are legitimate concerns about the quality of the online experience. It isn’t just about not wanting to lose, but also having no desire to team up with selfish players and trolls who are going to make it incredibly difficult to win. Between some people taking things so seriously that they don’t want to risk a loss, and others not wanting to jump into a game knowing that it’s going to be a bad time, the online scene in NBA 2K remains shockingly substandard.

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NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week: January 27th, 2024

NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.

As you might expect, this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays contains a couple of highlights from the late, great Kobe Bryant. The Black Mamba isn’t the only one putting on a show on the virtual hardwood though, as Michael Jordan and even a created Scottie Pippen in NBA Live 19 provide a dazzling aerial display. There’s also an NBA Live 2000 highlight featuring one of the last roster updates for the game from the mid 2010s, and plenty of other spectacular moves from eight different games. Let’s get to the action!

What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.

The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Only Appeared on Certain Teams in Games (Part 20)

The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Only Appeared on Certain Teams in Games (Part 20)

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 Part 20 in an ongoing series looking at players who only appeared on certain teams in video games.

At long last, we’ve reached the end of this second run of Friday Five articles looking at players who only appeared on certain teams in games, for one reason or another! The series was actually intended to finish much earlier – at least for the short term – but thanks to the help of David L, I ended up with numerous examples that were just too interesting not to discuss. As I didn’t want to scrap the articles I’d already written and the fun stories they included, this second series of articles has ultimately spanned an entire year, becoming a fun recurring topic for the last Friday of each month.

All good things must come to an end though, so this is it for now; famous last words, I know! There are definitely more examples, but I’ve basically covered the biggest names and most interesting stories; a total of one hundred players, as of Part 20! It’s time to move on to some other topics, but we are ending this second run of articles about players who only appeared on certain teams in video games on an interesting note. All five examples this time around are from NBA Live 2000 PC, with one of the players also boasting a second phantom stint in the original NBA 2K. So, let’s take a look at five more phantom stints that have been captured on the virtual hardwood!

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Wayback Wednesday: Revisiting the Lockout Season in NBA Live 99

Wayback Wednesday: Revisiting the Lockout Season in NBA Live 99

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 transitional rosters of the 1999 lockout season, as captured in NBA Live 99 PC.

It’s been 25 years since a lockout led to NBA games being cancelled for the first time, with the threat of an entire season being lost. I’ll admit that I wasn’t paying attention to the looming labour crisis as a teenage Chicago Bulls fan in 1998. I was focused on following the action, hoping that Michael Jordan would win another scoring title and the Bulls would end the year as champions once more. The rumours that concerned me were that it would be The Last Dance, which it obviously was. Furthermore, the magazines I was reading weren’t really covering it, and NBA Action definitely wasn’t!

Fortunately, the season was saved when ultimatums were issued – though, it wouldn’t be the last labour dispute – and the 1999 lockout ended on January 20th, 1999. On top of shortening the 1999 campaign to 50 games, it also meant that video games such as NBA Live had to launch with final 1998 season rosters. Fortunately for PC gamers, EA Sports released an official patch that not only fixed a few bugs, but updated the game for the new season. As such, NBA Live 99 PC in its updated state does preserve the rosters from a weird, yet memorable season. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Monday Tip-Off: Messing Around On The Virtual Hardwood

Monday Tip-Off: Messing Around On The Virtual Hardwood

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 fun it can be just messing around with basketball video games.

I don’t want to harp on the horrors of grinding in basketball gaming nowadays. It’s a well-known issue, and it would be rather ironic and hypocritical of me to repeatedly grumble about something being repetitive! However, it is worth noting that one of the biggest problems in modern basketball games is the focus on the grind, whether it’s levelling up a MyPLAYER or building a MyTEAM squad. We’ve gone from a fun journey that keeps us hooked for hours on end, to needing to put in hours of work just to have fun. I’m grateful to have changed my habits in that regard!

However, while it’s been refreshing to return to NBA 2K14 PS4 for five full seasons and counting in MyCAREER, and also free up time for a potential return to franchise play, frankly I’m enjoying having less structure to my basketball gaming. Don’t get me wrong; I love the depth that keeps us hooked on franchise and career modes, with the tangible goals of playing through seasons and winning championships. At the same time, when you’re not dedicating yourself to grinding or you feel like a break from a more structured mode, simply messing around in a game can be just as engaging. It’s actually one of the things that I enjoyed the most about my basketball gaming in 2023.

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The Friday Five: 5 Evergreen Issues with NBA 2K

The Friday Five: 5 Evergreen Issues with NBA 2K

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 issues with NBA 2K that are seemingly evergreen.

Since I’ve taken a look at some evergreen issues with the NBA Live series, it’s time to examine similar problems with NBA 2K. Obviously, NBA 2K is a powerhouse in the basketball gaming space, with a virtual monopoly on sim titles. Even in the years that NBA Live was released during the past generation, the NBA 2K series outsold it by a significant margin to say the least. The competition hasn’t been close in terms of sales and critical reception since 2008, in large part because NBA 2K has maintained a high level of quality, while NBA Live has suffered from its own evergreen issues.

