shot in the dark: anyone have their copy of NBA2k9 yet?

[crownsy]

I bought it.  It's alright.  Meh.

When you play actual games, it's pretty good.  I like it.  I guess it's as good as it gets.  I had fun playing against a friend of mine.  Good animation. They finally got the animation correct with the nets.  Good action.  They got the players down.   Fun times.

One random question.  With the 80s/90s legends teams.  Why certain missing players?  Couldn't find John Stockton, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Charles Barkley.  Obviously no Michael Jordan, but do those guys all own their personal rights also?  Kinda weird.  Any websites where it shows you how to create those guys as authentic as possible?

Another random related question.  Why does the screenshot of Larry Bird's face have him with floppy hair, but in the game he's got a short cut.  Sup with that?

And the killer for the game is again Association Mode.  Again, it sucks.  Same gripes I've had with these games for years.   The navigation is horrid and it's far too easy to create a dominant team.   Far too easy.  Use whatever cap room you have to sign whatever highest rated free agent you can afford.  Then immediately put him on the trading block.  Take the best option.  Then put that best option immediately on the trading block.  Take the best option.... immediately put him on the trading block... take the best option.   Upgrade every player by putting them all on the trading block and taking players with higher ratings.  Keep doing it... before you know it you have all 85+ starters and a bunch full of 80+ players.  Took me two seasons to turn the Bucks into a dominant force.   As always, these association modes are a joke.  How hard is it to add a couple features preventing you from immediately trading a player you just traded for?  I also am disappointed that the profile images used for computer generated rookies are all the same rehashed pre-stock photos.  How hard would it be to just have all the faces randomly generated using a face generation engine... and then have the profile images be a picture of those faces?   I hate having 2 rookies who are penny hardaway lookalike identical twins.      Where's the big improvements this year?  Same crap I played on NBA 2k7

I guess it's the best these console games can get.  I've only played it for a bit, but so far I'm not that impressed.  What am I missing?

i dont get how a gripe that can be made about every computer game that includes a sports related financale system since the begining of time is enough of a knock to make it only "alright". The computer is always stupid about ratings in any sports sim games. If you intentionaly go out and cheat it out of players, then yes, of course you can make great teams, it doesn't have oncious thought, its not going to hold grudges or "see the writing on the wall" as you go through long trade strings to grab talent. ive done it in every console game, fast break basketball, all the OOTP baseball games, championship/football  manager, ect, ect.

its not really that hard to fool  static AI's that can only play by certain rules when it comes to trades if you just make slight trade after slight trade. i think you really over think this, most people don't min max thier team, they play within reality.

also, whats difficult about navagating association? ive had zero problems. mabey its just the style you don't like, but mechanicly its pretty simple. its 2 whole buttons.

[LarBrd33]

I bought it.  It's alright.  Meh.

When you play actual games, it's pretty good.  I like it.  I guess it's as good as it gets.  I had fun playing against a friend of mine.  Good animation. They finally got the animation correct with the nets.  Good action.  They got the players down.   Fun times.

One random question.  With the 80s/90s legends teams.  Why certain missing players?  Couldn't find John Stockton, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Charles Barkley.  Obviously no Michael Jordan, but do those guys all own their personal rights also?  Kinda weird.  Any websites where it shows you how to create those guys as authentic as possible?

Another random related question.  Why does the screenshot of Larry Bird's face have him with floppy hair, but in the game he's got a short cut.  Sup with that?

And the killer for the game is again Association Mode.  Again, it sucks.  Same gripes I've had with these games for years.   The navigation is horrid and it's far too easy to create a dominant team.   Far too easy.  Use whatever cap room you have to sign whatever highest rated free agent you can afford.  Then immediately put him on the trading block.  Take the best option.  Then put that best option immediately on the trading block.  Take the best option.... immediately put him on the trading block... take the best option.   Upgrade every player by putting them all on the trading block and taking players with higher ratings.  Keep doing it... before you know it you have all 85+ starters and a bunch full of 80+ players.  Took me two seasons to turn the Bucks into a dominant force.   As always, these association modes are a joke.  How hard is it to add a couple features preventing you from immediately trading a player you just traded for?  I also am disappointed that the profile images used for computer generated rookies are all the same rehashed pre-stock photos.  How hard would it be to just have all the faces randomly generated using a face generation engine... and then have the profile images be a picture of those faces?   I hate having 2 rookies who are penny hardaway lookalike identical twins.      Where's the big improvements this year?  Same crap I played on NBA 2k7

