The Current State of 2k Basketball: Gameplay

[2_headedmonster]

Generally the masses are satisfied with 2k's representation of NBA basketball and have shown as much with their wallet. Even with that being the case, competition breeds perspective and there's always room for improvement. What I would like to do is get an idea of what the community might find find problematic with the gameplay, and what direction it should take.


Mechanic: 2-Player Animations:

Personally I feel animations are and forever will be a Visual Concepts strong suit. However, I feel the time has come to ease away from many of the canned two-player animations in favor of something more innovative. The two player animations are the reason for some of my most irraitating moments with 2k15. Often times i find myself under the rim for what should be a strong finish or an easy layup, only to be sucked into an awkward struggle of an attempt. Its even more infuriating when the defender is behind me, or ive pump faked a defender into the air and they still suck me into a contact animation.


Possible Direction:

I think the path that was flirted with in 2k12 where the shot-change mechanic was to be teamed with two player animations could have resulted in a more realistic result with time, but at this point i think a real-time physics engine is ideal. If there was a way they could tighten the radius for activation, add a multitude of branching points and make the two-player animations inturruptable by a third body then I'd want that tech. But why re-invent the wheel when real-time physics can give you all that and more?


Mechanic: Footplanting

Over the years the foot-planting in the 2k series has improved, but i still get the feeling that the players are skating around and exhibiting far more awkward footwork than they should. This is painfully obvious in perimeter contact animations, when offensive players try to back up, and when players do that weird crab shuffle (instead of running normally and chopping their feet as they approach) when moving forward in a defensive stance.


Possible Direction:

Take a page out of the EA playbook and prioritize foot-planting. For all their faults those guys have managed to get feet right for the most part.


Mechanic: Close range shots

In general I feel many close range shots are either ugly and unrealistic, or lift the players too high off the ground. Its not unusual to see a inside shot that has a players wrist, and in the case of 'bigs' , a forearm above the rim on the release.


Possible Direction:

Possible have the mo-cap director use more NBA footage as a reference? I can only assume that's what they already do, but the results seem to suggest otherwise. They seemingly capture those animations with someone 6'1 and with game mechanics in-mind more-so than authenticity.

[SPRINGS03]

2k made some nice improvements gameplay wise on 2k15, but some big things i would like to see:

Passing intelligence/variety: the passing is still hardly improved, players seem to have no awareness as to how to pass around a defender and will sometimes just pass straight into a defenders back which rarely happens in the NBA. Their needs to be some kind of mechanic with the passing that causes the player to pass around the defender. We also need more control over the types of passes, it would be nice to have the option of doing a bullet pass by holding the pass button or something like that.

Rebounding: it has made some improvements, but i would like to see more explosiveness when jumping for boards, and quicker jumps would be nice. The option to tip the ball in a direction would be a good touch too.

[CLEgend]

Honestly, the fact that 2K hasn't implemented a physics aspect into the gameplay yet. Has really held the game back from being an incredible product. If none are implemented into the core of the gameplay for 2K16. Then I'm just expecting the same old eye candy animations.

[ataman5]

Better and real Footplanting will improve the game a lot.