One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

[The 24th Letter]

Im at the point of returning this game for a trade in, I cant say ive had a "fun" game in a long while....Ive been playing on All Star (lately trying to beat the Magic) and I simply want to understand some things about the game....hopefully the community here can help save my experience....im currently playing most of my games offline on all star...I know how to play "sim", and ive played organized basketball IRL more then ill ever play on my XBOX...Im just wondering about these things from a the games standpoint.

Blowing by you defender: I seriously havent seen this in the game...Ive heard some say they can do it, but I havent experienced this...are there certain quick dribbling move im missing?

Finishing at the rim: The mid air collision animation....good lord man, its driving me nuts...am I not pressing the right things to finish? if I go past a defender and the Center is guarding me left...I press right and X to finish that way at the rim right? is that logic wrong? more often than not, no matter what angle I have im being sucked into a collision...ill euro step, and get stoped dead in the middle of it to restart another animation. I wouldnt even have a problem with it most of the time, if they made the shot more often, or even called fouls when I have the proper angle....whats even more frustating is he CPU seems to be able to draw fouls from it, and even amimate through my D at will.

Defense: What is a "contest" in this game? IM having VC and R Lewis pull up in my face off a pass while the defender is right there with a hand up....do I need to manually jump at everything? I genuinely like playing as the PG...

I use OBC, run plays, picks....and shoot mid range J's.....and thats fine....but I want to experience the atheletic side of the game as well...im just not feeling its there right now....

If you guys have input, thatd be great.....

[DC]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

You can contest a shot by tapping Y

[The 24th Letter]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

I know how, I was asking if its more beneficial to individually guard everyone this way ...b\c my team AI sucks at it...

[dave374]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

I always love these threads.
Hell, I've created a few myself.
You know you're taking the plunge Letter.
Just do it.

I find it highly unlikely you will regret it.

[phant030]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

Increasing CPU Close Effectiveness will help ur CPU u players defend shots better.

[The 24th Letter]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

I always love these threads.
Hell, I've created a few myself.
You know you're taking the plunge Letter.
Just do it.

I find it highly unlikely you will regret it.

Im in the water man, im just asking that you guys help me see that its not a terd im seeing at the far end of the pool...

[GHUGHES]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

I'm trading mine in today also just take it back maybe next year they'll deliver Once your at the point of trading it in there no need to convince your self to stay same ole crap year after year. They add some that means they have to take something else away

[braz18]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

I dont know. I really started enjoying myself more when I switched to pro and used Left4dead's sliders but just adjusted them a bit. Feels alot more realistic and teams actually play like they do IRL whereas I didnt feel like they did on all-star. Just seemed like point guard domination on all-star to me. And the results of the games are actually realistic.

So far ive been blown out by the lakers with the grizzlies, won by 8 vs the rockets with utah, had a 1 point win over the nuggets with celtics, beat the mavs by 7 with the lakers then got blown out by detroit with golden state.

I also love the fastbreaks in pro.

You should try it, may work for you.

[staffan]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

I think I feel the same as you but with the difference that I think that my games are FUN.
So it pretty much comes down to what you can "accept" in a game and still enjoying it I suppose.

I have no illusion that a game should be perfect so maybe my threshold is different.

Good luck with your choice.

[sportyguyfl31]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

I really wish we could see video of how guys are playing.


For me, I feel that you must play on ball D, the majority of the time..and you really just have to defend to the DNA, defend to your match ups, and mix up D's.

Tap Y to get the Shane Battier contest animation..press Y to jump and you can puch the stick toward shooter to jump "at" the shooter while going for the swat, if you really need to close out in a hurry.
I honestly do not believe it is possible to play sound defense in this game, controlling one player, for the majority of the game.

The CPU is simply going to adapt to this, and make you a spectator.

Its okay to mix up how you play people, throw in double teams, and switch up to zone D's from time to time.

It's okay for the CPU to make adjustments, its okay for you to do so as well.

In the half court, lay off of turbo unless you are absolutely sure that you have a free path to the hoop.

Not going on a all out sprint to the hoop when you break down the D, will give you time to see if and from where the help defense is coming from, and you can take your shot or adjust as need me.

Practice using off ball control.

It is very valuable for getting guys cuts to the basket and setting up your mid range shooters to their spots, getting a guy the post position you want, filling a lane or a break, or diving to th hoop off of a double team.

Practice using the off ball controls until it is second nature. It will help reduce your turnovers, drastically, and get you better quality shots.

[Pared]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

Letter,

If I see you online I'll explain how the drive system works. It's typically useful to size up, cross over with right thumbstick, then cross back with a turbo right thumbstick. Works extremely well with better ball handlers.

When the help D comes over though... better think of something quick! You're on your own from there.

[wyrm12]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

I really wish we could see video of how guys are playing.


For me, I feel that you must play on ball D, the majority of the time..and you really just have to defend to the DNA, defend to your match ups, and mix up D's.

Tap Y to get the Shane Battier contest animation..press Y to jump and you can puch the stick toward shooter to jump "at" the shooter while going for the swat, if you really need to close out in a hurry.
I honestly do not believe it is possible to play sound defense in this game, controlling one player, for the majority of the game.

The CPU is simply going to adapt to this, and make you a spectator.

Its okay to mix up how you play people, throw in double teams, and switch up to zone D's from time to time.