I guess it's the best these console games can get.  I've only played it for a bit, but so far I'm not that impressed.  What am I missing?

i dont get how a gripe that can be made about every computer game that includes a sports related financale system since the begining of time is enough of a knock to make it only "alright". The computer is always stupid about ratings in any sports sim games. If you intentionaly go out and cheat it out of players, then yes, of course you can make great teams, it doesn't have oncious thought, its not going to hold grudges or "see the writing on the wall" as you go through long trade strings to grab talent. ive done it in every console game, fast break basketball, all the OOTP baseball games, championship/football  manager, ect, ect.

its not really that hard to fool  static AI's that can only play by certain rules when it comes to trades if you just make slight trade after slight trade. i think you really over think this, most people don't min max thier team, they play within reality.

also, whats difficult about navagating association? ive had zero problems. mabey its just the style you don't like, but mechanicly its pretty simple. its 2 whole buttons.

If you've played games like Fast Break Basketball then you must realize already that as far back as 2001 the text based simulation games were getting "franchise mode" better than 2009 versions of 2k and Live.   At the very least, those games have the rules correct so that you can't trade a player immediately acquired.   It's bizarre to me that this franchise gloats about finally having bird rights within the game.  I just shouldn't be able to sign Manu Ginoboli, trade him 3 days later for Andrew Bynum.  Trade him 3 days later for Lamarcus Aldridge... and then trade him 3 days later for Greg Oden.  It's silly

[crownsy]

i agree those games are better franchise wise, but thats because 95% of thier development time is in that area. They have 2d graphic representaions of the text sim.

but i strongly disagree that it's any harder to build super teams. OTTP in particular touts its franchise, but the computer is dumb as a brick when it comes to trading, and if you do the "slight trade into slight trade" methoed you criticize NBA for,you can have the greatest team ever in about a year.

Its slower in fastbreak, ill give you that, but its not hard. it just take sa bit longer.

Championship manager is a joke, because as a smaller team you can get unlimited funds by signing players valued at 0 on the transfer market, start them for 10-20 games, and sell them off at 100k. use that 100k to buy 2 50k players who are overtaleneted for your league, and turn them into 200k players to transfer out, ect, ect.

Until AI gets some sort of constant thought process, the slight upgrade trade methoed will work in any game.

I just don't notice it in NBA 2k9, because i don't intentianly cheat the computer out of its players through the system you've described.

thats what this argument boils down to for me, your cheating, which is fine, god knows i cheat in games all the time, so im not taking some sort of moral stance,  but thats not a vaild knock against the game's franchise mode. most people, IMO,  choose not to cheat the game and thus never run into the "problem" your bringing up.

So its open for cheating, so what, so is mario brothers, but its still a great game.

[DinoRadjaLives]

Can anyonme tell me if the Franchise mode has improved on 2K9 ? I am a big fan of the franchise modes.

[ManUp]

Played it on saturday at a friends House. It feels completely different from last year. I'm loving the defensed, especially the Celtics defense. Now blocking shots when a guy is coming straight at you isn't such a task, and you can actually chase guys down. I pinned Kobe from behind with Garnett really looked great.

I'm going to have to relearn Isomotion, and improve my use of the shot stick. I definitely need to get this game soon.

[crownsy]

Can anyonme tell me if the Franchise mode has improved on 2K9 ? I am a big fan of the franchise modes.

mechanicly its alot like last years, only big add on is bird rights on players, which is about 2 years late, but welcome.

the real strides its made is in erasing that "all that happens is my team, other teams exist only when i play them" which they've eliminated alot of with thier NBA.com homepage. Its linked to all the games, so if lebron drops 42 on someone youll see a story that says like, "cavs stop suns behind 42 from james"

and if you click on it, it will take you to the box. other stuff ive seen is things like "is chris paul the best PG in the league?" and when you click on it, it will take you to a ranking screen of PG's. injury reports, milestones "so and so gets 3000th assist", trade rumors, and trades all work this way to, as well as stories speculating who is in the lead for awards and such.