However, there are definitely problems that continue to plague NBA 2K to this day. They’re in too comfortable of a position to fail, which once again is the result of them maintaining a generally pleasing level of quality through the years. At the same time, these evergreen issues do affect the quality of NBA 2K games, as well as the overall image of the series. As NBA Live stumbled, NBA 2K became the darling for hoops gamers and the yardstick for its genre. Without competition though, its flaws have been exposed, and its reputation has been tarnished. The evergreen issues that NBA 2K has failed to address are responsible for that, so let’s take a look at five of them.

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Wayback Wednesday: Team Rankings & Overall Ratings

Wayback Wednesday: Team Rankings & Overall Ratings

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 Team Rankings and Overall Ratings in basketball video games.

It’s interesting how we get attached to the little details in our favourite basketball video games, particularly the ones that served as our introduction to the genre! I can trace many of my preferences related to presentation and UI to NBA Live 96 PC as it was one of the first 5-on-5 sim games that I played, and it was also the very first one that I owned rather than just frequently renting. To that point, growing up with NBA Live conditioned me to expect teams to be sorted alphabetically by location. 2K’s method of sorting by team name thus felt strange at first, though I’m used to it now.

Another detail that I really enjoyed in the early NBA Live games was the rankings that appeared on team selection screens. Mind you, while I associate them with NBA Live given that it was the series that I primarily played as a young basketball gamer, many sim titles ranked and rated the teams in both individual categories and overall. These rankings gave way to Overall Ratings similar to the ones that players have, which didn’t feel as special, but are also nostalgic in their own way. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Monday Tip-Off: Half a Decade in NBA 2K14 MyCAREER

Monday Tip-Off: Half a Decade in NBA 2K14 MyCAREER

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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NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week: January 13th, 2024

NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.

The NLSC Top 10 Plays has only been getting better and better since Dee revived it, with the community coming through with the goods week in, week out. I don’t envy the task of trying to rank all those submissions, and as Dee noted in the video description over on YouTube, the January 13th countdown has several highlights that might’ve made the top three in other weeks . Of course, that just makes for an even more exciting way to tip off another weekend of basketball gaming! Seven different games are featured this week, from Street Hoops through to NBA 2K24. Let’s get to the action!

What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.

The Friday Five: 5 Evergreen Issues with NBA Live

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 issues with NBA Live that were seemingly evergreen.

When we look at the struggles that NBA Live endured for over a decade, there are two levels to our critique. The first concerns the minutia of the games; the hands-on experience, from gameplay to game modes. In other words, the technical issues and specific design choices that have resulted in titles which failed to live up to ours or EA’s expectations. That’s an important conversation to have, especially when we’ve compiled Wishlists, or otherwise sent in feedback to the developers. However, there’s also a second level in which we evaluate concepts and approach.

It’s at the conceptual level that you’ll find many evergreen issues with the NBA Live series, which have served to hold it back and take it in bad directions. It isn’t a case of laziness, a lack of knowledge, or even resources, though it could be argued that NBA Live has never received the same support from EA Sports brass as its other franchises. There are common mistakes that are present in all of the problematic NBA Live titles though, and even some of the best releases still suffer from these evergreen issues. A comeback for NBA Live will require many specific fixes and additions from a virtual basketball perspective, but conceptually, it must also break the cycle on these trends.

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Wayback Wednesday: Throwback Stints in NBA Live 06 Xbox 360

Wayback Wednesday: Throwback Stints in NBA Live 06 Xbox 360

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 some throwback stints, as portrayed by the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 06.

Tinkering with the rosters to set up fun scenarios and minimalist modding projects has become a staple of my retro basketball gaming. I enjoy the challenge of seeing what can be done with the assets I have at my disposal, and it’s gratifying whenever I’m able to cobble together something that I can at least get a game or two out of. Some attempts are more successful than others as far as creating playable scenarios, but if nothing else, I’ll get some interesting screenshots out of my endeavours. That’s what happened while I was on my extended retro kick with NBA Live 06 for Xbox 360.

While exploring the idea of a makeshift classic teams roster – something that fell apart thanks to a roster editing glitch that can happen way too easily – I ended up placing a number of players on their former teams, and taking some screenshots. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with those screens, but I didn’t want my efforts to go to waste, and figured that they’d come in handy for an article somewhere down the line. I may find further use for them yet, but for now, here are some throwback stints that I set up in the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 06. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Monday Tip-Off: Inspiration, Impatience, & Fresh Starts

Monday Tip-Off: Inspiration, Impatience, & Fresh Starts

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 a combination of new inspiration, impatience, and the appeal of fresh starts, can derail modding projects.

Last year, I was quite relieved when I finally released my fixed official roster for NBA 2K10; a roster that added missing Legends, corrected ratings and tendencies for the original Legends, and made a few other enhancements. Not only was I pleased with the results – as egotistical as that may sound – but it was gratifying to finish a modding project that I’d started, particularly one that can inject more fun into retro basketball gaming, and possibly even serve as a base for future projects. It came out later than I’d hoped, but it did mean that I was able to take more care with it.

Of course, it’s not the only modding project that I’ve envisioned or attempted in recent years. I’ve shared some of the roster mod ideas that have come to mind in Friday Five articles, and of course previewed an NBA 2K11 current roster project that ultimately fell through. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of, as I was once very dedicated to maintaining current roster updates for NBA Live, on top of other mods over the years. Unfortunately, as I’ve looked to get back into the hobby, I’ve found that being struck by inspiration for another project has a tendency to cause impatience with the current one, and a strong yearning for the excitement that comes with fresh starts.

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