As you may have surmised by my lack of updates, it's been a little while since I've played any NBA 2K10. Partially this is because it's just hard to get into it during the off-season. Not to mention NHL 11 is pretty friggin' sweet. However, I've also had an increasingly common system error on my PC that causes the game to spontaneously freeze to a black screen for two or three seconds, then finally reload at the pause menu. I've traced it back to a hardware conflict of some sort, but nobody can seem to pinpoint what causes this because it's a very generic error. It's frustrating since it really disrupts the flow of the game (though at least it's not as bad as a racing game where I've already gone off track and crashed into the barriers by the time the game recovers), and the error is getting more and more frequent.

Needless to say, this has kind of zapped my desire to continue my current NBA 2K10 My Player career, especially since I have recently gotten a PS3 and we're so close to the release NBA 2K11 and it's competitor NBA Elite 11 (formerly NBA Live). Or not. Keep reading...

The NBA 2K11 demo was recently released on the Xbox360 and Playstation 3, roughly three weeks prior to the game's scheduled October 5th release. I have, however, only played the demo once because the demo is crap.

Don't get me wrong. The game itself isn't necessarily crap, and I actually expect it to be pretty good. I loved NBA 2K10, and theoretically it should only be better with the addition of the Michael Jordan modes, plus fixes and improvements to the addictive My Player mode, not to mention any other polishing and fine-tuning. The problem is the demo's lack of options. As in any options. At all. You get to play five minutes of action as the Lakers against the Celtics in Pro difficulty with all the defaults, and no commentary. That's it. You have to play as the Lakers. You have to play with the annoying broadcast-style camera. You have to use the default control scheme and default difficulty levels (which make blocks and steals far too frequent).

...yeah.

As you might have guessed, I was none too pleased with being forced to play on the same team as Kobe (I felt like a much shorter, much less athletic, and much less successful Luke Walton for five minutes, though I did spend roughly as much time on an actual basketball court as he did during the playoffs). Aside from that, it seems like a pretty solid game. Okay, yes, your players' speed being restricted to either running or crawling like you are being weighed down by the gravity on Jupiter, and the graphics used for the ball itself are disturbingly, oddly shiny like it was doused in a layer of baby oil. But beyond that, I'm looking forward to buying this title.

Lucky me, I suppose, since it looks like it'll be a little while before I could buy NBA Elite 11 even if I wanted to. EA Sports has officially delayed the release of NBA Elite 11, while in the interim NBA Live 10 will be updated via free downloadable content for the 2010-2011 NBA season. Also, the PS3 and Xbox360 versions of NBA Jam that were supposed to be included with Elite will now be separate releases, though we still don't have the details of how they're going to handle that. (However, the Wii version of NBA Jam still is set to be released on October 5th. So that's nice.)

The explanation given by EA Sports president Peter Moore is vague at best, but it boils down to the actual response from the general public to the playable demo -- it's crap. It's buggy, the new control scheme is not being very well-received (it's not as bad as some people claim, especially if you've played NHL 11 with its similar new controls scheme, but it's still needing improvement), and the game is buggy and lacking polish.

And seriouly, did I mention the bugs? Check out this video (NSFW audio):


Fast-forward to 3:00 into the video. Trust me.
What the fuck, indeed.

I'll be interested to see what the final version of NBA Elite 11 looks like, assuming it ever actually sees the light of day. I personally thought it didn't play that bad, and the graphics looked okay (if a little shiny) to me, but there are quite a few dissenting opinion out there. Looks like EA's got some serious programming to do.

Labels: Andrew Bynum WTF, NBA 2K10, NBA 2K11, NBA Elite, NBA Live

This was reported on the Bay to Beijing blog: Matt Kaplan, a 22-year-old from Lafayette (Indiana California, presumably) was seen leaving Team USA's game against Greece in a Baron Davis Golden State Warrior Number Five jersey.


That's right: Kaplan removed B-Diddy's name, creating a unique and totally anonymous jersey. For some reason, this reminds me of the mid-90s NBA Live game where they couldn't include Michael Jordan on the Bulls because of copyright issues (read that: "Mike is a greedy bastard"), so they put some nameless player (with all Jordan's stats and attributes) in his place.

Actually, Kaplan has a great idea. As soon as I get home from my Clark Kent job, I'm going to rip the name off my Jermaine O'Neal Pacers jersey. Which, now that I think of it, I sort of wish I would have done about two years ago...

Labels: Baron Davis, Golden State Warriors, NBA Live, Warrior Number Five

This has already been a great October. Bulls tickets go on presale this week, and Isiah Thomas has wasted even more of the Knicks money. All that and a new batch of NBA video games are on the horizon! Good times.

I've always felt that NBA Live wins people over with their sharp visuals and presentation, and presentation goes a long way. Not to mention the EA Sports factor (They made Madden! This is Lakers vs Celtics XVIII!). And it's perfect for when you have people over, a halftime to kill, and you just want to pickup-and-play. But Live 08 is coming and I have this sinking feeling that I'm going to hate it, just like 07. Why does NBA Live always remind me of Double Dribble?


NBA 2K is the slower, less flashy, more realistic of the two (sort of the San Antonio Spurs to NBA Lives' Phoenix Suns). And this couldn't be symbolized any better than Ben Wallace appearing on the cover of 2K5. But 2K isn't for everyone. For one thing, there's a steep learning curve, partially because of the Rube Goldberg-like controls, but also because the CPU can be flat-out sadistic. Get caught in a mismatch or miss a rotation and it will be used against you immediately, like a team of John Stocktons and Karl Maloneses. But it looks like 2K has completely redone their visuals, finally bailing on the "chunky chew" look. Take one look at this video and you'll realize that 2K is worth a look this year, even if the gameplay will make your brain tired.


What are your thoughts on this round of NBA titles? Will it be possible in Live 08 to shoot above 25% in the paint? Will we ever be able to make a free throw in 2K8? Will Live 08 finally stop passing out of bounds and dribbling out the shot clock? Will 2K finally record some new commentary?

Labels: gratuitous video game references, NBA 2K, NBA Live

When I'm down, there's always something on YouTube to pick me up. In this case, a Ha Seung Jin highlight video, courtesy of NBA Live 2006.

Labels: highlight reels, NBA Live