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NBA Playgrounds |OT| More entertaining & less predicable than the NBA play-offs!

bumpkin

Member
Okay, that was kind of fun... Just played an online match on Switch where they were trying to spam threes, and I blocked them out of their sneakers over and over and over...

20106705_10155493224333582_8086544680577232838_n.jpg

I know I used two legends (Showtime era Lakers, baby!), but for the record, I didn't trigger/use their special moves once.
 
2k is practically the same game every year tbh, just buy last year's on another console if you have one imo. if you just have switch playgrounds is a better party game which i assume is what you'd prefer on the switch anyway, 2k is awful for that. only buy 2k if you are going to dump tons of hours into long single player sessions. i know 'not buying both' but considering 2k's price and how quickly it dips, spending $20 on playgrounds now, 2k will be $20 off of retail price within a couple of months of release at the most. whereas playgrounds you will only save a couple of dollars if you wait months to buy it, and that's willing that a sale even happens where 2k is guaranteed to get significantly cheaper relatively quickly.
 
How is the game on PS4 currently? Is it up-to-date on patches? Any major issues? Considering it at $12 during the weekly PSN sale. Thanks!
 

bumpkin

Member
What are the unlocks / unlock system like in this? Do you unlock more players or gear?
Playing games either offline/local or online earn you XP towards your Profile/player level. Each time you level-up, you earn a silver pack of cards that contain new players. Once you reach a level of 50, you then earn a gold pack each time you level-up. Silver packs usually have commons and the occasional "Epic" or "Legend" card, but gold packs have higher chances of getting Epic or Legend cards. Each Tournament consists of four games, each with a unique challenge to beat. If you win all four games, you unlock the next Playground/Tournament. Beating all four challenges in a given Tournament will unlock a new game ball to use in exhibition/local play.
 
Alright. I know this has probably been asked a ton of times, so don't hate me.

I was a big fan of NBA Street Vol. 2 on Xbox back in the day. How's this measure up to that? And is there a create-a-player?

(Planning on buying for Switch if that makes a difference)
 

exfatal

Member
Are they still planning on added co-op online and if soo any word on when? was waiting to get on switch but if the updates are anything to go by might as well get on ps4.
 
Playing games either offline/local or online earn you XP towards your Profile/player level. Each time you level-up, you earn a silver pack of cards that contain new players. Once you reach a level of 50, you then earn a gold pack each time you level-up. Silver packs usually have commons and the occasional "Epic" or "Legend" card, but gold packs have higher chances of getting Epic or Legend cards. Each Tournament consists of four games, each with a unique challenge to beat. If you win all four games, you unlock the next Playground/Tournament. Beating all four challenges in a given Tournament will unlock a new game ball to use in exhibition/local play.

Ah nice. So the players are the collectibles?
 

atr0cious

Member
I didn't complete the tourneys before the patch and now the goals seem a bit unattainable with the reworking of the stamina. Anyone having issues with the stealing objectives?
 

jmizzal

Member
I didn't complete the tourneys before the patch and now the goals seem a bit unattainable with the reworking of the stamina. Anyone having issues with the stealing objectives?

They lowered the stealing objective after the patch, it was impossible before the patch and its even more impossible after it.
 

Hegarol

Member
I didn't complete the tourneys before the patch and now the goals seem a bit unattainable with the reworking of the stamina. Anyone having issues with the stealing objectives?
I found a trick. Use stealing the moment the cpu catches the ball after a pass. Worked perfectly and had no problems getting the challenge done. During normal gameplay its almost impossible.
 

modsbox

Member
They lowered the stealing objective after the patch, it was impossible before the patch and its even more impossible after it.

It is really tough to do after the patches, but I was able to do it with a pretty obnoxious strategy.

- obviously pick 2 players with a very high steal stat (high speed stat is huge also) and don't worry about actually winning the game at all. rondo and curry are great

- the easiest way to get a steal is to try to steal it from the computer right after they've stolen it from you. best place to try to do this is to when you have the ball take it to the top-right or top-left corner. stand there and let the computer steal it, then the moment they do try to steal it right back.

- using a push to steal the ball doesn't count, only use the steal button

- whenever they've gotten the ball over to your half and are trying to score it's pretty tough to steal it. once they're in your half just alternate running your players to the right side of the screen so they can quickly and easily score

- another time you can steal is right when they inbound it. if you don't get it on that pass or the subsequent one, again likely best play is to let them score quickly to get the ball back.
 

modsbox

Member
Didn't they add new tournaments on PS4? Switch doesn't have those yet last time I checked

PS4 added a number of tournaments recently, I believe when the Playgrounders characters, the Sonics players and a few more players were added.

Two of them are Madrid and Chicago, not sure if there were more.

The final one of them has some fairly brutal challenges -- a 'win by 15 points' one and a 'win by 25 points' Winning by 25 was a bit rough, took me quite a few tries.
 
