I've only played two games since I installed the patch, one on Superstar and one on Hall of Fame and the game did play much different and better than before, but I also did notice a few cons as well. Here's my impressions:
The only cons I saw were:
- The 3rd quarter/ 4th quarter super-human AI is definitely still apparent on Hall of Fame, though not so much on Superstar anymore. The game I played on Hall of Fame, I played against Miami (wanted to test how good they were) and in the first half, I was down by 3 and they shot 47% from the field. By the end of the game, they finished at 56% (which amounts to a very high field goal percentage in the second half). They definitely experienced a burst in the second half, no doubt, many of which were on contested shots with the shot clock winding down. With that said, it's not NEARLY as bad as it was before the patch.
- The fast-break steals issue didn't seem to be fixed. I had a few 2-1 fast breaks where I would try to pass the ball and the CPU would have that predictive ability to know exactly when I was passing and swoop in for the steal.
- The pick-and-roll still doesn't seem to be nearly as effective as it should. As in, at all.
Pros:
- Boxing out is evident.
- The CPU up-and-unders have been completely alleviated.
- As others have said, passing has been revamped to alleviate steals on passes in the paint.
- CPU will miss wide-open shots on occasion, as it should be.
- As mentioned above, even though the 2nd half burst is still evident, they only outscored me by 9 in the second half, which wasn't nearly as bad as it used to be. I felt like I Had a chance up until the end.
- The runs that the CPU did go on did not feel scripted AT ALL. They actually felt better, even though the second half burst was evident.
Sounds promising. I think 2k12 would be good with one more patch to clear some more things up. But these impressions are promising
Just finished a game online. I was Orl vs. Chi. I havent seen anyone mention the lag and sluggish play online. Well im here to say that it is so much bettter now. It plays like offline now and thats exatcly what I wanted. There are more thing in this patch then what was in the patch notes.
The guy tried to go to the hoop everytime with Rose. While he wasnt completly unstoppable, which is how it should be, I was able to make the correct adjustments to win. Mainly Locking down the paint. Like some have said, passes still are a lil floaty at times but overall they are a lot better then pre-patch.
This patch will quit alot of people. I will applause 2K for this patch.
Havent tried offline yet.
EDIT:I forgot to mention this when talking about passes. Before the patch it seem like the ball went to who i wanted it to. In 2k11 sometime the ball would go to the person behind the player you wanted to go to or something like that. I lot of people were having that problem. Well now after the patch it seems like that is back. There have been a couple times where I meant to pass it to dwight in the paint while driving only for the ball to go to someone standing at the 3pt being covered.
Online
Im currently playing with the pacers and I must say they have a REALLY NICE team.
initial impression is that passing does feel better - faster passes and more appropriate passes...i could just be imagining it, but i'm pretty sure it's been improved...not sure why they wouldn't mention this in the patch notes though.
Does this mean I can expect a few pleasant surprises that are not mentioned in the patch notes? I like pleasant surprises...
How can people can applaud 2k for a patch that hasn't fixed the catch up fast break bug or the association stats?
It's not a bug. A bug would be if you were on a fast break and your player fell through the floor. With the increased passing velocity it seems fast break catchup has been improved
Well I played about 6-7 team up games online and this is what I noticed with the new patch 1.04.
Team up online(patch 1.04) PS3
pros: Connecting online in team up is a lot faster and it connects almost instantly to 6 to 10 players right away. I played several matches with up to 6 to 10 players and it ran very well without much lag. I was however disconnected a couple times with a network error. Controls feel more responsive and Passing in team up is much better overall as well. As far as onball defense goes, I was able to stay in front of my man one on one much easier and play better onball D. Team up seems to flow a lot better now and feels more balanced. I noticed that players fatigue more than they did before.
Cons: There seems to be some bugs still present with team up. Calling defensive plays with PG in Team Up is missing from last year. There is the annoying random inbounds bug, where you just cant get the ball inbounds and either end up with a 5 second call or you have to call a time out. Another Issue is in random team up games when you call a time out the substitution screens are gone at the top of the screen and so are the on the fly sub screen menu and you cant make any subs through the whole game.(this happened twice to me) I also noticed several full court inbounds passes which end up in an easy score. I was in a game where this was abused several times in one game. This needs to be toned down. Also the grading system for team up still shows most players with an F as their average grade. I do sometimes see a C grade from time to time. Now where it shows your average team up stats ie. points per game etc...seems to be way off. Now this one really gets me... I create a locker room to play teamup online with 3 or 4 friends so we can play on the same team together, only to randomly get separated and placed on the other team. This needs to be fixed.
I really hope they come out with another patch to fix a few more issues. All in all I am happy with 1.4 patch, but I expected more issues to be resolved.
My cpu teammates in My Player seem to just 'play' better(with plays turned off). I don't know if its because the passing is better or because there are less delays on off ball movement, but they seem to make decisions quicker. Actually, just reading the patch notes now it says they don't hold on to the ball as much and they make smarter decisions passing inside. Sounds about right.
There was a couple of plays during a game I just played that seemed so right I had to yell something and freak out my friend. I'm feeling something strange...what is it...why, yes, I'm actually having fun playing 2k12. Weird.
The gameplay most defiantly improved, you should be grateful for what they gave you, now stop whining, it isn't improving anything.
I should be grateful for not fixing the catch up and double teams, for example? Is that what you consider whining? Dear lord...
And of course complaints improve things. They
a) have a chance to make customers and fanboys see how they are being treated
b) they have a change to affect, even slightly, the sales of the next game. If they are lower, then 2K will pay more attention. This year sales were much lower and this shows that we are not complete tools. I'm really happy for 2k suffering lower sales, because that will mean better attention paid to the next game.
My cpu teammates in My Player seem to just 'play' better(with plays turned off). I don't know if its because the passing is better or because there are less delays on off ball movement, but they seem to make decisions quicker. Actually, just reading the patch notes now it says they don't hold on to the ball as much and they make smarter decisions passing inside. Sounds about right.
There was a couple of plays during a game I just played that seemed so right I had to yell something and freak out my friend. I'm feeling something strange...what is it...why, yes, I'm actually having fun playing 2k12. Weird.
Is the 1-3-1 zone the new fad now? Since the patch I have played 3 games online and all 3 opponents have used this defence.
Definitely, pre-patch I used to run it a lot because it seemed to help the A.I. shut down the paint, cut off passing lanes and generally commit to playing defense. If you're playing an opponent who has no other strategy than penetrate into the middle via either elbow and then take a layup or kick it out, the 1-3-1 greatly increase your chances of A) cutting his drive off earlier than expected and B) intercepting whatever pass he throws.
A lot of this was due to the lax defense guys played on the perimeter, it's not as effective tonight I've noticed, but the man defense is also much better.