Organizing this so I don't repeat myself. This isn't a Q and A thread but more or less impressions thread. Tomba said he would take Q and A as he plays in his thread HERE.
Quick hits:
-Love the Practice courts and the drills. Nice addition. I spent a 1/2 hour there alone.
-Graphics are just outstanding. I really don't like the player models... the faces... but the actually quality of the graphics certainly scream next-gen. Everything is high quality and sharp! If they were to clean up the faces and models they'd have an amazing looking game. The arenas are STUNNING.
-Like the foul level for reach-ins.
-I honestly can not stand the manually controlled rebounding. My players do not jump after the ball and are often out of position to defend a putback.
-Crowd is lively; Announcing is amazing. Was down 20 at the half (messing around) and they booed me.
-CPU has ESP when it comes to shot-blocking. Not liking that at all. They jump to block a shot as soon as I hit the shoot button. This is really annoying.
-Game is much more impressive than the demo.
-Shooting %'s are way too high. Perhaps they'll lower as I get better and defense but aside from being able to guard your man on the perimeter, CPU player shots seem to not really be effected by anything the user does. Plus, you can get inside, hit Turbo and X and you player does this acrobatic shot that goes in way too often, especially the stars. This is on Superstar difficulty. Perhaps I need to use the "hands up" animation a bit more...
-LOL Calabria started playing over the arena speakers
-I like the contact animations. They really complement the direction they are going.
-Came back in that same game and Marv mentioned "From down 21, the Cavs have cut the lead to 10!" followed with Kerr mentioning it might be too late.
-It's just way too easy to score by pressing turbo and X in the lane.
-Teammates do not foul automatically in a close game when you need it.
-Something is wrong with the highlight reel at halftime and end of game. Sometimes it shows gorgeous highlights, other times it just sits there on a still picture.
-Overall, I'm really enjoying the game. There's plenty of frustrating things but it's easy to overlook. I know with the right settings the game seems like it will play great. I see a lot of stars playing like themselves.
-FG %'s actually even out. But the points in the paint are just way too high. Too easy to score there. I'm playing 5 minute qtrs and ending up with a score like 60 - 57, BTW.
-Fastbreaks seem like they're hard to come by.
-Oh, you can wear home or away jerseys at any time. Does not matter if you are home or away; All of them are available to you. Nice.
I don't get the complaints with the blocked shots. It could be tightened up slightly but the way it works now, for the user, is that you have to gather when jumping to block the shot. It's certainly more realistic, which people scream for, but all of a sudden they don't like it.
I've always mentioned that if we get a game that truly accounted for realism people wouldn't be happy.
Either way, my complaints regarding blocks are helped by sliders. This is a must out of the box.
I feel like the game won't be a challenge down the line. I'm already being highly competitive on Superstar after just 3 games.
Shooting %'s have to be tweaked just slightly. Those shots where contact is made in the post go in successfully too often. I mentioned this at the CD and there was no change.
Quickstrike AB's are just too easy to beat your man with. The entire system is too high on risk-reward. There has to be more of an in-between.
I can't get over how gorgeous the game looks at times. It just screams next-gen. Again though... the player models, faces, and animations still need tremendous work.
I think a casual fan is going to just completely ecstatic with the game. The more you play though, the more you begin to see flaws in the system of how things work. Again, this points back to the risk-reward... there often is no in-between. The game impresses you at first but the more you dig down deep into the gameplay the easier it is to see how to exploit it.
I really like the play-calling, especially in comparison to any other game out there. It's much more fluid than in the demo. Perhaps because I've seen teams other than the Celtics and Lakers.
I think they really did a great job with the superstar players and tendencies. I have to see more guys from around the league but for the most part stars definitely get the touches they should.
The rebounding continues to stand out to me in how terrible it really is (user control). You pretty much just hit turbo and Y and hope your player jumps in the proper direction. I don't feel like I can defend my man in the post, defend the shot, box out and hawk to the ball like someone down low should.
-The fouls have me scratching my head. Sometimes I'll block the ball with my armpit and get called for a foul.
-Replays are definitely glitched. They just show a still picture most of the time. Almost as if they are supposed to load and don't.
-Soundtrack is very good. Whomever selects the music does an amazing job.
-Some of the signature shots are very good. Others, not so much. I really like Battier's sig shot. It looks perfect.
-I hate that defense seems like it's a not factor in this game. It could be due to the high %'s out of the box. For the most part you will be trading buckets though. Doesn't seem to result in high scores though. 12 min. quarters certainly seems possible out of the box on the default speed.
-Game speed is pretty damn good. FINALLY you guys have got the tempo right for an NBA basketball game. All those years of dropping the speed right out of the box are finally gone.
-Post defense just seems non-existent. CPU shoots and you pretty much just have to hope it doesn't go in. It feels like you have no effect on altering shooter's attempt.
-LeBron just got subbed in to play Center using auto-subs. Varejao was playing PF.
The game is fun. It's a step in the right direction towards sim basketball. Still a little rough around the edges but I can certainly see some people spending time with the game. Don't come into this game expecting 100% polish with the animations and such.
You can't play defense on the inbounds after a made shot or dead ball return on your basket (and CPU ball). I don't understand this decision. You can probably call Full court press but you should be able to manually "man-up" on the defender at least. I had 1.7 seconds left before the half, called a 20 sec. timeout and had an open shot from 3 quarter court with LeBron. Swish. You can't replay the last play of the half. Might be the same for the end of the game.
