Hilary Goldstein, from what I can gather, is an idiot. I also read about it at some forums and they brought up good points on his review of Live and ESPN. On Live, he talked mostly about the dunk contest, never even really talking about much else, yet on ESPN, he had to talk about every little thing he didn't like, even if it meant contradicting himself. (way too easy to score, but I keep committing charges. They never shoot threes and they score a lot in the inside) In fact, I think some people got him on how he said the CPU was stupid enough to have Shaq post up for 2 seconds on Andre Miller but then stop and take a 18ft jumper. He blamed the CPU, yet the replay shows a user indicator under Shaq, meaning he probably just set up some isolation play and had Shaq take the shot so that he could bash the CPU. I also love how he played mostly on the second difficulty level but claimed it was too easy to score. Strangely enough, he loved the 24/7 mode, a feature most ESPN fans really care little about since it is kind of a arcade street ball feature...hmm...that sounds familiar. In the end, it got a big drop from ESPN Basketball, which was rated by someone else. I like how the graphics got a lower score than last year's version. Just to add more to the pile, someone said that he also wrote that Madden had better animations that ESPN this year. Just for comparison, Gamespot game Live a 7.9(PS2)and a 8.0(Xbox). (I forgot exactly what Live got at IGN, but it was a 9 something) Gamespot said what I heard from a lot of people and that Live 2005 was pretty much Live 2004 with a dunk contest. I'm curious to see what they put up on ESPN 2K5. Hopefully, even if it does get a low score, they could describe it a lot better than Goldstein did. I will probably have to wait on my copy. I preordered it off the ESPN site, but with the news I've been hearing on the PS2 version, I'm not sure when I'll get it. I'm not really dying to know much about the game since I'm cool with just waiting until later this week or early next week, but I'll go ahead and ask a few. I've read that there are suppose to be loose ball fouls. Have you experienced any? Is the pro hop really too "godly?" From some of the videos, it didn't look too bad, but this really killed it for me in Live. How's the post up feature? I love watching it on the clips and can't wait to try it out. Does the CPU (the opponent's and yours) run the plays well? Some of the clips looks pretty cool when I saw some players coming off screen for shots, but I'd like to know if these are exceptions or if it seems to run them similiar to a real NBA team. How's the Full Authority feature? This looks pretty cool for me since I'll occasionally want to sim a game, but I hate it when Yao only takes 5 shots. That's a little more than a few. Looks like I want this game a little more than I let on. Thanks to anyone who answers these.
One thing that i definently noticed right off the bat playing my friend for one game is that double team this year is really good. Like when i gave TMac the ball they would converge on him and really surround him and you can see him struggle and to pass out of it was really hard. It's not just some weak double team that stands there and you can dribble out. They have really taken out the dribbling all over the place nonsense. You have to make sure you pass quickly becuase if you get caught in a double team either your going to get the pass knocked away or they will steal the ball. They Defensive AI is much better than in last years version by a land slide. With Tmac i was able to pull off some nifty dribbles then a hop step to a nice runner so it was very fluid in it's motion. The Post game was pretty decent as well i didn't do many when i played the only game iw as able to play before coming to work. Another thing that is really cool is like if you are on the run and go up for a layup and someone steps in front of you. your man seems to kind of bounce off and look like he is loosing his balance and have to fade back and throw up an off balance shot and it looks really realistic. They have added a lot of little touches like that, that make the physics of the game so much better.
Some of these little things I've seen in the clips get me so excited. I think I saw a little bit of what you mentioned on a newer clip with Allen Iverson. He was driving and went up but there was a defender their, so he kind of turned his back and tried to flip it in without even looking at the basket. IIRC, I think it was like the shot Kobe had made on us in the playoffs off of Cato, I think, although AI missed this one. It just looked some much like what some of them do in the NBA.
yeah for sure i will play just add my gamertag if you want xxstackxx If i play it's always later on in the night since i am at the bar until late...but that's when i play madden online and ESPN as well.
So is the computer D alot better? Or can i still knock down 25 3's a game? That stupid pump fake annoyed me, made it too easy to score. I got 2 hours before i go pick it up (either this or live), somebody help me out and let me know if you know what im talkin about form 2k4. The D was crap and too easy to knock down 3's, turning the game into a 3 point contest. Even on superstar level.
