RaychelSnr's Blog
Last week I wrote about how NBA Live's promoters have gone silent. There's not a peep coming out of EA's HQ -- which may be for the game's best for now.
However, for 2K Sports, this is another big season for their flagship title with some key questions hanging over it's head. After a season marred with unrealistic expectations from consumers and a few key gaffes, NBA 2K13 is looking to meet a more realistic set of expectations this season. Here are four things I'm personally looking for from 2K this season:
- Online Play that actually works. The server problems with the 2K series reached a crescendo last season, and I honestly can't think of many other major release games that simply do not work when they launch in their online modes. This has to change this year, it's the one glaring hole that 2K has left open for EA to potentially grab a small but sizeable portion of the basketball gaming audience. Making online play a working and smooth endeavor would put the series instantly on long-term solid ground.
- A control scheme that doesn't take a NASA scientist to figure out. I love the depth of NBA 2K, I really do...but the control scheme has gotten to the point that it's darned near impossible to play the game with any skill whatsoever without spending hours upon hours learning the controls. I have a solution to the problem, and that's two different control sets -- one for the hardcore people who don't mind the added learning curve and one for the more casual folks who simply want to play basketball like the big guys without too much hassle. Seems simple enough right?
- Another step up on the presentation front. I'd truly like to see an even more refined presentation from the 2K series. It's probably the best Presentation in sports games right now, but it can always be better. I don't want to see a lax approach to this, I want to see real and positive momentum.
- Refine the actual basketball a bit. As the detail goes up either via hardware or software, consumers will find more and more to nitpick about. We're getting to that point with NBA 2K. However, I'd like to see a lot of the little things that need refining and tuning to be given just that treatment. At times, 2K just doesn't play as smooth as it should -- but I'd expect for a step generally in the right direction once again this season. It felt like last year's game swam sideways a bit, which was probably the big issue with most gamers. I don't think we'd see a repeat of that this year with Live also hitting store shelves.
# 2
tommyboii2008 @ Jul 31
I agree with ALL your points and I'm going to stuck with the 4 points as well and I'm going to say:
1. Return of My Crew. Give me a reason to play through yet another My Player career and give us the opportunity to play with our players online after we put soo much time into him.
2. Defensive awareness. Too many times when a player has speed, they can turn the corner to easily on the defense and its like the defenders dont know what to do even if they can see the play coming a mile away.
3. Speed needs to be better differentiated. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum should NOT be able to catch Chris Paul on a break away fast break to the basket.
4. The A.I. has to be smarter. Better court spacing in transition, Have post player engage defenders more (which doesn't happen when a zone is being run). And have the defense pay attention to whats going on on the court and not just focus on his man and his man only..
As you can see, I care mostly about gameplay, because no matter how good a game looks, if it doesnt play well, it means nothing.
2k doesnt have that problem, but every year there are little things that keep it from having the longevity after the season is over.
*The Online Servers is a major factor in that problem as well.
1. Return of My Crew. Give me a reason to play through yet another My Player career and give us the opportunity to play with our players online after we put soo much time into him.
2. Defensive awareness. Too many times when a player has speed, they can turn the corner to easily on the defense and its like the defenders dont know what to do even if they can see the play coming a mile away.
3. Speed needs to be better differentiated. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum should NOT be able to catch Chris Paul on a break away fast break to the basket.
4. The A.I. has to be smarter. Better court spacing in transition, Have post player engage defenders more (which doesn't happen when a zone is being run). And have the defense pay attention to whats going on on the court and not just focus on his man and his man only..
As you can see, I care mostly about gameplay, because no matter how good a game looks, if it doesnt play well, it means nothing.
2k doesnt have that problem, but every year there are little things that keep it from having the longevity after the season is over.
*The Online Servers is a major factor in that problem as well.
# 3
JerzeyReign @ Jul 31
I agree with every one except for #2. I love the fact that I have to jump into the virtual gym and learn iso motion or my team's offense. I hate games that 'dumb' down the sport in order for a casual to compete with someone who is actually learning the ins and outs of the game.
# 6
Rhouston @ Jul 31
What must NBA 2K13 do to dominate? It just needs to release. Based off of E3, I don't think NBA Live 13 is going to prove much competition this year.
# 7
Kentucky_Wildcat23 @ Jul 31
Servers is what I want to see fixed most.
Next would be the presentation. I would love to see them integrate the actual TNT broadcast instead of 2k sports presenting.
Next would be the presentation. I would love to see them integrate the actual TNT broadcast instead of 2k sports presenting.
# 9
xMoJox @ Jul 31
What I would REALLY like 2K to do in terms of presentation is to bring back player introductions! They used to have it from NBA 2K-2K3 I believe.
# 10
westfl87 @ Jul 31
I agree with you on your points but to a certain extent.
Online play - you are absolutely right 110%.
Controls scheme - I feel like they should make two sets of control scheme but reward thoses to use the harder controler scheme. You have casual fans that want to play and have fun and you have thoses who want to play the actual game of basketball on a video game. I don't want to run into a person online who basketball IQ is low but that person has the same advantage as I when playing because his controls are different. I like your idea but I feel it should tie in with difficulty levels. Say Rookie, Pro, and allstar had the option to choose control schemes and superstar and HOF did not. To me that would make sense, why you play on superstar or HOF if you weren't a basketball head is how I see it.
I agree with you on presentation as well. If live is coming back??? Then 2k needs to keep moving in a good direction for presentation. One thing I will give to live is there ability to connect with the use through presentation. I feel they are doing better and better each years so I will wait and see. At the end of the day it's still presentation < gameplay that's 2k!
