OT: NBA 2K11 First Impressions

[Miklo]

So I picked up 2K11 for my PS3 yesterday (of course) and have "only" played for a few hours, but thought I'd drop my thoughts and see if anyone else has played.

Numero uno: roster fail. Suns have Jarron Collins, Gani Lawal is not in the game, I don't believe any other 2nd round picks are either. I know I can download a custom roster from 2K Share and I plan on it, but even if you have to push back the release date it seems weird to release the game without at the very least all draft picks. I will say all trades are up to date, Miami of course, etc.

Presentation is awesome. The Michael Jordan thing is a big part of the game, there's a whole intro about him and game modes relating to him (haven't tried them yet but you can play in some of his memorable games and see if you can do as well as he did, etc). All the in-game presentation stuff is good too, just more attractive graphics, more substantive announcing and between-quarter breaks, etc.

Gameplay has impressed me so far. The flow of the game and the moves players make are very realistic with no glitches so far. The game goes a little bit slower so, while you can obviously adjust game speed, the way it is ends up being really realistic (if you played 12 minute quarters you'd end up with realistic scores). Player moves are also well-done, even as you work down to players like Childress, his shot is ugly as hell like in real life. In-game graphics are awesome.

My Player mode seems more substantive, I've only set up my player and played 1 game but there's a little more going on and much more on-screen information (stats are displayed on the screen as you play).

Overall I'm very impressed so far. Definitely improved over 2K11 and I can't imagine a game being much better.

Anyone else played yet?

[raff]

I haven't played it yet. I'll probably wait to get it in the next couple of weeks. Should be an interesting transition as I've been a Live player up until now.

Thanks for the heads up.

[lilfishi22]

Overall I'm very impressed so far. Definitely improved over 2K10 and I can't imagine a game being much better.

Anyone else played yet?

Fixed.

Haven't got it yet, but I'm planning to get my copy before the end of next week. Could you check out the association and see if they display the team salaries when you are looking ot make a trade. Don't know if you remember but I had an issue with 2k10 not showing the team salaries when making trades so you don't know if the team you are trading with has cap space or not. Maybe not a game killer for most people but I thought it affected the flow of my *elite * GM skills.

[Miklo]

I'll check it out, that bugged me too about 2K10. So you mean while you're on the trade screen, as you go through teams does it show their cap space?

[lilfishi22]

Yeah. As opposed to going through each team and selecting a player to show the team salary.

[YFZblu]

I purchased it yesterday as well...Great intro, I love that it took me directly into Bulls/Lakers Finals game 1....My buddy and I played--He won...MJ was too much He dropped 40.

Anyway, I would say what I like most about the gameplay is that defense plays a larger role. Specifically, the computer's defensive rotations are much more effective...Even when one doesn't have control of his teammate, that teammate still makes good decisions defensively. I felt like it was too easy to score in 2K10, and I was tired of having to cover my teammates butts on defense.

[Miklo]

I purchased it yesterday as well...Great intro, I love that it took me directly into Bulls/Lakers Finals game 1....My buddy and I played--He won...MJ was too much He dropped 40.

Anyway, I would say what I like most about the gameplay is that defense plays a larger role. Specifically, the computer's defensive rotations are much more effective...Even when one doesn't have control of his teammate, that teammate still makes good decisions defensive. I felt like it was too easy to score in 2K10, and I was tired of having to cover my teammates butts on defense.

+1, you can't get away with easy crap anymore. You have to work to get open shots or an open lane, it's realistic enough that you really sorta need to have court vision yourself to get looks.

Also guys, what current NBA player is most similar to Lawal? If there's not a good roster out there I may just have to make him, and for consistency's sake I'd probably copy most of someone else's ratings. Taj Gibson?

[lilfishi22]

I think right now he's more like Lou. High hustle, rebounding, defense and probably a slightly better post game.

Oh man, I can't wait to get my copy.

[Miklo]

Is it out in Australia now too?

[lilfishi22]

It should be. I haven't checked but I think it should have the same release dates as North America.

[Calvin Klein]

anybody got NBA JAM yet?

[grumpysaddle]

I have it for PC and it's far improved from last year's game. I actually HATED 2k10. One thing that sort of sucks is that I have to play it on all the lowest settings, even though my set up is pretty decent and other games run at higher settings more smoothly.

