Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

[RaychelSnr]

If you have been paying attention to the community’s efforts to tweak NBA 2K9 during the past few months, you probably noticed that Neon1, one of the hardest-working NBA 2K community members, redid the ratings and tendencies for every player and coach in the game.

As someone who had previously shelved NBA 2K9 out of frustration, I was initially excited to sit down and try this tweaked version of NBA 2K9 now that March Madness is in full bloom.

But after only a few games as my underachieving Grizzlies -- who have actually gotten a lot better, ratings-wise, since I last touched the game -- it became clear to me that the same opinion I had formed a few months ago still holds true:

NBA 2K9 is a mess, and no amount of slider tweaking or roster editing can save it.

So, in the first of a two-part series, I am here to explain why I have given up on NBA hoops this year, and I am also here to detail what needs to be improved in 2010.

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[DC]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

This needs to be heard. Hopefully coming from you will validate the notion that 2K9 has serious issues.

It is playable but it has serious issues.

[23]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

Uh oh

Im sure you prepared yourself for this mentally before you wrote it

[ehh]

Great post, 2K9 was a major disappointment. It's such a pretty game but the gameplay and basketball fundamentals are atrocious. Your defensive points are the most important IMO. Defense in 2K9 is bad, bad and bad. The animations are another major gripe I had, glad you mentioned that as well.

[Joey P]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

Still playable to me...

[DC]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

How are we supposed to keep people from getting to the rim when their limbs, their body, and most importantly, the ball, can morph right through the backboard, the goal, defenders, and so forth like they are not even there?

I don't think they honestly want you to have a chance of doing that. If it was easy to get stop then the casual fans would have issues with the game.

So what do you think they should do?

[Dice]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

I got a bad feeling we're going to get a post from Chris Smoove in this thread.

[Pared]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

These are all issues we've discussed ad nauseam.

One thing that continues to go un-mentioned is the lack of foot planting with the defense. Help does come when the help slider is set to 0 but there is no "negative consequence" for it in regards to player momentum. They can easily get back and still contest the open jumper.

Which is why, way back when the game was released, I was saying that re-rating the entire roster and the other "major" edits people were doing were worthless.

[sportyguyfl31]

I am really concerned with the direction 2k is taking this series.

I converted from Live to 2k with NBA 2k5, when the NBA Live series was in the midst of its crash and burn.

I see history begining to repeat itself in reverse.

At the rate things are going, EA is going to catch up and pass them in the next couple of years. The 2k engine is aged, and really needs a makeover.

I tolerated 2k8, but this game....I cant describe the feelings of disgust this game has given me.

I even gave it a second shot, trading in Live for it, after originally owning both.

NBA2k9 drove me absolutely insane, each and every single time I tried to play it

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

Agreed on all points. There are good things about this game, but I can hardly play the actual game anymore... I only run Team-Up these days. Even against good players that I loved playing in previous 2K basketball games, I can hardly stand the game itself long enough to finish a game.. and by the end, I'm pissed off, even if I win.

Defense is by far the most frustrating part of the game.. there's simply nothing you can do to stop people most of the time. Seems like you normally jump a milisecond too early (or late) and the contest makes absolutely no difference, or you time it properly and the ball just clips through your hand/arm and ends up going in (this is especially bad with star players). The drive game is almost as bad, simply because of the clipping issues and the totally ineffective CPU help defense.

There HAS to be a way to contest shots without actually leaving your feet -- that's BASIC basketball, and that's probably the main thing that's really been bugging me about the game this year. At least in previous years, the "proximity defense" would generally make tough shots miss for all but the best players -- now if someone halfway decent is hot, they'll nail everything regardless of how close you are to them. I had a guy hang 65 of 69 points on me with LeBron despite me even resorting to playing off-ball defense with a big man, simply because he got hot via some some bull**** clipping dunks and then was blinking red the rest of the game, just nailing everything including deep threes like the defenders weren't on the court.

It's just inexcusable that the game has suffered such a huge drop-off in basketball IQ this year. It looks pretty, but the core elements are so ****y that it makes all that extra stuff worthless. At least we have regular roster updates now... yee ha.

[DC]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

These are all issues we've discussed ad nauseam.

One thing that continues to go un-mentioned is the lack of foot planting with the defense. Help does come when the help slider is set to 0 but there is no "negative consequence" for it in regards to player momentum. They can easily get back and still contest the open jumper.

Which is why, way back when the game was released, I was saying that re-rating the entire roster and the other "major" edits people were doing were worthless.

But people don't edit the entire roster to cause more help defense Pared. They edit because people act out of character.

[Rocky]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

I agreed on all points. But compared to NBA2K8 and the other game, NBA2K9's defensive AI looks like the Mona Lisa.

CH2K8 had the best defensive AI, IMO.

[Pared]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

But people don't edit the entire roster to cause more help defense Pared. They edit because people act out of character.

Right, but that's why I've said the newest living rosters have been exponentially better than the ones shipped with the disc.

Either way, the points that have been made most likely won't go unheard. They've addressed issues here year after year and I expect this to be no different.

[DC]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

Yea the Living Rosters are BETTER than the default ones but they need to be more on point when it comes to Defensive awareness/On Ball Defensive prowess of NON-Superstars.

Everything else looks cool on a BASIC casual fan level but you can still look at them and say, "This guy really doesn't KNOW the NBA."

[Krucialist]

Re: Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA 2K9

Yea the Living Rosters are BETTER than the default ones but they need to be more on point when it comes to Defensive awareness/On Ball Defensive prowess of NON-Superstars.

Everything else looks cool on a BASIC casual fan level but you can still look at them and say, "This guy really doesn't KNOW the NBA."

I called that back when the Living Rosters were announced and they explained it was going to be the 2K insiders job to do them. Non-superstars just dont merit attention because they dont stick out on anyones radar except for those of us who watch the games and know the names. Some of us have sports knowledge that extends beyond sportscenter.

I would actually be very interested to see just how deep we could go with the "When animations attack" theme. The most common word shouted at the tv screen for me and all my friends that play 2k9 is "WHY!?!" A variation being the more subtle rubbing your eyes in frustration and agony and simply muttering under your breath "why did he do that?"