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NBA Live 08 looking all sweaty n' stuff
Today, EA unveiled the new NBA Live 08 cover featuring Wizard's own Gilbert Arenas and also released a few screenshots to boot. And as you can see from the screen above, the face mapping on the models is quite lovely. We also noticed the muscle definition, the subtle vein effects, the jersey fabric and the forehead lines ... it's like a sensory overload. Make the jump to see the official cover art and treat yourself to another screenshot. Anyone hoping NBA Live 08 will end up being something special?
HDTV Listings for April 29, 2007
What we're watching: With no Planet Earth, Discovery HD Theater is featuring Panic in the Ring of Fire once again tonight, but for slightly different looks of fear, we'll be watching the Mavericks at the Warriors later on TNT. The #1 seed is coming into Game 4 down 2-1 and facing a must-win game to have a good chance of advancing to the second round of the NBA Playoffs.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
HDTV Listings for April 24, 2007
What we're watching: Dwyane Wade and Shaq try to even up their series with the Bulls before Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash go head to head tonight in NBA Playoffs action on TNT.Our traditional high-def listings continue below
NBA 07 downloadable demo
Surprise, there's a new demo for PSP out today! Get a small taste of b-ball on the go with this demo of NBA 07. 1. Download the demo ZIP file. 2. Extract the contents of the ZIP file. 3. Connect your PSP to your computer using a USB cable. 4. Go to the PSP/GAME folder. 5. Copy UCUS98644 folder into the GAME directory. Check out our new demos site:demos.pspfanboy.com
NBA to go all-out with HD at tonight's All Star game
We're sure you've been taking in the Las Vegas festivities this weekend on TNT-HD, but we've actually got something a bit more exciting that Boston's Gerald Green finally giving the Celtics something to cheer about. Similar to other sporting events that have been upping the ante on their HD arsenal, the NBA will be using a whopping 30 camera crews and 10 high-definition cameras to capture the 2007 All Star matchup. Moreover, we expect TNT's indoor broadcast to look slightly better than the rainout we all had to endure when watching the Super Bowl, but be sure to catch the game tonight at 9:00PM EST and then drop a comment as to how glorious (or not) you thought the broadcast actually was.
HDTV Listings for February 17, 2007
What we're watching: NBA All-Star Weekend continues on Saturday night with the Dunk contest, Skills competition and 3-point Shootout on TNT. Those festivities are followed up by this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition special, but if that's not your speed there is always the fourth Harry Potter movie, The Goblet of Fire on Cinemax.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
NBA Street-branded Air Jordans
EA and Nike have teamed up to do the limited-edition Air Jordan thing. 100 pairs of these decidedly un-street, Street-branded kicks will be manufactured -- 60 pairs apparently set aside for an online contest next week.Part of the Jordan "B'Loyal" line, the shoes were designed by EA in black nubuck leather with blue stitching. Note the speckled mid-sole accent. Ooohhh... Awww...%Gallery-1604%
NBA's 2007 All-Star Game in HDTV... and 3D
If you can't afford a courtside seat at this weekend's NBA All-Star Game festivities, the league is testing a new way to "change the way we see the game" -- sans the chance of rubbing elbows with various celebrities. Guests in Las Vegas, will go to the Mandalay Bay hotel instead of the Thomas and Mack Center where the game is being played, and don special glasses to view view a 3D high definition version of TNT's broadcast of Saturday and Sunday night's activities. Five 3D camera systems have been installed around the arena by Pace, and according to the NBA's VP of operations and technology, the HDTV widescreen broadcast will allow them to avoid many cuts and camera movements, hopefully minimizing any shaky cam effect some complained about during the special SkyCam broadcast last year. If you can't make it to Vegas to check things out, you can still see this technology at work this season, as a similar broadcast during the NBA Finals is already planned. No word on plans for a "belligerent drunk" simulator, so either way we still have a long way to go towards simulating the real game experience in a theater and someday in the future, at home.Read - Variety Read - Broadcasting & Cable
NBA Street: Homecourt demo dated
Unscripted360.com is reporting that the NBA Street: Homecourt demo will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace on February 2nd. Yes, that's only two days after the release of the Def Jam: Icon demo. Now, you'll have two games to try out this weekend, pick a favorite (or favorites if you like both), and be able to preorder by Monday. Now that's some fine multitasking that wouldn't be possible without the help of the XBLM. Long live video game demos.[Thanks, dpcough]
NBA player can't get Wii/PS3
N'Gai Croal of Newsweek reports that even Washington Wizard's point guard Gilbert Arenas can't get a Wii or PS3 using that most powerful of skills: Celebrity. Arenas writes on his blog that if he had called up stores saying he was LeBron (LeBron James) or D-Wade (Dwyane Wade) that he would have gotten a system. We're going to go out on a limb here and guess that if Arenas wants a console bad enough he'll have no problem scoring one on eBay, considering his six-year contract, expiring in 2009, will earn him $65 million. N'Gai Croal ends his piece advocating for Sony or Nintendo to, "Hook a brotha up." Wish N'Gai would advocate to hook us and a couple readers up while he's advocating for multi-million dollar earning athletes.
