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NBA Street Series: where to now?

Kingpen

Member
<Start Rant>

I craved next gen NBA Street. I got it, played it like a junkie, but then the rush was over. Lasting appeal basically vanished. So much of the extra content was left out of the game, and so much more could have been done.

I think I played V3's career mode for about 50 hours, and Homecourt only clocked in at 14 for me.
Where is the Dunk contest?
Where are the freaking NBA legends? Not having the legend players really killed Homecourts lasting appeal for me.
Also, while the trick remixer was a good idea, why the heck did they get rid of the dunk customizing that was in V3? They could have expanded on it and made it so much better and smoother.
Why the heck did they nerf the jumpshot game with the blocking and basically make it useless.

Where is the ability to edit what tricks/ dunks I have on my custom player?

And why the hell are the WNBA players getting up in the air just as high as a guy like Shaq to block anything I throw at them?

And why the heck do I have to pay $3.75 extra to get the Street Legends like Stretch back in the game?

Honestly the only good thing in Homecourt that stuck out to me was the addtion of the jumpoff dunks, but even then, they basically put the gameplay on tunnel vision because once you started doing them, there wasn't any incentive to go back and do lower dunks.


I still think V2 is the pinnacle of the series, but V3 is very good as well (I like the gamecube version with Mario/Luigi/Peach in it for a nice little bonus)

<end rant>

Sorry guys had to vent.... This was one of my favorite series and it just feels like it spontaneously combusted or something...
 

Gigglepoo

Member
Homecourt was awful. Dribbling around like a fool for twenty seconds and then trying to dunk got old really fast. They should just strip out the excessive showboating, add goal tending, and make these downloadable titles.
 

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
I am sure it will be better next year. Atleast I hope so. This year was all about getting the game on next gen systems.

I personally hated the trick remixer. It put the emphasis on tricks again instead of playing fundamental b-ball. Volume 2 found the perfect balance between the two and Homecourt just ignored balance all together. The idiotic decision to make jumpshots irrelevant except on fastbreaks was a big blow to the game as well. The game was fun for a lil bit, but that lasting appeal was not there at all. I finished it one time and traded in.

The microtransactions didn't help matters any either. I was browsing through the marketplace and I see the legends for sale. It is only 3.75, but I think they should have been included in the game. I can see charging for more courts, but for the legends? Not cool.
 

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
MercuryLS said:
So EA ****ed up Def Jam, NBA Street, SSX and Burnout. Nice.


Burnout? I love the Burnout series. I wouldn't say that one is ****ed up. Actually, Def Jam would be good if they would tighten up the fighting engine. We can always hope Icon 2 does that.
 

The M.O.B

Member
In the next one they should have your team going around the world playing in the Philippines, japan, Russia, Spain, and Brazil.Remove the shiny and add the gritty.
 

Gigglepoo

Member
dskillzhtown said:
I am sure it will be better next year...

I personally hated the trick remixer. It put the emphasis on tricks again instead of playing fundamental b-ball.

I think the agreement EA has with the NBA is that they can release a new sim every year but they can only release an arcade game every other year. Next February should see a new Ballers and 2009 should have Street V. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

To your second point, I agree complete. I cannot believe they released a basketball game without goaltending. This completely eliminated any variety on the offensive end. As an offensive player, you would do tricks for awhile and then either throw an 'oop or jump off a teammate's back for a dunk. On defense, you could hang back in the paint and either throw elbows or go for the block. Boring!
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
I dunno, this is by far my favorite NBA Street. Plays great, looks great, ett etc Feels real polished too, which I appreciate

BTW, you got 60 hours out of the game, that aint bad!
 

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
Gigglepoo said:
I think the agreement EA has with the NBA is that they can release a new sim every year but they can only release an arcade game every other year. Next February should see a new Ballers and 2009 should have Street V. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

To your second point, I agree complete. I cannot believe they released a basketball game without goaltending. This completely eliminated any variety on the offensive end. As an offensive player, you would do tricks for awhile and then either throw an 'oop or jump off a teammate's back for a dunk. On defense, you could hang back in the paint and either throw elbows or go for the block. Boring!


I didn't mind the goaltending, it was in Vol 2 and that was a great game. But the fact that every player on the court could do it with no problem was the issue. Earl Boykins can block any shot on the game. That ain't right. When I first got it, I would get the big man out of position, then dish it to someone for a jumper and then a freaking point guard is blocking my shot? The balance is all wrong with that game.
 

Gigglepoo

Member
dskillzhtown said:
I didn't mind the goaltending

I'm partial to earning goaltending, like in NBA Jam. It's just lame being able to do it all the time, with every player. It made the game repetitive on both ends of the court.

Midway should just port NBA Jam to the XBLA. With the classic players. I'd be all over that.
 

bdoughty

Banned
Gigglepoo said:
I think the agreement EA has with the NBA is that they can release a new sim every year but they can only release an arcade game every other year. Next February should see a new Ballers and 2009 should have Street V. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

That is correct and EA really needs the two years with NBA Street. Someone pass the memo to EA that blocking and pushing made the game really tedious with another human. Also the double point dunk was a bad idea since it is too easy to time it.
 
Raging Spaniard said:
I dunno, this is by far my favorite NBA Street. Plays great, looks great, ett etc Feels real polished too, which I appreciate

BTW, you got 60 hours out of the game, that aint bad!
V3 != Homecourt, so I'm not seeing where you got your math from. (50 V3 + 14 Homecourt?)

the last one I played was V2 because V3 just didn't do it for me. I need to find another copy of that game, I loved playing it.
 

