NBA 2K9 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here

[beauboy00]

Quote: Originally Posted by RubenDouglas

Play starts off as I make a wreckless pass thats within grasps of kobes long arms. He steals it and slows it down. What progresses next leaves me awe struck. Kobe, Andrew, and Pau form a triangle and pass to one another like its 3rd grade PE. I start laughing at the AI (at its apprent lackluster dynamic abilities). The shot clock is winding down and the play tends to break as Pau moves away. Out of nowhere, Pau comes back into the picture and sets a screen for a cutting Kobe. I am left defenseless as Kobe breaks through for the alley oop dunk. Laker fans, is this how the triangle works? was this really a triangle type play? did the play break down and pau just set a screen for kobe as the play ultimately broke down or was this all within the motions of the triangle to confuse the defense

that....was....amazing

[Tha_Kid]

OK so I just witnessed my first real time injury in the demo and it makes me happy about the potential variety of ways injuries can happen in the game. Odom was shooting his 2nd ft, and I was controlling Pierce. I mistimed the jump for the board (missed short) and Pierce came down awkward and the camera zoomed in as he bent over and grabbed at his knee, then went back upright and grimaced and winced. It's probably the only time the face actually looked like Pierce. The emotion on the faces is great.

[DakkoN]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tha_Kid

OK so I just witnessed my first real time injury in the demo and it makes me happy about the potential variety of ways injuries can happen in the game. Odom was shooting his 2nd ft, and I was controlling Pierce. I mistimed the jump for the board (missed short) and Pierce came down awkward and the camera zoomed in as he bent over and grabbed at his knee, then went back upright and grimaced and winced. It's probably the only time the face actually looked like Pierce. The emotion on the faces is great.

Did the play just magically stop or did they wait until a dead ball to substitute him?

[RubenDouglas]

I couldn't stop playing. Some more misc. footage:

follow on below with the written description as the video goes along



quick rundown:

-Allen drives across the court, taking SF lamar odom and bumping him out of position. where is the catchup AI here? Pierce with the open three

-Lamar is out on the break. I take pierce and just run him right into where Lamar will be headed. Nice collison. just wanted to show that. best of all, no whistle.

-Kobe is quick on the double team. I , as KG, try to change my shot in mid air. Again, just a great animation.

-I start to get a hang of the new isomotion. one nice behind the back and some hangtime by pierce. FOUL! not an and 1 thankgod. just a good hardnosed foul.

-quickest hands by a big man??? unsuspecting that my CPU teammate would do such a thing, I run back on defense as I felt Bynum would get the easy bucket. WRONG! Andrew is striped by KG. Perkins hands it off to pierce who throws a fastball to the already back cherry picking Rondo.

-Pierce and Odom meet up at the peak of pierce's reverse attempt. Foul called.

-Last sequence dont focus on lamar and the ball. focus on paul pierce. is he cramping up or in pain? he looks to be holding his lower back and or stomach. He does eventually speed up and hits a tough three at the buzzer.

[Tha_Kid]

Quote: Originally Posted by DakkoN

Did the play just magically stop or did they wait until a dead ball to substitute him?

The lakers got back on D and my cpu teammate called a TO and they subbed in Tony Allen.

[blackngoldfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by bears5122

My only gripe is that they don't seem to know who to use. Playing the Lakers, Kobe wasn't getting many shots at all. Fisher was their main man with Gasol #2.

Quote: Originally Posted by OneBadMutha

Thank you. Finally somebody else admits that it's just not the demo I downloaded. I've played a ton of games and while Kobe feels like Kobe when he gets the ball, he just doesn't get the ball enough.

That's very realistic IMO!!! Remember, it's the first 4 minutes of the game. That's when Kobe sits back and let his teammates do their thing EARLY. He doesn't take a ton of shots in the first half. He'll get it going in the 3rd qtr, then in the 4th qtr..............WATCH OUT!!

Thanks for the great news guys!!

[catcatch22]

I played the demo recently and I have been very critical about the direction of the series, thus I stopped buying the game. I must admit this year it looks real good. Still haven't seen a charge though, but it looks like all the right elements are in place this year. Fouls are called realistically, the AI doesn't use speed cheats to get out to open men on the perimeter on double teams off the kick out.

