reviewgames-blog1

[reviewgames-blog1]

NBA 2K (any year)

Time and time again, if you search the internet for the opinions of nba2k players, the truthful ones are all talking about the same issues.  You’ll notice some untruthful comments mixed in with the rest and these untruthful comments sometimes toss violence towards the direction of the player who’s just telling the truth based on game play experience.  You have to keep in mind…  A lot of underage boys (maybe girls) are playing nba2k.  These kids, have no real knowledge of game development or the programming world and they sure as hell couldn’t derive logic from their young minds.  This short coming causes these young players to resort to defending the game they find fun or even addicting to play and these young minds view the AI of nba2k as competitive and thus any error is human error.

For anyone reading this, let me first give you some insight on me.  As a developer (of any program, app, etc), I will not give my real name or the company I represent but I can tell you this much…  I have been programming and web developing since 2006.  In that time, I watched my programming skills go from poor to top brass but you know what really makes you an outstanding programmer?  It’s not knowing how to program, because anyone can learn to do that or be taught, it’s being able to come up with outstanding logic to do exactly what you want to do AI wise and that is something you can not teach; nor will everyone have it.

Coming up with top brass logic every time is a combination of knowing your programming language well, the API set (or graphics engine) and the OS you’re developing on because there are pros and cons for each.  I can tell you from experience…  Once you reach the level I’m on logic wise, everything you program should work, AI wise, exactly an according to the logic given and if it doesn’t, your logic was flawed…it’s that simple.  What I’m getting at is…  Writing logic to create a life like simulation for something like a sport is not rocket science.  Hell, if you pay attention to the real life sport and incorporate physics and probability, there’s no reason why one (or many) can’t write a sports AI so well done, the player of that simulation will have nothing to complain about, because the outcome of each match will play out so realistic, the player should feel compelled to accept the outcome.

NBA2k’s AI is exactly how you DO NOT want to write a sports AI (any sport)!  Players of nba2k complain about the CPU (my career) having an unrealistic shot percentage, better overall AI, can blow by you every time, guard your player like his very own shadow, make unrealistic blocks and bla bla bla the list just goes on.  You’ll also come across posts mentioning the bad passing system, worthless teammates, missing wide open A+ grade shots you should hit 9 times out of 10.

You know what’s blatant about reading comments like this and having a developers mind (along with programming skills)?  Some players of the game can’t see it!  If players of nba2k were to really pay attention to the game, you can almost see the bad logic in your own mind.  Let me break it down for you as a developer and not an underage kid who has never derived good logic in his/her life and probably can’t write code worth chicken scratch.

For starters, every athlete in real life have their own athleticism.  These men and women have different foot speed, different quickness, different agility, different vertical and etc, you get the point.  With that being fact, why in the world would you try to control all players in a sports simulation with one overall AI?  That’s what AI sliders do, they adjust the playing ability of simulation athletes on the CPU and Human sides as one unit.  That is absolutely brain dead logic for a sports simulation AI.

You can’t do that!

Each athlete has their own abilities so you can’t tie them all together like that because end result will be all athletes playing the same with no real individuality (tendencies make them different but not athleticism wise).  That’s exactly what you see when you play nba2k (or madden).  The CPU can score and score big with any player on its side, which is why you see simulation athletes scoring way more points then they would in real life and that’s not all.  Every athlete in nba2k all seem to have the same flashiness as well.  Why is Marc Gasol blowing by players off the dribble and throwing it down like MVP Derrick Rose….he’s not that vividly athletic.  Why is a player who couldn’t toss a peanut into an ocean, dropping shots from deep mid range and posting 20+ points for the game?

Let me ask you this…  Given what AI sliders do…  What’s the point of having individual player attributes?  Does not AI sliders defeat the purpose of having individual attributes?  Yes, AI sliders do just that!  The concept of player attributes is correct because you must have some way, logically, to define each athletes’ individual athleticism.  What’s the point in doing that though if you’re going to add in a poor concept like AI sliders?  Players of nba2k…if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ll tell you.  3d Players’ individual attributes mean absolutely nothing!  You gather all those skill points to build up attributes but those attributes don’t define the athleticism of your player (or any others for that matter).  It’s all in the AI sliders (and hardcode).  The only thing building attributes do is cause the CPU the pay more attention to you and play you differently (directly and indirectly) based on what’s hard coded under the hood.  That’s why it may seem like hitting mid range shots while you had an 80 rating was easier than when you got that 90+ rating.

