NBA 2K8 thread, who plays?

BmwM3 · Aug 15, 2008

tawfiqmp said:

Damn it, I want to play and then I'ma take a big ass nap before I wake up for the Olympics, come on, someone just play me.
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You can always play with yourself!!

Bob Monkeyson · Aug 16, 2008

hey how come these last few posts (including mine) got deleted? anyway, I told tawfiqmp that I could play tomorrow...

ToyCen428 · Aug 16, 2008

Bob Monkeyson said:

hey how come these last few posts (including mine) got deleted? anyway, I told tawfiqmp that I could play tomorrow...
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for the record atleast, I'm glad someone wants to play with him. No really, I was at work ALL day, didnt get off til 1am. Thats my excuse.

alexdapooh · Aug 19, 2008

Okay, my dumba$$ got it to work. I was playing with the settings.. and the connection was on "Wired" and it kept saying I didn't have an ethernet cord so I wasn't able to connect. Then, I changed it to "Wireless" and now I'm able to play..

My tag is trey281 (friend's tag)... I'll be on tonight

Michael Phelps · Aug 19, 2008

Anyone like to play right now?

ghettocheeze · Aug 19, 2008

Xbox 360 gamertag: ghettocheeze

I play with the Pistons the most well balanced team in the game cause the Rockets for some reason are always underrated. Pistons have 4 guys on the floor that can shoot from downtown and Sheed has some hidden rating dropping bombs from 3 point land. I like the Pistons cause each player has the necessary qualities to play their position.

Chauncey - top notch pg can distribute the ball and get to the rack. i love running the pick and roll with Sheed and Billups.

Rip - Guy can shoot lights from medium to long range plus I run special curl plays and screens for him to get the open shot.

Prince - Sticks to his man like glue and get charges at the push of a button. I can frustrate the Kobes and Lebrons online with my defense. He an all around wingman with good stealing, rebounding and even block shots.

Sheed is beast in the low post if you know how to use him properly. Don't post him instead use him in the pick and roll game or face in up 10 feet from the basket and start taking easy shots.

I like to play with the Rockets too but our roles player are poorly rated so Battier, Rafer and Scola are mediocre at best.

Ziggy · Aug 19, 2008

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Kim · Aug 19, 2008

I love and hate this game. It's fun but it sucks. The endless backdoor cuts are impossible to stop against the computer, and the computer can't stop you either. And the programmers really need to learn about basketball defensive rotations....there are none...it's like help defense from the closest guy and that's it. What about trapping the pick and roll? What about half trapping the pick and roll? What about shooting gaps or not?

While I love them, basketball games in general are way behind football games in terms of the amount of thought that gets put into the detail, strategy, and execution.

Ziggy · Aug 19, 2008

Kim said:

I love and hate this game. It's fun but it sucks. The endless backdoor cuts are impossible to stop against the computer, and the computer can't stop you either. And the programmers really need to learn about basketball defensive rotations....there are none...it's like help defense from the closest guy and that's it. What about trapping the pick and roll? What about half trapping the pick and roll? What about shooting gaps or not?

While I love them, basketball games in general are way behind football games in terms of the amount of thought that gets put into the detail, strategy, and execution.
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Have you looked into the slider sets people come up with? They completely change the game.

Kim · Aug 20, 2008

Ziggy said:

Have you looked into the slider sets people come up with? They completely change the game.
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Yes. I've read and bunch of forums and tried all sorts of slider settings. There's just no depth to the game in terms of strategy and game play. The graphics are great; the dunks are great; cool options too...but there's just so much to basketball that it ignores.

I'm not much of a football fan, but I must admit that the Madden series is amazing. I just wish the NBA games would have the same amount of strategy involved.

LouisianaRocket · Aug 20, 2008

NBA Live 09 is going to dominate the scene...

http://www.easports.com/nbalive09/

I am more excited about Live coming out than I am about Madden.

Ziggy · Aug 20, 2008

LouisianaRocket said:

NBA Live 09 is going to dominate the scene...

http://www.easports.com/nbalive09/

I am more excited about Live coming out than I am about Madden.
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I dunno

ff-ball movement of your AI controlled teammates is more consistent with the real NBA. Players automatically set off-ball screens to free up open teammates, cut to the rim when their defender cheats toward the ball, and generally space the court better.
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That alone should be enough to beat live. Players actually making basketball decisions. A player like Scola may just pop rather than roll.

