The NBA free agency period began this week, signaling the time of year where players whose contracts have expired can negotiate with any team in the league. Naturally, this can lead some teams into championship contention -- and make others bottom feeders. But for those fans whose teams are still on the outside looking in -- shoutout to the other Lakers fans out there -- there's another way to pursue a championship, even during the NBA offseason.

Yes, the virtual hardwood of NBA 2K16 offers a much faster opportunity to drive your favorite team all the way to the Larry O'Brien trophy, and the fantasy draft can make it even faster. This guide will give you a general overview of how to use the fantasy draft in NBA 2K16's MyLeague mode to make your favorite team a title contender not only for one season, but hopefully many seasons to come.

Running the "Triangle": Three Keys to Victory

In this guide, I'm going to focus on three main principles that seem to be most effective for building a contender quickly through the fantasy draft. In truth, they aren't much different from what real-life NBA front offices consider when constructing their teams. Those three principles are team identity, roster balance, and cost-effectiveness.

Along the way, I'm going to use a championship-winning team of mine as an example. I chose the Lakers, and opted for a serpentine fantasy draft instead of fixed order; a serpentine draft inverts the order each round, which I thought would introduce a sense of fairness if I was to win a high pick. In other words, if you pick first overall in the first round, you'll pick 30th in the second, first again in the third, and so on. I did not set the draft order beforehand, and to further test the strength of my drafting, I set the difficulty to Hall of Fame with full 12-minute quarters, then simulated through the whole season and the playoffs. In the end, their record was 55-27, and they won the Finals in 6 over the Charlotte Hornets.

Team Identity

Having a vision for what kind of team you want to build heading into the draft can make putting it together a much easier affair. In other words, do you want to ran a "pace and space" offense, similar to the Golden State Warriors, a slower, more interior-dominated approach, like the Memphis Grizzlies' "grit 'n grind" mentality of the past few years, or something in between?

Which team you choose may influence your decision. Each head coach is suited to run a certain style, like their real-life counterparts, so you may find it easier to build in accordance with their preferences. Or, perhaps you want to change your favorite team's mentality entirely -- the choice is entirely up to you! Just bear in mind that you may have to make coaching changes to make the system click.

Having a firm idea of your team's ideal identity is probably most important in the later rounds, when the best players have been chosen and you're looking for players to fill out the bench. So many players have almost equal ratings, so understanding what skills you are looking for can make choosing between them much less difficult. If you envision a strong, gritty defensive team, you may prioritize signing someone like Tony Allen in lieu of Jamal Crawford, for example. Or if you see your team as a youth movement built to win for many years in the future, you may pass on established veterans, looking for so-called "diamonds in the rough." 

As luck would have it, my team won the first overall pick -- again, entirely by luck, and not by any choice on my part -- and I opted for Stephen Curry, the eventual Finals MVP. I had decided to build an athletic squad with lots of shooting, essentially copying the style used in Golden State (which is probably coming to L.A. next year under new coach Luke Walton). To suck defenders into the paint and thus open up clean looks behind the three-point line, I wanted a superior inside presence, and subsequently chose Marc Gasol with my second pick. I continued adding strong shooters who doubled as good defenders, as you'll see below:

My starting lineup, Curry-Matthews-Batum-Patterson-Gasol, is reflective of the kind of identity I wanted to build for my team: fast, and deadly accurate from all over the court. With all of that tremendous offensive firepower in the lineup, I built a bench full of versatile players, prioritizing defense over scoring so that I had a flexible roster capable of adapting to the situation. Iguodala and Allen, in particular, made the team for their defense above all else, and I compensated by adding a few proven scorers as well, as you can see here:

Brendan Wright is a better interior scorer than Bogut, Augustin and Frye are scorers, and James Young was an upside pick at only 20 years old, for flexibility later on down the road. Once again, choosing players is easier when you have a specific team identity in mind, and with the right focus, you can build a contender no matter where you pick. In other attempts, for example, I drafted 19th every odd round and 11th every even one, and could only select Jimmy Butler for my best player. Even so, the team still won 52 games and made the Finals, losing to Brooklyn (!) in a tight series. Again, a strong identity and adherence to that vision are key to smartly building a competitive team.

