NBA PLAYOFFS CONFERENCE SEMI-FINALS SPECIAL!!! (AIR HORN NOISE)- NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 (Switch, PC)

Microtransactions. Grind. Kevin Durant to the Knicks on July 1st. Refs in the Rockets v. Warriors series…Lot’s of conversations are happening right now as the NBA Playoffs begins their second round.

What I want to focus on is THE GRIND and how it relates to NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. While Mortal Kombat 11 has brought this conversation back to the forefront, the idea of full price games being riddled free-to-play microtransactions and a gameplay grind that is balanced in a way to make you want to spend is far too common.

Recently, I purchased NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 for nine dollars on PC. NBA Playgrounds 1 and 2 have a terrible system of unlocking players where it’s all loot boxes. There is no way to unlock players you want without finding said players in a pack. For better or worse, the first NBA Playgrounds had 0 microtransaction, you had to earn packs through gameplay. You’d level up and get packs. I beat every tournament in that game and did most of the challenges and played a few matches on-line and never unlocked Patrick Ewing. I use him as an example, because he is who I always want in these games, but the larger issue is that there were teams that I had only 2 players for. I would earn a pack and get duplicate players! It was insane, but there was no way to pay for packs with real money and no auction house. It was noble on one hand, but also paced terribly on the other.

In NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 they have a similar grind. Players have to be found in packs, it’s random unless you win a championship with a team and then you earn a special player. BUT in the sequel you can pay 10 dollars and unlock everyone. I paid that for the PC version of the game. I have everyone. It is amazing, the roster is huge and an NBA nerd’s dream come true. Everybody from Joe Johnson to Drazen Petrovich and of course Patrick Ewing was available. Having the full roster in this game is amazing because I never came close to it on the original game. In addition to having access to a full roster, NBA Playgrounds 2 plays really well especially when compared to the first one. I would argue that the single player gameplay loop is better with the season mode and playoffs. Even with all these positives, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have felt like to play the season + playoff loop in Playgrounds 2 to unlock players… would I make currency at a rate to buy packs quickly? Is it rewarding? Did I cheat myself out of a fun gameplay loop of unlocking players? To test this, I bought the Switch port and decided not to spend any money on cards. You can earn baller bucks or something to buy packs and every game you play adds currency. I only used in game currency to unlock players.

When you turn on Playgrounds 2 new you are able to open 3 packs that will net you 12 players in the game. Those are the only players you have. I went to start a season to play through (they have 15 game season and then a playoff to see if you can win a title and unlock a special player)and realized that I could only pick teams that I had players for. I had no Knicks players so I could not choose them. I chose the Suns because I opened a Steve Nash legendary card and a Cedric Ceballos. Nash was the best player I had at the time but this team was unbalanced to say the least. Playgrounds 2 provides a decent challenge on normal mode, but it’s hard when your players and roster aren’t very good. As the Suns, I played the Spurs in a regular season game and they had David Robinson and Manu Ginobli. That’s a hard game to win. Nash is a 6’3 PG and Ceballos is a 6’7 SF. I can’t stop The Admiral and they can block everything I put up. In my attempt to get Steve Nash to the finals, something D’antoni couldn’t do, I really struggled. I lost 2-1 in the finals to the Bucks.

I played through a few seasons and playoff runs and opened packs every 2 games. Even after opening probably 20 packs there were teams in the NBA that I had 0 players for. I still can’t pick the Knicks for season play because I don’t have any Knicks players unlocked. If you only have 1 player from a team you’re just stuck, can’t use them until you open a second. This is a sports game where people have favorite teams, not being able to pick them after hours of gameplay sucks. Not having access to Ewing is one thing, not having access to the Knicks is a much larger issue. The side effect of this that can be seen as a positive is that it forces you to use players and teams you may not have normally chosen. I used the Celtics for a season because I opened an epic Larry Bird. Bird is my best player by far so I used the Celtics. I also opened a Dennis Johnson card. There is something to be said for a game forcing you to see the roster and use different people. The game does a great job of making players feel different. My thought is the game doesn’t need these kind of hooks to add replayablilty. The game feels great and is fun, beyond that every player levels up the more you use them and beat their specific player challenges. You might unlock Patrick Ewing, but to get the best Ewing you need to play as him in lots of games. That’s a fun hook. I want the best Knicks with Ewing and Starks, I have to lead them to a title. There are 4 difficulty levels for the single player content with no shortage of reasons to play. Gating off teams from the beginning is tough. I don’t remember Playgrounds 1 having that issue but I might be wrong.

Opening packs on the switch version is a thrilling experiences because the potential is there to gain access to entire teams. It’s also cripplingly disappointing because you may not unlock anything new that you want. On the PC version where I unlocked everything, the thrill is more seeing all of these legends and teams I have access to and picking who I want to try and who I want to level up. The mystique of the card packs and gaining currency is gone. I guess at this point in my life where time is limited for gaming, I would rather have options and control my experience.

The grind notwithstanding, NBA 2K Playgrounds 2’s gameplay ascends the pantheons of arcade basketball games. The first Playgrounds was very stiff and rebounding and rim-feel was rigid and off. The newest Playgrounds game feels buttery smooth. The ability to use a player’s crossover into a jumpshot or dunk feels amazing (much better than the first game). Defense feels more natural too. You can attempt steals more and blocks feel more organic now. The first game limited steals with the turbo meter and the second allows more steal attempts. It feels like a small thing but defense in NBA Jam-like games is reduced to pushing or steals and Playgrounds penalizes pushing very harshly. Being able to attempt steals more makes defense feel much better. The player models look better in the new game and courts are awesome. Teams have home courts now and they look amazing. The fans in the stands are all well animated. The commentary is fun. They use Youtubers CashNasty and Troydan and a few others you can choose for commentary and that’s a fun touch.

PATRICK EWING!

NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is a perfect example of microtransactions getting in the way of something special. Not being able to access teams without hours of gameplay is a pacing problem and seems like a direct way to push players towards spending money. If you have friends you want to play with, you want to have every team unlocked. NBA Jam TE expanded the roster after you beat all 27 teams. It feels great, it’s a fun reward for playing the game and it can be done in less than 5 or 6 hours. It’s not random, you do the task and everyone unlocks. The randomness of the packs is a problem. I want the Knicks. I can buy 50 packs and may never get all or any of the Knicks players. This paradigm of gaming where the initial 30 or 60 dollars isn’t enough to unlock content is problematic. If you’re going to force people to pay money, let us pay for what we want and not be forced into loot boxes and random packs all the time. That said, I really enjoy NBA Playgrounds 2. A flawed gem. Peace.

NBA Hangtime! (PS1, Genesis, PC)

NBA Hangtime represents an interesting split in NBA Jam/Arcade basketball fandom. Hangtime was made by Mark Turmell, which makes it part of the esteemed NBA Jam lineage even though Midway had lost the rights to the Jam name. Some fans hate Hangtime saying it doesn’t add enough to the formula, others (mostly N64 owners) cite it as the pinnacle of the formula.

I did not like Hangtime when it came out. The only version I had seen was the N64 version which I think looks and plays mediocre at best. The colors aren’t vibrant, it doesn’t look good. Recently, I grabbed Hangtime for Genesis, PC, and the weirdly rare Playstation 1 version to give the game more of a chance to wow me.

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I’d be remiss to not bring up NBA Jam Extreme. People think NBA on NBC: Showtime was the first 3D NBA Jam game but actually it’s NBA Jam Extreme that came out around the same time as Hangtime. I remember loving NBA Jam Extreme for Saturn and PC growing up, but it was years since I played. I recently picked it up for PS1 and it is such a poorly realized game with a lot of potential. The graphics are bad, but it’s early PS1 so I can forgive it. The courts are real NBA courts which is nice but the player models are awful even for the era. The player models are way too big and the hoop, rim and ball are so small! The rim is so small that the dunk animations can’t even put the ball through properly. I think the biggest thing lost in Extreme is the animations. NBA Hangtime doesn’t just have great animations (it does) but the game always chooses the correct animation for the gameplay moment. Extreme seems to always be behind or wrong on the animation it chooses. Players shoot backwards towards the hoop, the dunks are random and don’t make sense from where you jump. It’s a shame because NBA Jam Extreme added some cool ideas to the presentation. They use the center hanging scoreboard/jumbotron in really neat ways. Highlights and D-Fence chants show up between plays, they have cheerleader breaks on the jumbotron. It adds a lot to the atmosphere. On that same note, players are air humping after dunks. I don’t ever need to see a 3D Patrick Ewing air humping after a dunk. The controls aren’t terrible. It adds the spin move and the ETREME button for double turbo pushes and dunks. It such a hard game to play because it’s almost good.

This game might suck, and it pains me to say that!

NBA Jam Extreme is bad and it sets the stage for NBA Hangtime to languish. Gamers are ready for 3D at this point, it’s 1996. Gamers are also coming off of NBA Jam TE which is basically perfect, hell Barkey Shut Up and Jam 2 was out and it’s solid too. As somebody partaking in these games at the time, Hangtime feels like a knockoff without the Jam name and a regression without 3D. Nobody bought an N64 or PS1 to play a 2D sprite based game. All of this is a shame but in hindsight NBA Hangtime is the perfect sequel to NBA Jam TE in so many ways.

Before we get into the ports let’s get into what NBA Hangtime adds to the NBA Jam formula. Create a player mode was solid and unique at the time. It had tons of options and added something truly unique. They added alley-oops and double dunks. This is awesome because alley-oops are dope and it adds a cool layer to the co-op experience. More importantly, it’s a smart system. If you shoot a long 2 and your cpu player goes up for a dunk he will grab the ball out of the air automatically and put it in. This is awesome. It’s also really neat being able to pass the ball to the CPU players and put yourself up for an oop. The game added leaners and floaters. You can press the D-pad in a direction and lean your shot that way, it also adds true fadeaways. If your watching the NBA in the 90’s the fadeaway with MJ, Ewing, Hakeem is such a huge part of the experience. This also adds a good looking animation and more strategy to get an open shot. The final thing added is statistics based defense where your proximity to the shooter actually impacted their shot percentage, this is actually the biggest and most important change in the game. Defense matters now, and it’s not just pushing, steals, and blocks (you can also swat the ball away by holding and releasing the block button) you can be in a good position and are rewarded for it. Defensive struggles are a thing that can happen in Hangtime and that’s awesome. You’re rewarded for playing smart defense with makes the game feel good on both ends. Defense in NBA Jam TE is just a chore to attempt to get the ball asap. Try a shove, attempt to block the dunk and move on. NBA Hangtime rewards you for staying in front of the shooter even if you don’t get the block. Pushing opponents is harder but steals are more viable. It’s just a better system.

Comparing ports is interesting for this game. The N64 version is touted as the best and probably most played version. The PC Windows version is the most arcade accurate. The PS1 version is plagued with load times and very little slow down but is very arcade accurate as well. The Genesis and SNES versions are, much like their NBA Jam counterparts, amazing demakes of the arcade game.

I actually want to start with the Genesis port because I think it’s low-key amazing. If I was a kid who only had a Sega Genesis and went from NBA Jam TE to NBA Hangtime I think my head would explode. It’s not just a great sequel to NBA Jam TE, it feels like they made the NBA Jam port they wanted to but couldn’t a few years earlier. The sprites are big and colorful, the animations are amazing on the Genesis (and SNES). The most noticeable thing about the player models is that they capture the faces and differences well. Every character in NBA Jam for the 16 bit consoles was white or bald or had a high top fade. You had 3 real options and body types. NBA Hangtime you can tell Ewing from Larry Johnson. It’s truly amazing. You still have the leaner and fadeaway shots as well new dunk animations. You can create players. The game is lightning fast and of course has 0 load times. It’s a good version of the Hangtime and the best Version of 16-bit Jam. You also get music with no lyrics but a small price to pay. The courts on Genesis and the hoops all look worse than the 32 and 64 bit counterparts but they look great in gameplay. Supposedly, the defensive impact and proximity is missing on the 16-but games. I can’t confirm that per se, but the games are absolutely easier and feel more like NBA Jam than Hangtime proper. These are awesome ports worth checking out!

