IGN Article- NBA Street V3: A Love Story

[pastapadre]

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/581/581050p1.html

January 19, 2005 - NBA Street V3 makes its triumphant return on Xbox, PS2, and GameCube February 8 following a two year absence from the console gaming scene. With Midway's NBA Ballers stepping up and throwing down the gauntlet, there was some pressure on EA to bring down the thunder with the third iteration of its NBA Street. Here's the good news: EA did just that. The bad news? You have to wait a few more weeks to get your hands on NBA Street V3.

Street 3 takes a different approach than the previous iterations. Where you once played against the NBA's best, taking on each team in turn, Street 3's primary mode has you create your own home court to go along with your young and untalented created character. Your court and your character start with just the basics, but as you earn and spend points your court and character can become the true pinnacle of hoops excellence.

Customization is a big part of Street 3 as you can alter every facet of your home court, including the surface, banners, and backboard. Heck, you can even build your own custom shoes. All of this costs points however, which can also be spent to steal players from defeated teams or to improve your character's attributes. This is when the difficult choices begin. Do you boost your dunk rating or get a new chest tat? You can't be too thrifty with your points, because you have less than 70 days to play through the various street challenges before pitting yourself against the true might of the NBA.

Each day random events appear with different criteria. Do you want to play a 3-on-3 match to 21 in Venice Beach or head to the dunk contest instead? With games available both day and night, there are plenty of opportunities to deke and dunk on the best (and worst) in Street. Every win earns you points and increases your reputation. As your reputation grows, new challenges and courts unlock. There are tournaments to be won, sponsorships to be earned, and plenty of items to unlock.

There's a ton of variety in Street 3, enough to make more than 100 events pass in the blink of an eye, without the sense of monotony you might expect. There are some great little extras awaiting too, including progressively better nicknames, legendary players to truly challenge your game, and a visit from the Beastie Boys. That's right, Ad Rock, MCA, and Mike D make for a perfect fit, far better than the trio of David Arquette, Carmen Elektra, and Jamie Kennedy seen in Sega's NFL 2K5. A three-on-three game featuring three of New York's finest? Makes sense to me.

While playing through your street career, you'll have the chance to enjoy a bevy of new dekes, all links through a mixture of Right Thumbstick directions and turbo combinations. The dunks are once again high-flying, the alley-oops thunderous, and the commentary drenched in sarcasm. It's the Street I love taken just a step further. That one step beyond comes in the form of GameBreakers, which have evolved into something more interactive than a button press.

After filling your GameBreaker meter once (there are no double-stuff fillings like Street 2), head to the hoop, hit two turbos and dunk to initiate the GB. Things hit slow-mo as your baller leaps towards the hoops. Using the turbo buttons and the Right Thumbstick you control the variety and style of in-air moves, dishing the alley if one of your compadres is interested in the oop. You can chain up to three times, but a successful dunk is not automatic. Get too greedy and you many brick the dunk, costing yourself valuable points. Slam the dunk home for a special signature and pose. The hotter the dunk, the more points you earn and the more your opponent loses.

If there's any letdown in Street 3 so far, it's that EA has once again failed to do anything with jump shots. They remain boring, which is a shame. Why not enable trick shots of opponents or the court? Behind the back tosses and even the ultimate granny shot would be easy enough to manage with the current turbo system. The only excuse is a lack of though on EA's part, which is not an acceptable excuse at all. This is something I had expected from Street 2 and to find that it's still not addressed in the third installment is the one dark cloud amidst the blue sky of NBA Street 3's beauty.

NBA Street V3, despite my one complaint, is so far as great as I had hoped. I place Street 2 among the greatest sports games of all time and V3 is more of the same goodness... but online for Xbox and PS2. Look for more on NBA Street V3 in the coming weeks leading up to its release.

[LVradio]

IMO, i think this guy is a street player, because I have never heard of a non-realism sports game amongst the greatest sports game ever. But you never know, we'll have to see; sounds promising nonetheless.

Well I am buying into the hype. Bring on the Street!

[CRKnight]

Originally Posted by RAC

Well I am buying into the hype. Bring on the Street!

lol...same here.

Bring it!!!