LouisianaRocket · Aug 20, 2008

Ziggy said:

I dunno

That alone should be enough to beat live. Players actually making basketball decisions. A player like Scola may just pop rather than roll.
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just wait til live hits the market, you'll see. I don't think many people will be playing 2K Sports after this year.

Ziggy · Aug 20, 2008

LouisianaRocket said:

just wait til live hits the market, you'll see. I don't think many people will be playing 2K Sports after this year.
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Not many people play 2K sports as is. EA hogs the market.

Here are the thoughts off pastapadre.com, I trust his opinion. They don't seem that exciting to me.

If I were to sum up my feelings on NBA Live 09 following the event it would be that there are a bunch of new, very exciting and fun additions to the game. However the overall gameplay still has several underlying issues that are difficult to ignore. The encouraging thing is that most of those were potentially fixable or improvable and there was no overriding issue that seemed to obscure everything else.

While at the event I got to take in the opinions of the other community members and found myself to seemingly be the least outwardly enthusiastic in general. Statements were made by some that the game had surpassed 2K and that’s not something I’m going to come out and claim. Feature wise that seems very likely however gameplay is always going to be subjective and certainly it was too rough to make that judgment already. On the other end of things I did leave extremely excited about Online Team Play, the NBA Academy, Pick & Roll Control, Lockdown Defense, and enhanced EASW video uploading options.
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. The biggest thing for me was the poor passing and a feeling of not being control of the action at all times.

* There were several instances where I felt like control got taken out of my hands. One was with the leaning into of shots that when I felt like I was doing what I needed to in order to pull up instead. Because of the tendency for it to carry me into a leaner or layup looking animation it limited me in what I could do off an explosive move.

* The other thing which did illicit some frustration was being pushed or pulled into a turnover. This happened in some cases being pushed back past the half court line after just crossing it, or being pulled out of bounds by an animation. Usually this happened with a defender in lockdown.

* There is a sense of not being quite responsive enough, for me that was especially the case with passing. Seeing an open guy, hitting the button, and not having it pass quick enough or throw the right type of pass resulted in missing out on open opportunities.

* It was discussed at length but I really struggled with passing to players based on direction of the stick. There was really no sense that I could swing it around the wing if I wanted to, or post up and then kick it out to a guy unless he was straight ahead.

* I also had times where it was almost as if it was preloading passes off of inbounds after a made basket. This could be due to me trying to rush the pass out, though I wouldn’t expect it to pass once or twice immediately after my PG got the inbounds just because I had hit the button multiple times before it passed in.

* Just from my perception it almost seemed like there were very few wide open opportunities. Obviously those should be relatively rare, however it may have to do with the passing issues where by the time the ball would get to an open man a defender had closed in on him.

* Alley-Oops may not have enough risk to them still. I saw some that went out of bounds or were deflected/intercepted however there were too many that were caught and dunked in traffic, pushed defenders out of the way, or catching and laying it up in an unnatural fashion. I did really like though how in many cases the players would just go up and catch the ball if they weren’t in scoring position.

* The one-handed intercepted passes looked great but I felt as though they were happening a little too often.

* Noticed some rebounding issues that seemed to carry over from last year. A couple players may go up for the rebound yet it is a player who stands still on the floor who it ends up falling to. I also saw the ball hit the floor a few times before being picked up.

* On fast breaks I had cases of passes intercepted when it really should have been led ahead for an easy score, no arc or lead on those passes. Or in the case of players stopping to catch a pass when they should’ve continued running.

* In the limited time I split between All-Star and Superstar. I really couldn’t say that I noticed any difference between the two. Considering its head to head though I don’t know if that is significant or not.

* There is still an overall feel of lack of agressiveness when it comes to rebounding, but especially so with loose balls. Often it didn’t even feel like the players were making full effort to get to them. I know diving isn’t in, but it was almost as though they wouldn’t go full speed even if you were controlling one and was using turbo. It’s somewhat difficult to judge how to approach the ball and occasionally that means you run right by it.

* I really liked how the double-teaming is handled, but it almost appears like the second defender in doesn’t look like he is doing much to make it more difficult for the ball handler. I think I noticed this most in the post where if you were controlling the second defender you didn’t feel like you were helping all that much.