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  NBA HANGTIME GENESIS

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  NBA JAM GENESIS

The PC port in 2019 is great but rough. You have to run the game in a Wins 95 of WIn XP compatibility mode which isn’t bad but what is bad is that the game can’t run in anything outside of it’s native resolution. That means on my 1920×1080 screen, I have a small box to play NBA Hangtime in. Once it’s running, the game is buttery smoothe, feels amazing and is the arcade NBA Hangtime game you remember. The roster is different on the PC version than the console versions, it actually uses an older roster. It’s not a huge deal but something to take note of. I love this version of the game but if you increase the resolution at all the game just crawls and there aren’t enough graphic options to make it work. I played a lot of this version, it’s easy to find on Ebay and Amazon.

The Playstation 1 version of NBA Hangtime is the best. I was trying to buy it on Ebay but even the case cost 20 bucks and the game is going for anywhere from 60 to 100 dollars. I got lucky and found it at a local shop for 12 bucks. I can’t say it’s worth 100 dollars but I would have paid 60 in a heartbeat. This feels like the definitive version of the game outside of the arcade in 2019. Obviously, you don’t have to worry about resolution issues. It plays on your TV as big as that TV goes and it looks so much sharper than the N64 version. The animations are awesome. This game looks like NBA Jam TE for Saturn. It’s almost perfect. I personally don’t love the jerseys but that’s a personal complaint. The faces are the photorealistic technique they use in NBA Jam TE 32 bit ports and it looks good. The game play is not compromised at all. The only time I have every felt slowdown in the game is during last second shots from the opposing half of the court. Otherwise the game is smooth. The load times aren’t bad either, they are existent between every quarter but they feel faster than the Saturn port of NBA Jam TE and I think that’s pretty good. The music is amazing on the PS1 version. The buttons are fully customizable. The game feels amazing.

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The AI is super challenging in the best way! One of the issues home ports of NBA Jam has is bad AI until you beat all 29 teams, but Hangtime for PS1 and PC don’t suffer from this. Sidenote, NBA Jam Extreme is the hardest fucking game ever. I don’t know if it’s because the controls are bad or what, but the AI is god-tier. Every game feels close and losable in Hangtime but the computer doesn’t rubber band cheat except when you miss a dunk with 20 seconds left. The only thing missing from all the NBA Hangtime ports are halftime highlights. NBA Jam TE had awesome halftime shows, especially for Saturn, with real footage of highlights. Hangtime just shows stats and highlights who the best player is for the half. Either way the games are so exciting and fun. If you can find a Playstation 1 version of this game, I would pick it up immediately. Thank you for indulging with my obsession with NBA Jam Style arcade basketball games. I think they are the pinnacle of fun and capture the creativity and joy of basketball better than anything that has come since. Peace!

The One Gets It Right With Women (NBA Live 19)

NBA Live 19 is a beautifully flawed NBA game, a great basketball game, and the best multiplayer sports game I have experienced in years. All of that is because of The One mode. The One mode is where you can create your player and play through a single player career both in the Streets and in The League. You also take this player to do Court Battles (the best mode in sports gaming in years) and online 3 on 3 and 5 on 5 games.

NBA Live’s franchise mode is antiquated. The WNBA content is still lacking BUT where NBA Live gets it right is how they feature women in the game. In The One you have the option to create a women or man. That’s great. It’s not perfect because if you create a women she can’t play a professional season because The League mode doesn’t have WNBA seasons and teams in it.

What they do right is that women are featured in the game just like the men are in every mode they are available. The 2 modes that feature the most women and are the most content rich parts of the game are Court Battle and The Streets. Court battles have you create a team to defend your home court, then you take a team to play and take over other people’s courts. As you win, level up, and earn credits you can buy loot crates to get better teammates. NONE OF THIS IS SEGREGATED BY GENDER. As you gain new players and open loot crates the women are as easily available and rated as highly as the men. You go to a tournament in the Philippines where Maya Moore plays and shes running the court and leading her team with Jordan Clarkson.

Women have the same animation options as the men, they are just as effective as anybody else on the court and it’s awesome. It’s such a good way to get people to learn who the players are and to care about them. People always want to use the best rated players and I see so many teams with Delle Donne on their team because shes a beast! Lindsey Whalen is my starting PG right now defending my court. She’s rated an 80 and she beat out Jeremy Lin (rated 79) as my starter. I have never seen a game so successfully integrate women into a sports game. The argument has been made that because women aren’t jumping out of the gym like their male counterparts do that they wouldn’t be fun to use and wouldn’t be able to be in a game with men and NBA Live proves that argument dead wrong.

The game doesn’t pat itself on the back for including women and it doesn’t make a big deal out of it. WNBA logos and content are in the drop boxes too! As you are playing through and earning credits to buy in the shop you are seeing the logos and the team colors. A bigger deal should be made of what EA has done with being inclusive. I’ll pat them on the back. Nicely done. Now give me a WNBA Ultimate Team….

Peace.

WNBA 2019 ALL STAR WEEKEND SPECIAL!- NBA LIVE 19 DOIN’ IT BIG!

