NBA 2K6 Beta Impressions

[blueduke]

Steve over at OS received a beta copy of the game. He's giving his impressions and answering questions in this thread.............

http://forums.operationsports.com/vBull ... ge=1&pp=10

[dbdynsty25]

This is all I needed to read:

"Man...I'm REALLY feelin' this game. I absolutely LOVED the ID series and the core of that group came over to work on 2K6. You can definitely feel the change in the gameplay. Player movement and spacing is unreal, the superstars play like superstars and the role players play like....well...roleplayers. Seems every team runs just like the real life counterpart, it's pretty amazing how it has come across. ID missed a lot of animations, but you see a TON in NBA 2K6, some are just plain sickening."

[GTHobbes]

thanks for the link, blueduke.

[Slumberland]

So the NBA 2K6 team consists of remnants of both the Inside Drive and the NFL 2K teams? What an embarassment of riches. Looking forward to it.

[GTHobbes]

So the NBA 2K6 team consists of remnants of both the Inside Drive and the NFL 2K teams? What an embarassment of riches. Looking forward to it.

I was just watching some of the videos over at the 2ksports website, and they even had dan stevens and peter o'keefe doing the announcing on the tips video. Never thought I'd say it, but its sure good to hear those guys again.

[pk500]

This is all I needed to read:

"Man...I'm REALLY feelin' this game. I absolutely LOVED the ID series and the core of that group came over to work on 2K6. You can definitely feel the change in the gameplay. Player movement and spacing is unreal, the superstars play like superstars and the role players play like....well...roleplayers. Seems every team runs just like the real life counterpart, it's pretty amazing how it has come across. ID missed a lot of animations, but you see a TON in NBA 2K6, some are just plain sickening."

Wow -- if that's the case, then I'm certainly interested in an NBA game for the first time since ID 2004. Hell, I never thought I'd buy an NBA game again after ID 2004, but damn, if this game looks and feels like ID and was built by part of the ID team, I might hop on the train.

Take care,
PK

[SoMisss2000]

From the IGN Review, here is Obvious Man

From an overall standpoint, the game is still far too easy, though not as much so as last year. Only after bumping the difficulty setting up to superstar will experienced players feel challenged and have to think about calling the right plays at the right time and D-up every trip down the floor. The CPU leaves clear lanes open to the hoop and rarely contests outside shots even if Ginobli just dropped 15 tre in a row. Play on anything below the middle of the road All-star level and the weakest players in the league can school the franchise players all day long. The pacing stays true to the nature of the NBA though, so the quarter-to-quarter flow of season games feels neither too fast nor too slow, than the real deal. Bottom line: If this isn't the first hoops video game you've ever played, bump it up to the second toughest difficulty or 2K6 is just too easy and gets boring, fast.

Well Duh!

[tjung0831]

Yeah after looking at the videos between 2K6 and Live 06 I think i'm going to pick up 2K6 without a doubt. I loved NBA Live last year but the videos are pretty much selling me right now on 2K6. I've never played the inside drive series so hopefully it will compliment that so i can get a feel for what i've been missing.

[ubrakto]

2k6 was one of the few games I got some extensive playtime with at E3 this year and even with all but a few features disabled the gameplay was w/o a doubt light years ahead of what I remembered from the last version I played (2k2). Actually, the feel of the game was light years ahead of College Hoops 2k5 too.

I had far too little time with it to invoke the holy comparison of ID, but there was a definite ID vibe to it. The flow of the games I played was just so much smoother than older versions. Very little getting stuck in long, bad animations and a lot of variance in terms of how the offenses moved the ball around. I spent a lot of the time using the Pistons against the Heat and working it inside to one of the Wallace's only to kick it out to Chauncey for a three was like watching something straight out of their playoff series.

I've definitely got my hopes up for this one. I just pray that there aren't any game-killing bugs that whack the franchise mode or cause lockups.
---Todd

[Slumberland]

My favorite parts of the IGN review are where he complains about the game being too easy on default difficulty (a non-issue if ever I heard one and a sure indicator that a reviewer doesn't have enough quality points to fill a review) and his opinion that, even though they've clearly modeled real life team tendencies in this year's version, it doesn't make him want to play 2k6 any more than he played 2K5.

