You've read the fan fiction. You've speculated on the endless message board threads. You've played the demo over and over and over. Now, the day you've been waiting for is finally here. The full release of Tales of Game's Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden is now available for download.

We hope you've cleared the rest of your 2008, because the epic story of post-cyberpocalypse Neo New York in the wake of the great B-Ball purge of 2041 threatens to own the entirety of your existence for some time. We can't wait to find out the true nature of the chaos dunk and discover what the press release calls "a cavalcade of easter eggs, ranging from the mysterious to the unique." Hopefully by the time we're done finding them all, we'll be nearing the release of the implied second chapter of "the Hoopz Barkley SaGa." Hit the download link and check out the below trailer while you join us in waiting with bated breath.

Despite expectations to the contrary, the original NBA Ballers was actually a fairly decent arcade-style basketball game, provided you could get beyond all the ridiculous 'bling' and 'street cred' nonsense and just play ball. The sequel, on the other hand, plastered on an extra layer of stupid with a paper-thin story mode and more attitude than gameplay. So when Midway announced this morning plans to bring the series to the Xbox 360 and PS3 with NBA Ballers: Chosen One, we were understandably conflicted. However, the company's promise of a return to the series' one-on-one and two-on-two roots with no mention of story or street cred gives us reason enough to be less apathetic than we might be otherwise.

According to the publisher, nestled among the game's new shinier graphics, which Midway boasts as offering "the most true-to-life athlete likenesses seen in a sports video game," will also be new competitive combo and super-move systems that we expect to check realism at the door. In addition, this third game in the series will also include more than 65 selectable NBA players, as they compete to become "The Chosen One," which we're pretty certain is street lingo for some kind of religious awakening. NBA Ballers: Chosen One is expected to shoot for the net from mid-court next spring.

Who says mo-cap is the technical capturing of data to create realistic, fluid motion in gaming that's devoid of soul? Sports writer Bill "The Sports Guy" Simmons did a piece for ESPN's new show, E:60, wherein he heads to EA Sports studios to undergo the motion capture process for NBA Live 08. He even schools Boston Celtics all-star Paul "The Truth" Pierce in the process -- sorta.

While you might have seen mo-cap videos before, Simmons speaks candidly about the technology, observing that sweat makes the suit moist. TMI there, Bill. T-M-I.

As children, the entirety of what we knew about the game of basketball was gleaned from NBA Jam and Slam Dunk Ernest. As such, you can imagine our confusion when we played the new demo for NBA Live 08 now "hooping it up" as the kids say, on Xbox Live. We asked aloud, why is our head so small? Why does the ball never catch flame? Where is the angel version of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar bearing a pair of magical sneakers?

Sadly, NBA Live 08 seems to have little to do with real basketball, seeming to focus on "passing" and "shooting" mechanics rather than "fly towards the hoop for a dunk while making a sandwich in mid-air" mechanics. We hope you can still find some redeeming qualities.

Washington Wizards basketball player Gilbert Arenas may be getting the greatest gift a basketball player, who also happens to be a gamer, can get -- the cover to this year's NBA Live. According to the Washington Times the guard beat out LeBron James for the cover. Arenas had previously quipped last year during the hype to get a PS3 for launch that if he name dropped that he was LeBron James he'd have gotten a system early.

Sadly, Arenas tore his knee earlier this month and won't play the rest of the season. Well, while he recovers he can check out his picture on the cover of NBA Live and play with himself ... er, control himself in the game. Now that he's made the cover of NBA Live, if Arenas wants to get ambitious and show he's the true gamer/athlete he can pick up soccer and football to make the covers of FIFA and Madden over the next couple years.

[Via EvilAvatar]

Ever since 1994's Barkley: Shut Up and Jam revolutionized the world of two-on-two basketball games, fans everywhere have been clamoring for a sequel. Unfortunately, the fat cat game industry executives that control these things are sitting blind in their ivory towers, unaware of the massive marketing potential for a game endorsed by the Round Mound of Rebound in today's complex game market.

Enter homebrew developer Chef Boyardee, who stepped in where the rights-holders wouldn't to create Tales of Game's Studios Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa. The game takes everything you loved about Shut Up and Jam -- the pixelated graphics, the tinny sound, and, of course, Charles Barkley -- and puts it in a post-apocalyptic RPG world where basketball has been outlawed. This might require some adjustment for those expecting a straight-up, NBA Jam-style basketball game, but cameos from fan favorites Michael Jordan and Larry Bird will satisfy those nostalgic whims.

Download the demo from the Gaming World forums or watch the gripping trailer after the jump.

[Via The Independent Game Source]

First Newsweek's Stephen Levy alleges that Guitar Hero is "dumbing down musicianship," and now this. NPR commentator Kelly McBride recently aired her fears that Wii Sports is artificially inflating the self-esteem of her Wii-playing children.