Here we are again at the mid point of another captivating WNBA season. My 2 personal favorite players are having the best season of their careers (Achonwa and Plum), the Las Vegas Aces are going from worst to the hottest team in the league as they keep beting everyone. The Connecticut Sun are surpassing all expectations and the usual suspects are playing well (Mercury, Storm, and Mystics). The Lynx are beatable this year….which is odd. There has never been a better time to get into the WNBA. Every team has talent and the league has more stars than ever before. Liz Cambage dropped 53 in a game, while Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are breaking new records seemingly every game. The WNBA also has PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL IN SEATTLE (RIP Sonics) and a non-conference seeding structure for the playoffs. Best 8 get in. The league keeps getting better and it’s time to video games to represent women’s basketball in a more meaningful way.

NBA Live made strides this year at putting every WNBA team in the game for the “Play Now” mode but sadly that was the end of it. No season mode, no Ultimate team mode, and no single player and multiplayer modes with the women player models and skills able to be used. NBA Live 19 looks to change some of that. They are adding a woman player model to be used in the “The One” mode and create-a-player modes. That means you can be a woman in the single player mode of the game, which is amazing. Representation matters and for fans who aren’t men they can have another option to find create an avatar that represents them.

I learned so much about basketball and the NBA from playing NBA Jam and old NBA games on Genesis and Game Gear. I always felt represented in those games, surprising everyone there were a lot of black men in those games (sarcasm). I can imagine if you’re a girl looking at games to play you might not gravitate towards a game where no women are present (NBA Jam TE had 2 cheerleaders spraying champagne at each other if you win the title….but that’s a whole other conversation…). This NBA Live 19 game mode really opens the door for everyone to become more invested in women’s basketball and that is huge!

It’s also time for EA to give us a WNBA Ultimate team mode. Between the women playing over seas and decades of women who have played professionally in America there is a ton of content and players that can be used for the mode. I want to make a team with Cheryl Miller and Kelsey Plum. Give me FIBA Euro League teams and obscure professional teams from the 80’s. There is such a rich history of women’s basketball and Ultimate Team is a great to show it.

All that said, WNBA is getting more exposure! Thank you EA and NBA Live 19! 2K….do something. 

Peace

NBA 2K18: Boycott Edition (try NBA Live)

NBA 2K18 is rotten with micro transactions. MyPlayer is useless now without endless time or endless money. Lots of fans and journalists have covered 2K’s issues. What isn’t being said is NBA Live 18 is good and only has transactions in Ultimate Team, and the main single player mode is complete without adding money to it! It is killing me that reviewers are not bringing up other options from 2K. This is the time that NBA Live can have a revival.

NBA Live 18 has amazing graphics as always. The “myplayer” mode has a streets mode and a league mode, both fleshed out and very well done. Ultimate team has over 170 challenges in it already. THIS IS THE GAME WITH THE WNBA! (they need to add a season or playoff mode to the WNBA but it’s a good start).

You have options for basketball this year. Take advantage of it. NBA Live 18 has a 10 hour free trial with EA Access on Xbox One. At most it’s 5 dollars for a month of the service to play the game for 10 hours. Try it. Please. I support people boycotting the microtransactions in NBA 2K but the best way to make them feel the need to change is to support the competition. 

NBA Playground Review (PC)- The next generation of NBA Jam!?

Arcade basketball games are some of the most important gaming experiences of my life. I learned how to shoot a lay-up from NBA Jam. My undying love of basketball started from NBA Jam. To give you some context for this review, know that I owned NBA Jam TE for Game Gear, Saturn and Genesis. I have watched this genre evolve from Arch Rivals to NBA Street. To say I was excited about NBA Playground is an understatement. I have missed this genre since the last NBA Jam: On Fire Edition EA made back in 2011.

What is NBA Playground- It’s a 2 on 2 arcade basketball game in the vein of NBA Jam. People have made comparisons to NBA Street but I do not see them. NBA Street was all about the handles. It was more like Tony Hawk than NBA jam in my opinion. My love of NBA Street being well documented, this is not that. I think the dunks in this game evoke NBA Street style with the multiple oops and different styles. NBA Playground has an arcade mode like progression where you play different tourney’s and you can play on-line.

What makes this game different from NBA Jam? The game is more skill based. The shooting is very particular. You need to have a perfect release (when you release X after you shoot) to get an extra point and make the shot. If you release too early or too late you will miss the shot (lay up, or dunk). This takes out some of the nebulous “why did John Stockton miss that open 3?” moments. If you miss, it’s because you got blocked or messed the release up. The game has a ton of powerups and plays loose and fast with points. There is a meter that fills up and when its full you get a random powerup. Some of these give you more points, more turbo, shorter shot clock, etc. It’s a neat feature that can give a team a chance to comeback or give you a chance to bury an opponent.

There are no teams. You just pick players from teams. When you start the game, you are given 3 packs of cards. Each pack has 5 players. Those are the players you can use, as you level up and play you get more packs to get more players. I love and hate this. I love opening cards, it’s an exciting way to add some replay-ability to this game. What sucks is that I want Patrick Ewing. I have not opened him yet. I have opened a large amount of packs (11 hours of gameplay). Luckily, I am an NBA head so playing as Paul Westphal and Thon Maker is cool but honestly some packs will have Roy Hibbert and Ian Mihimi in them and at that point….just shut it down.

Controls- The shooting controls need to be explained better. As of now, it’s all feel. You pick a player and learn his release. The game will tell you when you shoot too early or too late but it’s hard to place where in the animation to change up. This is most frustrating in the lay-ups and dunks. Dunks go slow mo and kill all timing. Dribbling moves are assigned to the right stick and are canned animations. Steal and jump are just button presses. To block a shot you need to release the button at the right time. It all works but it all needs better tutorials.

Graphics- The stylized players look dope! They exaggerate certain features on players….which can look a little problematic at times but the models themselves and graphics are amazing. The game runs very smooth and all the courts have a unique feel.

Sound- The music is forgettable and the commentating sucks. Find a podcast to listen to and mute the game.

Multiplayer- local, online and soon co-op (I have only played online a few times and I can say that it works well enough.)

