The Future of Basketball Gaming

[bjones16]

Quote: Originally Posted by JBH3

NBA 2K10 is quite possibly the greatest sports game I've ever played. Having never played "The Show" though I can't say it IS the G.O.A.T, but for me...it is. With that said, I'm thoroughly disappointed w/ the 2nd patch, but regardless NBA2K10 is a great GREAT game. No other 360 title offers as much in-depth franchise (association) options as 2K10. There's still a lot of work to be done on NBA2Ks association product too. Better gameplay AI, better off-court decision making e.g. player acquisitions, drafting, etc. MyPlayer is still in it's infancy. At it's core is a fun game, but it's just a skeletal frame right now. The mode though sets a precedent for basketball gaming, and if improved upon is a BIG part of the future of basketball gaming.

This is by far one of the most ignorant comments. 2k10 one of the best sports games ever?? WOW! Are you talking about the same game with no foot planting, player skating, no player control, and not mid range game. How many points do you score in the paint in your games??

Both games are flawed and neither one will probably be much better next year but Im sorry guys....Live is closer to perfection.

[st0rmb11]

Quote: Originally Posted by bjones16

This is by far one of the most ignorant comments. 2k10 one of the best sports games ever?? WOW! Are you talking about the same game with no foot planting, player skating, no player control, and not mid range game. How many points do you score in the paint in your games?? Both games are flawed and neither one will probably be much better next year but Im sorry guys....Live is closer to perfection.

He said it's one of the greatest sports games HE'S EVER PLAYED. he didn't say it was one of the best ever.

[kgisbeast]

I hear what you guys are saying about lots to improve upon. I disagree about saying Mike Wang left and 2k went downhill. 2k10 is a much better game than 2k8. I have 2k7 here i popped it in and laughed. If those games were so much better everyone would be playing them. They really weren't. Even for their time 2k10 has made noticeable improvements. Maybe a little bit in the lack of polish department but 2k games have always been buggy. 2k8 was a buggy mess imo and even worse than 2k10. That's probably why Wang left because he got frustrated with the lack of fixing certain issues... I'm in the minority and really disliked 2k8. The AI in that game was so juiced and predictable and there were so many holes. I remember making a post here how i could score 100+ points with any decent pf, and people laughed at me because i didn't like that game. It was true. I wasn't even trying to cheese, but PF's were way overpowered. You shot with your pf's you would shoot 90%. The pick and roll you could also score every time. The PITP issue has been here for a long time. When Mike Wang was there it was as bad as ever. The past two years they actually made a conscious effort to correct it, which makes 2k10 a much better game by default. The presentation and tendencies are light years ahead in this game. My point is, 2k is a team of people and one guy isn't the savior. Sure he will bring things to the table. The one thing with 2k8 and 2k7 that was better is the control was somewhat more responsive and the game just seemed a bit smoother. Edit: I just popped in 2k7 and that same framerate hiccup is still there when you pan in 2k cam(and when you are in the paint), and the control is as clunky as ever, so i'm not even sure if that is true. Mike Wang is the most overhyped developer ever? kidding... He did work on Inside Drive though so I'll give him credit. Inside Drive was one of the most fresh and fun basketball games I've played. Inside Drive and Live both had a certain fun factor to them, so maybe that's his thing. Fun Factor.

As far as Live being close to perfection. Maybe for what it was, the footplanting was nice, the interface was nice. It was pretty fun. But it had a long long ways to go to be anything close to a Sim. No fast breaks. Cartoony animations, rebounding, steals, AI etc, etc are all very unrealistic and the control isn't there as far as getting is passing lanes, boxing out etc.. Players in Live regardless of DNA rarely play like their nba counterparts. In live how many times do you see KG stand at the elbow and hit the open jumper? Do you really feel ike you are controlling rondo running around in Live? You don't? EVeryone plays the same. In 2k that happens. Tendencies are very good in 2k10. Animations are very good. Where it's lacking is the sliding and just polish of the game. The player models are too herky jerky. The framerates. Online play isnt as smoothly integrated as it could be. It's lacking something as far as overall polish and fun.

