2009 NBA Basketball Games

[Matt Young 0]

I don't have a PS3, so my opinions will be limited to the Xbox 360 games.

 

I had been a 2K devotee since the very first game in the series on the Dreamcast. In fact, the last Live game I purchased was the 1998 edition. But I bought NBA 2K8lastyear and sold it after 3 weeks because I hated it. It looked like NBA 2K7, which was a great game, but played like dog shit.

 

After reading about all the features that were to be implemented in NBA Live 09, I figured it was time for a change. Then came the demos. I must state, first off, that the Live demo wasn't bad at all. There was just something kind of off about it. It was still above average. But the 2K9 demo was amazing. Great stuff.

 

I'm a bit wary since I liked the 2K8 demo and hated the final product, but this one's much better and I don't think they could screw it up. That, combined with 2K's far superior online leagues, makes me very tempted to buy 2K9 this year. The only problem with 2K9 is that they need to bring back the free throw shooting system where you hold down the trigegrs to try to line up the arrows. ... Just kidding.

 

How about the rest of you guys? I'm sure Ripper will be able to impart some knowledge into this thread.

[Thoth 0]

I tried NBA 09 for the PSP. I don't play sports games.

 

I liked shooting the basketball.

[Black Lushus 0]

I didn't care for 2K8 at all, didn't like the controls compared to the previous NBA game I played, 2K6.

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

I usually buy 2K9 right away, which I already have pre-ordered and then pick up Live if I can find it cheap enough down the road, like getting a brand new copy of Live 07 for $5. Live 09 has some cool stuff, new features, all the FIBA stuff, but I got to stick with the 2K personally. The only sad thing on the release this year is I pick it up right before I go out of town, so I don't think I will get to play it til next week.

[Agent_Bond34 0]

I'm not sure if I'm getting NBA 2K9 on release or maybe later this week.

 

However, I am interested in checking out the 5 on 5 online.

 

Sounds pretty fun.

 

As for NBA Live, I feel that the series turned to shit when it hit the PlayStation 2 with NBA Live 2001, but I haven't tried the 360/PS3 iteration of Live. Can someone who has played this game give me your impressions on it?

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

As for NBA Live, I feel that the series turned to shit when it hit the PlayStation 2 with NBA Live 2001, but I haven't tried the 360/PS3 iteration of Live. Can someone who has played this game give me your impressions on it?

 

To me, it seems a little more arcade-like and cartoony. I like the game-play and controls better on the 2k series too.

[Matt Young 0]

Has anyone seen this for NBA 2K9? i found it via a Gamespot link. Looks pretty awesome, even though I just skimmed and don't know all the details yet:

 

http://www.theotherseason.com/#/leagueHome

[Agent_Bond34 0]

To me, it seems a little more arcade-like and cartoony.

 

This is one of my biggest complaints about the game and has been for years. To me, it just doesn't represent basketball very well.

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

To me, it seems a little more arcade-like and cartoony.

 

This is one of my biggest complaints about the game and has been for years. To me, it just doesn't represent basketball very well.

 

That's why I've been down on Live. On Super Nintendo and N64, those were my games. Since 2K5 though, its been 2K Sports for me. I picked up my copy tonight and about to head to bed, so I don't know when I will try it, but I think I will rent Live at some point this year. They added a lot of cool looking FIBA play that is exclusive, as well as the daily stat updates during the season will be pretty cool too. Roster updates since the online days have been nice, but daily stat update will be awesome for anyone who has a breakout season, or making people who choke during the year not be too good in the game.

[IllustriousOne 0]

Bought 2K9 on Tuesday night.

 

Been having fun with it, even though I'm pretty bad

[Guest Vitamin X]

I forget which the last NBA game I had was, it had Ben Wallace on the cover though and it was pretty fun. I think that was a 2k game since I was all anti-EA at the time.

 

Either way, sounds like that's the consensus basketball game king around here, so I'll be picking it up whenever I get the money to do so. Do they have an online league similar to NCAA Football's Online Dynasty rather than Madden's lame excuse for an Online mode?

[Black Lushus 0]

2K6, VX...I had a blast with that one. 2K8, not so much.

[Matt Young 0]

That was 2K5, actually. 2K6 had Shaq on the cover. And yeah, the whole series has been good except for 2K8.

 

Leo, the online leagues are way better than NCAA's, except that you can't play multiple years. You have detailed stats and you can even check stats/standings/etc. from detailed league pages on 2Ksports.com. For example:

 

http://community.2ksports.com/community/le...ndex.cfm?l=4828

[Black Lushus 0]

Oh, my bad...damn, it had been 3 years since I played an NBA game, then...crazy!

