NBA All-Star Weekend: MIA in Sports Gaming

[1D4ever]

I was playing LIVE 05 this weekend I had a great all star weekend, in fact EA basketball always had a good if not great All-Star Weekend I'm not at all impressed with 2Ks. Their Slam Dunk "contest" last year was terrible instead of fixing it they took the whole feature out.

[JohnDoe8865]

Glad you guys are enjoying this article. It's an addition that is long overdue for the next-gen consoles.

[Bulls321974]

Quote: Originally Posted by qpc123

Everything in the article is a great idea, and I'd love to see it. But at this point I think both companies need to focus on making their games stable and playable. Take a look at the patch 1.05 thread, this was supposed to be a fix for a freezing issue that is essentially a game breaker and it appears to have only made the freezing more frequent and widespread. All the bells and whistles in the world aren't worth anything when you literally can't play the game at all.

Very good point!

[basehead617]

Wow, you really want them to spend a ton of design and development resources on this?

[houstonsdream]

sad to say but it will be glitch filled and if you cant make it for Online association also, let it be

[scottyo60]

Idk if 2k12 has them, but I know past 2ks had celebs you could use in blacktop mode. Why not incorporate them with the legends adding some more celebs to create the celeb game. I know many would probably not care either way for it, but the hardcore people may love the immersion. Heck some casual fans might like going off with a celeb or two

[alexthegreat]

Like others have previously said, LIVE always captured All-Star weekend perfectly back in the day. It would be nice for either EA or 2K to bring it back

[VDusen04]

Quote: Originally Posted by basehead617

Wow, you really want them to spend a ton of design and development resources on this?

I think it'd be a great addition. I'm always in support of real-deal, gameplay feature additions. 2K12 is the first 2K in a long time that seemed to bite off more than it could chew and it seems most of those issues had to do with online connectivity (Online Association, Freezing due to NBA Today updates, YouTube upload issues, etc.). I don't mean to minimize their problems, but it sort of seems like one encompassing issue that, if they could solve it, would lay to rest a ton of problems 2K12 seemed to suffer from. Of course, that's all separate from actual gameplay, which has it's own issues altogether. I just tend to view the development of new modes and regular NBA gameplay to come from separate development groups within the company.

I think an All-Star Weekend has more than enough replay value to warrant production. My basis for comparison in this particular case is 2K12's Legends Showcase DLC. Personally, I loved the DLC only because it provided a gateway to a large helping of more legends. Otherwise, the mode itself served as a 5 hour diversion and then I never stepped to it ever again (particularly after the legends were unlocked by users into the main game ... which they should have been in the first place). In contrast, I think an All-Star Weekend mode could potentially provide much more than 5 hours of gameplay, not to mention it'd serve an actual simulation purpose (All-Star Weekend occurs in real life).

To be honest, if 2K always concentrated every one of their resources on gameplay, we'd be stuck with two modes: Quick Play and Season Mode. The gameplay may very well be better than it is now, but there's no doubt there'd be just as many complaints in some manner or another. Instead, 2K's diversity in terms of new features and modes has led to many great places. To have the ability to run an association, mimic today's NBA matchups with updated rosters, statistics and commentary, play as your own NBA prospect rising to greatness, or re-live the best moments in NBA history (my favorite) ... it's a gift to behold. I hope 2K only continues their path onward and upward.