NBA 2K13 Initial Thoughts - Jakeness23's Blog

Jakeness23's Blog

NBA 2K13 Initial Thoughts

Posted on October 2, 2012 at 02:58 PM.

Offense is spectacular. Defense... leaves a little to be desired. Though I haven't played it "a lot," these are just my first impressions. I played on All-Star difficulty on simulation sliders FYI.

When I am on defense, I don't know if it's my controller, but my players seem to be stuck in mud. They cannot slide quick at all, I like that it is toned down from last year, but it seems to be a little too much. The CPU players seem to out muscle my players on almost every play. Iguodola was pushing my players out of the way left and right (which to some point I understand because he is a strong, slasher type), BUT he was pushing my players out of the way when he was in the air...

Another thing I noticed was, my players refuse to try and strip the ball. Gallinari was dunking all over the place, even when I had guys in the way AND when I was trying to strip him, they just refused to do it. Maybe they were scared... I don't know...

The art... oh boy, the art... I don't want to say it's terrible. But it ain't good...
Orlando's blue looks more like UNC blue (the court is the right color, why aren't the jerseys?). Knicks orange is way too dark. Clippers red is pink. Thunder blue is still too light. White accessories are gray again, very annoying to look at. There is still no home/away accessory option (c'mon really, can it be that hard to put in the game?)

The PA announcer says my name when I score yet the play-by-play guys keep calling me "Insanity." This wasn't a problem the last two years, I hate hearing a nickname instead of my actual name...

Gameplay: 9/10
Audio: 7/10 (crowd could use some improvement)
Art: 6/10 (Too many players look weird, almost no difference in body types, jerseys don't fit right, accessories are okay but no home/away option kills it, I could go on and on about art)

Overall I'd probably give it a 8/10. Still a great game, I'm sure patches will fix somethings, hopefully we get some art updates (and hopefully patches won't break anything).

What do you think?

Comments

# 1 priceutd @ Oct 2

Yeah, i played 5 games online last night after getting it. The first game drove me absolutely nuts on defense. I was using Rondo and the guy couldn't slap any balls away. I was going against the Lakers and Kobe could get into the paint and lay it in every single time. 95% of my opponents points came from in the paint. I'm HUGE on defense and putting as much if not more emphasis on that side of the floor and it didn't do anything. I'm sure a patch will fix some of these things. Apart from that, the game's absolutely amazing. I love how the players all have a feel and will take getting used to driving to drive a 200 pounder down the lane. PEOPLE add ME PRICEUTD

# 2 deacon21206 @ Oct 2

I haven't had the same problem. I have been able to get on ball steals and jump passing lanes.
I did have to get use to the movement on defense. What works for me is not holding LT or L2 down to defend since it sets your feet you can cut off people if you shuffle right press D, but for less intense on ball D I just use little movements with the Left Analog. That has been working great for me and I have been to stay in front when I don't guess wrong or if player I am defending isn't quite faster.

# 3 DaReapa @ Oct 2

Nice to finally see an objective review of the game rather than the typical overzealous fanatic or blatant ***** impressions. I sensed some of what you mentioned in the demo, but thought that I could get a better assessment once I got an opportunity to try the full version.

# 4 DaReapa @ Oct 2

^^^
Wow! The word "h a t e r" is being blocked now??

# 5 Gramps91 @ Oct 2

As far as the gameplay I'm pretty happy. The only thing I don't like is the post game. In 2k12 when you posted up when you pressed triangle to get out of post you could easily get inside. It's a lot harder this year. I also didn't like the pump fakes on the demo but they seem to be better in the full version.

The only other problem I have is not having a full roster update. Half the rookies are missing which really ticks me off. I have to wait until they're included before I even start an association. ugh!

# 6 Jakeness23 @ Oct 2

I also have instances where I completely lose control of my player, especially on defense or when I am in the post on offense.

It is also far to easy for the CPU to get into the lane, they just push you out of the way. They need to find a good balance between 12 & 13. And on offense I'll try to do one thing, and my player does something completely different, like pump fakes or a step through or something crazy.

# 7 ccoaxum @ Oct 2

i agree with all of this..no need to say anymore.(i see these things in the retail version)

# 8 jwtucker710 @ Oct 3

Slider alert: up the fatigue level and decrease the speed of the game to about 45. Also, adjust the offensive rebounding by 10 and decrease dunking by 10. Play quarters at 8min.
You'll get more of a sim.

# 9 sjp2469 @ Oct 3

Hey, Jakeness, thanks for the early thoughts. It's nice to hear someone be as objective and not get caught up in the excitement of a new iteration. From the sounds of it it would seem like an upgrade over 2k12, but is it worth my $$??? I've no doubt i'll cave and buy it.

# 10 Jakeness23 @ Oct 3

The offensive gameplay IMO makes it well worth it. Hopefully a patch will work out the defensive kinks and hopefully we actually get art updates this year ***fingers crosses***. And the hex editors will make the accessory colors look more accurate. I'd say it's worth it.

# 11 Slimshady718 @ Oct 4

False. Dude sounds like he just wants to bash the game. Learn how to play D fence

# 12 Slimshady718 @ Oct 4

You say players look weird?? Well that's NBA players for you their ugly people. And the art is just fine the colors look like that cuz it's VIRTUAL Hello

# 13 Jakeness23 @ Oct 4

Okay troll, I'm not trying to bash the game. I've loved the 2K series for a while now, I just think it could improve in some areas. And HELLO, it's virtual, so they can edit the colors to mimic the real thing, look at what the hex editors do every year to make it look better. Look at moddingway.com.

Side note: There, their, and they're... learn the difference between them.

# 14 piccolomair @ Oct 6

I could have sworn there was a thread (and i want to say it was started by a 2k dev) that was opened for posting bugs and such...i cant find that thread, but i wanted to add a few things (not sure if someone else had)

I played blacktop mode and teh gameplay was fun, but i had a few issues with a few things

1) score box vanished in the middle of the game. I heard this happened in a few other game modes as well, its annoying.

2)Warping after cut. Basically after a made basket or foul, if you press A, the game does a cut to skip all the nonsense of having to go find the ball and lineup players and pass the ball in. The problem is after the cut the players not involved in checking the ball are warped. In a two on two game, i would go find my man, stick to him, the cut would happen, and suddenly im on the other side of the court while my man is standing under the rim. Before i can get to my man he gets the ball and lays it in..

3) Auto check. This was pretty annoying, the computer would at times just check the ball when i wasnt ready. Essentially say its computer ball, my player gets to the top of the key holding the ball. I want to wait for my partner to get to his man, im not pressing anything on the controller. My player ends up handing the ball to the computer and the computer got the jump.

4) Pinned under Rim. Often times on defense my player would just get stuck under the rim, unable to get boards or contest shots, or simply move while the computer was hopping up and down like a jack rabit under the rim.

5) Long winded 'fail' animatons. This coupled with 2 and 3 was the most annoying. Sometimes if you got dunked on or just knocked down, the player would go through a very long winded animaton (that wouldnt stop even after the cut referenced to in 2) essentially taking control of the player away during the game. Making the game 1on2 essentially.

This all happened in blacktop 2v2 (team 1 was two human players, team 2 was A.I Computer). I think blacktop can be a lot of fun, but i think these bugs really took away from the mode, i also think it sucks that only human players go through this, the a.i never got long winded animations or got stuck under the rim.

These bugs were visible in every game we played, and we played about 8 (3 games straight using rematch option, turned the game off and came back later, then played 3 more games using rematch option, then went to menu to choose new players and played 2 games using rematch option)

hopefully its something easy to fix and can be done by the next update...