Thanks for making a thread like this. Player Animation packages have been a leading interest of mine since we've been able to change them(2k9?)
Sometime its nice to see the same one carry over from year to year, sometimes not so much. In the case of vince and Kobe ,for example, I think they should have 2 packages for each player. One, representing their younger years and another representing they're current choice in strong finishes.
Alot of the players you mentioned (DeRozan, Griffin) demand a fresh dunk package. But in the case of Wes Johnson and E. Turner, they're styles also deserve to be represented for 2 reasons.
1) Though Turner isn't a high flier, his dunk package is a good fit for similarly built/athletic players. Wes Johnson on the other hand can str8 out fly, Though i find his after dunk animations to be a bit out of place from time to time. Or, rather, not exclusive to his dunk package or how he actually celebrates his dunks in NBA games.
2) Both players mo-capped NBA 2k11, so for VC to say "thanks for the one year, we don't need your dunk animations anymore" isn't fair to them, to future mo-cappers, and us the people who support our favorite sports game company(assuming people care about things like that, which they probably do)
My biggest request(s) in the dunk/lay-up package discussion would be
1) Ability to openly view and edit dunk packages similar to how we made a dribble package in 2k11. Don't like VC's Elbow dunk? Take it out of your game.
Think J-Rich should be throwing down this windmill instead of that one, make it so number 1
.
With the specialty dunk section(which i'll expand on shortly) this should be possible and i'm very surprised that more people don't push for this. Especially the animation stifflers. Instead it's all about authentic headbands and the way whats his name ties his shoes. We'll have to wait and see.
2) ability to create, name and save multipul dunk/lay-up packages.
This could save VC a bit of time while at the same time making more of their game available to edit by paying users. Who doesn't want more for their money, especially nowadays in this cyclical consumer 'Culture' of North America.
When I first heard about specialty dunks i though we had reached that particular nirvana, but after using them in conjunction for extended periods of time they seem out of place and not just because a few of them are unrealistic, but also because they seemed to take priority over whatever dunk package you chose.
Not to mention they've been the same since they were implemented, and their only a handful to pick from and 10 slots to assign them to, which is definitely better then a lesser number but 25, i think, would be a better more realistic number.
So, in short, 'Specialty Dunks' should include
every dunk in the game, all of them!!!!!!!. We seemingly have access to everything else except all dunk and lay-up animations.
I mean, this year we'll have the ability to (sort of) create-a-jumpshot by combining different lower body animations with different upper body animations. Creating a Dunk would be a messy process(NBA in the zone by Konami, or was it the NBA Shootout series?) so a system like that would need time, but creating a package seems like something that can be done and polished in a years time.
No one with the game has posted any information on this yet so I can still hope, but if it's the same specialty dunks this year and only a few new obligatory dunk/lay-up packages (Griffin) i'll be a bit disappointed in this department.
To end on a positive, Im really liking some of the new dunks exclusive to 2k12 that we've seen in videos so far. Especially a few by dirk and one particular Alley-oop by James. See :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lJAVE5_m_M
DUNK PACKAGES:
New Current Players Packages: Pretty Much everyone you mentioned, the more the merrier)
New Legends Packages: Again, no disagreement or addendum's here. Actually, why not throw Wilt in there? And a classic Shaq package would be icing on the cake. ok, maybe 3 addendums then, a Barkley package called 'Guerilla Dunks' that would cover a few people like L.Ellis from the '94 Nuggets
Ones I think should NOT Return: See: The more the Merrier. Personally i'm a big fan of Worthy's old 'go up with 1 and finish with 2'
Ones I think should be Updated: The 'generic' packages, Rimgrazer, Athletic Guard(which seems updates judging by the Kobe Dunk package video. Oh, and Melo seems really outdated
On a side note, The video showed that Kobe's actual dunk package is not selectable, meaning either 1)you have to unlock it or 2) its that same silly glitch from last year that only dunkers with a rating of 80 or higher can have an 'advanced' dunk package. Both of which are pretty....bad
LAYUP PACKAGES: Again, you seems to cover all the bases here, but i'd like to suggest an Awkward Bigman package.
New Current Players Packages:
New Legends Packages: You forgot Mr. Logo/Mr. Clutch, Jerry West. Definately alot of signature style to be had there.