Comparisons to other games- The most important characteristic this game shares with NBA Jam are the secrets. This series is known for secrets (hot spots, special animations for legends etc). All of the special moves legendary players have are a secret, player releases and hot spots are a secret. All NBA Playgrounds needs now is to have some presidents or mascots become playable. The game that this one reminds me of the most is the long forgotten NBA Jam for PS2.

There was an NBA Jam reboot for PS2 just called NBA Jam. It was an OK game that has very similar animations and character models to NBA Playground. This was a little unnerving because NBA Jam for PS2 was such a clunky game to control. It had the best progression in the series. You play through all the eras of the NBA. When you play the ’60s Celtics and Lakers the games are in black and white and there is no 3 point line. It’s pretty amazing. They simulate what a TV broadcast from each era would be like. NBA Playground emulates this to a point by having instant access to legendary players from each era. NBA Jam for PS2 also had a soundtrack from Bootsy Collins! It’s rarely mentions but he was the centerpiece of the entire games soundtrack and it’s great! NBA Playground does not have Bootsy or any licensed music for that matter. NBA Jam PS2 also had a lot of licensed music to evoke the eras it was representing.

This current NBA Jam representation (Playgrounds) does not lean into the era’s as much but they do utilize classic players. Instead of representing an era the game represents the special moves of each legend. Hakeem has a special dream shake on mid range jumpers. Iverson’s crossover has gold stars all over it and is unstoppable. Dirk has a fadeaway 3 that is unblockable. It’s a nice touch. 

What I want from this game- WNBA Teams and players! Why not??? Put them in the packs of cards and let me use Candace Parker with Lebron James. The WNBA has the most Star it has ever had. Kelsey Plum, Elena Delle Donne, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Skylar Diggins, Maya Moore! That’s the just tip of that list. A game like this doesn’t need to worry about gender differences. Put them in the game and watch them work!

I like this game and I think at the 20 dollar price point it’s an easy risk to take. Buy it.

Game of the Year! and other awards 2016!

While many of you have been lamenting 2016 due to it sucking in many respects, one place 2016 did not fail was gaming! 2016 was one of the best years for gaming I have experienced in over 22 years of gaming. I have been doing a lot of mobile gaming via 3DS and Vita. I also fell into a weird pattern of playing Madden and Forza with little interjections of ReCore and Sunset Overdrive. It’s been an odd year, my gaming PC is out for now due to a recent move and my not having a place to set it up yet. That said, let’s get down to business!

Sports Game of the year- Nominees: Madden 17, NBA 2K17.

Both games improved dramatically! Madden Ultimate Team is a case study in how to keep an Ultimate team style mode relevant for an entire year. I got bored with MyTeam, and it feels like 2K is fleecing people with their packs but Madden gives away tons of free cards and packs. The challenges are so varied in Madden. 2K gets stale, beat a team by 20 and shoot 5 threes….that gets old. 2K nailed gameplay this year. The game feels so good. NBA 2K has one issue that I can’t forgive, it keeps getting stuck at the load screen in the beginning. It’s glitched to hell and I can barely play it at this point because no matter how many times I clear my system cache the game won’t start and 2K support is trash. Also, can I get a fucking Patrick Ewing card on the Knicks!?!

MADDEN 17 IS THE SPORTS GAME OF THE YEAR!

Best Online experience of the year- Nominees: Final Fantasy Explorers, The Crew, Killer Instinct

Killer Instinct added a lot of new content with the Shadow Lords update and the Shadow fighters that take online data from other players and lets you fight them. It’s like drivatars for a fighting game. They also added a Dark Souls kind of single player game with cards and other things….it’s hard to explain but it works. The Crew just kept updating. That game went from mediocre as hell to amazing and peaked with a cops and robbers chase mode that is stellar. Final Fantasy Explorers is my first foray into the Monster Hunter style of game. It was awesome. I played with other people on-line fighting Final Fantasy monsters and crafting gear it was a revelation. It made me more interested in a genre I have been avoiding for years.

FINAL FANTASY EXPLORERS IS THE ON-LINE EXPERIENCE OF THE YEAR! 

Best Racing Game- Nominees: Forza 6

Forza 6 is a masterpiece. It is perfect. I  love how amazing it looks, how great it feels and the expansions they added this year were awesome. I am referring to the Porsche and Nascar expansions. The Porsche expansion added a single player mode where you race through the history of Porsche, it has drivers talk about each car and their importance on the legacy of the brand. It’s really cool stuff. The Nascar mode added pit stops and ovals plus a single player mode where you take Nascar cars to….. ROAD COURSES! It’s dope. The game is awesome, the on-line leagues are great. There is so much to love with this game. I want to get the newest Horizon game but I am not done with this game yet.

FORZA 6 IS THE BEST RACING GAME OF 2016!

Best Console game- Battleborn, ReCore

2 flawed games that I came to love. ReCore is poorly paced and probably unfinished but that doesn’t discount from what is actually in the game. The mobility in the game is awesome, the dog robot makes my son smile, and there are some really great gameplay hooks in Recore. It also feature a female protagonist who is not sexualized at all, which is a refreshing departure from the norm. Most of the time you don’t even see her face. The world building in ReCore is awesome. I will go to my grave saying Battleborn is an awesome and misunderstand gem. The single player/ P v E updates in the game this year were awesome. P v E with awesome story and missions is what it’s all about. I have so much fun playing Battleborn solo but when I want help or if I want some P v P those modes are strong too. The characters are great and the sense of humor is epic (if not a little forced…). I love Battleborn. I keep coming back to it, even today, for a change of pace. It feels like Borderlands, but has hooks that are enhanced with on-line elements.