To further prove what I already knew just by playing the game with a developer’s mind, I used Cheat Engine to access the AI sliders for the “MyCareer” mode of the game (which uses the default sliders).  I made a center and maxed out every attribute to 99 (cheat engine).  With the default AI sliders 3 point success rate set to 50, I did not shoot the ball like a player with a 99 3 point shot.  In fact, I watched the CPU go 6 for 7, 7 for 10, and 5 for 8 with players who’s 3 point rating were less than 80 and believe me…I took wide open, A+ shot feed back shots with my 99 shooter.

I then move the default slider for 3 point shot success to 60.  I did make more threes but the percentage was dismal.  I shot the ball like I had a rating of 50 instead of 99 from 3 point range.  I then moved the default 3 point success slider to .68.  My shots were starting to fall like a top shooter now but one thing was still wrong…  I had no consistency even though that attribute was maxed at 99.  As a result, I only shot well when the AI decided to let me do so and when that was not the case….unrealistic results.  I thought to myself, what value on the 3 point success rate would allow me to have a more realistic consistency and then set that value to .70.  That value did the trick…I was able to actually look like a 99 3 point shooter without hitting every shot all the time.

So problem fixed…  Just get cheat engine and get to the default AI sliders…right?  

Nope!

I’ll tell you why setting the Human side 3 point success rate to 70 percent sucked…  Every player on my team were knocking down 3s left and right, even with their individual attributes being below 80.  People, it’s simple…  Attributes do nothing in nba2k (and john madden for that matter), it’s all in the AI sliders and that gives you a bunch of 3d athletes with no individuality, athleticism wise.  AI sliders are garbage and a brain dead quick fix for programmers who can’t derive good, realistic logic for a sports simulation game.

What further makes shooting in nba2k unrealistic is the fact height and jumping on the jump shots are not factors in the shot.  Think about it…  A seven foot three center that shoots the 3 point shot like Reggie Miller, elevates on his jumper while extending his body and long arms upward.  How high of a release point would a shooter like that have?  Even giving it an educated guess, one would have to conclude, a shot being released from that high up would be almost impossible to block.  I would also imagine our seven foot 3 center wouldn’t get bothered much at all by a defender out of position, or gave too much space because our shooter knows his shot is so high up.   A defender would have to be not only chest to chest with him but just as tall and able to jump with him on the shot.  2K(sports) takes none of that stuff into account during a jump shot and it’s evident.

So what would be a better approach for 3d athlete logic?  Like I said earlier, it’s not rocket science.  Toss out the got damn AI sliders and make each individual athlete their own unique AI, which is defined by their attributes only.

Duh!

I’m not going to get into actual code or anything here because I’m not being paid to hand out top brass logic for sports simulation but along with making each 3d athlete a true individual, you have to consider physics and probability also.  For anyone who has played nba2k long enough as a center, you already know (if you pay attention) rebounds are unrealistic in the game.  Why is it, the ball bounces off the rim from a missed CPU shot and 9 times out of 10, the ball bounces right at the guy you’re supposed to be guarding/boxing out?  It doesn’t matter where this guy is, if you’re supposed to be guarding him, the rebound will find him just so you can get handed that “allowed rebound” grade loss (lame).

There is no real physics code behind the ball bouncing against the rim, period…it’s all hard coded under the hood.  Even probability is lost when it comes to rebounds.  Your height, weight, strength, vertical and actual rebounding ability means nothing in nba2k.  I’ve seen the CPU reach through my player’s body to get a rebound that was in my hands.  I’ve seen the CPU get a rebound without jumping, while I was in mid air with both hands on the ball.  The CPU rarely gets called for “over the backs.”  Why is it, when the CPU’s player and I are both in mid air for a rebound, myself being a 7 foot 2 center with 99 vertical going up against 6’9/6’10 with poor vertical, I fail to come down with the rebound at an alarming rate?

It’s not hard to see why players of nba2k complain about the AI being dismal, the logic behind the AI itself is dismal.

You can’t put frosting on “doodoo” and call it a cake! That’s exactly what 2K(sports) has be feeding buyers of the game every year…sugar coated “doodoo.”  The company do no real work what so ever; they just update the roster, tweak the hard code and maybe toss in some lame, so called new feature, like “Lebron to Greatness” or what ever.  If the company were really trying to improve their product and stop stealing money from its customers, they would have given the AI an entire overhaul, tossing out AI sliders altogether (not hiding them either, crooks).