The My Player mode is significantly better. I did figure out a way to be cheap pretty quickly though... As an athletic PG, if your team is playing decent defense you kind of know when the other team will miss, so you just sprint down the court and your teammate will almost ALWAYS throw a full court pass that lands right in your hands. I scored 46 points in my second or third game with a player rating of like... 39 or something. But, I really like the new defensive system. You don't always have to stay on your assignment and can switch up in a Pn'R and it will change your assignment to that guy for that possession.

Haven't dabbled with the Association or Jordan modes, but I'm sure they are an improvement.

The weird thing for me on PC right now, is that they seemed to have switched up the buttons a bit. I have a Logitech controller, so I still have to figure out and remember which buttons they are calling B, C, and D, cause they are different than 2k10.

Overall though, this is an entirely improved game.

[TASTIC]

Pre-ordered mine for PC a month ago, hope it gets in tonight. That sucks with Lawal not being there...though if I remember correctly, there was a created player in one of my 2k10 seasons and his last name was Lawal, so hopefully if I have to create him they'll call his name and not "number 31"

I made Mr T in franchise mode, looked exactly like B.A Baraccus down to the big guns and mohawk, was a 6'8" SF/PF and basically I played as him and was like Bo Outlaw haha. Up to about 20 games into the season and I'm about 66, averaging about 7pts 9reb 6asst 1.5stl 1.5blk on 60%fg - as the starting SF for the Suns whoop!

[lilfishi22]

That sucks with Lawal not being there...though if I remember correctly, there was a created player in one of my 2k10 seasons and his last name was Lawal, so hopefully if I have to create him they'll call his name and not "number 31"

Yeah I thought that was weird. I created Lawal in 2k10 and was surprised they called his name. How many Lawal's have ever played in the NBA?

[Miklo]

So fishi annoyingly the salary cap thing is not fixed. There are a couple new trade tools though that seem like they could be helpful. Trade Finder which is basically an upgraded version of Trading Block,, where you can select multiple players you want to trade...and Player Finder, where you can search for a particular player or find players based on criteria like position, age, height, personality,, contract, ratings.

[Kerrsed]

I have the game downloading as we speak, so i should be playing it right after the Suns game.

[kotlz]

never posted before but i just thought this was so amazing that i had to tell someone. in the bulls vs lakers game after the intro i played for about 2 minutes then jordan got injured after a layup for the rest of the season. probably the most hilarious way to start the game. thats my impressions heh

[Miklo]

never posted before but i just thought this was so amazing that i had to tell someone. in the bulls vs lakers game after the intro i played for about 2 minutes then jordan got injured after a layup for the rest of the season. probably the most hilarious way to start the game. thats my impressions heh

LOL that's so turrible...man you'd think they would have programmed to prevent that

[hunterxaz]

2K has always owned NBA Live. Since Live AKA Elite was canceled, this year is the best year to pick it up. It's a great game.

[grumpysaddle]

Well... deeper into the My Player mode and there's more good things, and bad things.

Good = you can request a trade once you are on an NBA team. I was selected 25th by the Grizzlies and although I'm a PG, I have been playing almost nothing but SG because of Conley (who isn't even very good).

That's kind of a positive and a negative. I remember getting really annoyed in 2k10 when I kept having to play shooting guard.

Bad = for some reason my quick play call thing isn't working anymore... It worked in the draft combine and the summer league, but for some reason it won't work now that I'm in the NBA. So I can't call quick pick and rolls and quick post-ups, which I did a lot.

You also still start off pretty awful. In the draft combine and summer league, though, I was averaging an A+ with about 24ppg and 10 assists. In the NBA now, I think I'm averaging 23.7ppg and about 2 or 3 assists. A lot of that is due to the frustration of the quick call menu not working anymore. I just really have no idea why they'd disable it, or if its just a bug. Regardless, it makes getting assists pretty difficult when you can't really call quick plays. I never do the playbook plays because they just take so long and rarely work the way they should. In 2k10 when I'd try, I'd usually get the "Holding ball too long" penalty.

So it's still got a lot to work out, but its about 5 times better than it was in 2k10.

Now if I could only shoot better than 18% from 3 (even though I almost always shoot WIDE open shots.)