IGN... tirelessly seeking new lows since 1995.

[bdoughty]

My favorite parts of the IGN review are where he complains about the game being too easy on default difficulty (a non-issue if ever I heard one and a sure indicator that a reviewer doesn't have enough quality points to fill a review) and his opinion that, even though they've clearly modeled real life team tendencies in this year's version, it doesn't make him want to play 2k6 any more than he played 2K5.

IGN... tirelessly seeking new lows since 1995.

I liked them when they were n64.com, long before being cuckolded by Electronic Arts and desperate for advertising money. Anytime you see Jon Robinson doing a review of an EA Game (see Live 06 Review) you know the fix is in.

[sportdan30]

This game is sounding ridiculously good. Anyone pick it up yet?

Comparisons to ID and College Hoops have my mouth watering. If EA purchases the NBA exclusive license any time soon, there will blood shed.

[/quote]

[bdoughty]

This game is sounding ridiculously good. Anyone pick it up yet?

Comparisons to ID and College Hoops have my mouth watering. If EA purchases the NBA exclusive license any time soon, there will blood shed.

I just did, willpower is not my strong suit. I won't get to play until tonight. Right off the bat they are taking the ID 2004 no-frills aproach to a hoops game. Opened the box and the disc is white as snow. No shaq on the disc cover.

The NBA deal has already been done and gamers are safe in this genre.

From back in March:

The National Basketball Association on Tuesday signed long-term video game licensing deals with not one, but no less than five publishers, bucking the recent trend of sports leagues making exclusive arrangements with a single company. Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Midway Games, Sony Corp and Atari Inc., all current NBA partners, signed new deals with the league.


On the extreme side of things, EA and Midway will have to share the court. EA's NBA Street and Midway's NBA Ballers will alternate years.

[sportdan30]

Great news indeed Bd. I too am going to pick up 2K6 this evening as I'm jonesing big time for any hoops game, well besides Live. Don't want to spend $8.00 for a rental and then have nothing to play until CH arrives.

Still, if this game plays as well as advertised I may just hang on to it for a while.

[TheTruth]

I just picked up a copy during lunch. Won't get to play till late this evening.
Anyone want to try to play a game online tonight? I could possibly play around 9pm cst.

[Slumberland]

Got it this afternoon. It looks very similar to last year's but feels very, very different under the hood. The shot stick is great, especially in the post. You have to be very careful with both passing and initiating offensive contact this year, as the CPU players are very smart about filling the passing lanes, and I've seen a lot of charging calls. The unpredictability of the CPU offense is much, much better. No more of those turnaround baseline jumpers. The new Isomotion will take some getting used to, but between that, the shot stick and the dual player control, you have a ton of control on offense. I'm not sure, but it seems like the pivot moves have been removed with the new Isomotion? I'm not that sad if that's the case, as the big glitch I found in last year's 2K b-ball titles revolved around the pivot moves.

Seems like a lot of work has been done since last year.

[matthewk]

I may have just discovered the first good thing to come out of EAs purchase of the NFL license. Thanks to only having 1 choice for NFL games this year (and rejecting it), I'm in the mood for a new sports game, and NBA 2k6 looks like it may be it.

Had there been an NFL 2k6 this year i probably would have held off on any NBA games. Even though I am still loving NFL 2k5, I just feel the need for a new game.

[sportdan30]

One of the better reviews I've read over at OS. Posted by "OneBadMutha". Don't let the username scare you away. This is an excellent in depth look at this game.



Here's what I posted at IGN. As you'll see, I'm very positive about almost everything except the perimeter Iso-motion and I stated that in my impressions. That said, I haven't tried raising the dribbling sliders so that may change things. I've also since played another couple games and if you turn up the foul sliders just a little bit, they are extremely realistic.

Thus far I've barely had time to do more than kick the tires of the game and have spent just under two hours messing with it. I've played a couple of short games (5 minute quarters). I've gone into practice mode to test out the moves. I've also messed around with menus and tested the association to see what options there was. This is by no means meant to be my final opinion on the game but rather my early impressions. I probably won't have any follow up impressions until very late tonight since I've got a busy day ahead once I get done writing this.