Roster Balance

Another factor to consider carefully while drafting through each of the 13 rounds is the balance of your roster. In other words, bear in mind the strengths and weaknesses of the players you have chosen, and also the depth you currently have at each position. With 15 roster spots available, it's possible to have 3 players at each of the 5 positions, and I would recommend doing so to guard against the uncertainty of injuries.

If you follow this formula and draft only three players at each position, you'll have two positions with one roster spot open each for free agents. You may find it easier, therefore, to draft three players at the three weakest positions on your team. In other words, if you draft Russell Westbrook, you may find it best to select a strong backup point guard, and then focus on signing players at positions where you have less talent, rather than signing the three best point guards on the market.

This advice might sound obvious, but the fantasy draft can be intoxicating. It's tempting to build a ludicrous All-Star team of the best guards in the league, but this team likely won't fare as well as a well-balanced and thoughtfully constructed one. Sometimes it's worth it to pass on adding another player to a loaded position, no matter who they are, in order to fill a position of need.

Depending on the kind of team you're building, you may also want to consider the ages of the players you're signing. Looking back on my roster, I noticed that I drafted a more veteran roster than I originally intended. Perhaps as a result, the team faced a great number of injuries in the playoffs, which almost derailed their run in the second round against Portland, a series that went the full seven games (as you can see above). Another regret of mine is that I had literally no cap space to sign free agents to fill out the roster, leading to my third point of emphasis.

Cost-Effectiveness

If you find yourself in a situation where your roster is a year or more away from being a contender--if you land a particularly high draft pick in a fixed draft, for example--this might be the most important factor to consider. And even if you land the first overall pick, you'll still want to consider the economic situation of your team before each and every selection, to maximize cap flexibility for the first season, and all the ones to come.

As I said above, my example team had no money to fill out the other two roster spots, leaving it at the mercy of any injuries that might occur. If one of the key players had missed long chunks of the season due to injury, there wouldn't have been many answers to fill their place, and the team's record would have suffered mightily as a result.

It's important to remember that when you draft a player in the fantasy draft, you inherent their contract. This means that you can put together rosters that wouldn't normally be possible -- perhaps ones like mine -- but doing so can leave you in a perilous position with regards to the cap and the luxury tax threshold. So after you splurge on your franchise cornerstones, you should think carefully about how you spend the rest of your money.

If you are stuck between several players at one position with almost identical ratings, you should consider what kind of team you are trying to construct. If you want a team that will win more in the future than in the short-term, you might consider drafting a younger, less-talented player, particularly if the disparity in skill isn't egregious and the younger player comes cheaper. Likewise, if you want the ultimate win-now roster, you might prefer to draft aging veterans on more friendly contracts rather than the young studs entering their primes. Once again, having a firm understanding of your ideal team identity and the balance of your roster will make these decisions much easier.

Now It's Your Turn!

In summary, approaching the fantasy draft in a manner similar to real-life NBA teams can have enormous benefits. It can be tempting to jump into the fantasy draft in NBA 2K16 and try to build the next "dream team," but using a little bit of careful planning can make the difference between championship contender and lottery team. By focusing on a specific team identity, keeping in mind the roster's balance and depth, and monitoring the cost-effectiveness of each of your draft selections, you'll come one step closer to leading your favorite team to the NBA championship.

In honor of the NBA Finals and the fact that NBA 2K16 is one of the PS4 free games of the month, I have decided to outline how to create the perfect point guard in MyCareer mode. For those of you who want to pour in 50 points a game and never pass, skip to the last point. For those of you who care about everything other than scoring, I urge you to read on.

Creating the Perfect Point Guard

When creating your point guard, keep in mind that you are playing basketball. You want to be long and tall. Your height should be anywhere from 6’3 to 6’5, and your arm length should be AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. Keeping your arms as long as possible will help you on defense when you would like to accumulate a few more steals. It also helps you lock odwn when defending the perimeter along with getting blocks. If there is one satisfying thing about playing NBA 2K games, it is stuffing your opposition. So make your player tall and make him have abnormally long arms, then you will be on your way.

Favor Shooting and Defense at first, then get balanced

There is nothing more important than shooting the basketball and playing defense. Everything else is second to 1A and 1B. The 6 attributes you can upgrade in NBA 2K16 are Jump Shooter, Inside Scorer, Athlete, Playmaker, Rebounder and Defender. You should completely ignore Inside Scorer because even if you are a taller point guard, you will not be dunking on anyone. You also should pretty much ignore Rebounder, not because rebounding isn’t important but because you can already rebound pretty well from the start so it is not necessary. Jump Shooter and Defender should be your main focus at first. Once those are at a level you are comfortable with, start working in some Athlete and Playmaker attributes -- then you will be well on your way to dominating the hardwood.