BATTLEBORN IS THE BEST CONSOLE GAME…OF THE YEARRRRRR!!!!! 2016

Best Portable game- World of Final Fantasy, DigimonStory Cybersleuth, Final Fantasy Explorers, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2

The real winner of this award is wining something else so the next best will be named. Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 is a great continuation of the first game and a love letter to the Mega Man X series. It’s a shame nobody talks about this title because it does what people wanted Mighty Number 9 to do. It’s a throw back with modern touches and fun action platforming. The boss battles are the real stars of the show but the Gunvolt games are solid. DigimonStory Cybersleuth is a masterpiece. It has made me care about Digimon more than I ever thought possible. I even watched the most recent cartoon Digimon Tri. The game has an awesome sense of humor, it’s character focus in a way that puts the monsters in the background. The digivolving process and the farm for upgrading is well done. The game works perfect for a Vita title. It has lots of bite sized mission to take on and you never feel like you need to pause mid mission due to time.

DigimonStory Cybersleuth IS PORTABLE GAME OF THE YEAR!

Most diverse game of the year- Mafia 3, Watch Dogs 2, NBA 2K17 (female interviewer, etc.), Severed

A shout to every game on the list. Mafia 3 deals with race in some of the most powerful and up front ways ever in a video game. I don’t want to spoil anything but the open world deals with racism in some powerful ways that mimic real life. Call the cops in a black neighborhood vs. a white one and you will see a difference. Powerful. NBA 2K has so much diversity in it’s presentation and they give people of color so many ways to represent themselves in game. It’s empowering to build a character in 2K because I feel like  can really make “me”. Severed gets a nod with a strong female protagonist of color whose story does not deal in the usual relationship and trivial muck that female characters tend to get. Watch Dogs 2 wins. They have a black hacker who defies as many stereotypes as he he reaffirms. The entire cast is unique and quirky in a way that feels authentic. Marcus Halloway steals this one.

WATCH DOGS 2 IS THE MOST DIVERSE GAME OF THE YEAR!!!! 2016

Best New Black Character of the year- Lincoln Clay (Mafia 3)

Lincoln Clay is the mixed race protagonist of Mafia 3. This game is set in 1968 and the racial tension is both present and a real character in the game/story. Lincoln doesn’t just happen to be black, his blackness is a real part of his identity and his lived experience in the game and that is so rare in video games.

LINCOLN CLAY IS THE BEST NEW BLACK CHARACTER OF 2016!!!

Best Monster Collecting Game- Nominees: World of Final Fantasy, Pokemon Sun/Moon, Digimon Story Cybersleuth

Monster collecting was a pretty stacked genre this year. Pokemon made a lot of great changes but it isn’t anything new. I haven’t finished Omega Sapphire yet and have no push to finish Sun either. The game is gorgeous though and Pokemon is always high quality. The winner for this award and a precursor to my personal GOTY is World of Final Fantasy. WOFF is a treasure for Final Fantasy historians but also a great entry point into the series. The game is beautiful, the story is excellent and the characters are endearing. I really loved this game and it is a game I will go back and complete. I want to catch all the monsters and beat the 4 EX Dungeons after you beat the game. WOFF is truly special.

WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY IS THE MONSTER COLLECTING GAME OF THE YEAR! 2016!!!

Worst Game of the Year- Mighty No.9

Fuck this game. What a sad game. Sad development. Shitty controls, mediocre graphics, not Mega Man. I played a lot of this game because it’s competent enough and I really wanted to love it but the more you play it the more the shine wears off. The boss fights are sub par and the deaths don’t feel fair, they feel like poor level design. Not even showing a picture of this one…..

Game of 2016 I will play when it’s on sale- Dead Rising 4, Forza Horizon 3

Game from the past that I am still playing in 2016- The Hyperdimension Neptunia Series got cheap on Vita so I have been playing those games. Sonic 2, Project X Zone, Outrun, Neo Geo Pocket Color  Marvel vs. SNK, Sunset Overdrive, Sonic Rivals 2

Best Fighting Game- Nominees: Pokken Tournement, Killer Instinct

Pokken Tournament wins because it’s different. The roster needs to be larger, the single player is boring but at the root of the game is a cool fighting system that marries 2D and 3D gameplay in a really inventive way.

POKKEN TOURNAMENT IS THE BEST FIGHTING GAME OF 2016!

Best Kids Game- Nominees: NES remix, Minecraft Story Mode, Lego Dimensions

Lego Dimensions is a perfect game for a 7 year old who loves Legos and video games. I gave to my son for Christmas and he has never looked back. He only struggles with manual saving in the game. Auto saves need to be mandatory in kids games, he doesn’t fucking understand what saving is or how to do it regularly. He has replayed the Simpsons levle like 4 times now due to not saving. That said, the game is so fun he doesn’t care.

My personal game of the year- World of Final Fantasy. It has a great story,. It’s nostalgia mixed with great updates. The game was clearly made for mobile with bite sized chunks of dungeons, no open world, and easy to navigate menus. It has a good sense of humor. A nice return to FF after Explorers. I like the spin off Final Fantasy games better than the main series at this point and that’s not what I would have expected.

Happy 2017! Hope it’s another great year for gaming! Peace!

NBA 2K MyTeam- Robert Pack! Game Changer!

Weekly Challenges have been revamped for MyTeam this year. Every week of challenges completed nets you a token. 3 Tokens and get a reward. The first reward is a Saphire Robert Pack!

Robert Pack is super black! Im talkin’ high top fades, high top dunks, and high speed! He also is a great example of one of my favorite things that MyTeam does; they highlight really good, fan favorite players from the past who are probably not Hall of Famers or had a short span of relevance. Pack is a perfect example of this, he started in junior college, went undrafted and had an avg. rookie season in Portland. He then goes to the Nuggets and becomes one of the best PGs in the league for a 4-5 years period, peaking with an avg. 18 points per game in the ’95-’96 season.

 

He would never achieve those numbers again declining every year after that, eventually playing over seas and becoming an NBA coach. There is no way you could have watched the NBA in the ’90s and not been hype watching Robert Pack play. Those Nuggets teams were awesome! They pulled off some great play-off upsets and just exemplified fun basketball.