If you only take one thing out of this impression it should be this...NBA 2K6 is a brand new franchise compared to 2K5. It honestly feels like it's from a different developer than the one that made 2K5. Yes, I've seen the videos that many of you have seen and based on those, it seemed like the gameplay was tweaked more than overhauled. Trust me when I say it doesn't feel anything like 2K5, 2K4, or 2K3. As someone who's been following the media on this game since VC started sharing info with us, I can honestly say that some things caught me completely off guard and shocked me.

This is in no way meant to be some over-hyped sales pitch for the game. While I found many things I liked in a short period of time, I also found some things that felt like flaws. The truth of the matter is that it takes many hours to really sift through a sports sim with so many new things to consider and analyze. My initial impressions are extremely limited but some stuff just smacked me upside the head so I thought I'd share it before moving along with my day.

So what's different? For better or for worse...almost everything. These are just the things I noticed in my two hours with the game.


* The menus - Very easy to navigate in the franchise mode. Very clean. Lots more options than in the past. 2K's menus used to be horrible. These are nice.

* Game modes - They brought back single season, street ball, and tournament. They've also added a practice mode and a situation mode.

* VIP - This is something that tracks gamers tendancies in how they play the game. It was in NFL 2K5 and is mostly meant for downloading friends profiles online and practicing against their profiles. I didn't get too far into this but I checked out my VIP profile after a couple of games and it's insane what it keeps track of. Everything from what I do in the triple threat stance, where I take most of my shots, to what kinds of plays I run is kept track of in percentages. I found out that I can assign a profile to a team I'm playing in franchise mode right before the game starts so if I download KB's profile online, I can assign it to the Nets when I play them if I want to.

* Player movement - OK, now the big stuff. Player movement feels unlike any other 2K before. It was the most shocking surprise to me. Where as player movement felt like steering a mack truck last year, this year it's extremely responsive. It's hard to explain but I think even Live fans will like this. You can go left or right at least as responsively as you can in NBA Live except that your players still don't skate. They are responsive yet they don't feel floaty like Live or robotic like past 2K basketball games.

* Controls - I'm not sure whether to make this a positive or a negative. I guess it's both depending on which controls we are talking about. The shot stick is OK but I generally only used it when I was in the post. It gives you nice control over your post moves once you figure out what does what. When shooting jumpers, I generally still used the face buttons like last year. The good news for those that hate the shot stick is that the shooting mechanics on the face buttons are the exact same as last year...except with better animations and response time.

The Iso-Motion on the perimeter is something that I haven't moved into positive territory on yet. I don't feel it does exactly what the instructions say it should do for each command. It still feels context sensitive even though it's not supposed to be. I had no luck stringing together moves, doing stutter steps, spin moves, etc. Hopefully this is just an issue of not having practice but I honestly don't think so. I just believe it's unpolished and sort of broken at this point. For all you gamers who love isolating Iverson and breaking ankles, NBA 2K6 might not be your game still. What finally does work well compared to last year is that you won't get stuck in long, drawn out animations you don't have any control over. When I had a mis-match on the perimeter and just wanted to lower my shoulder and run past the big man, I could do that without going into some stupid animation first like last year. I will say that I was able to penetrate using Iso-motion however it felt more like luck than some skillful act that I was performing. Like I said, hopefully I prove with more playing time that it does work with practice.

On another plus side of the new controls, I love the strip and rip on defense. It seemed to work exactly like it should have. When I reached in when a guy was protecting the ball, I'd get whistled for a foul. If I was aggressive when the dribbler was facing me and I missed, most of the time he'd burn me and take it to the hole. It's definatly not something that I was able to abuse in my first couple games but the few times I timed it right, it felt good. It's the best steal mechanism to date.

Oh...blocks. While not new in controls I just needed to mention that they look and feel much better this year. I pulled off a great helpside block that I've never seen in a basketball game this gen where I threw a shot off the backboards. By using the right trigger with the blocking face button, you'll go for a more aggressive block but there's also a greater chance of fouls.