Graphics are nice but graphics don’t make a good game or compensate for poor AI logic.  As and artist myself, I could do the graphics, so I’m not impressed.  AI is everything when it comes to a sports simulation (and a lot of other games for that matter).

You underage players are happy with just the graphics and the fact the game plays at all.  You try to fix things by adjusting the level from pro to hall of fame or what ever but that doesn’t really fix your problems, now does it?  Some of you get desperate and create a custom player for an association team, draft that player and set the player lock on him.  You’re attempting to do your own “MyCareer” through the association because you can manipulate the AI sliders in association.  That’s real sad…  Game play skills or human error has nothing to do with anything because the CPU technically controls everything, including YOU!  If the CPU wants you to miss every shot starting now for the purpose of bringing the CPU’s team back, then that’s what’s going to happen…nothing you do on your part can change that because it’s hard coded in the game’s sugar coated “doodoo” logic.

Some underage players even say this…  Why buy the game then if it’s so bad?

That’s why young people should listen to older people who been where they are and just wait for their time.

People continue to buy the game because they crave NBA style basketball and when the best game out there is sugar coated “doodoo”, that’s what they buy.  If you were starving and on the brink of death and the only option you had for food was raw sushi, you would probably eat the hell out of that sushi before just laying there and dying.

You can argue and make excuses for the game for all eternity but the fact remains the same…  The game has one of the worst written AI in all history of video gaming (and that includes any game that uses the same broken logic).

I can’t see how the programmers for nba2k could be happy with their work; maybe the paycheck, but not the work.  As a programmer, if I was going to make a game (yes I make those), my AI logic has to be top brass.  It has to work from A to Z without flaws and give the most realistic outcome in every frame of game-play.  If performance is an issue, I suggest shaving off the visuals because you can’t shave off AI when it comes to a sports simulation on the PC/Desktop/Console platforms.  Apps are in a different realm and completely a different issue given the hardware involved, although the approach should be the same.

Lets further look at this horrible AI game series (doesn’t matter the year).  If you haven’t noticed yet, and a lot of you probably haven’t, the CPU tries to play stat match during the game (and does).  This is evident during the game but also after, when you look at the box score for both teams.  There’s always somebody on the other team who’s stat line is similar to a player’s stats on your team (including you).  Ever wonder why you’re clearly the best rebound player on the floor and after grabbing almost every rebound, you suddenly can’t get one?  Even if you’re still doing everything the same, the guy you’re boxing out is starting to take your rebounds literally out of your hands.  This is happening because the AI is trying to even out the stat line from team to team.  If you’re lucky, the AI will let up again once things start to look more even.

That’s absolutely unacceptable AI (hardcode) logic!

If real life, you can’t run up to Lebron and say, “James…tone that ‘chit’ down man!  Other players are trying to get rebounds but you getting them all!”  If a player is dominant at something, then you have to put somebody on him that can challenge him or you’re at his/her mercy.  In fact, on that same note, game levels are lame as well.  You can’t say, “Lebron…he’s just a rookie man.  Go on pro bro while the rookie kick it up to hall of fame.”  If you’re a bad player in real life, first off, you’re not even going to make it to a professional level league and if you some how by the grace of God did, you won’t be around the league long.

Going back for a sec here to what I said earlier about 2K(sports) doing no work on the game from year to year….  This is also evident when you do the press conference.  It’s the same old same old “BS” conference year after year.  Why is it, you’re literally the worst player in the league starting out but for some reason, the focus is on you in the press conference, while the true star of the team is sitting with zip-lock lips?  Why are players starting out as this pathetic player who can never go number one in the draft?  That kind of sucks…  It would be so cool to actually enter the NBA on the game as an already fairly elite player, who not only got drafted at number one but has been given the “star” status and start.  Yeah…  Kind of sucks seeing a player at 88 with status “star” and you’re 99 with status “starter.”

The dreaded passing system….

If you’ve played the game long enough and you can’t see it, then shame on you.  The passing system is rigged up to suit the purposes of the CPU’s team.  Almost every pass you make will go through a defender’s window of opportunity.  That’s why almost all passes you make are super lead passes.  There’s no reason to make a pass to your small forward who’s running outside the three point line down the side, and the pass goes right down the middle of the paint where the defender is standing, because the AI is making your small forward run inward now.  People, that’s just flat out cheating AI hardcode.  Lead passes in real life NBA are not thrown that far off the target…it’s not football (not counting breakaways)!  Passes like that in real life would be a “gimmie” as far as turnovers go and that’s why the game does what it does….  To have control over passing turnovers.  (a defense would have to be in lala land to not pick off passes like that in real life) Notice how the CPU pass differently?  In fact, the CPU will pass the ball right through legs and bodies to hit its target.

