NBA 2K10 Q&A

-When you get 2K10 and download your player from the server, you head to the NBA Draft. If you get drafted, you go to the summer league with that team. 2K has the 30 unique summer league jerseys and also the actual summer league rosters -- of course only the names will show up for players in the NBA already. It will be generic names for players who are not in the NBA.

-If you perform well enough in summer league, you get to go to training camp. If you don't perform well enough, you might get an invite to another team's training camp (assuming you were a second-round pick and got cut), or you might get no invites and have to join up with a D-League team before training camp.

-Training camp consists of five games. The team invites 20 players and only 15 can be on the roster, so one player gets eliminated after each game. This should be the first point where you feel a difficulty spike because you'll be playing against other NBA players on your team rather than other prospects. All five games are intrasquad games.

-If you make the team, you'll probably start by getting 2-3 minutes a game. In other words, you have to build your way up. You might also get a different role at points. If you get drafted as a SF by the Warriors and make the team, you might find yourself playing PF a good amount. So be ready to handle different positions and styles.

-If you don't make the team, you are sent down to the D-League, assuming you were drafted in the first round. If you were drafted in the second round and get cut during training camp, you have to go find a spot in the D-League.

-If you get two 10-day contracts from the same team, if you get that third 10-day contract, you get to stay on that team for the rest of the year like in real life.

-It is meant to be hard to make it to the NBA and stick as an NBA player in this mode. 2K feels like most career modes basically give you an easy road to the pros/becoming a legend, whereas in this mode the developers want you to earn your way to being a legit NBA player. Their thinking is that it's a way to make their mode stand out from the rest.

-There are other camera views to pick from if you don't like the modified 2K cam when being your player.

-You always have a one-year contract. The better you play, the more offers you will receive during the offseason. It seems like this route was taken because the NBA is not a huge fan of players demanding trades, and in addition, the developers didn't want you to go through a two/three/four-year rookie contract, then get your first max deal, then get another max deal because it wouldn't allow you to change teams if you wanted to play for someone else -- especially if you were drafted for a team you do not like in real life or are stuck behind a superstar at your position. Take that for what it's worth.

-Teams that stand up until their team scores the first points of the game will do that in the game.

-To give some example of the non-gameplay signature style:

• DHo does his fadeaway before the game
• KG and Pierce will be screaming on the scoreboard during the initial zoom in to a game in Boston.
• KG will bang his head off the stantion under the rim.
• Ray Allen also rocks the powder before the game.
• Wade will lift himself on the rim.
• Vince will lift himself on the rim.
• Cleveland will do the picture thing before the game.
• Shaq will do his bowling thing.
• Cleveland will also do the knocking it out of the park thingy.
• LeBron of course has his powder.
• Boobie and LeBron will do the brush off your shoulders and salute thing.

-The cool part about a lot of these pregame rituals and so forth is that you won't see the same ones every time. So maybe you see KG bang his head off the stantion one time, but the next time you see Ray Allen making sweet love to the powder. It happens this way because the camera is dynamic so it won't always focus on the same stuff or players.

-I was told LeBron and Kobe got new shots, but I didn't see those teams in action. As for the players I did see, Ray Allen got a new shot, as did SJax, Deron Williams, Korver, Boozer and Nash. Many many more apparently got new shots, but I didn't have time to scope them out.

-Nate Rob has his free-throw routine in the game.

-The ImageMetrics people (the folks behind GTA IV) created the signature and generic facial animations in the game. I didn't see too many signature ones while playing, but was told that LeBron puffing his cheeks out after he does something big-time is in the game. The facial animations looked good when I saw them, and the eyes looked pretty lifelike as well.

-The organ will be playing at Madison Square Garden.

-Signature play involves all the signature stuff done before as well as the tendencies. The AI system was also built on the tendency system. How does a player like to get to a particular spot, what moves does he like to do to get to that spot -- think of it as "the how" -- is where 82games.com comes into play. So the point is that someone like Iverson would not do a spin move to get to where he would want to go on the court, he would do a crossover -- so the tendencies tie into that fact.