http://store.steampowered.com/app/339610





I've been playing Freestyle (1) for 7 long years.

Ever since it first came out in 2006 (published by Activision), the game has had issues maintaining a good population due to lack of advertising and support from the foreign developers (JCE).

That's all hopefully going to change now that it has been released on Steam. It's a shame how we had to wait so many years for this because this is one of the most competitive games in the world.

Everybody who plays this game strives to ultimately be the best, and it's a team game so you have to find 2 other players who share the same mindset as you and want to be the best just as bad as you are.

A lot of this game consists of managing egos of not only your rivals, but your teammates also.
There is only one ball in the game of basketball, and scoring is only one part of it.
You have to have a good overall team that can not only score, but rebound, defend, block, steal, and pass at the right times.

This game is all about customization and making your player unique. There is a big item shop in the game that allows you to buy headgear,tops,bottoms, shoes, and accesories to make your baller look unique.

There are also Freestyles that allow you to change basic animations like dunks and shots so you can turn your simple one handed dunk in to a crazy 360 between the legs dunk!

Then you have your skills. Skills are new animations and upgrades you unlock through leveling your character.
Skills are the most important part of the game since they give really useful animations like diving for the ball or fading away.

When you first start the game and you go in to Rookies, you will be playing versus new players such as yourself who are also learning the game and it will be a cake walk for those who learn faster than others.

Beware though, there is a huge learning curve when you reach the big leagues (PRO Channel).
People do NOT like losing in Pros because it will result in their win % going down and the person that beat you having proof of them beating you.

I was never a guy to make many friends on this game, in fact I made a lot more enemies than I did friends and I am very hated but my advice to you new players is, make some friends before you reach Pros.

Try your hardest to communicate and socialize, post on the forums. MAKE FRIENDS. You do not want to be that "random" "unknown" person in Pros because nobody knows you and you will be kicked out of teams that have good players when you try to join because they simply don't know you.

You will be stuck on the "Noob Treadmill". That means you will be stuck playing only with players who are really bad and don't care who they play with, and other unknown players like you are which means you will lose A LOT and people will never see you as good.

So make friends before you get to pros! Get your name out there.