From the Big Cheese:

Hey all. I have been traveling non-stop for two weeks. We have a major announcer coming soon with some very cool updates that should add a lot of new appeal to the game. We will be announcing it within a few days. The update will launch on all platforms as they are approved. This is a pretty big update with some new modes and features.
 

bumpkin

Member
From the Big Cheese:

Hey all. I have been traveling non-stop for two weeks. We have a major announcer coming soon with some very cool updates that should add a lot of new appeal to the game. We will be announcing it within a few days. The update will launch on all platforms as they are approved. This is a pretty big update with some new modes and features.
It better come out for Switch in a timely manner. That shit they pulled - to blame or not - with the first patch was complete and utter horse shit.

Also, I am fast approaching a point of no longer playing Ranked. It's nothing but three spam now, playing a match isn't even fun anymore. You miss one block and you can never catch up. I rolled a duo of 10 rated three point shooters for fun once and was surprised the other team - a Curry and Shaq combo (guess their strategy) - didn't quit. I won, but I did not enjoy the game at all.
 
3 spam doesn't really work anymore on the Steam version so I assume Switch still isn't caught up on updates. Even with a 10 rated 3 point shooter like Curry, you only make about 60% of your shots whereas before it was close to 100%. That plus the fact that you don't build lottery meter for 3s anymore makes it not nearly as viable a strategy as it once was.
 

bumpkin

Member
3 spam doesn't really work anymore on the Steam version so I assume Switch still isn't caught up on updates. Even with a 10 rated 3 point shooter like Curry, you only make about 60% of your shots whereas before it was close to 100%. That plus the fact that you don't build lottery meter for 3s anymore makes it not nearly as viable a strategy as it once was.
I don't know if the Switch patch had any balancing. It brought online play, the first 15 additional characters, and the shot meter.
 

shanafan

Member
3 spam doesn't really work anymore on the Steam version so I assume Switch still isn't caught up on updates. Even with a 10 rated 3 point shooter like Curry, you only make about 60% of your shots whereas before it was close to 100%. That plus the fact that you don't build lottery meter for 3s anymore makes it not nearly as viable a strategy as it once was.

Oh Curry is bugged? I thought he was always draining 3s too easy for me ;) He was always on my team for that very reason. (Playing on Switch)
 

bumpkin

Member
I feel like Saber should add a three point contest mode for spammers to have their e-peen measuring contests against each other. A "for fun" (exhibition?) online mode with no Ranking implications attached would be nice too.

I know I probably come across as a whiner in my posts, but that's really not the case. I have won games and sometimes I manage to overcome pretty shitty matchups, but it's frustrating that there are rarely enjoyable back-and-forth matches anymore. It feels like it's always five minutes of trying to shut down three pointers or matching three spam with three spam. That is not enjoyable, not to me at least.
 
Is this game supposed to be this hard on Easy mode? I literally can not make a single jumpshot, dunk or layup. The only things that seem to go in are Alley opps
 
Oh Curry is bugged? I thought he was always draining 3s too easy for me ;) He was always on my team for that very reason. (Playing on Switch)

Don't think he is bugged, it was just way too easy to hit 3s before they tweaked the difficulty. Previously, literally anyone with a 7+ rating could drain 3s at will. Now it is much harder. Apparently Switch doesn't have this update yet?
 

CD'S BAR

Member
New players, I can't even grind all the old ones. They need to revamp the system.

Yeah. That's a nice update but they need to at least significantly lower the rate of getting duplicate players. And actually they should just get rid of duplicates all together. No desire to further waste my time with this game until something like that happens.
 

derFeef

Member
They added star particles instead of fire? Hah...
Also still no answer from support regarding my progress glitch on Switch. I guess I just wipe my save :(
 

Okada

Member
If that's in the Switch version now, it could have fooled me. I've played games where they threw up double digit attempts and never missed.

Yeah I just played someone who was shooting from almost anywhere with Curry and he didn't miss a single 3 pointer other than the times I managed to block.

It was really frustrating and I hated every minute of it.

Edit - This was on the Switch.
 

modsbox

Member
New update for PS4 version is sick!

The online 3pt contest mode is super fun, but even better grinding for the last few players you need from packs is way easier. Last 3 packs I opened only contained 1 repeat and 4 new players each, even though I only need to get 15 more to have them all now. Before the patch I had about 10 packs in a row of all 5 repeats. Try it guys, it's awesome.
 

bumpkin

Member
They added star particles instead of fire? Hah...
Also still no answer from support regarding my progress glitch on Switch. I guess I just wipe my save :(
Shit, Feep. I'm sorry. I never did hear anything from the devs on my post, it was just the Internet peanut gallery with "Then obviously they didn't win the tournament games, only the challenges" replies.

New update for PS4 version is sick!

The online 3pt contest mode is super fun, but even better grinding for the last few players you need from packs is way easier. Last 3 packs I opened only contained 1 repeat and 4 new players each, even though I only need to get 15 more to have them all now. Before the patch I had about 10 packs in a row of all 5 repeats. Try it guys, it's awesome.
I have the game on Switch so I don't have the "Hot Update", but I asked a question about the three point contest that totally tanked my hype. The shots are taken mini-game style with a stop-the-reticle mechanic, not by actually taking normal jumpshots. I do not understand that design decision at all. They've put so much work into the shot meter and balancing, and they throw the players' experience and shot rhythm out the window in the contest mode.
 
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