His card is SO NASTY in NBA 2K17 MyTeam! He’s fast and doesn’t turn the ball over. 2K still has this issue where if you dribble near other defenders the ball will dribble off their foot. It’s like NBA guards can’t handle ANY pressure. If they don’t lose the ball they pick it up. Pack can keep his dribble. He dunks HARD and he makes his lay ups.

Pack also has a high steal rating so he can get the ball without fouling on players as good as Westbrook. Pack’s biggest weakness is that he is a C three point shooter. He will hit the open three but he is not pulling up like Curry. Pack is also a great free throw shooter. He can slash inside and draw contact and get you easy buckets. For 2K this year, that skill is invaluable. If you shoot more than 3 three pointers and 10 free throws you earn MT by the % of shots made in those 2 categories instead of just getting MT for made shots.

 

 

He also has a dope hairstyle. The high top fade with the part is nothing new in the NBA these days but there is something special about it when Robert Pack is rocking it and that’s because he is wearing it as a current style and not a throwback.

 

 

 

 

 

His cards also just look awesome!

All that said the final challenge to unlock Saphire Robert Pack is a beast. You need to beat the New Jersey Nets on All-Pro and hold them to 50 points or less total in a 6 min Quarter game. Winning the game is not too hard, the issue is holding the Nets to under 50 points. This probably took me 10 attempts. My issue is that everyone on the team can hit an open 3, and Lin/Lopez run a devastating pick and roll. Jeremy Lin plays like John Stockton in this game and Brooke Lopez plays like Karl Malone, it’s so frustrating. If you play man to man, go under the screen Lin will hit the J. Lin will also drive and always draw the foul. Lopez will pick and pop and hit everything with a hand or 3 in his face. The issue here is the defense starts to sag inside leaving a myriad of open 3’s. I tried a 2-3 zone and No. They shot me out of the zone asap. What I ended up doing was choosing very specific personnel, turning off auto computer coaching and ran Man to man defense with the “No three’s” call. J.J. Hickson owns Lopez and Jay Williams/Doug Christie kept my defense solid. Derrick Favors is killer on offense and rebounds extremely well! The most important things you need are rebounding and somebody who can guard Lopez. I also had Q, J.J. Redick, and Robert Horry hitting 3’s for me as well. Aaron Brooks was my bronze card of the bench. He’s very fast, and can shoot.

On offense at first I tried to be sllloowwww. I would run the shot clock down to 3 seconds and dump it into the post to score. The problem I would have is that the game would slow down but the computer would be hyper aggressive. I would score in 22 seconds, the computer would score in 7 seconds. If they went on a run it was almost impossible to make up ground. What I learned is that all you need is one good quarter that keeps the computer off pace for 50. Play normal, try and get as big a lead as you can in the first half and then clamp down and slow the game down in the 3rd Quarter.

 

 

Hold the computer to 25-30 in the first half and then shut them out in the 3rd. No more than 6-8pts. Control the possessions. Take 4 seconds to throw the ball in, the clock runs. Foul bad free throw shooters on the Nets to keep them from hitting easy shots. Take all the shot clock you can to score, miss shots grab boards and spend another 24. You can use a minute in 1 possession with a good offensive rebound. If all goes well the computer will play desperate in the 4th and start jacking contested 3’s. You win. Enjoy Robert Pack. You earned him.

 

UPDATE- New weekly challenges. Complete the newest round to get that 3rd token if you haven’t already. Final challenge is rough. You must beat the Mavs and hold them to only 8 three-pointers or less. I suggest going into the menus (coaching) and turn off help defense and adjust man pressure to tight. Put your best defender on Dirk. Keep the game close. Closer score, fewer desperation threes. Otherwise you can try the 3-2 zone but I don’t think the players rotate well and you get killed in the corners. Be careful running the break, the computer pulls up a lot. The computer also refuses to shoot mid-range J’s. They are always stepping back so be aware! and Good luck!

 

NBA 2K17 MyTeam Stories- Jugs v. Nugs

I was asked this weekend why I play video games and is captivating about sports games. For me it’s the stories, the competitiveness, and the connection it gives me to both the games past and present. Let me tell you bout a game I played this morning… 

It was 6:30AM, MyTeam mode.

Cincinnati Juggernaut vs. Denver Nuggets- Domination Game (current players)

 

This game should be an easy win so I choose to play some of my lesser players to not waste to contracts of my superstars. I have crafted the Cinci Juggernaut to be a balanced team that can guard anybody. My starters were D Rose, J.J. Redick, Robert Horry, Z Bo, and Joel Embiid. Those were mostly gold cards and my bench is 1 gold card (Tyreke Evans) and the rest Bronze cards, most notably, Aaron Brooks. I love the Nuggets because my favorite NBA player is Wilson Chandler, Ill Wil was a Knick and he’s my heart. This game should be a cake walk. It’s early in the Domination progression.

Quarter 1- J.J. Redick hits a 3 to open the game. This would turn out to be foreshadowing in the 4th Quarter. Things are going well in Q1. I am running a flex set on offense and sitting in a 2-3 zone. Embiid and Randolph are animals in the paint blocking everyone! Rose is shutting down Mudiaye and I am up 10 points to end the quarter.

 

Quarter 2– Second Quarter much of the same just with my bench. Aaron Brooks comes out and hits three straight 3’s to put my team up 15. Defensively, the Nuggets are missing open 3’s and Spencer Hawes is blocking shots like a mad man.

Quarter 3- Still holding on to the lead but the Nuggets ball movement is getting better. The lead is cut to 10 but the game is still in control. I am not having any trouble scoring in the paint with Randolph. We are running pick and roll sets with Rose at point. Uncharacteristically, D Rose is hit 2 threes in the Quarter. 

 

Quarter 4-  The wheels come off in Quarter 4. Flex stopped working. The defense was forcing the flex cut to go underneath and that pass is very difficult. The 2-3 zone started getting killed by Wilson Chandler.

