Kobe Bryant Featured on NBA 2K17 Legend Edition Cover
Every year, 2K and Visual Concepts somehow manage to make each iteration of their NBA 2K series bigger and better than the previous year. With no gameplay mechanics or other features yet announced, 2K has already announced the cover athlete for their special Legend Edition of their basketball series. The legend to grace the cover is none other than the recently retired Los Angeles Laker, Kobe Bryant.
“It’s a great honor to partner with 2K on the NBA 2K17 Legend Edition ,” said Kobe Bryant, who retired last night after a twenty year-long career in the NBA. “As I walk off the NBA court for the final time, it’s exciting to know my fans can continue to celebrate my lifelong career as a Los Angeles Laker.”
If players pre-order the Legend Edition, they will get physical and digital bonus content. The physical items for pre-ordering the game include a “limited edition” Kobe Bryant poster, two “Kobe Panini” playing cards, and a Black Mamba controller skin for the respective console.
Digitally, players will get 30,000 “Virtual Currency,” and a MyTEAM Bundle, which includes three packs and a limited Kobe Bryant card. Along with the content to help in-game modes, some cosmetic content includes Nike Kobe 11 retirement shoes, “Kobe #8 Mitchell and Ness jersey,” a Kobe Bryant hoodie, and more to be announced.
Although a specific release date is not yet announced, 2K has announced that NBA 2K17 Legends Edition will be released for the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. The Standard Edition will be available for Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Windows PC in September 2016.
Rocket League Partners With eSports Companies & iD Tech
Rocket League developer Psyonix has partnered with eSports tournament host Electronic Sports League (ESL), American collegiate eSports league American Video Game League (AVGL), and online Rocket League community Rocket League Central (RLC). ESL features tournaments on an amateur level, which will attract casual players into eSports. RLC will host weekly tournaments, featuring Rocket Royales, which feature some of the best teams in the world, as well as other tournaments for anybody regardless of age or region. AVGL is similar to ESL, but is specific for collegiate gamers, and requires a university email address for registration.
Psyonix Competition & Events Manager Luke Thompson has announced that there will be more than $30,000 of prizes and scholarships awarded to Rocket League players. These partnerships are separate from the Rocket League Championship Series, which will kick off on April 30 for Playstation 4 and Steam users.
Along with a growing eSports community, Psyonix has focused on using Rocket League as an educational, and competitive, tool for young aspiring video game developers. Psyonix has announced a partnership with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) summer program iD Tech to announce Rocket League as the primary pre-teens ages 10-12 game for camp competitions.
iD Tech will implement Rocket League into 130 camps across the United States, across 30 states.
Psyonix Releases New Rocket League Patch
Even though Rocket League has received critical acclaim over the last year since its July 2015 release, like most (if not all) games released these days, there are constant updates required for balance and improvement. Psyonix released a patch on April 14, and although there are not a lot of updates, the ones involved in the patch are significant.
There were two major gameplay mechanic updates are included in the most recent patch. Psyonix has improved ball bouncing behavior, where the the ball would bounce in an unintended manner, especially on the Mad Max inspired “Wasteland” arena. Along with ball physics, there is improved behavior with several of the Battle-Cars interacting with each other. The final update, which does not affect gameplay, is just to note that Rocket League now has an “E” rating from the ESRB.
Rocket League is available now digitally (and soon physically) for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Steam.
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