LCGeek

formerly sane
Goal Tending needs to be more practical in this game if has to stay. I stopped after three because of a lack of balance in regards to players size and skills. I noticed this unbalancing in 2 when I had guys who towered other players were still being taken on in rebounds and blocks despite the height disparity. Stealing seemed to be the most over powering element once I got use to it as I could take anyone relatively small use good timing and bam it was mine. Catchup in all the games got on me as I got sick of an AI that could only keep up with me by that instead of skills. Series was awesome but it peaked too early and EA big never made the much needed changes to balance things out.
 

Kingpen

Member
No, i got 50 hours out of V3....

Another rant I had is that the game is called homecourt, but you can't even customize your court like you could in V3? Why the hell did they even call the game homecourt then?
 

MercuryLS

Banned
dskillzhtown said:
Burnout? I love the Burnout series. I wouldn't say that one is ****ed up. Actually, Def Jam would be good if they would tighten up the fighting engine. We can always hope Icon 2 does that.

Burnout 3 was a lot better than Revenge.
 

bdoughty

Banned
Kingpen said:
No, i got 50 hours out of V3....

Another rant I had is that the game is called homecourt, but you can't even customize your court like you could in V3? Why the hell did they even call the game homecourt then?


Not enough time to implement this micro-transaction, errr... I mean feature. Maybe in 2009.

The sad part is you know darn well at the board rooms of all EA Sports games they sit and discuss what should be feature and what could be made into a micro-transaction. Things that would make for great micro-transactions in the future games. You have 5+ years of games to micro-transaction out so you can't blow your wad on one year. Consumers are dumb but if you charge extra for the same thing 5 straight years they pick up on it.


Right, Raging Spaniard? :)
 

h0pper

only Fernando's ripe melons are good enough for me
I played 1, 2, and 3 on PS2 and absolutely loved them. When I heard that they were making Homecourt for 360 I was naturally excited and bought it. I think it's seen the insides of my 360 less than four times.
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
bdoughty said:
Not enough time to implement this micro-transaction, errr... I mean feature. Maybe in 2009.

The sad part is you know darn well at the board rooms of all EA Sports games they sit and discuss what should be feature and what could be made into a micro-transaction. Things that would make for great micro-transactions in the future games. You have 5+ years of games to micro-transaction out so you can't blow your wad on one year. Consumers are dumb but if you charge extra for the same thing 5 straight years they pick up on it.


Right, Raging Spaniard? :)


Haha, I wouldn't know, I'm too low on the decision making chain (as in, not at all). ;)

Btw, my bad, didn't read the OP properly
 

Hunahan

Banned
Yeah, Homecourt was a decent rental, but that's about it. Personally I think I'm kind of done with the series. All of these arcade sports games are interesting the first couple times, then they just become repetitive. Fight Night and SSX and Tony Hawk and all that crap is basically in the same boat.

IMO what they really need to do is differentiate the players by having unique moves. Cut down the roster to 10 or 15 guys, give each one their own different abilities and moves completely seperated by more than a little meter tweaking. Base it more like a fighting game in terms of character selection differentiation, with complex movesets and variable strategic implementation, and watch the replay value skyrocket.

I'm sick of the only difference being whether you push left or right on the analogue stick, or whether you hold one button or two. As soon as anyone can do a move at any point in time, it becomes boring to bother.

But we all know that will never happen. Sports fans want to see a name they like underneath the character avatar more than they want to see players that are actually different gameplay-wise. So they concentrate on this 200+ character roster who are all completely identical and push it out the door. And it gets super boring super quick. All flash and no substance.

Oh well. Whataya expect. It's EA.
 

Ristamar

Member
Ugh, there's some disappointing info in this thread. Good to see the V2 love, though. I still play V2, and apparently I'll still be playing V2 even after I get a 360.
 

bdoughty

Banned
Ristamar said:
Ugh, there's some disappointing info in this thread. Good to see the V2 love, though. I still play V2, and apparently I'll still be playing V2 even after I get a 360.


V2 was the series peak. I just don't see the series getting back near it. There is only so much you can do with an Arcade Sports Game. I mean you could add a chainsaw to the mix and it would liven it up.
 
Ah man, after reading this, if V2 was back compat (it's not) I'd sell Homecourt tomorrow when I pick up Forzie.

V2 was the peak. Homecourt and V3 form a kind of SSX On Tour melange of disappointing solidity in terms of the overall series.
 

Kingpen

Member
They did try to basically have 3 different dunk packages in homecourt and 1 for the WNBA/ Steve Nash guys.... It was a good idea, but they really should have had about 15 of them to spread out amongst the 180 guys in the game....

After 5 hours of play, I saw every dunk and with the ability not to edit you dunk list like the previous games, it got really stale..

Get a team with Ben Wallace, Lebron and either Nash or Duane Wade and you will see 3 of the 4 dunk packages
 
Kingpen said:
They did try to basically have 3 different dunk packages in homecourt and 1 for the WNBA/ Steve Nash guys.... It was a good idea, but they really should have had about 15 of them to spread out amongst the 180 guys in the game....

After 5 hours of play, I saw every dunk and with the ability not to edit you dunk list like the previous games, it got really stale..

Get a team with Ben Wallace, Lebron and either Nash or Duane Wade and you will see 3 of the 4 dunk packages

Yuck. Sounds lamer than four geeks cooking dinner for four other geeks.
 

Kingpen

Member
It is backward compatible on my new Wii, but I opted to go with V3 since it had the dunk contest and the mario bonus characters...

I bought and promptly traded Homecourt in as well when it came out.

V3 still looks pretty good as well...
 
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