On May 7, 1989, Michael Jordan sent the Cleveland Cavaliers home with one of the most iconic buzzer beating shots in the history of basketball.
On May 7, 1989, Michael Jordan sent the Cleveland Cavaliers home with one of the most iconic buzzer beating shots in the history of basketball.
One of the coolest things that has happened in sports gaming is the reintroduction of the Jordan Challenges in NBA 2K23.
Originally introduced in NBA 2K11, the Jordan Challenges provide gamers and basketball fans with an incomparable homage to the career of Michael Jordan, the Greatest Basketball Player of All-Time.
Back in 2K11, there were only 10 challenges, now there are 15. One of the new challenges is the one from my video above: The Shot.
Most of the challenges in 2K23 and all of the challenges from 2k11, were full games from MJ’s career. Having this quick mini-game to recreate this iconic moment is one of the great reasons that separates 2K23 from 2K11.
2K23 is making strides to be the greatest basketball video game of all-time because of changes like this.
I haven’t even gotten to dig into MyNBA Eras mode, where it’s possible to jump in a time machine and alter NBA History from 1983 on.
I want to record and upload more of my Jordan Challenge experience, and maybe some of my MyNBA Eras seasons. But once again, I’m just happy to be adding to this blog again.
Let me figure out how to trade Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to the Bulls, still draft Michael Jordan and have a Chicago Bulls dynasty that lasts for 40 years and then I’ll be back!
Returning to ramble about whatever, most specifically, recent video game leaks
It’s truly been a long time since I’ve blogged here.
My YouTube channel has remained steadily active with gaming updates and Lightsaber unboxings over the last few years and those have always been my personal escapes to content.
But when I realized that something sort of felt off about my life in the moment, I evaluated and realized that I hadn’t written anything creatively from my own voice in a while! Seriously, in between my last written blog and now might be the longest stretch of not writing something creative since before high school like 12 years ago.
So, I’m going to begin writing here again whenever I feel like it! I just feel like I need somewhere to put my brain out on paper and my Twitter timeline can’t be my complete, 100% honest self.
But to keep in theme with things that I care about: my blogs will be about food, video games, sports, etc. Always like they have been, but when my thoughts need more fleshing out, I’ll head here!
So, something big happened in the gaming world over the weekend and it’s sprouted into possibly the largest leak in the history of gaming.
Grand Theft Auto VI is Rockstar’s highly anticipated sequel to 2013’s GTA V, which for nearly 10 years now, has received online lobby support/updates and has been released on three different console generations.
In the early morning of 9/18, #GTA6Leaks started trending on Twitter and it was discovered that over an hour of pre-alpha footage of GTA VI had been stolen and published online.
It wasn’t just this one page that was posting the leaks, but this account has 8000+ followers and was one of the premier pages for the leaks yesterday. Thankfully, a lot of the images and videos from this page now look like this:
Rockstar released the below message earlier on 9/19, not only confirming the leaks but also saying that despite this, development is ongoing.
What an absolute gut punch for Rockstar and the development team. Nobody ever wants their creation to leak early, but it almost always seems to happen. Even to the biggest movies in the world:
But now this has happened, a REALLY STUPID debate has broken out online. Now that people have seen the leaked footage of GTA VI, they’re being extremely harsh about the gameplay.
For anyone that doesn’t understand how stupid the above three tweets are, let me explain it plainly.
When game footage gets leaked in a pre-alpha stage, that means it’s not even close to being done with development. When the leaker got ahold of this gameplay, they released things that haven’t been polished or fully coded yet.
So when somebody says it looks “ass” or “like shit” or “unfinished,” it’s because it’s fucking supposed to! What it’s not supposed to be is commented on at this stage by any of us because the developer didn’t intend for this footage to be seen yet!
Rockstar has always kept their cards close to their chest when it comes to video game announcements/releases. When they were developing Red Dead Redemption II, they didn’t announce the game until Oct. 2016 and only released two trailers in between its Oct. 2018 release.
Want to know their reward from that? The sprawling Old West open-world adventure game is revered as one of the greatest visual gaming experiences of all-time and new things are still being discovered about the game.
What will happen to GTA VI when someone doesn’t like something about a gameplay element from these leaks that makes it to the final game? They’ll say “OH, IT LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE THAT IN THE LEAKS! BAD GAME!”
