Me & My Baby Brothers: Video Games

Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

NBA Live 16 "We do this..."

NBA Live 16

"We do this..."

Been at it since 1995. With each platform from Sega on up, its always been about about Live...will always be about Live. During their hiatus, we stayed on Live10 for a while. Picked up 2K only to sell it on Amazon after a couple of game plays. 2K, never again.

NBA Live 16 is by far the best Live, best b-ball game to date. From the soundtrack to the game play whether versus friends/family or the system, everything that needs to be on point supersedes the glitches. Have yet to try the online game play enough to speak on it but hoping for an option to play street court hoop in the next installment w/o online.

When it comes to video games, for me it goes as far back as Double Dribble on NES, but when Live stepped in, it was over. Right now, we keep record between brothers & cousins, talking trash, taking names, listing records to the right of the blog screen.

The players include me aka #Lee95, my youngest brother #BigMan44, our brother #BBJosh, the youngin' #EMan, and our cousins #DiamondDutch and #Delicious23. Everyone has their teams, from the Cavs, Spurs, Warriors, Celtics, Lakers to the Rockets, etc.

NBA Live Forever.

#Lee95

Saturday, December 27, 2014

NBA Live Forever

NBA Live Forever

Have pretty much played them all when it comes to basketball simulation and arcade style video games. From Double Dribble, All-Pro Basketball, Jordan vs. Bird, NBA Live 95, Coach K's College Basketball, NBA Jam, NBA Shootout, NBA Action, NBA In the Zone, NBA Streets, the 2K series, etc.

NBA Live has always been the preferred go to b-ball video game since the mid 90s... Never quite lasted a full season or any competitive rivalries amongst gamers playing other simulation video b-ball game except Live. Especially amongst my brothers... for more than five years we stayed on NBA Live 2010. Never understood the hype of 2K. It played and felt generic, from the player's look to the controls. When we seen the advertisement behind the Jordan machine and 2K11, we decided to give the game a chance abandoning the Live series which by this time became a Dead series.

We played 2K11 for a couple of weeks and decided to sell it. Disappointment is not even the final word... just had to get rid of it. We decided to keep playing NBA Live 10' until something else came out. Even manually updating the rosters ourselves as we went along with our main squads, Boston, Miami, and the LA Lakers.

Fast forward to this year (beyond the epic fail of NBA Live 14) and EA Sports finally delivers with the installment of NBA Live 15. From the soundtrack, camera angles, controls, set up, feature player, halftime report, etc... it feels as if basketball as we always thought we knew it on video game platforms has finally arrived to the PS4.

As brothers, including our nephew E-Man, we keep track of each others beat downs... a custom we started playing Live 10'... whether it was Josh's Heat vs. Isaiah's Lakers, or E-Man's Heat versus my Celtics, we tallied the wins and loses for bragging rights on a small dry erase board. The records are now also available here on the Me & My Baby Brothers blog (to the right scroll down)... it's a point of access for us to see who's up and to share with anyone else out there that's connected to NBA Live Forever.

Great game. Glad its back.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Social And Emotional Benefits Of Video Games: Metacognition and Relationships

I like this article in thinking about the "growth mindset".

A majority of my peers were and some still are gamers.

Would be great to adapt what kids love so much into activities that will provide food for thought or promote more positive messages. Below is a clip from the article.

Social And Emotional Benefits Of Video Games: Metacognition and Relationships

by Jordan Shapiro | KQED

Article: click here

"In 2013, the American Psychological Association published a study that identified some of the benefits of gaming, and the results were surprising. For example, in controlled tests, kids who played first-person shooters showed “faster and more accurate attention allocation, higher spatial resolution in visual processing, and enhanced mental rotation abilities.” This likely has very little to do with the violent narrative and a lot to do with repetitive execution of reflex-based actions. Essentially, first person shooters are intricate 3D virtual simulations of the carnival classic “whack-a-mole.” Players need to react fast. This is why kids who play a lot of games seem to show “measurable changes in neural processing and efﬁciency” and a positive increase in creativity. Players practice quick thinking and hurried response."

Shapiro, Jordan. "Social And Emotional Benefits Of Video Games: Metacognition and Relationships." KQED 16 May 2014. Web. http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/social-and-emotional-benefits-of-video-games-metacognition-and-relationships/.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

A License to Drive Story w/ MC Zoo

Today had a discussion with my lil' brother about his experience through driving school as he completes requirements for his permit ... later his driver's license. He's a big time gamer so I asked what his top 3 "driving" related video games are... From 3 to 1, 1 being the best... 3... Motor Storm on PS3, 2....CTR on PS1, and 1.... Grand Theft Auto V on PS3. Back when for me it was all about the NES Road Racer!

Road Racer!