Shut it. I like the Spurs. I just hate them when they play the Rockets. Okay, so here's a question for y'all. Does anyone else routinely score 30+ points with Matt Bonner? I play on All Star, and I do it nearly every game. I've just been COMPLETELY unstoppable; it makes a friend of mine seethe with rage. In our last game, he had 31 pts, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 1 steal. The only role players I've been able to come even close to this dominance with are Luis Scola, Anderson Varejao, and LaMarcus Alderidge (on par with Matt Bonner but with way more talent). If you play on Rookie or Pro, let me know. I once scored over 100 points with Chuck Hayes on Rookie.
There's your problem. Ratchet it up to Superstar. I normally play on Superstar, but I play HOF when I want a challenge. No big numbers with Chuck Hayes then...
I play on Superstar and it normally is a close game, although I manage to pull away towards the end more often than not. My problem is with point guards always scoring over 30 points, doesn't matter whom. I just had Brevin Knight go for 24 and 11 on me. I do tend to lay off point guards and dare them to take the three, and gamble that I'm going to challenge it when they do take it, so they hit a fair lot of them that way. But with Knight, he just drove it in and laid it up over Yao anyway. Also is it just me or is it incredibly hard to hit 3s once you move up to Superstar? It seems I can only hit 1 out of 2 open 3's while the AI hits every single shot.
rookie, superstar, allstar, WHATTT? HOF all the way. everything else is way too easy. not a challenge at all.
I was playing and Steve Francis was the starting PG for the computer team. Steve hot 11 3-pointers in a row......yes, 11, absolutely insane and none of my guys could make ****
I don't notice that effect on Superstar, though I know it's there... I think I'm just used to it from always playing on HOF in previous years. I DEFINITELY notice it when I play HOF though, and it's waaaay frustrating. That's the beef I've always had with basketball games... they can't find ways to make it harder besides making it impossible to hit open jumpers, and/or make it so your teammates are completely inactive on the boards so you must do everything yourself.l The real revolution in basketball games will be when they really make the AI smart. EDIT: One suggestion though, for anyone having a tough time with this game... make a custom team of all-time great players... Big O, Erving, Hakeem, Wilt, Frazier, Magic, Bird, whoever... and play against those guys a few times with a normal team like the Rockets, or whoever. A couple 8-minute games like that, and you'll find you've really refined your game. Everything seems easy after that. I've been doing it for years with these games.
Nicholas Batum is ridiculous in 2k9. He has the dunk symbol so he can basically dunk on anyone and often times dunks on multiple people while going straight through them. And on top of that he's pretty decent at making 3's so it almost makes him unstoppable. When you can do that with Lebron it's reasonable and still gets out of hand but BATUM?!?
The way I play, I try not to abuse the faults of the game. Like I won't take a lot of inside shots, Won't try to dunk all the time with good dunkers, or I won't try to dominate with a scrub just to see if I can do it. I basically try to mimic real NBA basketball as much as possible. For the most part, CPU AI does a good job of not playing cheap.
Out of my great kindness, I will impart what I have learnt on how to make nba2k9 a great game (the things below are for a simulation/realistic to real NBA game experience). Almost all of the information I am posting comes from operationsports.com [OS], the best site on configuring and updating 2k9, and they will have details on how to do all the steps if you have any questions. 1. Before you start, make sure you are updated with the most recent official patch from NBA2k9. The gameplay has changed drastically from 2k9's inception and all the following changes are based upon them. 2. Go to operation sports or 2kshare to download OS users current rosters (they will be stickied in the forums nba2k9->rosters) for your respective gaming platform. Not only will you have the most updated rosters, players will wear what they usually do on the court, and almost all of the sliders listed on the forums are based off of the roster updates. Furthermore, things like these rosters/sliders are a collaborative effort, and the rosters include player stat changes that many has agreed upon, such as turning steals lower or making clutch zero. 3. Most slider sets are in conjunction with Allstar/Superstar; Allstar probably being the most realistic. The easier settings are too easy, and the HOF setting makes the AI accomplish things too often that seem ridiculous. You'll want to make sure you're using the right difficulty for your respective sliders too. 4. Although each slider/settings set has some varying differences, there are several common themes that I will detail here. The majority of changes are oriented to lowering PiP (Points in Paint) and making teams more team oriented, yet revolving around their stars, like in real life. - Turn clutch factor off in settings and move slider clutch setting to zero. This will ensure those strange momentum swings where one team feels like they can't be stopped are less of an impact. - Change tendency sliders for mid range game, find post play, triple threat up and tendency sliders for things regarding inside the paint down ie putbacks. Success sliders on close range, mid range etc. do not need to be changed necessarily (most sliders however do slightly for lower success sliders for both HUM/COM to make %'s accurate). Jacking up mid range game tendency very high and increasing post play tendency is very important - you will see more ball movement, passes into the post, and kickouts. - Lower Off. Rebounding and increase Def. Rebounding. Again, to reduce PiP and get realistic stats. - Off. Awareness down and Def. Awareness up. Flashy passes through three defenders for a streaking player in the paint will disappear with this change. - Lower tendency on dunks, lower vertical (make HUM slightly higher). Less dunks, less blocks on perimeter - Lower quickness. Makes players not slide across entire court during an animation. - Change all coach profile playbooks to Standard. A debatable change, but this opens up the entire playbook to every team. You would think it would make every team generic, but it actually gears every team to play to their strengths. After the change, the AI will regularly feed their stars until they command double teams, and also orient their plays to feed strong post players, or open up the perimeter for great shooters. For me, this setting also just makes the game more dynamic and you can still hotkey your bread-and-butter plays. - Change help D to zero. Another recent debatable change, but it seems like this change makes the AI exploit pick'N'rolls more and curiously, help out on D more. What's funny is not long ago, people thought help D to 100 was the best setting. As of right now however, there are a few new revelations coming out on what's best for gameplay (youngn791 on operationsports is coming out with a lot of new interesting finds that are in opposition to original ways of thinking). Why TakeTwo hasn't come out with a better online manual detailing what their sliders/settings do is beyond me. I probably left out some things and it looks like there will be better changes coming very soon based less upon global sliders and more on individual changes. Make sure to check out OS to get the most recent information.
this is why I've never been much of a fan of NBA video games.. they always come off leaning more to arcade style in the end product than the "simulations" they're advertised as being... is the game of basketball that much more difficult to simulate than other sports..? or are the production teams behind them just that much more incompetent, lackadaisical, indolent, and dull..?
I love OperationSports, but I typically play on default sliders because that's what most people use online. I *wish* they'd make the game more realistic, but at least it's better than Live. I DO get a ton of points in the paint but not because of exploitation. I typically play late 80s ball. Good midrange, lots of poitns in the paint, and very few 3s. Still, scoring 71 points with Lebron with default sliders on All Star is KIND OF ridiculous. I also think steals should be down. A good player can rack up about 20 steals a game using animation exploits and pokes at the ball while defending the post.