If you want to even things up, then get cheat engine, get to the default AI sliders and set the CPU’s “play passing lanes” slider to zero.  You’ll now make the same passes the CPU make all the time but don’t think the CPU won’t be able to get to your passes because it will (hard code stuff you can’t change).

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a programmer of a sports game and you do see it in nba2k, is having no reaction time for the CPU.  As a player, you have to input your actions through a controller type, after you have seen and diagnosed the on court action.  Because of this, the CPU knows what you’re going to do (or what you’re thinking symbolically speaking) even before you actually start doing it in-game.  Yeah, the moment you hit pass, a defender will already be all over the passing lane your pass is going to take, even before you make the pass.  When you hit the speed trigger/button and move your movement stick, the defender already know you’re trying to speed around and what direction you’re going in and can thus act like your shadow (code wise).  This is not only unfair because we humans are not machines, it’s not realistic at all.  Humans have to see something, process it mentally and then react to it.  That can all be done in a split second if we’re talking about someone with outstanding awareness and decision making but considered the fact, you also have to press the buttons on a controller so that has to process too.  No matter how fast an athlete diagnose a play or action, nothing is telepathic in real life.

The only thing that even comes close to that is anticipation.  With anticipation, you have already made up your mind, you’re going to make a play on that point guard’s next pass because you feel you know exactly where he’s/she’s going toss it.  In that case, it’s all about timing.  If you burst just before the point guard start to pass (completely guessing at the time of pass), you may find yourself right in the lane just as the pass is made.  That’s not telepathic folks because you can be wrong or off on timing and end up getting burnt for playing the passing lane.  That’s not true in nba2k because the CPU’s actions are processed before hand, thus giving it telepathic actions.

Yes, things are processed before hand in nba2k, which is yet more bad AI.  How do I know this?  Just pay attention….  You’re bound to take a 3 point shot only to see your stat totals go up before you even hit the shot.  You could be going for a block and see that block register at the top of your screen even before it’s made.  Want to know a good one…?  If the CPU puts up a shot and the guy you’re suppose to box out start heading down court instead of going for the rebound, you already know the CPU hit’s the shot (9 times out of 10 anyway).  The only time the CPU may let up is when the game is for surely over because time is low and your team is up 30+ points.  Don’t get fool by this fork in the AI.

On top of bad AI logic, the nba2k series is also aggravating/annoying as hell.

The grade system…

The grading system is all jacked up.  If a defender reaches up (or jump) for a block and makes the ball handler think twice about putting up a shot, then how in the hell is that a “bad block attempt?”  Seriously!?  The only bad block attempt you can do as a defender in basketball, is to just jump up in the air for a block, for no reason at all, letting the ball handler blow right by you.  How many defenders in real life actually lose their minds on defense like that…  Not many.

“Bad steal attempt”…  Get the hell out of here!  There is no such thing as a bad steal attempt if it doesn’t result in a foul or allow the ball handler to score.  If I’m a coach, I want to see my guys trying to steal the ball all the time on defense.  As long as they’re not committing fouls or getting displaced defensively, get those long fingers in that ball space mates!

“Bad call for the ball”….  This one is one of the lamest things in nba2k.  If your team is losing because your teammates aren’t getting the job done, so you stop passing them the ball and start scoring like the star you are, why in the hell would you get a “bad call for the ball” at some point down the floor on offense?  Your teammates should be begging for you to score because their performance was killing the game but you got the team on the brink of taking the lead.  That’s so garbage….  You think a team in real life go tell Lebron James he made a bad call for the ball?  Hell, Lebron will probably even brink the damn ball down the freaking floor!  As a star player on nba2k, where’s your star player respect from your teammates….  There is none.  I don’t care if you’re a star center; if you have the ball handling skills, you create lots of assists and you’re the best player in the league, the ball should be in your hands because the offense should be playing through you anyway (heeeellllllooooo…Lebron James, anyone?).