Finally there's the dual player control option. I honestly didn't spend time learning this so hopefully I can say more in terms of how well it works later. It seems like it could be a great feature when I see teammates who have mismatches or if I want to run a two man game but I haven't used it enough to say whether it works well or not.

* Rebounds. Much, much better than in the past. Part of it feels better because you are watching better ball physics. No longer do I feel like I'm watching these slow, canned, ball bouncing on the rim animations. They come off the rim much more naturally. There's also tipped balls. Players who are out of position but get a finger on the ball don't suck it in like they used to. Now if two players go up for the ball at once, they might tip it away or tip it to themselves. Computer players react much better to rebounds and don't seem to wait for the ball to come to them like in the past. There's also a block out button...which you need to use on your man if you don't want to give up offensive boards. Finally, I love the over-the-back fouls they call this year. You can't just go charging for rebounds like a mad man if you don't have position. I got two quick fouls using Ben Wallace that way.

* A.I. - I should've listed this first actually because it makes a significant difference in how the game plays. From the two games I played, the A.I. seemed superior to any of the 2K's in the past. Players seemed to recognize where you were on the court and would move to the appropriate locations. In the past 2K games, sometimes I'd get doubled but the teammate who was left to create the double team wouldn't react. I noticed a couple of times when I got doubled today, my teammate ran from me to create space and was ready for an open shot. A few other times the player who was left open because of the double team cut towards the basket. I also noticed that my teammates didn't stand in my way like they used to with other 2K games. No longer is all their actions completely scripted. If I start driving to the basket where my teammate is, sometimes he'll actually get the hell out of my way now.

Overall the A.I. seems great. I was only playing on All Star (the middle difficulty) but even then, the computer was able to move the ball around for good shots and on defense they reacted quickly. They also seemed to mix it up. I seemed to get some double teams when I wasn't expecting them. It seems like the computer will double when they got you in a compromising position...and not only when you are a star player who's hot. There was a few times I pushed the ball down the court ahead of my teammates and the computer trapped me. One time I didn't think about it and passed to Sheed along the baseline and they doubled him and forced a turnover (despite the fact that he wasn't killing them in the boxscore). The computer calls time-outs to stop runs or to make substitutions. They also seem aware of the clock and handled end of quarters and end of the game appropriatly.

Here's something many of you will absolutly love about the A.I. The fast break is run better than I've ever seen it run in any basketball game before. Not even close. I'd say it's near perfect. It's hard to defend when they have the man advantage on the break and on the flip side, your teammates make your job much easier on the break as well. They seem to run when they are supposed to. When you bat away a ball and start chasing it the other way, your teammates are quick to react and will start running with you. It feels awsome to use the strip-and-rip to time a knock away in a passing lane and then to execute a beautiful 3 on 2 break. As a Pistons fan, I don't usually spend much time with the running game but I did today because it was so much damned fun. Maybe it was just a fluke but I hope not.

Never did I see anything weird with the A.I. like what IGN mentioned in their review. OK, I did see Webber trying to play in the post but that's something I can fix with his tendancy sliders.

* Tendancies - I didn't play long enough or see enough teams to say exactly how well they are implemented. What I will say is that I noticed Rip actually running around without the ball. Post players played in the post. Korver usually jacked up long range shots against me. I played off Iggy because he usually wanted to drive. For some reason Webber actually liked it in the post...but since we can edit player tendancies this year, we can fix that and make him jack up jumpers instead.

BTW, I never saw a little man block a big man in the two games I played on Superstar. This included myself and the other team. The smallest player I got any blocks with was Tay. When playing against Phili, Dalembert was a blocking fool and Webber got a shot of mine but overall the blocks were realistic.

* Running plays - Works much better than last year mostly because the A.I. is better, they space the court better, they run through open lanes when they see them, and finally you don't get the stupid off-balance jump shot on catch-and-shoots with open players like what happened all the time in 2K5. It's also more intuitive in terms of calling plays. No longer do you have to do multiple button presses to call plays. Now you just press up, down, left, or right on the directional pad...and nothing else. But even when you don't call plays, your players don't stand there like idiots. One of my first baskets in the game was to Rip running around a baseline screen to get open for the catch-and-shoot. It was impressive since it wasn't a scripted play that I called.



