X-Play Brings EA Sports NBA Street Online
Electronic Arts, Inc.– renowned for developing interactive entertainment software, such as the Sims and NBA Live—and I-Play Online Games Incorporated (X-Play)—a joint venture of IP e-Games Ventures Inc. and GMA New Media Inc.—announced that X-Play will be bringing in the highly anticipated EA Sports title NBA Street Online.
NBA Street Online is an action-packed mid-session game of the Filipino’s favorite sport: basketball. Unlike NBA Live or any other similar titles, NBA Street Online offers no-holds-barred match-ups among today’s NBA superstars, rendered in high detail. The game is currently being launched in the Asia-Pacific region, with the Philippines being one of the first countries to play.
“NBA Street Online brings to the market the online version of a very popular sport enjoyed by millions of Filipino basketball enthusiasts. Who wouldn’t want to be Kobe, Lebron, or Melo? And who wouldn’t want to pit his basketball skills against the next guy—never mind that it’s virtual. It’s exciting enough that it’s EA Sports. Having already the top casual games in the dance and music genres under X-Play’s belt, I have no doubt that X-Play will take gaming on to the next level with NBA Street Online,” remarked Judd Gallares, President and COO of GMA New Media Inc.
The game will be free-to-play, as with most of e-Games’ current titles, and will have an item mall where players purchase accessories, outfits, avatar customizations, and consumable items to help their characters level up.
NBA Street Online is room-based, with up to six players duking it out in a no-rules basketball match. A lineup of 120 NBA superstars are available for the players to recruit to their team. As the game progresses, characters perform Matrix-style tricks and gravity-defying dunks, not just once but sometimes with a combo of two successive dunks, without touching the floor—these would make even the non-NBA enthusiast’s jaw drop.
Game controls are simple enough. The arrow keys control your character’s movement, with the W, S, A, and D keys acting as commands which are push (the opponent), pass, steal, and dunk. Jace Yang, Line Producer for NBA Street Online, stated that there will be support for game pads or other input devices. Players will be able to have the feel of a console game while playing their next favorite online game.
Skills increase as each character levels up, making each character as unique as the individual who created him. An extensive skill tree would allow skill customization, with the player in direct control of his or her character’s growth.
A notable feature of the game is its incredible AI, which takes over a player when he or she disconnects from the server. With this, matches do not stop due to intermittent connections or hardware failure.
The game would function normally with the following technical specifications:
3.0 Ghz Processor
512 MB RAM
Nvidia GEforce 6600
112 Kbps
The installer is currently at 800 MB, which is relatively small when you’ve seen the mind-bending graphics.
The Philippines should prepare to be taken by storm once NBA Street Online goes online later this year.
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