Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

[sportyguyfl31]

I am really concerned with the direction 2k is taking this series.

I converted from Live to 2k with NBA 2k5, when the NBA Live series was in the midst of its crash and burn.

I see history begining to repeat itself in reverse.

At the rate things are going, EA is going to catch up and pass them in the next couple of years. The 2k engine is aged, and really needs a makeover.

I tolerated 2k8, but this game....I cant describe the feelings of disgust this game has given me.

I even gave it a second shot, trading in Live for it, after originally owning both.

NBA2k9 drove me absolutely insane, each and every single time I tried to play it

[Stumbleweed]

Agreed on all points. There are good things about this game, but I can hardly play the actual game anymore... I only run Team-Up these days. Even against good players that I loved playing in previous 2K basketball games, I can hardly stand the game itself long enough to finish a game.. and by the end, I'm pissed off, even if I win.

Defense is by far the most frustrating part of the game.. there's simply nothing you can do to stop people most of the time. Seems like you normally jump a milisecond too early (or late) and the contest makes absolutely no difference, or you time it properly and the ball just clips through your hand/arm and ends up going in (this is especially bad with star players). The drive game is almost as bad, simply because of the clipping issues and the totally ineffective CPU help defense.

There HAS to be a way to contest shots without actually leaving your feet -- that's BASIC basketball, and that's probably the main thing that's really been bugging me about the game this year. At least in previous years, the "proximity defense" would generally make tough shots miss for all but the best players -- now if someone halfway decent is hot, they'll nail everything regardless of how close you are to them. I had a guy hang 65 of 69 points on me with LeBron despite me even resorting to playing off-ball defense with a big man, simply because he got hot via some some bull**** clipping dunks and then was blinking red the rest of the game, just nailing everything including deep threes like the defenders weren't on the court.

It's just inexcusable that the game has suffered such a huge drop-off in basketball IQ this year. It looks pretty, but the core elements are so ****y that it makes all that extra stuff worthless. At least we have regular roster updates now... yee ha.

[DC]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

These are all issues we've discussed ad nauseam. One thing that continues to go un-mentioned is the lack of foot planting with the defense. Help does come when the help slider is set to 0 but there is no "negative consequence" for it in regards to player momentum. They can easily get back and still contest the open jumper. Which is why, way back when the game was released, I was saying that re-rating the entire roster and the other "major" edits people were doing were worthless.

But people don't edit the entire roster to cause more help defense Pared. They edit because people act out of character.

[Rocky]

I agreed on all points. But compared to NBA2K8 and the other game, NBA2K9's defensive AI looks like the Mona Lisa.

CH2K8 had the best defensive AI, IMO.

[Pared]

Quote: Originally Posted by DCAllAmerican

But people don't edit the entire roster to cause more help defense Pared. They edit because people act out of character.

Right, but that's why I've said the newest living rosters have been exponentially better than the ones shipped with the disc.

Either way, the points that have been made most likely won't go unheard. They've addressed issues here year after year and I expect this to be no different.

[DC]

Yea the Living Rosters are BETTER than the default ones but they need to be more on point when it comes to Defensive awareness/On Ball Defensive prowess of NON-Superstars.

Everything else looks cool on a BASIC casual fan level but you can still look at them and say, "This guy really doesn't KNOW the NBA."

[Krucialist]

Quote: Originally Posted by DCAllAmerican

Yea the Living Rosters are BETTER than the default ones but they need to be more on point when it comes to Defensive awareness/On Ball Defensive prowess of NON-Superstars. Everything else looks cool on a BASIC casual fan level but you can still look at them and say, "This guy really doesn't KNOW the NBA."

I called that back when the Living Rosters were announced and they explained it was going to be the 2K insiders job to do them. Non-superstars just dont merit attention because they dont stick out on anyones radar except for those of us who watch the games and know the names. Some of us have sports knowledge that extends beyond sportscenter.

I would actually be very interested to see just how deep we could go with the "When animations attack" theme. The most common word shouted at the tv screen for me and all my friends that play 2k9 is "WHY!?!" A variation being the more subtle rubbing your eyes in frustration and agony and simply muttering under your breath "why did he do that?"

[Stumbleweed]

Ha yeah, even as someone who is well-versed in the shot stick and everything that goes into this game, I still get a ton of STUPID layup animations as well as unwanted jumpers even when I'm running full-speed and am holding turbo. The worst are when they have an easy layup and they do some double-clutch reverse thing (I normally hit left or right on the shot stick to do layups/dunks when coming straight at the hoop) and it gets blocked. Too many damn animations, and there's not a ton of user control regarding which ones trigger when. Everything from just simple walking and dribbling the ball to the isomotion moves to the shot contesting animations -- they seem almost random, and it makes it very hard to know what your player will do at any given time. I'd rather have less animations like (2K7/2K8) that trigger reliably than all these unnecessary ones that you get locked into.