Its very cool, i like it alot. presentation wise, its leaps and bounds above last year.

honestly the best part so far is that i know who newer superstars are. what i mean is, in previous years, when new guys came into the league, i would often forget them. now, if a guy is on a tear, like case in point, this guy eroh in my third year, i see stories about "mavs youngster eroh continues to improve" and "eroh score x to lead mavs to 5th stright win"

that guys a known quantity to me now, not just some random new character model. i hope that makes a bit of sense, the new way they present it immerses you in the game world more, i guess, is what i mean to get across.

[screwedupmaniac]

am i the only one who had an issue with some sort of a glitch involving the players rebounding made shots instead of taking it from out of bounds like you're supposed to? this happened to me, weirdest thing ever. so what i did is i took the game back and swapped it for another one, but the problem kept happening. so i finally went in and deleted from my 360's hard drive anything that we had saved thus far, which luckily wasn't too much. and then the game started working fine again. weirdest thing i've ever had happen to me. i didn't change any of the rule settings or anything, so it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

but it's interesting, because my 360 crashed last year when i was playing 2k8 like a week after i had gotten it...something to do with the graphics. the players' shorts kept glitching and disappearing, leaving two legs and the upper half, but thin air in between...and then the guys' glitched out and my system crashed. i had to send it in for a new one.

never could understand why it seems like out of all the games i play, the 2k sports games give me the hardest time. they're still better than anything else out there though.

[indeedproceed]

Im not very good at NBA 2k9 yet. Its infuriating. I keep getting worse since NBA 2k7.

my online winning percentage right now? .147

im just now starting to dominate superstar in my franchise

[ManUp]

Im not very good at NBA 2k9 yet. Its infuriating. I keep getting worse since NBA 2k7.

my online winning percentage right now? .147

im just now starting to dominate superstar in my franchise

2k8 I wasn't too good. Personally I think the shot stick got amazingly hard to use. I rarely took jumpshots since it was almost always a low percentage shot no matter how wide open my man was. Even with a perfect release it seems like the shot has only a 50/50 chance of going in. It's probably just me, but definitely wasn't that hard in the few years before. I think that's the challenge that comes with the signature style or whatever they call it.

[crownsy]

Im not very good at NBA 2k9 yet. Its infuriating. I keep getting worse since NBA 2k7.

my online winning percentage right now? .147

im just now starting to dominate superstar in my franchise

2k8 I wasn't too good. Personally I think the shot stick got amazingly hard to use. I rarely took jumpshots since it was almost always a low percentage shot no matter how wide open my man was. Even with a perfect release it seems like the shot has only a 50/50 chance of going in. It's probably just me, but definitely wasn't that hard in the few years before. I think that's the challenge that comes with the signature style or whatever they call it.

use your sliders to tailor the shot precentages to your taste, thier in there for a reason.

I change them every few games to make it more realistic. for example, the computer is a 90% 3 pt shooter when open out of the box, i scaled that down and now im getting more realistic results.

also, personaly, i dont use the shot stick for jumpers, only attacking the basket.

[LarBrd33]

i agree those games are better franchise wise, but thats because 95% of thier development time is in that area. They have 2d graphic representaions of the text sim.

but i strongly disagree that it's any harder to build super teams. OTTP in particular touts its franchise, but the computer is dumb as a brick when it comes to trading, and if you do the "slight trade into slight trade" methoed you criticize NBA for,you can have the greatest team ever in about a year.

Its slower in fastbreak, ill give you that, but its not hard. it just take sa bit longer.

Championship manager is a joke, because as a smaller team you can get unlimited funds by signing players valued at 0 on the transfer market, start them for 10-20 games, and sell them off at 100k. use that 100k to buy 2 50k players who are overtaleneted for your league, and turn them into 200k players to transfer out, ect, ect.