Quick hits:
-Love the Practice courts and the drills. Nice addition. I spent a 1/2 hour there alone.
-Graphics are just outstanding. I really don't like the player models... the faces... but the actually quality of the graphics certainly scream next-gen. Everything is high quality and sharp! If they were to clean up the faces and models they'd have an amazing looking game. The arenas are STUNNING.
-Like the foul level for reach-ins.
-I honestly can not stand the manually controlled rebounding. My players do not jump after the ball and are often out of position to defend a putback.
-Crowd is lively; Announcing is amazing. Was down 20 at the half (messing around) and they booed me.
-CPU has ESP when it comes to shot-blocking. Not liking that at all. They jump to block a shot as soon as I hit the shoot button. This is really annoying.
-Game is much more impressive than the demo.
-Shooting %'s are way too high. Perhaps they'll lower as I get better and defense but aside from being able to guard your man on the perimeter, CPU player shots seem to not really be effected by anything the user does. Plus, you can get inside, hit Turbo and X and you player does this acrobatic shot that goes in way too often, especially the stars. This is on Superstar difficulty. Perhaps I need to use the "hands up" animation a bit more...
-LOL Calabria started playing over the arena speakers
-I like the contact animations. They really complement the direction they are going.
-Came back in that same game and Marv mentioned "From down 21, the Cavs have cut the lead to 10!" followed with Kerr mentioning it might be too late.
-It's just way too easy to score by pressing turbo and X in the lane.
-Teammates do not foul automatically in a close game when you need it.
-Something is wrong with the highlight reel at halftime and end of game. Sometimes it shows gorgeous highlights, other times it just sits there on a still picture.
-Overall, I'm really enjoying the game. There's plenty of frustrating things but it's easy to overlook. I know with the right settings the game seems like it will play great. I see a lot of stars playing like themselves.
-FG %'s actually even out. But the points in the paint are just way too high. Too easy to score there. I'm playing 5 minute qtrs and ending up with a score like 60 - 57, BTW.
-Fastbreaks seem like they're hard to come by.
-Oh, you can wear home or away jerseys at any time. Does not matter if you are home or away; All of them are available to you. Nice.
I don't get the complaints with the blocked shots. It could be tightened up slightly but the way it works now, for the user, is that you have to gather when jumping to block the shot. It's certainly more realistic, which people scream for, but all of a sudden they don't like it.
I've always mentioned that if we get a game that truly accounted for realism people wouldn't be happy.
Either way, my complaints regarding blocks are helped by sliders. This is a must out of the box.
I feel like the game won't be a challenge down the line. I'm already being highly competitive on Superstar after just 3 games.
Shooting %'s have to be tweaked just slightly. Those shots where contact is made in the post go in successfully too often. I mentioned this at the CD and there was no change.
Quickstrike AB's are just too easy to beat your man with. The entire system is too high on risk-reward. There has to be more of an in-between.
I can't get over how gorgeous the game looks at times. It just screams next-gen. Again though... the player models, faces, and animations still need tremendous work.
I think a casual fan is going to just completely ecstatic with the game. The more you play though, the more you begin to see flaws in the system of how things work. Again, this points back to the risk-reward... there often is no in-between. The game impresses you at first but the more you dig down deep into the gameplay the easier it is to see how to exploit it.
I really like the play-calling, especially in comparison to any other game out there. It's much more fluid than in the demo. Perhaps because I've seen teams other than the Celtics and Lakers.
I think they really did a great job with the superstar players and tendencies. I have to see more guys from around the league but for the most part stars definitely get the touches they should.
The rebounding continues to stand out to me in how terrible it really is (user control). You pretty much just hit turbo and Y and hope your player jumps in the proper direction. I don't feel like I can defend my man in the post, defend the shot, box out and hawk to the ball like someone down low should.
-The fouls have me scratching my head. Sometimes I'll block the ball with my armpit and get called for a foul.
-Replays are definitely glitched. They just show a still picture most of the time. Almost as if they are supposed to load and don't.
-Soundtrack is very good. Whomever selects the music does an amazing job.
-Some of the signature shots are very good. Others, not so much. I really like Battier's sig shot. It looks perfect.
-I hate that defense seems like it's a not factor in this game. It could be due to the high %'s out of the box. For the most part you will be trading buckets though. Doesn't seem to result in high scores though. 12 min. quarters certainly seems possible out of the box on the default speed.
-Game speed is pretty damn good. FINALLY you guys have got the tempo right for an NBA basketball game. All those years of dropping the speed right out of the box are finally gone.
-Post defense just seems non-existent. CPU shoots and you pretty much just have to hope it doesn't go in. It feels like you have no effect on altering shooter's attempt.
-LeBron just got subbed in to play Center using auto-subs. Varejao was playing PF.
The game is fun. It's a step in the right direction towards sim basketball. Still a little rough around the edges but I can certainly see some people spending time with the game. Don't come into this game expecting 100% polish with the animations and such.
You can't play defense on the inbounds after a made shot or dead ball return on your basket (and CPU ball). I don't understand this decision. You can probably call Full court press but you should be able to manually "man-up" on the defender at least. I had 1.7 seconds left before the half, called a 20 sec. timeout and had an open shot from 3 quarter court with LeBron. Swish. You can't replay the last play of the half. Might be the same for the end of the game.
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