It's okay for the CPU to make adjustments, its okay for you to do so as well.

In the half court, lay off of turbo unless you are absolutely sure that you have a free path to the hoop.

Not going on a all out sprint to the hoop when you break down the D, will give you time to see if and from where the help defense is coming from, and you can take your shot or adjust as need me.

Practice using off ball control.

It is very valuable for getting guys cuts to the basket and setting up your mid range shooters to their spots, getting a guy the post position you want, filling a lane or a break, or diving to th hoop off of a double team.

Practice using the off ball controls until it is second nature. It will help reduce your turnovers, drastically, and get you better quality shots.

Good post! Thanks for the tips!

[ehh]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

Blowing by you defender: I seriously havent seen this in the game...Ive heard some say they can do it, but I havent experienced this...are there certain quick dribbling move im missing?

Are you using turbo too much? You should hardly ever use turbo in Live, pretty much only in the open floor or if you want to attempt a dunk. You can blow buy a guy and get to the rim without ever touching turbo.

Finishing at the rim: The mid air collision animation....good lord man, its driving me nuts...am I not pressing the right things to finish? if I go past a defender and the Center is guarding me left...I press right and X to finish that way at the rim right? is that logic wrong? more often than not, no matter what angle I have im being sucked into a collision...ill euro step, and get stoped dead in the middle of it to restart another animation. I wouldnt even have a problem with it most of the time, if they made the shot more often, or even called fouls when I have the proper angle....whats even more frustating is he CPU seems to be able to draw fouls from it, and even amimate through my D at will.

I hardly ever see these animations anymore. As DaCzar says make sure you're pressing the shoot button about 10-15 feet from the hoop, if you press it too late or too close to the hoop you'll see tons of contact animations. I've started a euro hop before I was even at the FT line on a fastbreak for an and-1 before.

For the euro hop and the like I blew at executing these from the broadcast cam, once I switched to the Baseline High I had no problems.

As for the fouls, hopefully the patch will take care of that. No two ways about it, there needs to be more fouls called in the paint.

I also posted this in my gameplay blog yesterday...

1. Do not attempt a lay up or dunk every time you get past your initial defender on the perimeter. Just like IRL, if you shake your first defender (head fake, dribble drive, whatever) it is not a license to go barreling into the paint and attempt to posterize whatever poor CPU souls happen to be in there. Pay attention to the help defense and pay attention to the paint. The majority of the time you get past your defender you're either going to be pulling up for a J or passing the ball after the defense starts it's rotation. If you think you're going to iso or pick and roll with Kobe every time down the court and get 30 PIP with him every game then you are in for a rude awakening. So be ready to pass the ball or pull up for short/mid-range jumpers, besides they're some of the best looking animations in L10 so you get to see them more!

I think this is one HUGE play-style element that us longtime 2Kers need to adjust to. In 2K if you get past your first man you can pretty much get a layup, dunk or foul almost every time. Not the case IRL or in Live. Shoot a lot of short fadeaways or drifters if you don't have a wide open lane to the hoop and you'll still kill the defense.

[loadleft]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

Strangely enough (I've loved the game from the start), I've had a few moments where I thought about giving up on this game, but there are parts that I think are just too good to give up on.

What I've learned since then is this:

Defense- Everything about this game seems to have a small margin of error. With that said I play with one of the higher up views so that I can see the CPU players feet when I am on D. I position my player so that the foot that's on the same side of the players shooting hand (right handed player's right foot) is between my defenders two feet and stay back about an arm length and a half. When the off. player shoots I challenge by pushing up on right analog stick. The key is only challenging once off. players shooting side foot is between def. players two feet. The margin of error for the proper position seems to be the space between the two defensive players feet. If they are doing a lot of side to side moves I step back a bit and only challenge once I am in proper position even if I am late jumping. I find the right stick to have a wider margin of error as far as timing is concerned than the "Y" button. I do the same for layups, dunks and contact shots too. I also think this method keeps me from jumping out of position for offensive rebounds and put backs. I have been replaying a game in my dynasty (about 10 times so far) against ATL. They were seeming to make contested shots with regularity and beating me in an unrealistic manner (FG% 50-57%) which is why I was about to give up on the game. Once I discovered this method of ON BALL DEFENSE, they are still beating me (LOL) but now FG% is 35-43% range. My defense is so effective now that they even change up the way they play several times per game by sometimes slowing it down other times speeding it up. They now instead of shooting in my face with confidence use a lot of picks and plays to actually get open.

Offense- Problem for me is I can time the shoot button press with a rhythm, I have to actually watch for the player to near the top of their jump and I can't do that well from the high cameras, which is why I am only shooting in the 35-42% range myself and still losing. I at least feel that I have a chance now though instead of the CPU being unstoppable, if only I could shoot. I am good at getting to the basket though. I've said this in several threads you have to take off and make a decision to which side you are going to finish much earlier than what feels natural. If you use the layup solutions you'll see much more files in the paint my last game I was 22-32 w/CPU 17-24. I only have all file sliders up 5 ticks too. All others sliders are default. If you get sucked into contact animations it generally means you started the layup solution too late. I hope this helps. I am off to play ATL again, I am thinking once I beat them I will have this game figure out, LOL

[videobastard]

Re: One last push...help me understand some things about the game...

I felt the same way untill i played pro with configured sliders.