As far as refining basketball, of course they need to improve and move forward but they also need to get back to fundamentalsl. I feel like this past year 2k needed to sell games and that hurt people who had a good basketball IQ when playing this game. After all, 2k wouldn't be a series if I wasn't for us who felt that live was a pick up and play game and felt the need to want something more realistic. Granted, at this point it's all about revenue to stay alive in this field but I don't feel like you should strip your core based fans or those who got your program off the ground. A few 2k games ago, 2k wasn't hard because of controller schemes or anything like that, 2k was hard because if you don't get the full understanding of basketball or halfway, you weren't going to be good at the game.. I always thought 2k was fun because it stimulated a basketball players mind not the mind set of a fan. I talk to a lot of people who have played 2k since day one and basically we all felt the same way. Once you strip 2k12 of the fancy animations, MJ and the legends and a great MP mode, 2k took some steps back to satisfy all. HOF on sim is a joke now. It's only hard because the CPU dose magical crap that don't make a bit of sense. Sliders have been taken out as far as online play so your forced to play with AI assistance on off and def. I would like to see the small things make its way ack in to 2k. I want to see a difference in Pro - HOF. I think if that happened both sides could be happy. You could even tie it in with your little status bar or whatever, that way casual gamers will play against more casual gamers and hardcore will etc...
New things I want to see in 2k13
Correct lateral and forward movement - 2k12 covers this up by using a ton of animation. I must admit, it looks stunning at first.
Ball recognition - I swear its like players can't pick up a ball, rebound a ball, nor block a ball unless it's animation. The commercial about ball recognition before the game dropped hurt more than it helped.
Better collision system - though I'm not expedition one till next gen.
Lastly, less cover ups.. I want to see problems fixed. No half stepping.
Online play - you are absolutely right 110%.
Controls scheme - I feel like they should make two sets of control scheme but reward thoses to use the harder controler scheme. You have casual fans that want to play and have fun and you have thoses who want to play the actual game of basketball on a video game. I don't want to run into a person online who basketball IQ is low but that person has the same advantage as I when playing because his controls are different. I like your idea but I feel it should tie in with difficulty levels. Say Rookie, Pro, and allstar had the option to choose control schemes and superstar and HOF did not. To me that would make sense, why you play on superstar or HOF if you weren't a basketball head is how I see it.
I agree with you on presentation as well. If live is coming back??? Then 2k needs to keep moving in a good direction for presentation. One thing I will give to live is there ability to connect with the use through presentation. I feel they are doing better and better each years so I will wait and see. At the end of the day it's still presentation < gameplay that's 2k!
As far as refining basketball, of course they need to improve and move forward but they also need to get back to fundamentalsl. I feel like this past year 2k needed to sell games and that hurt people who had a good basketball IQ when playing this game. After all, 2k wouldn't be a series if I wasn't for us who felt that live was a pick up and play game and felt the need to want something more realistic. Granted, at this point it's all about revenue to stay alive in this field but I don't feel like you should strip your core based fans or those who got your program off the ground. A few 2k games ago, 2k wasn't hard because of controller schemes or anything like that, 2k was hard because if you don't get the full understanding of basketball or halfway, you weren't going to be good at the game.. I always thought 2k was fun because it stimulated a basketball players mind not the mind set of a fan. I talk to a lot of people who have played 2k since day one and basically we all felt the same way. Once you strip 2k12 of the fancy animations, MJ and the legends and a great MP mode, 2k took some steps back to satisfy all. HOF on sim is a joke now. It's only hard because the CPU dose magical crap that don't make a bit of sense. Sliders have been taken out as far as online play so your forced to play with AI assistance on off and def. I would like to see the small things make its way ack in to 2k. I want to see a difference in Pro - HOF. I think if that happened both sides could be happy. You could even tie it in with your little status bar or whatever, that way casual gamers will play against more casual gamers and hardcore will etc...
New things I want to see in 2k13
Correct lateral and forward movement - 2k12 covers this up by using a ton of animation. I must admit, it looks stunning at first.
Ball recognition - I swear its like players can't pick up a ball, rebound a ball, nor block a ball unless it's animation. The commercial about ball recognition before the game dropped hurt more than it helped.
Better collision system - though I'm not expedition one till next gen.
Lastly, less cover ups.. I want to see problems fixed. No half stepping.
# 11
AirJordanFan93 @ Jul 31
Agree especially with the control option. UFC Undisputed 3 had two different control schemes one for the advanced players who could do all the ground submission stuff. They also had a basic setting for those who found it hard to all that stuff. 2K should do the same thing with all the iso moves and dribble moves for those who cant master them just give them a simplified version of it.
# 12
liberaluser @ Jul 31
I don't see why some people think simple, responsive controls = dumbed down and unsim. It's that kind of attitude that has kept 2K back more than anything this gen. If I get outplayed I get outplayed but I hate it when I can't pull off the move I'm trying to do. That is annoying since my player certainly knows how to do the move in real life.
# 13
westfl87 @ Jul 31
I feel it's a give n take thing. If you can't do this but can do that... That brings diversity to different people you play against. Take a few minutes out the day a practice.. If millions of people are able to do it, it's not the controller scheme it's the person and there ability to pull it off. This was never a problem in fighting games... If you could do a combo you did it, if you couldnt you got your butt kicked till you got it or quit. Those who don't quit usually get it.
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