Coping With the Lockout with NBA 2K12

Feature Article

Submitted on: 10/14/2011 by Thomas Surovy

Think the NBA Lockout is going to ruin your basketball gaming experience this fall? There are plenty of ways to hit the virtual courts while the owners and players argue about more money than any of us, even Steve, will ever see.

Look Around for Rosters

One of the side effects of the lockout is that the rookies for 2011-2012 are not in the default rosters in NBA 2K12. The rookies will be patched in as soon as an agreement is made, but for now we must survive with what we can get. For all of us Cavalier fans, who want to start the rebuilding around Kyrie Irving, or anyone who has “Jimmer Fever”, all is not lost. Thanks to the OS roster editors, there are already roster files available for both the 360 and PS3 versions of the game. Check out gamertag vizardronin11 for 360 and username bedwardsroy19 for PS3 if you’re ready to get your Association mode started since the real season won't be around until 2014.

Play with the Legends

NBA 2K12 isn’t just limited to today’s stars. Through the NBA's Greatest mode, NBA 2K12 allows you to play with the greats of the past and reminisce back to some of the glory years of the Association. Re-enact those legendary Lakers vs. Celtics battles of the 1980’s or try to overcome the dominance of Jordan’s Bulls with the Jazz, Sonics or Cavs. Once you unlock these great teams, you can use them to take out your frustration out on LeBron, Carmelo and the rest of today’s NBA superstars.

If you don't want to fork over $60 on 2K12 until the lockout is over, then you can stick with 2K11 and that classic rosters that have been made. Not only are there updated 2011-12 rosters available for NBA 2K11, but the OS roster editors have outdone themselves with Hardwood Classic rosters, including every season since 1984 for the 360 version of the game. You can go back and re-create classic (the '93 Bulls vs. Suns Finals) and not so-classic (the pre-LeBron Cavs vs. pre-Carmelo Nuggets of '03) matchups. These matchups should give you plenty of hoops gaming satisfaction until the lockout is settled and you decide to upgrade to 2K12.

I Prefer College

If the lockout has turned you off to the NBA entirely, but you need your hoops fix, why not go back to one of the most revered basketball games on this generation of consoles? College Hoops 2K8 still lives on in plenty of sports gamer's consoles and hearts, and thanks to the OS roster makers, updated rosters are right around the corner. The graphics and gameplay may be a bit dated, but the in-depth dynasty mode and simulation accuracy of the game is arguably the best ever. There’s nothing like taking a group of amateur athletes (unless you’re using a John Calipari team) from high school cagers to March Madness stars.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, the owners and players will settle their differences soon and all basketball fans can go back to watching the greatest ballers in the world do their thing on the court. But until then, the virtual world will provide us with plenty of options to satisfy our Basketball Jones.

NBA 2K12 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 tweezy08 @ 10/14/11 01:16 PM

Dealing with it

# 2 Altimus @ 10/14/11 01:18 PM

Even Steve...

Anyway, 2K12 is helping to ease the pain of the lockout along with watching classic games from the 90's and classic Playoff games from this decade.

# 3 ffaacc03 @ 10/14/11 01:54 PM

The few last comments werent completely on topic (coping with the lockout with 2K12) but you nailed on the begining of the post, 2k12 offers many things to do while the lockout is on: playing a partially imaginary association, with imaginary draftclasses (generated or downloaded customs) ... playing a what if scenario without the usual real life comparation with (downloaded real like custom draftclasses) ... playing a totally imaginary season/association with a fantasy draft ... doing the same as the prior 2, in my player ... playing the legends mode ... making a legends only season/association/playoffs ...

Plenty of alternatives indeed, not to mention getting use to the new learning curve cause by the new gameplay ingredients ... and I am not even mentioning the - for the time beeing, out of service - online parts, that while fundamentally the same as offline, add the variant of another user(s) ingredient ... also am obvying for clear reasons, the existing bugs/restrictions/inpropper functioning issues that may be dealt with a patch.

# 4 Authentic973 @ 10/14/11 03:21 PM

I COULDNT FIND THE ROSTER FOR PS3 THE USERNAME IS NOT IN THERE HOLLA BACK

# 5 clipperfan811 @ 10/14/11 03:24 PM

The lockout has honestly made me lose interest in the game, I'm sort of dumbfounded by the whole thing because I'm pretty much a basketball junkie. The Legends games have been just about my only saving grace. When playing modern day games vs the cpu I've found myself either saving to finish later or all together turning the game off at an alarming rate.

In an unlikely development football (aka soccer) has slowly begun climbing the rungs of my heart. All this helped along gently by the stellar FIFA 12.