“Allowed a man to score”…. This one is lame because all players in real life NBA are professionals and the scorers can score.  The best defenders in the league may keep another player at bay offensively but it’s almost impossible to keep a player from getting two points.  So why in the hell does your game grade drop so heavily when ever the guy your tagged to scores?  The majority of the time, it’s your teammates who are not playing defense and allowing somebody to score but you still get tagged with it as if you’re responsible for every opposing guy defensively.  If the programmers for nba2k had a clue, you wouldn’t lose any points for allowing a man to score every now and then but letting your man score frequently towards a big game, that’s a indication you’re losing the battle on the defensive side.  Why would Lebron care about a guy scoring 10 points when that guy is averaging 25 points a game?  By keeping a 25 point a game scorer to just 10 points for an entire game…that’s a defensive win.

“Allowed a rebound”….  This one is a joke because the CPU will get rebounds it shouldn’t be able to get to, probability wise.  The CPU will also get to loose balls that get counted as rebounds, which is totally wrong.  This grade loss is one of the most annoying because you can clearly see yourself getting to every rebound first but not coming up with the ball.  At times it even feels like you’re not even there because the ball will come off the rim, ignore the fact it’s in your hands and just snug right in the hands of the guy you’re not only boxing out, but a guy who you greatly out size and have the physical gifts advantage over.

“Bad pass”….  This one is practically unavoidable because the passing system is rigged up, to allow CPU defenders passing lane access to every pass you make.  There are times though when you actually pass the ball to a teammate and it hits its target and your teammate scores…but you still see “bad pass” pop up on screen and you don’t get an assists.  How in the hell a pass that hits its target, resulting in a score, a bad pass?  I don’t give a horse’s ‘nutt’ if a defender gets a finger on a pass.  If that pass gets through and results in a score, that’s an assists and a good pass (at least an assist anyway).

Aside from the grading system, another annoying thing about nba2k is the broadcasting…it’s unrealistic at times.  Ever took a few wide open 3 point shots in the game and those shots just miss no matter what (no surprise there) and then a broadcaster would just go ham and start screaming about how you’re hoisting up shots and your accuracy is lacking and how time is running low and bla bla bla….?  That is complete garbage broadcasting and I can’t even imagine a guy keeping his job in real life after going ‘ham’ like that.  I’m sure if he does keep his job, he’ll still get reproached about it at some point.  The broadcasters also completely disrespect the players by cracking all kinds of jokes about them that would no doubt in real life, cause a player to retaliate on social media.  I’ll give you an example…  Damian Lillard was being compared to Kyrie Irving for the longest and he finally took to social media to strike back.  Think about it…  Here’s a guy that got upset because he was being compared to another super star (more or less).  How upset would a player be in real life if the broadcasters were saying stuff like, “you couldn’t slide a piece of paper under him when he jumps?”  Annoying, disrespectful and unrealistic broadcasting in nba2k, period!

Not only does the nba2k series have bad AI logic behind the athletes’ athleticism, the way the game plays as a whole is unrealistic.  At times it seems like you’re playing football instead of basketball.  A good example of this is when you try to drive around a defender.  Unless you used cheat engine to manipulate speed and quickness, you know this is virtually impossible, especially with a point/shooting guard (easy with center).  The defender will stick to you like your shadow and the fact you have way more speed and quickness won’t matter because the game’s logic is based on the sliders, not the attributes (and hard code).  What’s totally messed up is the animations you see during your failed blow by attempt.  You might sometimes go into this stumble that leads you directly out of bounds (‘BS’).  OMG, what’s so messed up about that is the fact, you can be a 299 lbs center and get stumble by a 170 lbs defender.  Really….!?

I can’t stand that tangle up/grabbing/holding animation that kicks in when you try to drive around a defender.  That one not only belongs on a football game, it would be a foul in real life.  There’s another animation where the defender turns you round, bends you over, toss his hands in the air and it appears like he ‘humping’ your booty.  What the hell is that 2K(sports)…  F$%$ing rape is what it is!  What about the moments when you do somehow get pass a defender and you have a clear lane for a dunk or a layup.  All defenders are either nowhere near you, burnt behind you or out of position to make a play.  In this situation in real, if a shooter was flying in for a dunk and you ran over from the far side jumping, you are beat at that point and one of several things are going to happen.  You’re going to foul the shooter and he gets an “and one.”  You’re going to foul the shooter and he miss the dunk/layup.  You’re going to flagrantly foul the shooter with or without an “and one” and there’s the possibly of a fight breaking out and injury.

