NBA 2K23 Gameplay Details and Improvements Revealed

[Steve_OS]

After releasing the NBA 2K23 gameplay trailer last week, 2K has just revealed all of the...

Written By: Steve Noah

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[AIRJ23]

My god. You have to do actual joystick combos to execute dunks now. They found a way to make dunking even more confusing. Just give us the 2K21 dunk buttons back please.

[Champy123]

Everything sounds good so far on paper. The true test is actual execution. What I don’t like are the added badges and strange gimmicks for dunking. I don’t think we need to add new badges every year. Besides that, the improved AI and defense will need to go through actual playing to see if improvements have been made or not.

Otherwise a great read but again, what is the point if all of this stuff is patched out two weeks after launch? I hope 2K sticks to its gameplan this year and does not touch anything unless something is absolutely broken

[leoribas3]

PROMISSING!

Love the new focus on layups, love the potential of these new shooting attributes, love the new dribbling stamina concept to avoid overdribbling, love the aggressive sizeup mechanic, love the defensive shading thing as well.

L O V E that the AI seems to be revamped to being more aggressive offensively and using more tools. L O V E the defensive changes Czar made.

Ill hold my excitement for the first month of gameplay regarding these last 2 items but man...

I love it. A lot of my issues with the game have been looked into, stuff that I felt was not addressed in 3 years at least

[TarHeelPhenom]

This all sounds good. Hopefully they will drop some video clips showing off some of the new and tuned stuff between now and launch. I feel bad for the PC/Last Gen folk. If you're in a position to do so, grab you a Current Gen console. The game absolutely plays different on Current Gen.

[cloakingturtle]

I love the attention to AI offense. As an offline playr only, thank you!

[The 24th Letter]

Quote: Originally Posted by TarHeelPhenom

Defense: "Defensive gameplay includes major updates aimed at creating more realistic on-ball defense and shot blocking, as well as steals and ball strips. This year, blocks have been tuned to a more realistic level, leading to more predictable outcomes, with the right players making appropriate stops when timing their block attempts well. There’s also a distinct improvement in ball security for good dunkers, and much more." No mention of rotations and help D. interested to see if they tuned those areas. AI Gameplay: "PS5 and Xbox Series X|S players will notice improved AI ball handling, pick and roll execution, defensive tendencies, and coaching decisions." Hopefully those defensive tendencies include rotation and help D. I hope they drop some gameplay trailers to show off some of this. It's hard to visualize without actually seeing it...at least for me.

Not sure if you read past bullet points, but there’s a dedicated section to A.I offense and defense.

This part in particular I liked:

Quote:

Rotations are sharper and more varied; pick and roll defense is tighter and smarter; and this year, players can choose to turn off drive, pick and roll. We’ve also improved cutter help individually as well to have more control over their Defensive Focus settings. NBA 2K23 also features performance-based defensive adjustments. In the past we knew how many points and assists the leading scorers had on offense and would make adjustments based on that information. However, the adjustments the AI made had to be generic because it wasn’t obvious how a given player racked up that scoring and assist total. This year our refactored success and action engine can track exactly how scorers are doing their damage. This engine can decipher post-scoring, off-screen actions, isolations and whether or not players are getting buckets at the rim. It can detect spot-up shots vs. players who like to come down and fire up long distance threes after a few dribble moves

I know the recurring theme (which is fair) will be “It sounds good until they patch it” but what this is saying is that these options can be tuned by the player, so no global sweeping changes have to be made. The cutter help patch that happened in 2K22 wouldn’t have happened if this option was available. Definitely good news.

Really enjoyed the blog, they covered all the bases I was interested in gameplay wise. Can’t wait to see what this A.I can do offensively.

I also want to see how these new dribbling mechanics work, I couldn’t quite get a grasp on the “gesture” mechanic. The dunking mechanic doesn’t sound all that complicated, and gives us more control…I’m all for it.

[scottyp180]

Haven't finished reading but had complain a little. They really spent years developing tech for rim hangs? Can't help but feel there are more important areas of the game to spend time on. People have been asking for improved body models for years. Has anyone ever once said anything about the game needing improvements and controls for rim hangs?

I'll update this comment after I finish reading. Looks like there is a lot here. But that's a little thing that irks me.

Edit: I like a lot of what I read. Sounds very promising but we'll see how it plays in execution and, of course, what adjustments are made post launch.

Also sounds like I'm going to have to spend time in 2KU, per usual, to learn all the new controls. Hopefully there is a demo this year that lets us play around in 2KU.