‘Rocket League’ Hoops Slams Release Next Week With NBA DLC
Rocket League is bringing an all new mode to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC versions of the game next week that is coincidentally timed with the NBA Playoffs. We’ve enjoyed rocket car powered soccer and rocket car powered hockey. Now, it is time for rocket car powered basketball.
Tuesday, April 26, will see the debut of Rocket League Hoops to all the three platforms, per developer Psyonix. The new mode will be added to the game for free via an update scheduled to release that day. It will include an all new arena, appropriately titled “Dunk House,” where the net doubles as a ramp for players to launch their cars into the air and perform aerial moves. The floor of the new arena even squeaks just like a real NBA hardwood, according to a Reddit post from a Psyonix sound designer.
The free update to Rocket League will be accompanied by the release of the “NBA Flag Pack.” This officially licensed DLC comes with in-game flag logos for all 30 NBA teams. Fans will be able to represent their favorite team in-game as the playoffs ramp up to the NBA Championship for a price of $1.99.
The basketball twist definitely adds a new dynamic to Rocket League. Players will need a strong aerial game to compete and score baskets, based on the trailer that accompanied the announcements. The soccer and hockey variants naturally have their goals located on the ground, which makes ground shots viable. That’s not the case with Hoops mode, as all shots on goal will have to come through the air. It should make for some spectacular videos from a gaming community that is rife with spectacular scoring clips already.
In other Rocket League news, Goat Simulator antenna ornaments are coming later this month. Presumably, this will be another set of DLC included in the update planned for Tuesday. There will be two antenna featured. One is the G2 Robot Antenna, and the other is the goat itself from Goat Simulator.
The Goat Simulator addition to Rocket League is part of a cross-promotion between the two titles. Goat Simulator recently added a Rocket League game mode via the Payday DLC.
Next week’s update comes on the heels of an update delivered to the PS4 and PC last week. The 1.16 patch primarily addressed hitbox issues with the Rocket League cars, but also corrected some of the physics in the “Wasteland” Arena. There’s been no mention on when this patch will be released to the Xbox One. Psyonix previously stated the console would be brought up to parity with the other two platforms sometime this spring.
Here are the patch notes from the 1.16 Rocket League update.
- Improved Hitboxes for multiple vehicles to more accurately represent their models; specifically…
- Fixed Scarab and Grog’s hitboxes, which were not long enough
- Fixed Breakout and Hotshot’s hitboxes, which were not wide enough
- Fixed Batmobile and Breakout’s hitboxes, which were abnormally long
- Fixed Gizmo, Octane, Ripper, and Scarab’s hitboxes, which were too tall
- Fixed Dominus’ hitbox, which was not long or tall enough
- Repaired collision issues that resulted in incorrect ball-bounce behavior in some maps.
- Additionally, the “Wasteland” Arena received collision improvements to eliminate inaccurate bounces
- ESRB Rating has been lowered to “E” from “E10+” (this should just affect parental control settings)
[Image via Psyonix]
