NBA2K Online’s CBT (Closed Beta Test) was a resounding success. A month later – November 24, 2015, X-Play Online Games made the game available for OBT (Open Beta Test) It put the new free-to-play game at the forefront of the competitive gaming arena, and roused the interest of basketball-loving Filipinos.
When the OBT started to roll out, 2K and X-Play Online games noticed a huge spike on the game’s demand as evidenced by the huge number of game client downloads each day. According to X-Plays Online Games’ General Manager, Ronald Aquino, from the time they rolled out the OBT, they are continuously doing their best to keep up with the demand.
The game’s IP is owned by 2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. The game is co-developed by Visual Concepts China and Tencent. If you are familiar with the recently launched NBA 2K16, you will find some of the gaming elements of NBA2K Online quite familiar.
The following modes are currently available during the OBT: My Career, 3v3 Streetball and 1v1 NBA Matchup. Here are short descriptions of the modes:
[su_spoiler title=”NBA2K Online OBT Modes” open=”yes” style=”simple”]
My Career: Players need to train and guide their character up the NBA ranks. The experience includes being drafted by an NBA team, going up against other teams, and playing for awards and championships.
1v1 NBA Matchup: Players can use real NBA teams. Also available in this mode are legendary NBA Teams, like the 1996 Chicago Bulls, 1991 Los Angeles Lakers and 1986 Boston Celtics.
3v3 Streetball: players form groups of three and go up against each other in four-minute matches. The games are set in different urban basketball court settings. [/su_spoiler]
During the launch of the event, NBA2K Online Product Manager, Bryan Dy, “Basketball and online gaming go wonderfully together to create a perfect storm and give birth to a spirited competition. This is why we’re brandishing NBA2K Online as the Online Liga ng Bayan.”
We weren’t able to contain our excitement, so we played the OBT when we arrived home. Check out our sample gameplays below and some of our impressions:
While the game was made by Koreans (who happen to have 1Gbps connections), they took third-world country connections into utmost consideration. The game doesn’t need much bandwidth so playing was very smooth and almost lag-free.
Quick Impressions: Creating a player was quite straightforward. After selecting a preset, we were just asked to give our player a name. Then, we proceeded to tutorial with… Lebron James. (I was kinda hoping to play my first game and tutorial with Stephen Curry, eh.). The tutorial highlights the keyboard as primary controls, but it allowed us to play the game using the Xbox One controller.
Quick Impressions: The looping “We’re playing basketball” song got me so annoyed I wanted to turn it off, but I got so engaged with a little skirmish with Jordan and Lebron. Yes, I played a 2 on 2 game with these 2 basketball icons, and they weren’t that good on NBA2K Online.
Quick Impressions: After passing the tutorial and quick game with Lebron and Jordan, my Korean-looking character was drafted to Orlando Magic.
Quick Impressions: NBA players on this game are super nerfed. Our team finished and won the game with the score of 34-8. There were repetitive and delayed commentaries. I also noticed some weird angles and post-shot highlight scenes. I was super OP during the game. I finished the game as MVP, with more than 14 points.
[su_button url=”https://www.nba2konline.ph” target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#02b000″ size=”10″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” icon=”icon: list-alt”]Download and Play the Game now for Free[/su_button]
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