I stayed away for 2 years but I am definitely gonna pick this one up. I still hate lock on D, but it looks vastly improved.

A few nitpicks though.

1. Unlike the nba live demo - their isn't enough offensive fouls. I pray the sliders gives us an opportunity to adjust this and at least make it comparable to the calls I saw in the nba live demo.

2. Unlike the nba live demo - the players just don't make strong cuts and moves in an offensive set. I would like to see more explosion when players are trying to get open on a screen, or on a screen roll where the picker cuts hard and fast to the basket. This has been an issue for the series for so long.

3. Both games don't have this but it needs to be implemented. When I play APF 2k8 or NHL 09, those games allow us to body a offensive player even though they don't have the ball. When I play basketball I am constantly putting my hands on the offensive player on d when I am guarding them so I can always no where they are and still see the ball. It's common practice to be able to at least be able to have contact with them (either with you hands on the perimeter or with your elbow in the paint) causing them to go around you or thru you which could cause more fouls in the category of offensive, or defensive off ball fouls depending on the play. This is an area that needs to be looked at for the series. I know it's hard to program a contact sub routine in the game and still allow players to make moves and cuts thru traffic when following the play art, along with limited space. However other games have done it and done it well. This needs to be implented. As it is right now I feel helpless to stop the AI from making any off the ball cuts on me other than the charge button which still is not effective enough, steal the ball or hope the ball collides with my player model.

Here is what I like

1. The graphics are outstanding, arenas look marvelous like in NHL 2k9. NBA live looks good to but 2k looks clearer more sharp. Same with the hockey games. 2k has just sharper looking enviornments and arenas. Also better lighting. Lighting is soo important and they have this area done right.

2. Players feel more "heavier" they have heft this year. Past years the players just glided too much. They still do but not as much as past years. They feel right.

3. Animations are way better. They have come a long way since NBA Action on the Saturn when the series started in 3D and even made huge progress from NBA 2k5 to now. Love the animations between the ball handler and the defensive players. They just need to incorporate this to the offball players as well, more interaction is needed not just with the guy with the ball, or when you call for the post up.

4. Free thow animation is more fluid, no more sig animation then snap back to conventional generic free throw.

5. Sig style is all over for every player, fully integrated.

6. Player faces are more authentic this year, the last few years from what I have seen the faces looked like an artist used a create a face technology tool to make the faces instead of face scanning. I guess they did that to make the faces have better emotion than if they scanned like in the old days. It looks like they went back to the face scanning and ditched the create face tool they were using. Cause now the faces just don't emote as much as they did but now the faces look totally authentic. I much rather have a totally close to accurate face then a something not close but with some face muscle technology to show some ok facial expressions.

7. The presentation looks excellent, only thing that worries me is what if a guy gets traded how will the intro for the game go.

Last thoughts. Will we get some decent roster updates this year. It says they will but for so long 2k has been cheap with the updates.

Looks like I will be getting this and PES 2009 as well, finally next gen is living up to its name with these sports titles. All because of competition.

[Cazaliers]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cazaliers

I won't go into details about how awesome the game is in just about every single way, cos I'm sure everyone has said that before me. One thing troubling me is they commented on the ability to jump into the defender to draw the foul when you fake them into the air, and Pared confirmed it was in the game (whether that was because he read the same article I did saying it was back or has seen it ingame) but I can't for the life of me do it ingame. I can get Odom in the air countless amounts of times but can't jump into him. Is there even a special animation for it like in 2k7? Or do you just shoot normally and the ref calls a foul? Can anyone else pull this off? I know it's not something I'll be doing in the game to score points, just wanted to see how it works in 2k9.

Just thought I'd follow up on this. I finally got it to work. You have to have the defender reasonably close, then while holding L when the defender is in the air push the shot stick towards the basket as if you're doing a leaner that way. Have been able to do it twice now, with PP and Ray Allen

Poor Odom has had to spend so much time looking like a fool going up for my fakes trying to figure this out!