OK, there's more. There's an entire franchise mode which I barely touched. I did see that the stuff we were promised did make the game like those mini-game drills to build up player attributes, year round scouting, and owners who have different priorities (which is supposed to play into what types of trades a team is willing to make). I'll let you know more about them later.

There was also a few other negatives such as inconsistant collision detection. Replays showed some dunks where it didn't look like the player got their hands over the rim. Overall though, I'd say the only killer negative for most people will be the Iso-motion...again. It's better but I'm not sure it's intuitive enough for a basketball game.

[blueduke]

Pretty in depth impressions. Sounds like 2K6 may have it a home run with this title. What turned me off last year's game was a lack of a single season mode and in franchise undoing wacky trades was a pain in the rear.

[TheHiddenTrack]

I can't wait to play this game, it's too bad it's not $20 because I would be driving to the store right now.

I'm tempted to get the 360 version, but I'm not sure if I'm going to get the console yet....damn. I wish if you bought the XBOX version now you could trade it for the new 360 version.

This game sounds too good to be true.

[dbdynsty25]

Those of you who haven't played it yet seriously need to drop your expectations. Favorable reviews on the release date...we've heard that all before. It will come crashing down in no-time...some jagoff out there will find a way to exploit so and so glitch and then all hell will break loose around the forums. It's coming...

[ScoopBrady]

Those of you who haven't played it yet seriously need to drop your expectations. Favorable reviews on the release date...we've heard that all before. It will come crashing down in no-time...some jagoff out there will find a way to exploit so and so glitch and then all hell will break loose around the forums. It's coming...

That's why I stop reading impression threads after the initial week of launch. I still don't know what the Madden glitch is and I still love playing the game.

If this title was $20 I'd pick it up but with the 360 launch looming I don't know how much time I'd really put into this title since I'm already enjoying the hell out of NHL 2k6 and I like hockey games better than basketball ones.

[sportdan30]

Just played one game on the default settings, so can't give a true review just yet. But, from what I have played, I love it!

Compared to 2k5, it literally is night and day.

Last year's game was stagnant on both offense and defense. This year, you see a lot of movement without the ball and players fighting for position.

I played as the Bulls against the Lakers. Kobe lit me up for 38 points. I doubled teamed him in the 2nd half, but he still got his points off the fast break and beating my man off the dribble.

I'm partial on the "hit stick" so far. I absolutely love it on layups and dunks. On jumpers, I still haven't gotten the hang of it. However, you can change you controller setting where you use the "X" button to shoot jumpers and the "hit stick" for layups and dunks. There's a variety of controller combinations.

On default settings, it's way too easy to get steals. That should be rectified with sliders...I hope.

The game is sooooo much smoother than the past 2K basketball games. It definitely has that ID feeling.

The A.I. really plays a pretty smart brand of basketball. They definitely fast break a lot and without question get their superstar involved.

Great spacing on both the offensive end.

Love the tie ups and jump ball.

Didn't see many fouls on default settings except for a couple reach in and shooting fouls. I've heard the sliders make a world of difference with increases in fouls.

This game will be beautiful on the 360, but I'll be content playing it on the Xbox. Some of the player models look quite real.

The presentation is top notch. Craig Sager in an ugly red suit at halftime. LOL. Commentary for the most part keeps up with the action.

That's about it. I'm not a big NBA fan in the least, but this game is fun to play. I'll surely hold on to this for a while.

Early on, I'm giving this game high marks.

[pk500]

Those of you who haven't played it yet seriously need to drop your expectations. Favorable reviews on the release date...we've heard that all before. It will come crashing down in no-time...some jagoff out there will find a way to exploit so and so glitch and then all hell will break loose around the forums. It's coming...

Also remember that it's a 2K Sports game. So when will the inevitable "game-killing" or "franchise-killing" glitch show its pockmarked head?

Then again, if the comparisons to Inside Drive are accurate, then this game could be special. ID 2004 still is the best console basketball game I've ever played, college or pro.

Take care,
PK

[Jason]

Can you manually faceup a player on defense or is it automatic like it's been the past two years?