* By the end of the day I felt like it was too difficult to drive past a defender with players who are great at doing so. I had real trouble getting Deron Williams any penetration which didn’t seem right to me. Obviously it shouldn’t be easy to drive, but I wasn’t finding any of my moves effective enough to do so, or the defender seemed to stay in front of me regardless. It could be that the explosiveness of certain players needs to be improved since at times they would feel slow to me.

* There were several instances where players with their foot on the 3 point line were credited with 3 point shots. This wasn’t just announcing errors but it was giving them 3 points. It was obvious when the shot was put up as well as in instant replay that they shouldn’t have been for 3.

* Came across that bug which messes up the broadcast camera for one side of the floor a few times. Seemed to be corrected only after committing a foul from what I tried.
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LouisianaRocket · Aug 20, 2008

His review excites the hell out of me. The issues he has problems with are music to my ears. No more glitching on fast breaks with star players. They also played a unfinished product... a lot of those issues could have been fixed the very next day.

alexdapooh · Aug 20, 2008

Here's a preview of NBA 2K9

NBA 2K9 takes everything positive from last year's game and adds a whole lot more. The question is, will that be enough?

Each year the stakes get a bit higher and game developers are put into the difficult position of one-upping the games from a year ago. The best example of this may be basketball games, where both the NBA 2K and NBA Live series must top not only last year's iteration but also each other. Luckily for them both, they seem to be delivering year in and year out, and this year is no exception. NBA 2K9 takes everything positive from last year's game and adds a whole lot more.

Shutting down Chris Paul won't be as easy this year as the defensive lock-down controls aren't as effective as in last year's game.

As has been the case with each release in the NBA 2K franchise, the game's presentation has seen its share of improvements in NBA 2K9. While the player models are still not on par with those in last year's NBA Live 08, they do appear more lifelike than NBA 2K8's players. Players will now scowl after a disagreeable call and nod their heads tauntingly on "and-1" opportunities. There may be additional emotions that come out, but these are the only ones we have seen firsthand. There is a thin layer of sweat on everyone's forehead (independent of the player's physical exertion up to that point) that appears too glossy to be lifelike, but this may still be an element that 2K is tweaking.

Like the players, the crowds appear more dynamic in NBA 2K9. They react to events in the game, and it's difficult to spot any repeat fans at a quick glance (if they exist). After each game you will be greeted with a highlight reel of the biggest layups, dunks, and rejections from the game. These replays are shown at full speed from a variety of camera angles and are meant to mimic the commercial preludes used in TNT's NBA broadcasts. As a result, these segments don't include commentary that may have given the feature a more postgame recap feel.

Speaking of commentary, NBA 2K9 includes a new broadcasting team. While Kevin Harlan will still be bringing you the play-by-play, he is joined in the booth this year by Clark Kellogg, replacing Kenny Smith from last year's game. Similarly, instead of Craig Sager (colorful suits and all), Cheryl Miller takes over the sideline reporting this year.

The presentation improvements give the gameplay a more authentic feel as well. New animations have been added for backward dribbling (only when walking), reach-from-behind steals, diving out of bounds to save the ball, and even stripping a player as he goes up for a shot. An animation has been added for step-throughs if you manage to get your defender up in the air on a fake, and talented dribblers can dribble out of double teams.

While signature animations were included in NBA 2K8, this year's game applies the same principle to defensive players for the first time. Premier perimeter defenders like Bruce Bowen, Shane Battier, and Ron Artest now have access to unique defensive animations as will shot blockers such as Marcus Camby and Kevin Garnett.

In addition to the more-cosmetic improvements in the game, new gameplay features have been added to make the game more realistic than NBA 2K8. While the breadth of plays has carried over from 2K8, the off-ball movement of your AI-controlled teammates is more consistent with the real NBA. Players automatically set off-ball screens to free up open teammates, cut to the rim when their defender cheats toward the ball, and generally space the court better. For those who do prefer calling set plays, 2K9's addition of inbounds plays should make the final minutes of close games a bit more technical.

The improved AI applies to pick-and-rolls as well. After calling for an on-ball screen (done by pressing down on the right analog stick this year), players will either roll or pop depending on their actual tendencies.

While the shooting remains mapped to the right analog (shot) stick this year, NBA 2K9 will let you modify the type of shot in midair (by directing the shot stick in a different direction) to avoid getting blocked. Though the practical application of modifying your shots in midair may require an unreal understanding of how different animations interact together, it does open the door to some sick double-clutch moves.