Use screens to rack up assists

No matter what team you are on, you should utilize the pick and roll. Calling for a screen will allow you to get your defender off of you and should open up either an open shot for you or an open shot for your teammate who just set the pick. This allows you to rack up assists. As a point guard, you owe it to your team to be the floor general and make plays so your first preference should be to find a good open shot and take it. Whether it is you or a teammate taking that shot is what you will have to learn. It does not work all of the time, but the pick and roll is an easy way to get assists along with a high teammate grade.

Ignore the coach

Sheesh, I understand 2K games wants to make a basketball simulation that is as real as possible but this is a terrible mechanic. The coach will offer you some advice and a game plan for you to follow. Don’t follow the advice. You will make too many mistakes trying to tailor your game to the coach's liking and that will lead to poor performance. Instead, do what works for you.

If you can pick and roll effectively and get rebounds while running the fast break, then do it. If you are making all of your shots then look for your shot. The coach, to put it lightly, is just not important. Care about your teammate grade and care about your stats and the scoreboard but don’t care about what your coach thinks of you. (Shame on you 2K for trying to pigeon hole gamers into playing a style they don’t want to abide to.)

For the scorers, change the difficulty

If you simply wish to pour in 80 points a game with no regard for human life, then change your difficulty to rookie and rack up the points. Heck, maybe even change the quarter length from 6 minutes to 8 or 20. You will be challenging Wilt Chamberlain's scoring mark in no time.

Baller Status

With these simple tactics, you will be on your way to creating the most dominant point guard in the game. Not only will you be a solid teammate and a future star, but your point guard will also be able to perform well in MyPark. Follow these guidelines and you will be on your way to super stardom: 

• Make your PG tall and long
• Favor Jump Shooter and Defender
• Ignore Inside Shooter and Rebounder
• Ignore the Coach
• For the scorers, lower the difficulty

There you have it, you are now a baller and can lay claim to the NBA crown. Your Point Guard will be an all-around machine if you follow these guidelines. Be sure to pick up NBA 2K16 for free on the PlayStation store right now. NBA 2K16 is available for PS4, PC and Xbox One.

Just prior to the NBA 2K16 "Road To The Finals" championship game, 2K Games announced that Indiana Pacers forward Paul George will be the cover athlete for the regular edition of NBA 2K17. Newly retired Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, as previously announced, will be on the cover of the $69.99 Legend Edition of the game, which will include both physical and digital Kobe-related items.

Not long after breaking his leg in an exhibition game for the USA national team in 2014, George had a career year for the Pacers, averaging 23 points a game, along with 7 rebounds and 4 assists. He also scored a game-high 41 points in the 2016 NBA All-Star Game in Toronto, Canada, one shy from tying Wilt Chamberlain for the all-time record. His Pacers were eliminated by the Toronto Raptors in Game 7 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. George also made an appearance in the "Legends Live On" trailer announcing the Legend Edition of the game, which you can view above.

No official release date for NBA 2K17 has been announced yet, but the game is expected to be released in late September.

Sony has announced this month's free PlayStation Plus games, and they are quality choices. The first game for the PlayStation 4 is NBA 2K16.  Released just in time for the NBA Finals (which begin on Thursday), 2K16 is one of the best entries in the NBA 2K franchise to date, including modes such as MyGM, MyCareer, and MyTeam for the ultimate virtual basketball (and arguably sports game) experience. The second game is Gone Home: Console Edition. Greg Lewickyj, Sony's PlayStation Plus Content Partnership Manager, praises the first-person action-adventure game as an "intimate and unique story." 

The other Sony platforms haven't been left out, either. The first free game for the PlayStation 3 is Echochrome, an interesting puzzle game with hand-drawn aesthetics built around the five "perspective laws," such as the "perspective landing" and the "perspective jump." The second title is the horror game Siren: Blood Curse (Episodes 1-12). Meanwhile, PS Vita users will receive the gory God of War: Chains of Olympus and Little Deviants, a game where players navigate a cute, cartoon ball character along courses filled with obstacles and threats.