Until AI gets some sort of constant thought process, the slight upgrade trade methoed will work in any game.

I just don't notice it in NBA 2k9, because i don't intentianly cheat the computer out of its players through the system you've described.

thats what this argument boils down to for me, your cheating, which is fine, god knows i cheat in games all the time, so im not taking some sort of moral stance,  but thats not a vaild knock against the game's franchise mode. most people, IMO,  choose not to cheat the game and thus never run into the "problem" your bringing up.

So its open for cheating, so what, so is mario brothers, but its still a great game.

Crownsy... I don't know how you can call it cheating.   Cheating would be if I were playing Draft Day Sports (not bad) and the AI rejected a trade... so... I went into "commissioner" mode and forced it through anyway.  That's cheating.   

Playing NBA2k9 and accepting trades the computer offers isn't really cheating.   It's not my fault their AI is garbage and their system is a joke.

Heres how I turned the Bucks into a dynasty in a couple years:

#1 - I traded all their players for expiring contracts and draft picks. (Is it cheating to do what any GM would logically do?)
#2 - The next year I used all my cap room to sign as many of the highest rated free agents as I could.  I didn't have much competition.  It was easy to outbid everyone.  (Was it cheating to outbid my competition?)
#3 - I put all my newly signed players on the trade block and accepted the best offers (is it cheating to use a feature that is key to the game?)
#4 - I maximized the draft picks given to me by getting lotto talent

A few years later and I now have 7 players rated over 90... I traded for young talent that developed into stars and I drafted young prospects that developed into stars.

So what does the game do to slow down a player like me??...  It adds a 100 mil hard cap.  There isn't even a hard cap in the real NBA.  But since I have 7 superstars and they all demand superstar money, I now have to get rid of a couple to stay under the "hard cap".    Pretty moronic, if you ask me.  The game fails at adding real NBA rules to prevent me from trading talent I just acquired...  but it decides to add new fake rules (a hard cap) to make it "difficult" for me.

So what do I do?  Am I supposed to cut one of my 7 superstars?  No, of course not.   In the offseason I find whatever team has cap room and I trade the star making 14 million for the highest rated young player on their team still on the rookie scale.   4 years later I have to do the same garbage to keep my team under the hard cap.   So it just perpetuates more stupidity.  The Bucks win the title every year and every 4 years they trade a couple of their superstars for a couple more young superstars... and the cycle repeats over and over   Ugh...

[crownsy]

i agree those games are better franchise wise, but thats because 95% of thier development time is in that area. They have 2d graphic representaions of the text sim.

but i strongly disagree that it's any harder to build super teams. OTTP in particular touts its franchise, but the computer is dumb as a brick when it comes to trading, and if you do the "slight trade into slight trade" methoed you criticize NBA for,you can have the greatest team ever in about a year.

Its slower in fastbreak, ill give you that, but its not hard. it just take sa bit longer.

Championship manager is a joke, because as a smaller team you can get unlimited funds by signing players valued at 0 on the transfer market, start them for 10-20 games, and sell them off at 100k. use that 100k to buy 2 50k players who are overtaleneted for your league, and turn them into 200k players to transfer out, ect, ect.

Until AI gets some sort of constant thought process, the slight upgrade trade methoed will work in any game.

I just don't notice it in NBA 2k9, because i don't intentianly cheat the computer out of its players through the system you've described.

thats what this argument boils down to for me, your cheating, which is fine, god knows i cheat in games all the time, so im not taking some sort of moral stance,  but thats not a vaild knock against the game's franchise mode. most people, IMO,  choose not to cheat the game and thus never run into the "problem" your bringing up.

So its open for cheating, so what, so is mario brothers, but its still a great game.

Crownsy... I don't know how you can call it cheating.   Cheating would be if I were playing Draft Day Sports (not bad) and the AI rejected a trade... so... I went into "commissioner" mode and forced it through anyway.  That's cheating.   

Playing NBA2k9 and accepting trades the computer offers isn't really cheating.   It's not my fault their AI is garbage and their system is a joke.