I've bought the 2k series for years. I last bought NBA Live 99 i believe. I was very disapointed with the gameplay last year; they are credited with the realism factor but it was far from it. The reviews on this one haven't seemed to fair any better. I'm debating on whether or not i'll pick up a basketball game period.
From what i saw you can't pump fake people as easily anymore the AI for the Defense is really better. Like i said the Computer will put a double team trap on you really quickly if your handling your star player and make it hard to pass out of the double team causing more turnovers if you just sit here and run around with your star player like some of these online games do. You basically can't run around with Kobe for 24 seconds without getting a hard double team catching up to you. The defense tends to close in on the lane quicker and they don't fall for the same pump fakes. As far as threes go they didn't seem to go in as easy on pro level which i was playing cuase i wanted a quick game. i went i believe 3 for 8 and the ones i hit were wide open looks out of good passing. 2 with TMac and 1 with JJ. I haven't played it enough to see what the 3's are like but from that one game they didn't seem as easy to hit a bunch of threes.
I played my second game against the Bobcats. I'm starting to realy love this game. The flow feels just right, and you have to work a half-court offense to score, and I was on Pro which is one of the easier levels. I drove a couple of times with TMac and, once he went up for a layup with guys jumping all-around trying to block, I just dumped it right over to Yao or JJ for a dunk which was nice! The only thing that I have found that I don't really like is the movement and/or the force-field effect sometimes. There are a few times I passed to a guy wide open 10 feet from the basket with a huge lane for a dunk and, either he would start his drive goofy allowing for the defense to catch up quick and prevent an easy dunk and/or a defender would get even semi-close and my player's movement went from just running and dribbling to either a post up or drive animation which, again, goofed up what should have been an easy dunk. That is a small complaint. It hasn't effected the game enough to make a difference and Live has the same kind of weird force-field effect between players. With only two games played it is hard to tell if this is something, but it seems as if there are genuine runs that teams make. Both games I have played there were times it seemed everything was going great for the other team resulting in like a 8 to 10-0 run. If this is right then that just adds to the realism of the game as you have to work your way through these periods just like in the NBA.
I've never played a bball game other than live and some old snes games... but i prepaid for nba 2k5 and i can't wait.. I want realism and sim-like games. It seems like the people who like arcadish type games defend or sway to NBA Live, fans of sim games which are sometimes more "boring" like the 2K series.. to me, the arcade flashy run and gun games are the boring ones and i've been a EA sheep for the past few years since i thought no other game would be better than live.. after a dissappointing live 2003 and a little better 04, i dont think 05 is going to give me my simulation fix this year.. although I will get live in the future, mostly for the Franchise mode, NBA 2k5 will be in my console tomorrow evening (hopefully) and I am prepared to not sleep until i have to work saturday LOL
Well my friend, this is as sim as I have ever seen. I started a franchise with the Rockets and, of course, the first game is at Detroit. Their defense was serious, especially at first and I found myself down by 20 after one quarter. TMac kept me half way in it until Yao was finally able to start scoring in the second quarter. Billups and Hamilton were killing me, especially once they got my missed shots and fastbreaked. I was able to claw back in it by halftime. It was a close game throughout the second half, but I could never even get to a tie. I lost 121-117. Billups had 25 pts, 14 ast. with Hamilton getting 25 pts. Ben Wallace had only 10 pts., but had 16 rbs and 3 blocks. TMac, like I said, kept me in it the whole time scoring 52 with Yao getting 26 & 14 rbs. Ward, my starting PG, dished 14 ast. It was great at the end as their defense would stiffen up and their crowd was chanting "DEFENSE!" I got home at 3:30 with the game and I haven't been able to stop playing since.
Full 12 minute quarters. I wanted to see if it was a good time to get realistic scores. I may have to turn it down a little since a real game nowadays is in the 90's.
I will hopefully be picking this up today... anyone know if Hakeem is in the game? I'm guessing not...
For you guys looking for reviews; I usually go to a place called gamerankings where they average together tons of different ratings on each game. You can see what they have on NBA Live here: http://gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/920478.asp Unfortunately, not enough folks have reviewed ESPN yet, but once there are a few more it'll be a good way of looking and comparing reviews. I should get the chance to try both today; I'm looking forward to testing them out.