With the long months of summer beckoning on the horizon, this is a good opportunity for PlayStation users to grab some great games for free!

It's no secret that NBA 2K16 is a few leagues ahead of all other basketball sims. From the character models and mechanics, to customization options and games modes, 2K16 offers the most realistic basketball experience of any game. This realism also brings more depth to the game.

Understanding both video game and basketball mechanics will really push your level up on this game. Here are some tips and suggestions to improve your game even further.

Understand the meter

The meter is simple. It starts when you press the shot button, the goal is to release as close to the center as possible. The game will let you know when you release a little too early or too late. Perfectly timing a release will make the meter flash and glow green for a few moments.

But don't depend on it

The shot meter hasn't added any new mechanics -- it only opens them up to players. By showing how shooting works, players more easily grasp the concept and have something to follow. Shooting mechanics have't changed much since 2K14.

Game Director Mike Wang revealed the secret to shooting perfectly almost every time:

“We didn’t really change the fundamental way the shot system worked. The shot meter was just a better way to visualize what was [already] happening.”

His advice for attaining a green release regularly? Don't look at the meter. The secret is watching the character animations during a shot. A jump shot is usually released at the apex of the jump. Every character is a little different. Practicing when you release with each character will help your game. Try shooting with players who take iconic shots -- Michael Jordan and Stephen Curry are good examples.

Master defense while on ball

The left analog stick controls your movements around the court while the right controls your more precise movements. When you're on defense, the right stick can be used in several ways. Just flicking the stick will cause your player to quickly shuffle with his shoulders squared to the net. Stopping most offense plays can be as simple as a quick analog flick. 

While on ball, the right stick is your best friend. Use it to pull off all your high-level maneuvers. Cross up by flicking back and forth, or double tap in a direction to change direction. Learning to break the defense will help you set up shots better. Play around with the right stick and find maneuvers that you can deliver on the fly.

Other tips

Change camera angle 

While the default option is reminiscent of live broadcasts, you actually can't see the full court this way. There are a few options to chose from, but try playing with the camera to the possession team's back.

Change up the controls 

Most players map shooting to square/X exclusively. This frees the right analog for more precise offense and defense. If you feel more comfortable with a control somewhere else on the controller, don't worry about changing it up.

Don't be intimidated by 2K16. You really won't win your first few games. But learning from these losses is the only way this game will open up to you.

According to the NPD Group, Halo 5: Guardians was the best selling video game in the month of October. This doesn't come as a great surprise, with Halo 5 being the biggest AAA title released that month.

Halo 5 managed to beat out NBA 2K16, Madden NFL 16 and Assassin's Creed Syndicate, among other titles.

Halo 5: Guardians also managed to help sell the Xbox One, making it the best selling console of October in the U.S.

With November signaling big releases like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, and Fallout 4, it will be interesting to see not only the software numbers, but how they effect the sales of hardware.

A lot of AAA games are coming out this month, so be sure to stay here at Gameskinny for all of your video game coverage. 

For now, let me know in the comments what your favorite game from October was.

For me, every end of September means one thing: I have to buy NBA 2K. What has me hooked on this game is not necessarily competing with others online, but it's what 2K Sports provides in single-player content.

As you have probably noticed, my profile picture is of MyPlayer. NBA 2K16 has done what almost all other games haven't been able to do, in terms of immersion. This draws me into the game so much more, as I'm able to see the digital version of myself. While the real-life me isn't a basketball god, playing MyCareer lets me live that fantasy.

However, my favorite mode has to be MyGM. I don't see to many people on social media play this mode for their videos, but I think it is one of the best game modes for a litany of reasons. The first being customization. Before you even get started, you can customize the NBA any way you want. If that means replacing the current Raptors for the 2000 Raptors with Vince Carter, you can do that. Being able to pit LeBron James versus Michael Jordan in the playoffs is something of fantasy, yet NBA 2K16 makes it a reality. 

Another feature MyGM has that makes it enjoyably re-playable is the variation between success and failure. When taking over a team, many things could happen. Players want to be traded, players get hurt, your team owner is on the verge of firing you. Being able to adapt to these events is something that keeps me on my toes and wanting more.

To be honest, by the time summer rolls around and the NBA season is over, I will still be on NBA 2K16, building the best team to face all of the mega-teams. 