Heres how I turned the Bucks into a dynasty in a couple years:

#1 - I traded all their players for expiring contracts and draft picks. (Is it cheating to do what any GM would logically do?)
#2 - The next year I used all my cap room to sign as many of the highest rated free agents as I could.  I didn't have much competition.  It was easy to outbid everyone.  (Was it cheating to outbid my competition?)
#3 - I put all my newly signed players on the trade block and accepted the best offers (is it cheating to use a feature that is key to the game?)
#4 - I maximized the draft picks given to me by getting lotto talent

A few years later and I now have 7 players rated over 90... I traded for young talent that developed into stars and I drafted young prospects that developed into stars.

So what does the game do to slow down a player like me??...  It adds a 100 mil hard cap.  There isn't even a hard cap in the real NBA.  But since I have 7 superstars and they all demand superstar money, I now have to get rid of a couple to stay under the "hard cap".    Pretty moronic, if you ask me.  The game fails at adding real NBA rules to prevent me from trading talent I just acquired...  but it decides to add new fake rules (a hard cap) to make it "difficult" for me.

So what do I do?  Am I supposed to cut one of my 7 superstars?  No, of course not.   In the offseason I find whatever team has cap room and I trade the star making 14 million for the highest rated young player on their team still on the rookie scale.   4 years later I have to do the same garbage to keep my team under the hard cap.   So it just perpetuates more stupidity.  The Bucks win the title every year and every 4 years they trade one of their superstars for a couple more young superstars.   Ugh...

its a loophole your exploiting. thats the defintion of cheating. and again, not against it, i cheat in games all the time by tricking thier AI or just flat out cheat codes.

but, the bigger question to me is,  why did you do it?

you knew you could cheat the system, and you did. but why do it if it ruins the game for you?

if you play the game like you would run a  team in real life, instead of min/maxing simply because you can, you'd never run into this problem you say kills franchises for you.

Thats my point, your knock on the game is a scenario that 99% of users probley don't attempt because its not fun.

case in point, i know, as i discussed, that i can destroy championship manager if i cheat its financle system, i can go from d2 to preimer league in 3 years. but i don't, because its no fun. its not a knock on championship manager that i COULD cheat the system. I know i could, but i choose not to and have fun the way the game was designed.

 

[LarBrd33]

i agree those games are better franchise wise, but thats because 95% of thier development time is in that area. They have 2d graphic representaions of the text sim.

but i strongly disagree that it's any harder to build super teams. OTTP in particular touts its franchise, but the computer is dumb as a brick when it comes to trading, and if you do the "slight trade into slight trade" methoed you criticize NBA for,you can have the greatest team ever in about a year.

Its slower in fastbreak, ill give you that, but its not hard. it just take sa bit longer.

Championship manager is a joke, because as a smaller team you can get unlimited funds by signing players valued at 0 on the transfer market, start them for 10-20 games, and sell them off at 100k. use that 100k to buy 2 50k players who are overtaleneted for your league, and turn them into 200k players to transfer out, ect, ect.

Until AI gets some sort of constant thought process, the slight upgrade trade methoed will work in any game.

I just don't notice it in NBA 2k9, because i don't intentianly cheat the computer out of its players through the system you've described.

thats what this argument boils down to for me, your cheating, which is fine, god knows i cheat in games all the time, so im not taking some sort of moral stance,  but thats not a vaild knock against the game's franchise mode. most people, IMO,  choose not to cheat the game and thus never run into the "problem" your bringing up.

So its open for cheating, so what, so is mario brothers, but its still a great game.

Crownsy... I don't know how you can call it cheating.   Cheating would be if I were playing Draft Day Sports (not bad) and the AI rejected a trade... so... I went into "commissioner" mode and forced it through anyway.  That's cheating.   

Playing NBA2k9 and accepting trades the computer offers isn't really cheating.   It's not my fault their AI is garbage and their system is a joke.