HDTV Listings for October 31, 2006
What we're watching: Sure Dancing with the Stars, NCIS, Standoff and Gilmore Girls are all on tonight, but we know what we're watching. The NBA regular season is back, with a doubleheader of Heat vs. Bulls and Lakers vs. Suns. Sure it's not an all-skycam broadcast but Shaq, the real Big Ben, D-Wade, the reigning two-time MVP Steve Nash and (maybe) Kobe in 1080i? We're there, new ball and all.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
Toronto Raptors going HD on TSN this season
Canadian HD fans have a lot to be thankful for lately with two top comedy's making the switch to high-def and now that TSN has reached a deal with the NBA to broadcast the Raptors games in HD this year. TSN has the rights to air over 40 games in HD this year including 20 regular season games, a minimum of 7 playoff games, NBA All-Star Weekend, and NBA Finals coverage. The first game is Friday November 3 against the Milwakee Bulks at 7 p.m. ET and hopefully the Raptors' number one draft pick of Andrea Bargnani can stand up against the Bucks - ether way should be a good game and even better since it is in HD.
Deal of the day: NBA for $10 at Best Buy
One of my favorite parts of a new year is the mass price drops of the previous year's sports games. Now with the upcoming release of NBA '07, it looks like NBA is getting the price-cut treatment as Best Buy has it listed for the extremely low price of $10.While the game has an average score of 57 at Metacritic, for $10 NBA is most likely the cheapest PSP game around, and it's probably worth a Hamilton.(Via Cheapassgamer - Registration required)
NBA Street benched for Wii
Considering EA's recent enthusiasm for Nintendo's Wii (stop laughing) and impressive lineup of games to be released for the console, we're quite shocked at the latest development with one of EA's most popular franchises. The next installment in the NBA Street series is only poised to extravagantly dunk on the PS3 and Xbox 360, leaving the better console in the dust. Due out in the Spring of 2007, the newest game will also be ditching current-gen systems.
ESPN live in next-gen NBA Live
EA is collaborating with the ESPN network to include real world sports coverage in NBA Live 07 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Aside from SportsCenter updates every twenty minutes, gamers will also have access to live streaming podcasts, including The Dan Patrick Show and Mike & Mike in the Morning. In addition, downloadable highlights from around the sport's world will be updated every hour. Here's to hoping Madden will get the same treatment.
EA finally putting ESPN license to good use
In a welcome shift from their standard corporate policy, EA is finally putting their expensive partnership with ESPN to good use:At EA Studio Showcase, the next level of ESPN integration was displayed in NBA Live 07 for the Xbox 360, and it is finally something worth all the cash EA paid for this 15 year partnership. When online, not only will you have the ESPN ticker at the bottom of the screen updating you on the latest news and scores, but you will be able to listen to streaming podcasts of ESPN Radio, including Mike & Mike and The Dan Patrick Show.But that's only the beginning.ESPN Original Programming is also in the mix, enabling you to back out of your game and watch shows like the latest Pardon the Interruption, all within NBA Live.Play your Dynasty, watch for the big news to hit the ticker, then after your game check out Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon as they debate the hot topic, only to go right back into your season.Sure beats a logo slapped in the corner of the screen. Will this kind of stuff convince anybody to buy NBA Live 07?[Thanks Matt T]
NBA's Black Box opened and underwhelms
David Stern said its contents it will "change the way you see the game." We hoped it was something to do with how we watch the game. A bunch of new high-def cameras would nice but it was nothing like that. It's a new game ball. Wow. Sure does change the way we see the game. The lines on the ball do not wrap the ball anymore - shocking. Truthfully, we should have guessed it was a new game ball judging by the box but we were guess that we just wanted more.Who else is a bit disappointed. [thanks for the tip Chris]
Is HDTV in David Stern's black box?
An even bigger mystery than who will go #1 in this year's NBA draft has emerged. A mysterious black box is on NBA.com, accompanied by the cryptic message that when David Stern unveils its contents it will "change the way you see the game". A big and unusual promise. Of course, we hope it contains high-def skycams for every NBA arena, or maybe a Bill Walton verbal restraint device. We certainly hope something 720p or 1080i is coming this way, but unfortunately we will have to wait. June 28th 11:30 a.m. all will be revealed (and likely be wildly underwhelming, but we're still excited).
NBA Live 07 to be launch title, Mavericks win Finals
If you're a basketball aficionado you may be interested to know that NBA Live 07 is slated to be one of EA's lineups for the PS3 launch. By "one of" I'm of course alluding to their tendency to include an army of sports games for November and the Sony console as well. You may also be interested in the fact that they've predicted who will take the cake in the NBA Finals coming up via their NBA Live 07 simulation (though we don't know for which console). Hope this doesn't ruin anything for you, but it's Dallas Mavericks over the Heat.Sorry Miami fans.
Select subscribers getting TiVoCast web-based programming
Following last month's deal with web video publisher Brightcove, TiVo has announced another round of partnerships that will bring various on-demand video clips to broadband-equipped Series 2 owners, with a new service called TiVoCast. The company has been making moves in this direction for some time now, but this is the first time we're being offered content that we'd actually bother watching, including NBA and WNBA highlights, New York Times-produced video (featuring David Pogue's often-humorous reviews), advice from CNET, and a dose of hip hop culture from H2O, along with male- and female-targeted programming from Heavy.com and iVillage, respectively. The new content -- accessible from the "Showcases" screen when it begins appearing next month -- will not be available to everyone, however, as USA Today is reporting that neither DirecTV subscribers nor Comcast customers will have access to any of these value-added TiVoCast downloads.
