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?

Fangs for the Memories

I have been spending a lot of time and money on Castlevania of late, picking up the Limited Edition Lords of Shadow and then the Santa Lilio artbook shortly after. The sheer volume of Ayami Kojima artwork in the compilation is simply overwhelming I'm not sure if all her Castlevania works are there as I have yet to finished going through.

Could this sudden surge of interest in Castlevania stems from the 25th anniversary of the series looming this year? It felt like only a while back when the 20th anniversary package was given with pre-orders of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin but I guess the years have a way of creeping up on you. I remember gleefully going through the package as every game in the series is nicely chronicled in an art collection booklet and a series timeline foldout pinup. Aside from Mercury Steam's DLC expansion episodes to Lords of Shadow, very little is known of what Konami has in store for fans this year. Hopefully this 25th anniversary of the series will not go by unnoticed.

Anniversary Reflections

Capcom has been guilty of their fair share of cheap port and quick remakes but Deadly Silence should not be counted as one of them. Released to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Resident Evil, Deadly Silence looks and plays like the original except now you are playing the whole thing in the palm of your hands.

The pre-rendered background could be copied over directly from the original but the 3D character and object polygons could not so Capcom had to re-draw everything from scratch. A rebirth mode was added where many of the newer RE moves were implement to the original included the all-important quick turn, knife attack and quick reload. All of these moves could now be performed without going to the item menu just like in Resident Evil 4 and 5. Some of the pre-rendered background were redrawn to accommodate the new costume and puzzles in addition to a handful of new camera views of "background" for the knifing mode.

I wasn't impressed with Deadly Silence back during the tenth anniversary but now I'm beginning to see the effort the team put into the port. It made have been all fans got ob the tenth anniversary but right now it seems a lot better than what we are getting for the 15th anniversary this year.

Hurry Up and Wait

It's no secret that I used my ps3 a lot more often than my nintendo Wii, I liked the online functionality of the system and even when i'm not busy downloading a file off PSN in the background I would still logged in while gaming. Having my live community of gamer friends there online is like a reality check sometimes if i get too carried away into the wee hours I would be constantly remind to stop soon by presence of my friends signing off.

Another benefit of being signed onto PSN network while you are playing is the immediate access to any update patch that may be been made available to the game. This will improve the gameplay experience like the ability to have game data install for Bayonetta or even provide additional content such is the case for Yakuza 3 japanese edition.

During PSN network downtime this past week I rarely turn on the system without the online functionality there. I have grown used to having my new trophies synced the moment I quit the game and without that assurance, the drive to chase trophies just isn't there. I was almost done with my third run through Dead Rising 2 at a point where I would achieve a couple more trophies and I just stop momentarily while Sony sort out this mess. Apparently PSN will be back online within a week and during this time I have been keeping myself busy with the Wii. I feel sorry for my Wii now that its impending successor has been made official as I never got the most out of it. I kept waiting and waiting for the Wii to have a truly great year to call its own with a software lineup that will shed some of the public misconception of the system and it never really happened. Instead I waited and I found out that it's going to be replaced soon now.