The transition game should also take a turn for the better in NBA 2K9 with the ability to queue multiple passes. This should make give-and-goes more seamless in transition and even open up new possibilities in the half-court against aggressive opponents. In fact, there may be more application for give-and-goes than in years past. NBA 2K9 lets you set a defensive strategy for each of your players individually. You can direct your AI teammates to conservatively maintain position, to play aggressively to force turnovers, or even to leave their man to double a particular player when he receives the ball (yep, Rondo's inability to shoot will hurt Celtic players this year).

Like the AI defense, the user-controlled defense will see its share of changes this year. Gone is the old "lock-on defense" trigger that would enable Shaq to man up on Chris Paul. In its place is a new adjustable lock-on feature that simply directs your defender three to four feet in from of the ball handler. A small meter that looks like a cellphone bar will appear below your defender and will show you how far off you are from your opponent. While holding the lock-on trigger, you can push the right analog stick toward your opponent to close the distance and pressure the ball or even favor a particular side.

While 2K9 does include a healthy dose of gameplay improvements, the physics in the game are still not as sharp as they could be. These include herky-jerky animation transitions (especially when the user changes his mind mid-animation), offensive players not falling to the ground on a charge or block (the defenders do though), play immediately stopping when the whistle blows following a foul or violation (the ball immediately drops from the player's hands), and small guards sometimes sinking seemingly impossible shots while surrounded by bigs and other times getting rejected from behind (it seems arbitrary). You will still run into occasional clipping issues, but the 2K team has tweaked the game to eliminate the missing wide-open layups. The majority of the above are known issues, though, and are still being worked on.

All of the game modes from NBA 2K8 return in this year's game. While the blacktop and dunk contests are similar to last year's modes, NBA 2K9's franchise mode (the Association) has been improved to provide a more immersive experience. The Association includes additional in-game tutorials to make the mode more user-friendly (a knock against many 2K games in the past). In addition to a new trading AI, which should provide a more authentic franchise experience, trades involving more than three players/picks per team are now possible (though 2K wouldn't say how many). Although the Association has seen additional upgrades as well, the rest is still under wraps at this point.

One game mode that should add a new element to the game this year is five-on-five online play. Judging by some of the off-ball controls that 2K has added, the developers have clearly benefited from seeing a similar feature released earlier this year in NBA Live 08 (via a patch). Additional controls have been provided for players without the ball, including the ability to hold and grab your opponent (though a foul will occasionally be called). On the other side, players attempting to get free from a defender can slap hands away and make fake first steps to create separation. Even the controls for setting picks and drawing charges seem as though they will be important to online play. To provide you with a better view of what your player sees, each player will play with a unique camera angle that will dynamically reposition itself to follow the action, though you can always switch to the default camera if you don't like the perspective.

New animations, such as blocks from behind, will have you looking over your shoulder on every drive to the hoop.

Going a step further, 2K has also added a grading system that will let you provide feedback on how pleasurable your online experience was with each of your teammates. This will allow users to flag teammates who never pass the ball, who put up wild shots, or who refuse to defend their man. These "grades" will appear next to each user's name the next time they join a game.

Fans of the 2K franchises will be happy to hear that NBA 2K9 now supports 2K Share. This will let you share rosters, sliders, franchises, and even created players with your friends online. Now instead of thousands of players attempting to make Jordan, one person can just share his created Jordan with the rest of the world. Hopefully this will lead to the creation of some realistic old-school teams.

NBA 2K9 is better than last year's game in every regard. Everything that made last year's game such a success has been brought over, and new features such as an improved franchise mode and online five-on-five should add to the game's experience. Though with all the improvements in NBA Live this year, consumers may have a difficult choice this season.
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Angkor Wat · Aug 20, 2008

LouisianaRocket said:

They also played a unfinished product... a lot of those issues could have been fixed the very next day.
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That is a whole lot of issues. I've heard nothing but positives about 2K9.

JD2010 · Aug 20, 2008

Angkor Wat said:

That is a whole lot of issues. I've heard nothing but positives about 2K9.
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Same here, IGN got their hands on the game and even though it was unfinished they said it was very good.

E.A Sucks

KaiSeR SoZe · Aug 20, 2008

the 2k series always owns live

but i heard the 2k guy went to ea this year and some things have changed..we just gotta wait and see if its enough to trumph 2k

Michael Phelps · Aug 20, 2008

Nothing is going to beat 2k, NBA Live's game play sucks so much that even with all it's features, it's not worth buying.

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NBA 2K8 thread, who plays?

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