[Agent_Bond34 0]

Ok, so after renting NBA Live 09 last night, after having played a few games, I'm not all that impressed with it. No wonder why I've been down on this series for quite some time.

 

I hate the game's free throw shooting already.

[Brett Favre 0]

NBA2K8 rules. I don't know why you guys hate it.

[JohnnyBlaze 0]

the 5 on 5 play for 2k9 has me and my friends sold...theres more than enough of us with the game for it every year, so now instead of seperate games, we can just take time crushing each other...kind of like what we've been doing with gears of war for two years...2 teams, go at it all night...live didnt have anything interesting this year..

[Black Lushus 0]

NBA2K8 rules. I don't know why you guys hate it.

 

I didn't like the controls and I hated the free throw shooting. I also didn't like the fact that I couldn't switch it to auto-shooting, I hate that hold and let go shit to make shots.

[The Niggardly King 0]

NBA2K8 rules. I don't know why you guys hate it.

 

Yeah man that game fucking rocks it. Got my boy Petteri Koponen running the awesome Jail Blazer lineup of Roy, Battier, Darko, and ODEN~!.

 

I'll stick with the 2K series and pick up the newest one probably around X-Mas... can't wait to tear it up with Jianlian.

[Matt Young 0]

Apparently, you can't play friends in ranked games in 2K9.

 

Removal of Ranked Lobbies…

 

This year in thinking about how to handle ranked games and our Leaderboards we decided to make all Ranked games “blind”. Ranked games are meant to be highly competitive games in a tournament type setting. The point is to win to get to the top of the Leaderboard, period. If users can pick out there opponents that tournament setting is compromised. With blind Ranked matches people can’t find users who are less experienced and play them over and over again to move up the Leaderboard.

 

We anticipated the want for the community to be able to scout opponents and we encourage that, which is why we have a match list where you can view the player card of your opponent before joining a game with them. While these aren’t ranked games this is a setting for the hard core crowd that is looking for a particular experience. If you want a player who plays a certain way or is at a certain level of experience you can find that in the Player Match list. We provide more slider and gameplay options than we ever have before in creating matches so you can tailor your game exactly the way you want it.

 

I'm still getting the game, but this pisses me off greatly. I hate playing unranked games. I'm a stats nut.

[Agent_Bond34 0]

You can play a custom ranked match, I believe.

 

btw, if anybody wants to play, hit me up, I picked this game up tonight.

[Agent_Bond34 0]

Also, I saw this thread from the 2K forums (found it at OS) so I figured I'd post this here for you guys.

 

http://www.2ksports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188310

[Matt Young 0]

Good God, NBA 2K9 is pissing me off. Specifically, the damn catch-up A.I. I am 1-2 against the CPU on pro with the Bulls. The Thunder came back and made up an 8 point deficit in 2 minutes, taking the lead by one, before I made a shot at the buzzer to beat them 71-70.Both the Heat and Hawks made up 6 point deficits and beat me, as I missed easy layups or they got blocks and steals on every possession.

 

I'm pretty sure NBA 2K8 had catch-up A.I. as well, but I was so disgusted by it's many flaws that I didn't care. This, however, is actually a good game and it's frustrating losing games not because of skill, but because of programming. This isn't NBA fucking Jam.

[Exslade ZX 0]

Good God, NBA 2K9 is pissing me off. Specifically, the damn catch-up A.I. I am 1-2 against the CPU on pro with the Bulls. The Thunder came back and made up an 8 point deficit in 2 minutes, taking the lead by one, before I made a shot at the buzzer to beat them 71-70.Both the Heat and Hawks made up 6 point deficits and beat me, as I missed easy layups or they got blocks and steals on every possession.

 

I'm pretty sure NBA 2K8 had catch-up A.I. as well, but I was so disgusted by it's many flaws that I didn't care. This, however, is actually a good game and it's frustrating losing games not because of skill, but because of programming. This isn't NBA fucking Jam.

Looks like I was beaten to it.

 

I was just about to post, fuck this game. NBA 2k9. (But not really) I played my first full game on Pro, since I'm trying to get the feel for the controls since 2k7 was the last one I played, and I got my ass kicked basically, losing by 10 points. Interestingly enough, playing as the Bulls vs the Thunder. But seriously, fun game, looks incredibly realistic, but the AI made every single contested shot. the F'n PG Westbrook would just run down the lane, 3 guys in his way, and jump right through them and score every time. Don't even let me try that, blocked on the spot. Or stolen as soon as I get in the paint.

 

And it's not just on the inside either, I choose to double a guy on the outside to keep him from passing, and what does he do? Bust a 3 right in both of the defenders face. On more then one occasion.

 

As was said, is a fun game so far (loved doing the Dunk contest) but damn if the AI didn't piss me off in that game. CPU played pretty hard on the demo, but I thought it was just on Superstar or something, didn't know I was going to get my ass handed to me on Pro. Definitely need to practice all the new controls.

