News Post

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

11:53 AM - March 24, 2009 by RaychelSnr

If you have been paying attention to the community’s efforts to tweak NBA 2K9 during the past few months, you probably noticed that Neon1, one of the hardest-working NBA 2K community members, redid the ratings and tendencies for every player and coach in the game.

As someone who had previously shelved NBA 2K9 out of frustration, I was initially excited to sit down and try this tweaked version of NBA 2K9 now that March Madness is in full bloom.

But after only a few games as my underachieving Grizzlies -- who have actually gotten a lot better, ratings-wise, since I last touched the game -- it became clear to me that the same opinion I had formed a few months ago still holds true:

NBA 2K9 is a mess, and no amount of slider tweaking or roster editing can save it.

So, in the first of a two-part series, I am here to explain why I have given up on NBA hoops this year, and I am also here to detail what needs to be improved in 2010.

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

Game: NBA 2K9Reader Score: 8.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS2 / PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 72 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 DC @ 03/24/09 12:05 PM

This needs to be heard. Hopefully coming from you will validate the notion that 2K9 has serious issues.

It is playable but it has serious issues.

# 2 23 @ 03/24/09 12:06 PM

Uh oh

Im sure you prepared yourself for this mentally before you wrote it

# 3 ehh @ 03/24/09 12:11 PM

Great post, 2K9 was a major disappointment. It's such a pretty game but the gameplay and basketball fundamentals are atrocious. Your defensive points are the most important IMO. Defense in 2K9 is bad, bad and bad. The animations are another major gripe I had, glad you mentioned that as well.

# 4 DC @ 03/24/09 12:14 PM

Quote:


	How are we supposed to keep people from getting to the rim when their limbs, their body, and most importantly, the ball, can morph right through the backboard, the goal, defenders, and so forth like they are not even there?

I don't think they honestly want you to have a chance of doing that. If it was easy to get stop then the casual fans would have issues with the game.

So what do you think they should do?

# 5 Dice @ 03/24/09 12:31 PM

I got a bad feeling we're going to get a post from Chris Smoove in this thread.

# 6 Pared @ 03/24/09 12:37 PM

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.

# 7 sportyguyfl31 @ 03/24/09 12:38 PM

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

# 8 Stumbleweed @ 03/24/09 12:42 PM

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.

# 9 DC @ 03/24/09 12:44 PM

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.

# 10 Rocky @ 03/24/09 12:51 PM

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.

# 11 Pared @ 03/24/09 12:52 PM

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.

# 12 DC @ 03/24/09 12:55 PM

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."

# 13 Krucialist @ 03/24/09 02:01 PM

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?"

# 14 Stumbleweed @ 03/24/09 02:10 PM

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.

# 15 ronyell @ 03/24/09 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pared


	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.

as i stated in a previous post:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronyell


	you took the words right out of my mouth... everyone should be honest & know that we will NEVER get a "perfect" out-of-the-box sports game from any developer on any system because of gamer interpretation & marketing... 2k9 has been THE BEST thus far! yes some things are very frustrating and a lot of things could've been better but overall i remember being MUCH more unhappy with certain aspects of previous versions. for the most part... a lot of the things that we are annoyed by are minor/easy fixes which is what "truly" frustrates us, but all in all, the devs do step up to the plate & fix things the we SPECIFICALLY here at OP complain about. They may not always post info (which i cant lie... i would appreciate if they did more often) but they do seem to attemp to address our moans & groans it's all about trial & error to me... u mention the help d issue: that was a fix from lack there of last year and no jump shooters ever being left open... so they over did it this year but i'm sure they will find the happy medium. - bad defensive switching: again we did not get this AT ALL last year, and we complained... so they added it... just needs tweaking... etc, etc... they just need to work on NOT getting rid of "old but good" ideas when they come up with a new one... and making things complete... all that being said, i will reitterate that i think 2k9 is the best b-ball game i've ever played and my complaints are minimal in contrast to things i posted last year and posts that i saw last & earlier. as long as they don't get complacent & realize that EA is making some strides, they will remain the best basketball series. (p.s. - even though Live has greatly improved from it's previous state doesnt mean that it is THAT DAMN GOOD... [2k was a grade A & Live was a grade D... Live jumped up TWO WHOLE GRADES... WOW... now 2k is still an A & Live is a B... A>B] i would much rather have a slightly flawed 2k basketball than be addicted to an EA series which makes drastic strides once every decade than leave it the game as is for the next ten years)

# 16 StormJH1 @ 03/24/09 03:24 PM

Wow, I stumbled across this thread after about a month of viewing negative threads about 2k's BASEBALL game, and I'm surprised that this level of negativity exists for what I consider to be a pretty solid product.

I hear you about the defensive issues. But that has been an issue with pretty much any 2k or other basketball game I've played. There are things this game does animation-wise, pre-canned or not, that constantly make me go "wow". Like the way you're able to strip the ball out of a guy's hands when he's breaking away for a layup. Or when a player dives to get a loose ball on the floor.

But what does frustrate me is that I'm playing on probably the 2nd easiest level, do everything I'm supposed to on offense (hit open shots, miss the hard ones), and then play defense and just get owned on the perimeter or with layup drives that start from the 3-point line and can't be stopped. If Tony Parker or someone quick is driving to the basket, there is no control input possible to even influence what happens next. In real basketball, a guy in that position could bump, hip check, or even tackle a guy in that scenario...even if these are BAD options, they aren't even options I have!

# 17 STLRams @ 03/24/09 03:30 PM

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.

Now I do agree with that, the game has so much potential, but all of the eding people are doing is worthless. This is something I really hope 2K addresses with 2K10.

# 18 NINJAK2 @ 03/24/09 03:33 PM

Yes! Another 2k bash thread. We were running low on these..........All valid points though that have been already discussed to death.

# 19 Da_Czar @ 03/24/09 03:40 PM

Despite all the things it does right the games flaws make trying to play it for me waaayyy to frustrating. they missed the mark this year.

No sugar can coat that. Lets not baby them. They had a great year in sales but muffed the delivery. I was severly dissappointed in this years game. How is it that I have not even played 10 games from beginning to end of my favorite hoop series. Every few weeks I try and go back but despite all the beauty and the depth of the franchise the gameplay itself is off.

Look at it like this. No momentus videos this year, and you have DC of all people saying he may be spending more time in the live forums... surely the world is at an end as we know it...

# 20 DC @ 03/24/09 03:48 PM

I said the same thing about you man. If Czar doesn't like the game then they MUST be doing something wrong

Wassup though

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