According to McBride's logic, children used to effortless success with minimum effort in Wii Sports tennis will be frustrated when they pick up a real tennis racket and aren't immediately experts. She has a point -- mastering a video game simulation is often much easier than mastering the real world activity it mimics. Just ask a fighter pilot or a world leader.

But while the barriers to success are lower for many video games, the rewards for success are also lower. While schooling someone in virtual basketball might let you hear your opponent's moan of defeat over a headset, the real look of anguish when you take someone down in a hard-fought game of real basketball is infinitely more satisfying.

There's something about the physical exertion and human interaction of real sports that makes it compelling in a way that's totally different from sitting alone playing a video game. Even jumping around and playing Wii Sports with friends isn't quite as interesting as taking them on in a real sport (though it's often more practical). This is why paintball hasn't gone away even though Halo is popular and people continue to ski even when Alpine Racer might be available at a nearby arcade.

Sure, children will often be more interested in the instant gratification of a simple game than the complex rewards of real competition, but as they get older most mature adults will come to realize the importance of sticking with something and attaining new skills in the real world.

Video games aren't a replacement for real world activities. They never have been and they won't start to be now just because Nintendo lets you move your arms a bit while you play them.

NBA Street Homecourt pits your choice of more than 100 NBA stars -- and a half-dozen WNBA leaders -- against each other in three-on-three street games. The title references the players' favorite public courts, where the acrobatic games are set. We've seen these kinds of basketball titles before -- including the previous three NBA Street games -- but Homecourt uses a redesigned control scheme to set itself apart from previous versions.

Instead of memorizing one basketball trick per button -- or worse, a dozen tricks based on combinations of buttons -- the new controls map several moves to a single button. Homecourt reads the way you push a button, translating several kinds of presses into different tricks. I was confused at first, but after recently playing the title, I began to look forward to this style of game.

Keen eyes have spotted this careless passage published in the PlayStation 3 version of the NBA 2K7 instruction booklet: "Once you start feeling your heart rate pumping (via controller vibration), you'll be ready to begin! Shooting free throws in 24/7: NEXT is just like shooting free throws in a normal quick game" (page 15). The rumble citation is an amusing relic of pre-Sixaxis days when the manual's authors must have assumed (or were told) the final PS3 controller would feature a standard vibration function. Guess 2K Games didn't bother to hire a knowledgeable copy editor.

Please, let's not assume this means PS3 games have 'hidden' vibration features. A typo's a typo. And PS3 launch titles won't be a'rumblin.

[Thanks, Xenokai]

A group of NBA Live '07 fanboys have had enough of the series' annual increase in broken gameplay and have written a letter to EA expressing their displeasure. Although the focus of the letter is on NBA Live '07, with YouTube links showing the latest issues with the series, it touches on the general unhappiness with other declining EA franchises like Madden and FIFA. "At one time, EA was producing the best titles money could buy and one had little reason to look elsewhere. Now gamers have a sense that if you want the best, it's not EA."

And as an aside, more than a few eyebrows were raised when press copies and reviews of NBA Live '07 came trickling in a week after the game went on shelves, almost as if EA knew they produced a sub-par product. Hollywood employs this same tactic on bad movies so they can get as much money back before the word gets out how bad things really are.

Although the issues expressed by the fans of NBA Live '07 are positively valid, there is the alternative NBA 2K7 from 2K Games which was released the same day as NBA Live '07. This doesn't help Madden fans who experienced similar issues with Madden '07, but have no recourse because of EA's NFL exclusivity deal. In the case of Madden, EA also shows apparent ignorance toward reasonable proprosals by fans to fix the series.

It's certainly cause for concern that EA Sports is taking the "we'll patch it later" stance toward console games this early. This is the first generation capable of console patching and ideally should be used to fix subtle errors. Instead EA is following the PC model that console gamers have fled from: ship first, patch later. It's probably time for sports gamers to show consumer activism and take their money to other franchises. That'll get EA's attention faster than any letter.

Former Dukie and current Memphis Grizzlies Forward Shane Battier takes his games on the road. According to the March 13th edition of Sports Illustrated, his travel bag is stuffed with all sorts of gaming paraphernalia, including:

• Slim PS2: He tells SI, "Even with my PlayStation Portable, I carry this console with me. On games like Grand Theft Auto you want the larger screen experience. The problem is a lot of hotels use this LodgeNet movie system, which ties up the inputs where PlayStation cables should go. I have to get a cleaning lady to unlock it."
• Alienware laptop: "I have emulators loaded onto this, so I can replay games from my childhood. The biggest for me was Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. When I knocked out Mike for the first time, I must have been 10. None of my friends had beaten him. It was one of the greatest moments of my life."

This is a dude that's won all sorts of awards for his skills on the court (National Player of the Year, First-Team All-America, lead Duke to the national basketball championship) yet "one of the greatest moments of his life" was knocking out Mike Tyson before the rest of the kids on his block? A true gamer at heart!