He capped us with 4 threes in the 4th. With 1 minute left, we are down 2. We have the ball coming out of a timeout. Do I play conservative? Normally yes. I trust I can finish a lay-up ( drive with Rose), get a stop (lots of blocks) and then end the game with another layup. BUT J.J. Redick had other plans. The Juggernaut come out of the time out and we set up in a Princeton style set. I have Redick bring the ball up, and he is wide open for the 3 with 57 seconds on the clock. I pull the trigger. I can’t help it. Redick is rated as a A grade 3pt shooter. He nails it! We go up 1. Spencer Hawes gets the steal on the other end and we dribble the clock out. JJ seals the epic win and avoids and even worse collapse.

 

These moments only happen in sports games. It was exhilarating and fun. I was geeked off that Redick 3 for the rest of the morning. I could have taken that shot with Big Shot Bob (Robert Horry) and did my Spurs impression but I didn’t need to. I felt like the coach, the player, and the biggest fan. Nothing beats winning.

 

Black Characters in Gaming- Lebron James (NBA Live/2K/Street/Jam/Shootout/Courtside/Ballers)

Now seems like the perfect time to choose a real life black athlete who plays like a video game created player. That player, of course, is Lebron James. He has taken his game and legacy to new heights with this championship (#ALLIN, #DROUGHTSOVER, #BELIEVELAND) and put up numbers in the NBA Finals this year that seemingly could only be done in NBA 2K. He did it against another game breaking player in Steph Curry (who famously ruined NBA 2K because he can hit 3’s from anywhere at anytime and that ruins video game balance).

I will give you the abridged version of why Lebron matters in real life and then why in video games. Lebron was born in North East, Ohio. Was a legend for the people of Akron. He was the prophet seemingly born to bring a championship to the Cleveland. He was drafted by the Cavs and started an epic stat filling career. Lebron went to the Finals early, got ruined by the Spurs but gave hope. Then Lebron dumped Cleveland for Miami, won some rings and came home. He didn’t just come home, he came back to Cleveland and promised a ring (no pressure right?) and he pulled it off.

Lebron in video games is a very interesting thing, to give context he exists in a world where gamer’s grew up not having access to the greatest players of all time. Michael Jordan was in “Jordan vs. Bird” back in the early Genesis era but after that he disappeared.

In NBA Jam, there was no Jordan. It was crazy, the most fun basketball game ever made didn’t have Jordan. A game about glorifying the dunk was missing his airness… but that was the 90’s.

I remember feeling cheated in NBA Live ’98 when the Bulls would trot out “Player” who was a bald black SG but was not MJ.

It cheapened an entire generation of games because the biggest icon in the league was missing. Cut to Lebron James. He had every right to not be in video games but that wasn’t the case. He was as accessible in games as he was off the court. He was seemingly a real life game character that leaped out of the Xbox 360 and onto TNT Thursday nights. I envy kids who got to grow up using Lebron in NBA 2K.

LBJ is a fascinating figure in games. He basically broke 2K ratings from the jump. He was rated a human 78 overall because he a kid coming out of High School. Who knew he would be able to man up at 18 the way he did. NBA2K4 has a human 78 Lebron who can’t shoot a jumper but is athletic and can dunk. He was also listed as a PG in that game! We all know he was a center masquerading as a small forward.

From his second year on Lebrons rise in ratings in 2K is meteoric. 88 to 97 to basically 100’s. How do you rate a guy who can dribble like Anthony Mason, Pass like Magic Johnson, Shoot like Charles Oakley, and defend/rebound like Rodman. He’s a gamebreaker and who doesn’t want to play with the gamebreaker! 

Significance of Lebron as a black video game character- Lebron is the rare combination of a transcendent athlete and a masterful role model. He accomplishes this by not conforming to white standards or losing his “realness”. Lebron is covered in tattoos and rolls around with a crew of his boys from the hood yet still connects with everybody. Where Iverson was/is a polarizing hyper black figure that is incorrectly and offensively labeled a thug, Lebron avoided all of this. He was liked by white people and emulated by black people. He has Jordan-like shoes without the Jordan-like stigman. He’s married and didn’t cheat on his wife. He shows the world that a black man with tattoos from a low income environment isn’t a criminal in waiting.

Lebron also forced a generation of devs to constantly work on their representations of tattoos.

Stereotypes

Black Athlete as thug- As stated above, he’s stayed out of trouble. He’s been authentic. He’s stayed true to his roots.

Black Athlete as womanizer/rapist- He is a great father and is happily married.

Black Athlete as selfish (unwilling to pass, doesn’t care about his people)- Lebron’s biggest crime is he passes too much. He is willing to let guys like JR Smith shine, hence the high rating in passing every year for LBJ.

Black man as criminal- He has a few speeding tickets?

Black man as lazy- There is this idea that black greatness is a result of talent and not hard work. Watching Lebron grow as a player and athletically has been incredible. His 2K ratings show it in the gaming world but the eye test shows how much Lebron has improved. Hard work personified is Lyndon B. Johnson, I mean LBJ. Lebron James.

Black man loves white women- He married a black woman so BOOM! Take that society! Lebron bucking all the trends!

Ain’t that some racist shit….

Is Lebron James (and his representation in video games) problematic?

Being able to select a Cleveland team in a video game and know that they are the reigning champs will be magical. It has never been done before. Lebron has been the most accessible transcendent talent in gaming since Bo Jackson, Mike Vick, and Kobe. James has been the small market hero sports gaming needs. So to answer the question, No. Lebron is not problematic and frankly most sports game are in a position to not present him in a problematic light. There really isn’t a story mode where you can be Lebron and take through Cleveland. MyPlayer mode might have a chance interaction with a real pro but most of the interactions happen on the court. Except in NBA Ballers. That shit was problematic! That is a post for another time. Peace! Go Cavs! Lebron did it big! 3-1 to 4-3! 52 year drought OVER!!!!

Really hard to find a Cleveland version of this…

I’m just playin…