NBA 2K17 Impressions Thread

[2_headedmonster]

This game has addressed a HUGE amount of little legacy things that have added up to what im playing now. Not only were they addressed, they were done right. I'm sure i'll have more later, but let me detail what i have so far.

First off I want to mention that they have addressed verticals across the board.

People with high verts sticks out as such, and people who have the vert of a house plant are appropriately grounded. I tried to defend the paint on a few possessions with Ryan Anderson just to test its effectiveness and found it appropriately pointless. Then i tried to do the same with Clint Capela. I got bullied during contact situations by Zaza, but I got a beautiful block on him where i tipped the ball at its apex, a level of athleticism that felt both unique and appropriate.

They overhauled the close range shots, more on that in a bit. But in regards to vert, for years i've complained that people jumped too high on close range shots. Often times a big would have his head at rim level when they shot the ball because they seemed to be playing out a one-size fits all animation captured by a guard. Not only did it look unnatural, it gave big guys an even bigger advantage because they couldnt be blocked ( remember Yao Ming's top of the square finger-rolls?). As it stands i havent seen a single instance of it and it warms. Only Sam Cooke can attest to how long ive waited for this day.

Those chase-down blocks that were always a possibility on the break...even if you were Zach Lavine trailed by Matthew Dellavedova have been fixed. I suspect it wasn't only a vert issue, but defenders having the hand-eye coordination of a table tennis champ as well, but defenders jumping higher than they should didnt help either.

Close range shots and Lay-ups

I have screamed from the mountain tops that 2k enabled the down-hill, abuse the paint style for years because everyone attacked the rack like Lebron or Shaq. Hold sprint and shoot and good things would happen. Well after my time with the game, i dont want to jump the gun and say its been eliminated, but 2k has taken all the right steps to reel that in and make it far more realistic.

Firstly the addition of avoidance lay-ups or finesse finishes around the rim has brought forth a wide variety of attempts the game has been missing and accurately portrays the leagues agile players. As beautiful as they are, non of them would mean much if the game was the same as previous iterations and game didnt respect the positioning of the defenders. Not only have i seen the game respect it, but some of the wild attempts your player with throw up when you dont will make you respect their position as well.

But let's say you do have that strong offensive player that can bully defenders and strong arm his way to the rack, has that been nerfed? Not at all, I would say its been made more realistic, partly because of the on-ball defense ( more on that later ) and more rewarding. It's kind of hard to explain, but i'll try.

You know that feeling when you see someone on TV or at your local gym, take the contact and score in traffic and you say, "good finish/strong finish/good take"? Well previously on 2k if that happened i'd say the same, but give credit to the character on the screen. In 2k17 thanks to the shot meter on lay-ups, i give myself that extra pat on the back. Not only that, it works as a bit of a counter to the novice that wants to just bull Lebron into the paint carelessly.


On-Ball defense and dribbling interactions

Boy oh boy...Now some of you may have seen the annual on-ball defense threads i have made over the past few years where i have complained about everything from the footwork to the contact. And how i felt after the progress that was made with 2k12-14's OBD that 2k's current representation was in a weird place. It seemed to be an odd offensive and defensive balancing act being done that resulted in years of overly-physical defense and mushy, slow and jerky offensive moves in 2k16.

For 2k17, especially with body-up sensitivity in the range of 35-40 they are in a great, great place. Moves are snappy, the defense is responsive, contact to chest of the defender is respected as a defensive win usually and (OMG) attacking the lead foot is actually a thing....

You can create space with jabs, use the defenders momentum against them, shoot off the space created off contact. Beautiful. The pull up game is back in a major way, and position defense matters.

On the negative side, i may have an issue with the consistency of the dribble move im trying to pull off vs the sig combo the game is registering i.e; my dbl between the legs input vs the game's between the legs cross combo recognition. But i'll have to do more testing. I do however wish on the move the r-stick did a quicker crossover maybe that could be used in tight spaces while R2+r-stick cross was the more exaggerated version for one on one situations. But even that may require more testing of different players....

Thats all i got for now, hopefully i gave the guys at work something to chew on until it's time to clock out...

[zaywop]

offline feels like a way more fluid nba live 10

online has terrible input lag still

[Barncore]

Man, off-ball screens are awesome. They actually catch the defender and give you opportunity to break into space. I can't explain why exactly, but screens feel way better this year.

Also, Doris Burke's commentary isn't as annoying as i thought it'd be

[ClevelandinDistress]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kaypain

Hey breh Imma need to see proof bruh cuz I'm not seeing it bruh okay been? Don't mock me

It's in the game. The myplayer blog discussion revealed that it's not there at the beginning and is an unlockable feature for your myplayer later on in his career. What would be the point of making all this up? But I don't take you for the comprehension type so I guess we'll just wait until someone posts a screenshot.

[BChizzle]

Been playing for 3 hours now, just my personal opinion but the upgrades and additions aren't enough to warrant this game a $60 price tag. It still feels way too much like 2k16.

[extremeskins04]

Quote: Originally Posted by BChizzle

Been playing for 3 hours now, just my personal opinion but the upgrades and additions aren't enough to warrant this game a $60 price tag. It still feels way too much like 2k16.

Considering how much they improved MyPlayer and MyGM/MyLeague, I think it definitely is worth the $60 tag, in fact it's worth more IMO.

I don't play MyPark.

The game is pretty amazing.

[Barncore]

I'm up by 19 points with 4:30 to go in the 4th quarter and the assistant coach seems pissed off with the team. Lol. Has he been watching the game?

[Barncore]

Quote: Originally Posted by BChizzle

Been playing for 3 hours now, just my personal opinion but the upgrades and additions aren't enough to warrant this game a $60 price tag. It still feels way too much like 2k16.

That's what it feels like to me too, but i must say that the more i play 2k17 and adjust to the new tunings, it feels VERY good. Everything just feels so well balanced. It's hard to explain. But the game plays like a basketball game should. And strategically you have to think the same way you would if it were a real game.
An adjustment period is required though to get a feel for the new balances.
I just hope the "out of the box" balances don't get patched out again.

We really need some new default running/dribbling animations though. They've been around since 2k10ish. It makes me get sick of playing the game too easily, because it's the same animations all the time.