Spike Lee's marketed addition to NBA 2K16 is Livin' da Dream, a narrative which drapes over the first season of My Player mode. It's the conceptually interesting “game within a game,” which then succumbs to naivety and forcefulness.

Though Lee's name is prominent, Livin' da Dream carries but a pittance of his perceptual social consciousness. Lee has examined basketball’s power for the underprivileged in 1998's He Got Game. Here in NBA 2K16, Lee appears overwhelmed by the chosen medium's bevy of restrictions. Lee's identifying work – typically commentary on current ethnic social roles – is swamped by thick exposition and scenes which appear disconnected from one another. Time constraints within yearly sports development appear to have left a multitude of key events dropped from this story.

What's left references critical character moments without context, ideas without weight, and images that are invisible. Role playing as talented high school standout/NBA prospect Frequency Vibrations – or Freq (“Freak”) - Livin' da Dream unfurls a personal life steeped with connections to a Harlem upbringing. Little of the circumstances are seen, rather spoken, leaving this visual media without visuals.

Metaphorically Speaking

Lee isn't drawing on racial experience; he's drawing atrocious, even spiteful racial bias...

What does appear is something inherently phony and dishonest, punctured by racial caricatures. The white team owner performs an embarrassing mimic of street culture as he discusses Bloomberg and stock markets – an inexcusably broadly drawn, oblivious 1% villain who demands Freq break from his projects-locked brotherhood with childhood friend Vic. Lee isn't drawing on racial experience; he's drawing atrocious, even spiteful racial bias based on America's fair discontent with income inequality. Lee's contrast of life in the projects to a multi-million dollar office space thus feels counterfeit.

Livin' da Dream's story leans on poverty while NBA 2K16's overlapping exterior begs for microtransaction dollars to make Freq a better player.

The dichotomy is gross, more so than it has been in NBA 2K's prior years. As Livin' da Dream lambastes the narcissism abundant in wealth, it's espousing financially beneficial features.

Money is literally making the player, contextual hypocrisy seeming too impossible to be real. Don't pay, and Freq's slow leveling makes him a role player. His numbers will sag below those of starting positions, even though dialog builds Freq toward superstar status. At six points a game, Freq earns a high dollar shoe deal. It's hardly sensible context.

The idea within is novel. Kevin Harlan and the commentating crew handle some background exposition during played games - a sports movie cliché, which here integrates gameplay. How often they pinpoint and focus on Freq is odd. Still, this is better execution than characters spilling personal family history to one another, the perpetual method of choice in non-interactive segments.

Forward Thinking

If sports simulations are in dire need of a feature refresh, the potential in a single player story can be a solution. Mimicking or besting the predictable power of sports cinema available in Hoosiers, Miracle, or Rudy would be sublime. Bravery in using sports as a life metaphor properly - Remember the Titans - would lend the genre credence outside of the closed sim community.

Livin' da Dream is not it, yet attempting this form of narrative as opposed to hokey “life sims” may have merit long term.

NBA 2K captures moments of sports unpredictability as well as Sony's MLB: The Show.

Certainly, NBA 2K16 has blossomed into an interactive basketball dreamscape whose feature set is so wide, little else is left to discover. Presentation work is best-in-genre. Better physics in 2015 expand on-the-ball movement potential. Attention to minutiae is marvelous. NBA 2K captures moments of sports unpredictability as well as Sony's MLB: The Show. Awkward fist bumps at the free throw line, crowds waving distracting face cut-outs, wild loose-ball plays, individual player motions; NBA 2K16 misses little. The two duel for “best of” monikers as EA's NHL begins to creep into their ranks.

Then NBA 2K's infuriating, turbulent server status act as a reminder of how everything is imperfect, made worse when Livin' da Dream can be rendered unplayable when servers fall off.

It's a cyclical fault 2K has never addressed while building on their feature-stuffed core. Now there's a story which can sometimes be played based on the whims of technology. Worse, the fix is a matter of cutting loose the microtransaction Virtual Currency. NBA 2K is persistent about saving digital dollars server side. It's absurd, and it shows an ironic feebleness to Spike Lee's allegory. Money always wins.

The immersiveness of NBA 2K16 continues to grow with further details of its in-game studio show. In addition to Ernie Johnson and Shaw, Kenny Smith is joining the program this year, leaving Charles Barkley as the odd man out. He'll still be missed (there's always hope for next year), but it's another nice step toward bridging the gap between video game and TV broadcast.