Heres how I turned the Bucks into a dynasty in a couple years:

#1 - I traded all their players for expiring contracts and draft picks. (Is it cheating to do what any GM would logically do?)
#2 - The next year I used all my cap room to sign as many of the highest rated free agents as I could.  I didn't have much competition.  It was easy to outbid everyone.  (Was it cheating to outbid my competition?)
#3 - I put all my newly signed players on the trade block and accepted the best offers (is it cheating to use a feature that is key to the game?)
#4 - I maximized the draft picks given to me by getting lotto talent

A few years later and I now have 7 players rated over 90... I traded for young talent that developed into stars and I drafted young prospects that developed into stars.

So what does the game do to slow down a player like me??...  It adds a 100 mil hard cap.  There isn't even a hard cap in the real NBA.  But since I have 7 superstars and they all demand superstar money, I now have to get rid of a couple to stay under the "hard cap".    Pretty moronic, if you ask me.  The game fails at adding real NBA rules to prevent me from trading talent I just acquired...  but it decides to add new fake rules (a hard cap) to make it "difficult" for me.

So what do I do?  Am I supposed to cut one of my 7 superstars?  No, of course not.   In the offseason I find whatever team has cap room and I trade the star making 14 million for the highest rated young player on their team still on the rookie scale.   4 years later I have to do the same garbage to keep my team under the hard cap.   So it just perpetuates more stupidity.  The Bucks win the title every year and every 4 years they trade one of their superstars for a couple more young superstars.   Ugh...

its a loophole your exploiting. thats the defintion of cheating. and again, not against it, i cheat in games all the time by tricking thier AI or just flat out cheat codes.

but, the bigger question to me is,  why did you do it?

you knew you could cheat the system, and you did. but why do it if it ruins the game for you?

if you play the game like you would run a  team in real life, instead of min/maxing simply because you can, you'd never run into this problem you say kills franchises for you.

Thats my point, your knock on the game is a scenario that 99% of users probley don't attempt because its not fun.

case in point, i know, as i discussed, that i can destroy championship manager if i cheat its financle system, i can go from d2 to preimer league in 3 years. but i don't, because its no fun. its not a knock on championship manager that i COULD cheat the system. I know i could, but i choose not to and have fun the way the game was designed.

 

Again man.  It's not a "loophole".  Even if I didn't trade my newly acquired talent for other stars, I would have still turned the bucks into a dynasty in a couple years.

Trade all the players for expiring contracts and draft picks

Sign the best young talent available

Draft the best rookies I can

Wait 4 years... you have a dynasty.

[crownsy]

it is a loophole. you could do that in the real NBA, if the other 29 GM's were AI's and couldn't think logicaly. it's not prohibited under any NBA rule except common sense, which AI's don't have yet.



but, that aside, why would you do it if it makes you hate the game?

thats what im missing, you do this crazy min/max on your team which you know will make you dislike the results.

why not just do what i do and play the game like a real GM would instead of exploiing the AI if it makes you so mad?

like i said, i know i could screw the AI in multipl sports franchise games, but why do it if it ruins the game for you?


and thats the disconnect im havign with your argument that this is somehow a negitive on the game's franchise mode. I just don't accept that exploiting the AI this way, which most people probley wouldn't do because its no fun to have an unbeatable team every year, makes the game have a qoute, "pitiful franchise mode"

[LarBrd33]

it is a loophole. you could do that in the real NBA, if the other 29 GM's were AI's and couldn't think logicaly. it's not prohibited under any NBA rule except common sense, which AI's don't have yet.



but, that aside, why would you do it if it makes you hate the game?

thats what im missing, you do this crazy min/max on your team which you know will make you dislike the results.

why not just do what i do and play the game like a real GM would instead of exploiing the AI if it makes you so mad?

like i said, i know i could screw the AI in multipl sports franchise games, but why do it if it ruins the game for you?


and thats the disconnect im havign with your argument that this is somehow a negitive on the game's franchise mode. I just don't accept that exploiting the AI this way, which most people probley wouldn't do because its no fun to have an unbeatable team every year, makes the game have a qoute, "pitiful franchise mode"

I just wish it was more realistic and challenging.  As much as you say the text based games fail just as much... they really don't.  Go play Draft Day Sports Pro Basketball.  If any person with average intelligence about running a team can easily create a 82-0 squad... it eliminates the entire point of the franchise mode.