 

edit- And holy crap, just checked the Hot Zones after the game (which is a pretty neat feature) and OKC has no blue zones at all. They made better then 50% in every zone. With their worst being 60, 3-5 at the free throw zone.

[Brett Favre 0]

Just stick with it. In NBA 2K8 I got beatdown in my first game, but afterwards it gets pretty easy. Hopefully it's the same in NBA 2K9.

[Agent_Bond34 0]

The online camera angles are terrible.

 

No 2K Cam = fail.

 

That's the only cam I've ever used, until this year, thanks to the removal of the 2K Cam.

[Exslade ZX 0]

Has anyone else noticed a glitch where the players don't take the ball out of bounds? Maybe it's because I haven't gotten an update yet, so it might have been fixed, but in the game I'm playing now, when someone scores instead of taking it out, they just pick the ball up from where it falls.

 

Started the game with Shaq getting six points in row by just getting the ball again after scoring.

[Agent_Bond34 0]

I don't know, but I remember on 2K8 on occasion, the ref would take forever in giving the ball to the inbounding player to be inbounded and then you'd have to quickly pause and unpause the game in order for him to speed up the process.

[Matt Young 0]

Okay guys, I have the fix for all our problems. These sliders are courtesy of dshopmaker from the 2K Sports forums. He's PS3 only, so no downloads. We have to manually enter them on the 360, but it only takes a few minutes:

 

Difficulty - All Star or Superstar

Quarter Length - 6-8 Minues

 

User/Cpu

 

OFFENSE

Close Shot Success – 55 / 45

Mid Range Success – 50 / 50

3pt Success – 50 / 45

Layip Success – 45 / 45

Dunk Success – 50 / 45

Dunks in Traffic – 60 / 60

Screen Success – 50 / 50

 

DEFENSE

Steal Success – 50 / 50

Help Defense Strength – 60 / 45

 

ATTRIBUTES

Stealing – 50 / 50

Blocking – 30 / 30

Ball Handling – 50 / 50

Dunking Ability – 55 / 50

Off. Awareness – 60/ 45

Def. Awareness – 60 / 40

Off. Rebounding – 60 / 45

Def. Rebounding – 50 / 50

Clutch – 50 / 45

Speed – 50 / 50

Strength – 50 / 45

Stamina – 50 / 50

Durabilty – 50 / 50

Vertical – 50 / 50

Quickness – 55 / 45

Hustle – 60 / 40

Hands – 50 / 50

On-Ball Defense – 60 / 50

Injury Severity – 50 / 50

 

TENDENCIES

Take Close Shots – 50 / 35

Take Mid-Range Shots – 50 / 60

Take 3pt Shots – 50 / 40

Attack the Basket – 50 / 40

Finish Strong Inside – 55 / 45

Look For Post Players – 50 / 50

Use Triple Threat – 50 / 50

Use Fadeaways – 50 / 50

Use Hookshots – 35 / 35

Attempt Putbacks – 45 / 45

Throw Flashy Passes – 25 / 25

Commit Fouls – 50 / 55

Play Passing Lanes – 50 / 50

Go for On-Ball Steals – 45 / 45

Contest Shots – 70 / 55

Use Sizeup Moves – 60 / 50

 

I played 4 games- Lakers/Spurs twice, Bulls/Pacers, and Bulls/Cavs. After experimenting, these sliders work best for a sim game with realistic stats when you play 8 minute quarters on All-Star difficulty.

 

I was always averse to playing longer quarters (did 5 on every sports game) since I want to finish at least one season and stillplay all my other 360 games. But this works best in my opinion.

 

So try these sliders with 8 minute quarters on All-Star, and let me know if you agree that this is the best way to play the game.

[Exslade ZX 0]

Good God, NBA 2K9 is pissing me off. Specifically, the damn catch-up A.I. I am 1-2 against the CPU on pro with the Bulls. The Thunder came back and made up an 8 point deficit in 2 minutes, taking the lead by one, before I made a shot at the buzzer to beat them 71-70.Both the Heat and Hawks made up 6 point deficits and beat me, as I missed easy layups or they got blocks and steals on every possession.

Oh, that's nothing. I just lost a game against the computer being outscored 13 to 31 in the 4th quarter.

 

Brandon Roy hit 5 threes on my ass in that one quarter. And I had a, I think 10 point lead to start the quarter.

 

May have to try those sliders out later.

 

edit-Damn this game is pissing me off. I can't spin to save my life. (Turbo/Y) Every time I do it, the defender knocks the ball out of my hand. Yet, they are always able to breeze by like 3 defenders in the lane with it.

 

This game is fun, but frustrating.