This hits home for me as someone who’s heavily invested in the video game/movie/tv show/pop culture world. I don’t want to experience things before the developer intends for me to experience their creation.
Gameplay elements, story elements, character arcs, etc. are all meant to be revealed to us in a relatively equal manner. There’s a reason why release dates and everything like them exist. It’s so everyone is given an equal opportunity to experience a developer’s project at the same time and allow a proper cycle of criticism or reverence.
Like so ^
Two highly anticipated games from Marvel, now being snared at by people to get leaked. One of the biggest problems with the GTA VI leak is now this: people will want it for whatever game they’re anticipating.
This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this. But see below how I felt when Kingdom Hearts III got stolen and leaked about a month before its release date:
It’s crazy it’s been almost four years since that video, however, my feelings remain the same.
We can’t have this shit.
Let’s put it into terms that I love the most, as I just did above: Kingdom Hearts.
Look at the original Beta build of Sora from the first Kingdom Hearts:
Compared to the final:
I mean, a million times better, right? And that’s from the Beta stage to the final! The GTA VI leaks are from a pre-alpha build of the game. Which comes before alpha and well before Beta.
How about Kingdom Hearts III, which went from absolutely ZERO new trailers and information between its first three years of developments to this trailer at Jump Festa 2016.
Sora’s upgrade between the original trailer to the final game is staggering:
Isn’t it crazy what just a few years of development will do for a video game? Wait, you mean, it’s not crazy at all? BINGO!!!!!
You’re damn right it’s not crazy at all! GTA VI will be no different when it comes to this. When you give companies enough time to finish and polish their product, the better it will look in the end!
I can’t believe this even has to be said, but today’s world is becoming less surprising with how people react to things off the cuff.
So I’m pouring one out for the Rockstar and GTA VI development team because what happened really sucks. But, within the next couple of years, GTA VI will be out and regardless of these leaks, I’m sure a lot of people (myself included), will be bought in for another 10-year, 3-console generation saga with Grand Theft Auto.
Leaking things hurts everybody. It hurts the creator, it hurts the audience and it hurts the final experience of the product. Don’t do it and don’t buy into it. Waiting for something makes the experience of it ten times better. I hope we’re all looking forward to the official GTA VI or Spider-Man 2 or Kingdom Hearts IV trailers when they arrive.
I know I am, and you’ll find me talking about them right here!
Kingdom Hearts Union X is ending, Kingdom Hearts Dark Road is almost here, the Kingdom Hearts 3 soundtrack is coming out in the Fall and Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory is REAL and it’s a sequel to Kingdom Hearts 3! Here’s my reaction!
Last night, the Kingdom Hearts Dark Road Twitter account dropped the names of the 4 brand new keyblade wielders that will serve as characters in the story of Young Eraqus and Young Xehanort.
The new mobile game will tell the story of how Young Xehanort became evil. How are these 4 new characters tied into that story? What do their names mean? Check out my thoughts in this video!
A tweet from the Kingdom Hearts Dark Road team has confirmed that the current state of things is causing a delay to the game. WHEN WILL MORE INFORMATION RELEASE? WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO KHDR?
“Goodbye Old Friend and May the Force Be With You.”
After the latest “Battle of Scarif” update, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is no longer receiving support. After a few days of contemplation and Jedi meditation, I’ve decided to open my heart up and say goodbye to the unlikely superstar game. Here is my love letter to Battlefront 2.
As Obi-Wan says, “Goodbye Old Friend, and May the Force Be With You.”
The ending to Final Fantasy VII Remake is divisive among fans for straying from the plot of the individual game. But, was this game ever meant to be a scaled up replica for 1997’s Final Fantasy VII or something greater?
Here are my thoughts on the crazy ending to Final Fantasy VII Remake and what it means for the series moving forward!
Well, it took me long enough but I’ve finally sat down to review Kingdom Hearts 3’s Re:MIND DLC! This DLC package made Kingdom Hearts 3 so much more amazing and re-playable. Hear my thoughts on how it did so!
SPOILER ALERT: There’s a lot of positivity in this video!
After 62 Rekt’s yesterday, I managed to defeat Yozora, Kingdom Hearts III ReMIND’s Secret Boss, in just one try today!
This is Standard Difficulty. Lvl 99 with Ultima Weapon. Like I said, I died 62 times. I’ll try and beat him on Critical or with restrictions at a later date!
Average Yet Amazing Adventures 