Part of what makes TNT's team the best sports studio show is the chemistry that the broadcasters have with each other. It's a very lighthearted set, with a lot of ribbing, practical joking, and sometimes very little sense being made. The preview video that was just released seems to show that most of this chemistry made the transition. 

While the generic statements present in all sports video games are there, the banter around it seems much more genuine and off-the-cuff. This (potentially) unscripted commentary is where the true charm of the show lies, and its abundance will really determine how successful the interludes are, or if players will be left wanting to skip them. So far, they seem entertaining.

If only the same amount of effort had gone into the graphics, which look straight out of 2007. You know it's Kenny, Ernie, and Shaq, but boy, it could use some work. 

Overall, the nature of the show itself seems to have been captured, which is more important. We'll have to wait until the game's release on September 29th to see if it's more than just a cute novelty.

I’m going to start out by saying that I can’t stand basketball. It’s my least favorite of all the major sports, and I like it less than a lot of minor sports too. With that said, I absolutely cannot wait for NBA 2K16, because NBA 2K has an element of sports games that others seem to be missing.

The Video Game Experience

Video games in general are about letting you live vicariously. In the same way we read books or watch movies to take us into a different world, video games allow us to do that to an even greater extent. So, while sports will always be about winning, the development of sports entertainment in real life has turned sports into more than just the game.

The Athlete Experience

This is what NBA 2K understands with its MyCareer mode: the athlete experience is about more than just playing and winning. For fans of beleaguered franchises, sports games have always been the one place where the Browns could win the Super Bowl, or the Pirates the World Series. Yet who among us hasn’t dreamed of not only taking our favorite team to the promised land, but being “the guy” who comes in and saves the franchise? This is an element most sports games lack. Sure, you can create a player, controlling only him, but for the most part, within the world of the game, you don’t exist in any further context. You can pretend that you’re “the guy,” but the game’s not going to acknowledge it.

Sports journalism has exploded in the last decade, to the point where everything from scouting combines, to drafts, to dumb tweets are news. There will be reports on which athlete signed with which sponsor. It's not hard to find out who's dating who or what club they went to last night. Fame has always been part of being an athlete, but now it's inseparable. You'll be remembered for what you did off the field as much as what you did on it.

What NBA 2K has done is acknowledge that filling the virtual shoes of an athlete includes these elements as well. No real athlete’s life exists in a vacuum anymore, as your relationships with your teammates, off-field decisions, personal beliefs, and general rumors about you all a part of the sports media news cycle. Players become as known for their personalities as they do for their athletic accomplishments. When you play MyCareer, you get a taste of this. Teammates give you guidance, coaches yell at you, your agent is eccentric, the media asks dumb questions, and you get shoe deals, much like athletes in real life.

The Whole Package

I won’t pretend that studios should drop everything and put their effort into this. Online gameplay has become the bread-and-butter of sports games, because, after all, it’s still first and foremost about winning. Beating the CPU is only so fun for so long. Bragging rights will always be a part of winning, and owning those rights over your friends is way sweet.

That doesn’t mean the single-player experience can’t also be great. Creating an environment in which an individual thrives, and is acknowledged for thriving, goes a long way toward fleshing out the game. Being in the green room on draft day, interacting with teammates, getting that contract - they all make playing more fun. 

By hiring Spike Lee to direct MyCareer, 2K has shown its dedication to providing the player with as in-depth a career mode as possible. The biggest challenge is creating a world you exist in without dictating your moves. It's still about giving you control, but it's also about acknowledging that you're only a part of the world you play in. NBA 2K has given no indications that this is too tall of a task, if previous iterations are any indication.

Follow 2K's Example

Being a superstar athlete is about more than just playing the sport, and since a statistically insignificant number of us will ever be able to live out that fantasy, a video game that lets us experience something similar is the next best thing. 2K gives you this opportunity. It's time for other sports games to step up.

NBA 2K16 comes out September 29th.

On September 2nd, the Gamestop EXPO 2015 will take place at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. There will be tournaments, many games to try out, and tons of celebrites to meet and acquire autographs from.

