Durant is NBA's Elite

For the past few weeks, my life has pretty much consists of work, the NBA playoffs, work then more NBA playoffs. There's a conference finals game on practically every day so much so I begin to wonder how to fill the gap once the NBA finals is over. On Saturday Game 3, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City put on an awe-inspiring 4th quarter to will his team to victory. It was one of those unbelievable cold-blooded, seemingly effortless 16 straight points by a single player that just breaks the will of any opposing team.

I felt inspired but not like how you would imagine... I felt inspired to pick up my playstation 3 controller, dust off that copy of NBA 2K11 and finally hunt down that trophy designed to mock KD, the cover star of NBA 2K's rival competition - NBA Elite (which never got release of course).  Get KD to eclipse his previous career high of 48 points in a single game? I'm pretty sure he scored more than 50 points in that nuggets game this season so not a big problem. Initially I was force-feeding KD the ball so much I wondered if it would ultimately jeopardised the team to a loss but in the end, I wound up with 59 KD points on 24 of 48 shooting and a playoff win over the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Few trophies have as much history as this, I reckon this will be one of my favourites for a long time to come.

NBA 2K12 Big 3

2K sports just unveiled the cover athlete for the upcoming NBA 2K12 and much to my surprise, they went old school again with a trio covers of MJ, Magic and Bird. Up until now, I had secretly hoped that 2K sports will changed their mind about doing another NBA 2K release this year with the looming uncertainty of NBA season lockout yet to be resolved. My copy of NBA 2K11 is just barely six months old and pretty soon the online servers will be taken offline or abandoned in favour of the new version. Worse the Legend mode will be further expanded to now include Magic and Bird's championship era even though they already made brief appearance in NBA 2K11. I suspect like the Jordan Challenge which featured different era of MJ career, the Legend mode will now feature different renders of Magic and Bird so you don't have to bear with the horribly rendered moustached Bird from the 63 point MJ playoff game anymore.

Lost among the hype of NBA 2K new big 3 cover is the pre-order dlc of classic NBA teams like Webber's Kings and Mullin's Warriors.

(Double) Nickel's Back

When I first started watching NBA games, I realised there were NBA players and there was Michael Jordan. He had already ascend to NBA immortality by winning his first 3-peat of championship rings and was just in the midst of his incredible comeback. After that, he became the roadblock that prevented some of my favourite players from earning their own rings, not exactly how most NBA fans will remember him by but that was sort of how I identified him.

MJ made another comeback to the virtual court when NBA 2K11 featured him on the cover with some of his most memorable moments captured on the Jordan challenge mode. I wasn't exactly jumping to play the challenge mode when I got the game a couple of months ago, the only game that really stood out to me was the double-nickel game. Something about wearing that number 45 jersey and then scoring 55 points on Madison Square Garden just 4 games after making a comeback seems really special to me. It wasn't until after a brief spell of NBA 07 when I felt the urge to relive some of MJ's greatest games. Sure Kobe 81-point game in NBA 07 was fun but it wasn't exactly challenging with the lack of defense and simple AI logic in fact, my best score was enough to make Wilt Chamberlain sweat (97 points). I suspect scoring 50-points in NBA2K11 won't be easy even with MJ as my previous best was only 44-points with Ray Allen, thanks to some lucky 3s.

I suppose that's the beauty of NBA2K11, one week I could be totally absorbed with playing my favourite team on Association mode, another week I'm looking for live challenge online and now I'm totally wrapped in the Jordan challenge mode.

Good to be Back?

Having a really slow internet speed certainly does not bode well with Sony PSN's welcome back program this month. I'm not sure if you have to install all your free games before the program period is up so I would rather not take that chance. Further complicating the matter is that some games simply haul your download progress whether you are playing multiplayer or not. I have since gone back to playing NBA 07 instead of NBA 2K11 and realised I only have a week left to finish downloading Little Big Planet and Hustle Kings.

Don't even get me started on Infamous because i can't imagine how long will it take at this rate.

King of Anything

Being a long time NBA fan, I remember playing the early NBA Lives on my PC and having a blast with NBA Jam on the home console. I began to play a lot less NBA with each generation as it simply became too time-consuming once I get addicted to the season mode. NBA 07 was a nice change when I discovered the NBA replay mode allows you to relive players' biggest moment of the season trying to emulate their accomplishments in those game. Having a sentimental attachment to veteran players I grew up watching, NBA 2K11 was the perfect game for me to jump into the series once MJ was revealed as the cover athlete.

I decided to go back to experiencing the whole thing by going through season mode to earn a spot in the playoffs and ultimately contend for the championship. The game has evolved so much that I have difficulty even beating the low-ranked teams, there are so much involved for the simple goal of just putting the ball in the basket. You have to learn the offense schemes in the playbook, how to read and react to the opponent's defense and also get back on defense if not the other team will burn you. If you are a very competitive person, you might not get much enjoyment out of the game in the early going. Some of the trophies like beating the other team by a margin of50 points seems impossible when I can just barely squeeze out a victory most of the time.

Maybe I should have just gone with NBA Jam?

I Got your Back

As great as NBA 2K11 is, it's lacking the core emotions of the game which makes the real games so compelling to watch. Now before you call me a sadist for sports violence let me make it clear that when I said compelling to watch, I was referring to the bond between team-mates to stick up for one another when they get into a scruffle or in the players' words " I have got your back brother".

I remember playing the 8-bit games on Ice Hockey on the Gameboy and you could actually engage in a fight with your opponent after getting tangled up at the side. I don't watch enough of ice hockey to know how prevalent is violence in hockey but things can get real testy in a heated NBA game because players are always in such close contact of one another. Perhaps 2K sports should step up their game in making the games as realistic as possible? If the games are already simulating in-game injuries then I don't see why suspensions and technical fouls are out of the question.