# 6 boomhauertjs @ 10/14/11 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Authentic973


	I COULDNT FIND THE ROSTER FOR PS3 THE USERNAME IS NOT IN THERE HOLLA BACK

Here's the thread with the details on the PS3 roster:
http://www.operationsports.com/forum...w-rookies.html

# 7 Cryolemon @ 10/14/11 05:08 PM

I don't really follow the NBA (or RL basketball at all really although I do watch some March Madness if I can). So the lack of rosters doesn't bother me too much. When I get the game (maybe as early as this coming week if I can get a good deal on it) I'll probably just play with My Player and the Classic teams.

# 8 wildinkc @ 10/14/11 06:18 PM

Even with the lockout I am having a blast playing 2k12. Luckily I am also a college basketball fan so I can still get my basketball fix. Tonight is also Late Night at the Phog in Lawerence, KS which means basketball is right around the corner.

# 9 VDusen04 @ 10/14/11 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clipperfan811


	The lockout has honestly made me lose interest in the game, I'm sort of dumbfounded by the whole thing because I'm pretty much a basketball junkie. The Legends games have been just about my only saving grace. When playing modern day games vs the cpu I've found myself either saving to finish later or all together turning the game off at an alarming rate.

Same here, I wasn't expecting it to effect me this much, but it has. It's been all classic teams for me so far. The issue with the current rosters isn't just the lack of rookies, it's knowing so many teams have a lot of trading and free agent shifting to do. They're definitely not close to being 2012 rosters and they're not quite 2011 rosters. They're lost in middlespace, which makes them very unappealing to me.

My real saving grace was going to be the classic roster years I figured folks would be working on right now, perhaps at a faster rate with no real-deal current rosters to mess with. Alas, the decision to limit classic team transactions this year very much crushed that dream. Can't we just add Nick Van Exel to the '98 Lakers without entering a season, exporting a team, trying to sign Nick Van Exel, realizing it has to be done in the season, starting another season, looking for Nick Van Exel, realizing you forgot load up the correct roster with a created Nick Van Exel in free agents, restarting, loading the roster, starting a season, signing Nick Van Exel, exporting the Lakers, then realizing you forgot all about Rick Fox?

# 10 bedwardsroy19 @ 10/14/11 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Authentic973


	I COULDNT FIND THE ROSTER FOR PS3 THE USERNAME IS NOT IN THERE HOLLA BACK

It's there, the username is bedwardsroy19

# 11 Meetro @ 10/14/11 07:03 PM

I've been playing a fantasy associatiion with legends only with the ABA ball and been having a blast!! I probably wont play with the current stars until the lockout is over..only thing that sucks is that you can't edit the legends age so a number of them are retiring after the first season...give us the option to edit player age 2k!!

# 12 stlstudios189 @ 10/15/11 09:46 AM

the aba ball and an all legends association sounds fun as heck. I went with 2k11 for this year as I just do not see this lockout ending well at all.

# 13 Gramps91 @ 10/15/11 10:10 AM

Stupid lockout. I've lost respect for a lot of them. especially cough cough D-Rich cough um I mean D-Fish. Stop whining get out there and play some ball. Anyway I'm still having a good time with the game I just really want the rookies.

# 14 malky @ 10/15/11 04:02 PM

Well personally the rookie class was the worst in about ten to twelve years, so I just went ahead and create about 12-15 of them and called it a day. Still having a ball with the game, but like another poster said, the big issue is the FREE AGENT class is in limbo, so I had to really think what trades and signings would happen for each team, that was kind of fun, but still not like knowing where David West or players like him are actually going to be.

# 15 Meetro @ 10/15/11 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stlstudios189


	the aba ball and an all legends association sounds fun as heck. I went with 2k11 for this year as I just do not see this lockout ending well at all.

Man I'm telling you watching 91 Jordan in a Sixer Jersey drive to the hole against a Sonics Jerry West and throw it down over Bill Russell is so crazy!!! The teams are so random it's exciting to see which team will win it all and with what combinations of players.

# 16 jej8523 @ 10/17/11 11:22 AM

If 2K really wanted to prove it supremacy, they should've given us the option to begin Association at the beginning of the 2010-2011 season. The CPU simulated games could've had real life outcomes, w/ corresponding headlines. This way all rookies in the 2011-2012 season could either be random or downloaded like last year.

I was happy playing 2K11 until I realized Vyeras(sp?) wasn't making a 2012 draft class.

# 17 wallrose @ 10/17/11 08:36 PM

Yes this has made me hold off on getting this game mainly because the rosters are the same as last year. Like malky said this rookie class was pretty weak to start off with. But then again is it just me or is it that now in sports games im more interested in career modes than assoicaition anyway

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