You can try out your favorite games and meet the people behind or in those games such as Hajime Tabata, director of Final Fantasy XV and Tomohiro Hasegawa, art director of the very same game. There will also be other celebrities such as WWE superstar, Dean Ambrose and Robert Harry, a seven-time NBA champion. If it's your dream to meet these guys, your chance has arisen.

There will be many more to accompany you during your journey in the upcoming expo and they'll all be there during certain timeframes or days. To meet the aformentioned directors of Final Fantasy XV, you'll have to be there at 10AM PDT. Fans will surely love to take some selfies with their favorite directors, celebrities, and other famous people in their eyes. Of course, you'll be able to play multiple games such as NBA 2K16 and join in tournaments for games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros.

You can check out who else is joining the expo party on the official site.

Since the grand announcements this summer, many gamers have been awaiting a peek at the most anticipated games: Super Mario Maker, Rainbow Six Siege, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Now they can at GameStop Expo 2015 in Las Vegas, NV at Sands Expo & Convention Center. GameStop Expo is open and broadcasting on September 2nd only.

If you haven't gotten a chance yet or just don't plan to buy any of the limited tickets, then you have nothing to worry about. While you won't be on the floor, GameStop Expo will be hosting a live stream service for all of these games among others, including the Street Fighter V Tournament online. Broadcasts will be streaming on this one-day event on Twitch and Youtube.

2015 GameStop Expo Broadcast Schedule

• 10 AM -- Introduction
• 10:15 AM -- Make-A-Wish / St. Jude segment
• 10:30 AM -- Super Mario Maker
• 10:45 AM -- Rock Band 4
• 11:00 AM -- Battleborn with special guest Randy Pitchford
• 11:15 AM -- Assassins' Creed Syndicate
• 11:30 AM -- Rainbow Six Siege
• 11:45 AM -- Alekhine's Gun & Lichdom: Battlemage
• 12:00 PM -- Xbox One games and hardware
• 12:15 PM -- NBA 2K16
• 12:30 PM -- Little Orbit games
• 12:45 PM -- Mega Man Legacy Collection
• 1:00 PM -- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
• 1:30 PM -- "Square Enix Title"
• 1:45 PM -- Street Fighter V overview
• 2:00 PM -- Street Fighter V tournament
• 2:30 PM -- Street Fighter V tournament
• 3:00 PM -- "Square Enix Title"
• 3:15 PM -- "Square Enix Title"
• 3:30 - 4:15 PM -- The Game Informer Show--October cover reveal
• 4:30 PM -- Disney Infinity 3.0
• 4:45 PM -- EA

If you do plan on going to GameStop Expo next month, General Admission tickets are currently $40 ($50 after Aug 15) and VIP Admission tickets are currently $110 ($125 after Aug 15). For students, Student Admission tickets are $20.

A full schedule for both admissions are available on the GameStop Expo website, as well as travel guides, what to do in Las Vegas, and times doors open for special tickets. Attendees will get exclusive access to play games not available on the broadcast. 

Once again, GameStop Expo is only open September 2nd. 

Header Image Source: Gamestop.com

Take-Two Interactive announced on Friday that film director Spike Lee will be writing and directing this year's MyCAREER mode in the upcoming edition of the NBA 2K franchise.

Film directors don't tend to fair well making the transition to video games, but it's hard to argue that Spike Lee isn't uniquely suited to write a story for a game about basketball. He directed the 1998 film He Got Game that centered around the sport (even starring a young Ray Allen, who would go on to become a ten time NBA All-Star) and is a constant presence courtside when the New York Knicks are playing at home.

According to Spike Lee, the partnership with NBA 2K16 is an opportunity to challenge himself.

"Partnering with legendary 2K and Visual Concepts is one of the most unique challenges I've had in filmmaking, and allows me to push the boundaries of innovative storytelling. My hope is fans will feel even more connected to the world of basketball in NBA 2K16."

Take-Two Interactive also took the opportunity to reveal the three different covers that will release with the game, each one including a different NBA All-Star. The covers, featuring Houston Rockets' James Harden, Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry, and New Orleans Pelicans' Anthony Davis, all have images that detail key moments of their careers to highlight the focus on Spike Lee's MyCAREER mode. You can view the covers for yourself here.

There are no details yet on what we'll see in the MyCAREER mode other than it will be "paralleling Curry, Harden and Davis' path to stardom" and it will feature both "on and off court drama." NBA 2K16 will be released September 29th.