Best feature in a 2K game.

[Glenn33]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

Signature Style - had an effect on all sports games (guess this should wait for the NBA2K thread equivalent) Player interaction - OL/DL interaction, WR/DB interaction still the standard "The little things" - too many to name Presentation - again, still the standard First-person football - I still feel this mode had tremendous potential. And typifies the out of the box thinking 2K had (don't mean to talk in past tense but...)

I agree with everything...except First person football. Didn't care for that much.

[TexasBorn1]

Animations
OL/DL interaction(As a guy who played RT in High School it's nice to see O lineman get some love in a football game)
Crowd Noise(I've had my family yell at me to turn it down with the TV barely turned up)

[kcxiv]

Just the feeling i have when running the ball. You can actually see the hole open up and get through there. There are times when the Defensive player will warp on you, but there are lots of times where you can actually get through and break a long run up the middle. You can run through the middle hit a juke move and your off to the races.

As someone mentioned the little things. Quarterbacks slipping while dropping back same with defensive backs and Wide receivers. Centers snapping the ball over the qb/punters head, Doesn't happen often, but it CAN happen.

The beautiful animations. So many animations that after 600 games you will once in a while still see a new animation and just sit there and think to yourself, thats really awesome.

Sideline interaction. How cool is it to see your team mates on the sideline help you stay up so you don't fall over.

Quarterback play. The evade stick. The ability to have your qb move out of the way with a hop step up or bend over so the defensive player just flies over him. Its not overdone either, its done just right.

[spankdatazz22]

Quote: Originally Posted by kcxiv

Quarterback play. The evade stick. The ability to have your qb move out of the way with a hop step up or bend over so the defensive player just flies over him. Its not overdone either, its done just right.

I wanted to piggy back on top of this and add cpu QB play also, which I appreciate that much more after seeing how the cpu QBs play across the board in Madden. That really got me thinking how difficult it might be to program a cpu QB to appropriately recognize when they're being pressured, when do they decide to run, how do they move in the pocket, etc. There's so much nuance to the QB play in this game it's unfortunate it never got credit for. I'm not even talking the broad issues like no weird problems with ball trajectory, or poorly animated dropbacks/throwing anims. One of the reasons I love watching cpu vs. cpu games is because of the varying QB play in APF. Each QB seems somewhat distinctive in how they deal with a situation.

They're not programmed to automatically get rid of the ball when pressured, which is probably more remarkable because the game has realistically forming/variable QB pockets - so there's usually a DE or blitzing DB getting pressure up the field, forcing a QB to step up. I love the wobbley passes that occur when a QB is touched/hit while throwing. And probably most underappreciated of all, the QB just knowing when to throw the ball away. Sometimes I've seen it happen when the QBs are heavily pressured; other times I've seen a QB do it when they're not all that pressured (I've seen John Brodie do it more than anyone else probably). I've seen it many times by different QBs but now I have a much larger appreciation for how they were programmed

[BigRan]

I had to chime in on this thread. I recently bought Madden 09, and played

If you are going to just look at APF, then for me it comes down to 2 things:

1) Passing pocket - This for me is the #1 improvement as far as gameplay is concerned. To me it just makes the QB play tons more realistic. There is a definitive pocket on pass plays that forms in an oval shape around the QB..... it is VERY REALISTIC to what you see in real life. And as a QB you have to be aware of how big it is. You can't just drop back endlessly (ala Madden) and still be in the pocket...... BECAUSE the beauty of the pocket in this game is that it truly forms AROUND you. And there is such a thing as making a decision to "step up in the pocket" to complete a pass.

If you are going to look at all 2k games...... the list would be too much to count.
- Stadium music
- Action replays (in game replays)
- Halftime and post game shows ( to this day ESPN 2k5 is awesome)
- QB evasion moves

The thing that truly saddens me about all of this.... APF is a great game. It just does not have any long-term single player lifetime. I still have the game and have not played it in a while. I think I am going to dust it of f and see who is out playing this game online.

After playing Madden for a bit there are some things I do like about it. However, I enjoy 2k's running game more... and 2k's passing game is alot better than Madden's in my opinion.

Anyway, that's my two cents.
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[texbuk84]

everything man. i really like everything about 2k games. i hope that ea allow them to use the nfl license and make a football game. this will be awesome.

[PSU_DW2]

Football : 1) Custom Camera in APF2K8 (even though it was limited)
2) Lateral Button (simply because it was never in Madden yet 2K put in in their Pro Football Games)

Any 2K Game : Off-Ball Control for NBA2K8. (brilliant!)

[spankdatazz22]

I think another feature that's hugely underrated is VIP. Perhaps not so much for what it was, but for what it could've been. I remember when 2K5 was announced with that ridiculous laundry list of features, VIP was the one that got a lot of people excited because of it's potential. A profile that tracked/recorded what a human player did, and would allow people to play against those tendencies - it really was a fantastic idea that it's a shame was never fully realized in part because of the NFL exclusivity BS. The biggest thing VIP was lacking was the ability for it to track and mimic pre-snap movement. But if NFL2K had been able to progress logically, I'm guessing that would've been big on the wishlists and something 2K might've figured out over the past four years.

Think about it: being able to pick anyone's VIP to play against, either for casual pleasure or using a person's VIP to scout an opponent. People would learn how best to play against certain tendencies/plays, which would force strategies to constantly evolve. You could download top player VIPs to play against (which can be done now). You could choose to play against a cheeser profile just to learn how they play or choose to play against a straight/sim player's profile. And it would be at your convenience, not needing to wait until someone was logged in. In a way, it's what EA's doing with DNA in NBA Live this year; getting players to play more to their tendencies on a daily basis. But VIP was almost beyond that, because you'd get to play against gamers' tendencies, both good and bad. It was a hugely innovative feature that had a ton of potential