Maybe that's where Mike Wang comes in. What I'd like to see is someone blend arcadish responsiveness and control to a realistic Sim. Smooth framerates. Player Models that move and feel organic is all part of that. Smooth Online play and integration and the interface and the way the game is presented is all part of this. The Show does this for the most part. I'd like to see a basketball game do it. Inside Drive and Live were fun games and gave that arcadish and responsive feel to their player models. Where they were lacking was in the sim elements as far as tendencies, realistic presentation, amount of control etc... Hopefully 2k can blend those two things. They have the sim elements and presentation down. They are lacking something as far as ease of use, arcade responsiveness, and just integration of all these things. The Show is the only game I've seen do this. EA has the arcade feel down but they really could use 2k's sim abilities. It's like if EA and 2k merged all would be well. Sony has it figured out with the Show. EA and 2k have been kind of floundering in one way or another. EA does certain things well. 2k does certain things. They are opposites in a lot of ways. Sony took everything they were missing and made it into the Show.

[JBH3]

Quote: Originally Posted by bjones16

This is by far one of the most ignorant comments. 2k10 one of the best sports games ever?? WOW! Are you talking about the same game with no foot planting, player skating, no player control, and not mid range game. How many points do you score in the paint in your games?? Both games are flawed and neither one will probably be much better next year but Im sorry guys....Live is closer to perfection.

Reading is fundamental.

Out the box 2K10, like any other 2K title or sports title for that matter, sucks. However, w/ the right slider combination you can find a wonderful game waiting. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, so you have to find the slider combination suitable to your style of play.

As for PIP I play as the 6ers and get a lot of points off of Igoudala and Louis Williams driving to the lane. However, I do nurture a mid-range game, and have the user/CPU tendency sliders set so that there's a good amount of mid-range jumpers being taken.

Live being closer to perfection is h i l a r i o u s. You can't even fire a coach in their pathetic "dynasty" mode. Larry Brown or Jerry Sloan would be coaching their respective teams if you somehow decided to play to 2020 in that silly mode. That's just issue #1 in a laundry list of issues w/ Live.

Quote: Originally Posted by st0rmb11

He said it's one of the greatest sports games HE'S EVER PLAYED. he didn't say it was one of the best ever.

Thank you.

[JayMizzle]

Yea...this should be a blog not an article. I don't agree with the statement of 2k9 being better than 2K10. You gotta be kidding me. 2K10 is what the evolution is all about. Yes the framerate problem is major but c'mon when that bug is ironed out, 2K basketball is and will continue to be the team-to-beat.

I think the NCAA should lower its cost or whatever the issue is so 2K can get the license back for College Hoops. That series was the best, I still play it today. I often think of "what if" when I play it. It's a thing of beauty. Same as the NFL2Ks series, man we need this balance in videogame entertainment.

N e ways...yeaaaaa this article had tons of potential but no cigar.

[JerseySuave4]

so the writer of this article appears to be at the peak of his gaming. Good for him then that he no longer wants to pay for new games because he thinks there is no need. There are plenty of other people that enjoy spending the money to play a game that gives them hours of enjoyment throughout the year.

Just because you have hit a point where you can't justify spending $60 on a new game each year, doesn't mean there aren't kids that just are getting into playing video games that look forward to a new game every year just like we did when we would buy Live 95 after we had Live 94, Madden 98 when we had Madden 97. Just because you're getting older and have decided that the $60 you spend on buying a new game is not as much of apriority to where i feel i need to spend it, doesn't mean there are others that don't mind spending that same $60.

You seem to be saying there is no point to try and improve things and there is no place to go from here except better pictures. Maybe that's how you feel, but those buying the games every year might feel otherwise.

[Epiffani]

I really don't know why I read any further after an opening like this:

Quote:

NBA 2K9 was a fantastic game. It made major improvements upon its predecessor, and the only real problem I had with it was the fact that the Seattle SuperSonics were no longer a team. So of course 2K10 would be way better right? Well, not quite.

In my opinion, the improvements from 2K8 to 2K9 were either marginal, or cosmetic; 2K9 was definitely the better looking game between the two, but still you have to factor in the areas where the series regressed (i.e. controls, A.I), and areas that weren't improved on (i.e. spacing). In short, there's no way that I'd consider NBA 2K9 a "major improvement" over NBA 2K8 and then turn around and say that NBA 2K10 isn't a major improvement over 2K9. Sounds completely counter-productive when you take into account the innovation and feature that was incorporated into this years effort. I have to agree that this is a terrible article; hard for me to even remember O.S releasing an article with so many holes and flawed logic within it.

[eDotd]

Yea, I stopped reading after he said 2K9 > 2K10.

Let me guess, 2K needs a new engine?