Defenders in real life know when to just give up the two points and for those who do not, they’re the ones who create “and one” opportunities.  With 2K(sports)’s nba2k series, this is not so.  The game will make defenders go flying through the air, covering unrealistic amounts of ground while in mid air, and then block a dunk.  Really…  Block a dunk….  ??  Do the 2K(sports) team even watch the NBA?  With the way some dunkers throw it down, it’s almost virtually impossible to block a dunk, especially in a situation where the dunker has that clear lane and is already taking off on a late arriving defender.  You’re going to get “posterized!!!!!”  What gets to me the most is not the fact an unrealistic block took place, but the fact the defender glided from 15 to 20 feet away in mid air to do it.  Even Michael Jordan didn’t stay in the air for that long and he had the most hang time ever in the history of the NBA.  He didn’t get the nickname “air” for nothing folks.  I’m not saying a dunk can’t get blocked but that’s one of the rarest things you’ll see in an NBA game, especially if the dunker is like 7’2’’ tall.  Ask yourself…  How many “Shaq Daddy” dunks got blocked over his career?  How many of MJ23’s dunks got blocked over his career?  How many of Lebron dunks got blocked in his still going career?  Why is it the CPU never gets called for fouling you in mid air 97 percent of the time?  The CPU is flying unrealistically right into you in mid air, creating a major collision on a clear path score….  Seriously!?

Go ahead players of nba2k…tell them.  Tell 2K(sports), you don’t like their antics!  Tell them you don’t like the taste of their sugar coated “doodoo.”  Tell them you want your f$@%ing money back…all of it!

Let me just say this for the record…  I do understand in later versions of the game, the “MyCareer” mode or what ever they call it at latest, has an added Spike Lee storyline.  Folks…  Don’t let stuff like that fool you…  It’s still the same old garbage game under the hood.  It doesn’t matter how they modify or twist it up because AI logic is what makes a simulation good or bad and it has nothing to do with the frosting and cherry on top 2K(sports) keep adding.

Even though players of nba2k have complained about the CPU’s AI being better, especially on offense, that’s not really the case.  The CPU seems better because its players (and yours) have no identity, therefore anyone one of them can look like an MVP Derrik Rose at any time.  With attributes meaning nothing, any CPU player can teleport speed wise at any moment and as if that isn’t enough, the AI will slow your own player down or drop you in this invisible quick sand.  The CPU pretty much does the same thing down the floor every trip.  It will dribble penetrate with a ball handler, while the guy you’re supposed to be guarding is trying to get open.  That’s the CPU’s number one objective…score on the human player directly.  Sometimes that means making your teammate run over and start guarding your man for no reason and the CPU tags you to your teammates guy who’s now shooting a wide open shot you know he’s going to hit because the AI rigged it up.  Usually, if the ball handler for the CPU can’t hit the guy you’re guarding for a score, it’ll either finish with a layup or dunk and if nothing else, kick it out to another CPU player and that player will shoot and hit a shot regardless of the defense being played on him (usually a 3 point shot).  Your teammates will somehow allow the CPU backdoor cuts all game long for dunks and layups.

That is brain dead CPU AI but it seems to work because players’ attributes mean nothing, therefore allowing the CPU to play above and beyond with any player as needed in order to score on you and your team (especially you).  If you use cheat engine to even things up like speed, passing and 3 point shooting, you take away the CPU’s above and beyond super ability and that’s when the CPU’s AI stand out as a completely uncompetitive joke.  However, you can’t stop the CPU from teleporting its guys speed wise in some instances because it’s hard coded.  Several examples are, loose balls, rebounds and unrealistic blocking of dunks and sometimes jump shots.  It’s an complete insult to the human player’s intelligence when you have a 7’2” center with 90+ blocking and you can’t block CPU players way lower than you but those same smaller players will somehow come flying in from 30 feet away, in mid air (unreal hang time) and block your dunk….at 7’2” tall….while they’re like 6’3” tall.  In real life, that would be a “posterization.”

I have seen smaller players in real life deflect/strip the ball from a seven footer in the act of shooting and that strip gets chalked up as a block but I’m sure everyone who saw it knows it’s not really a block but lets give the little guy one anyway….because he’s Nate Robinson.  Over the course of my nba2k game-play, I have recorded replays of things that were so unrealistic or low probability wise, you would go completely speechless if you saw the videos.  The CPU reaching through your body to poke balls loose, defenders jumping across your back like a monkey to make a steal that would be a foul in real life, CPU rebounders dislocating shoulders to get rebounds they are not in position for, human side ball handlers loosing the ball on the dribble the moment anyone nips against them, ball go through hands on perfect blocks, CPU playing the passing lane without even facing in the direction of the ball, unrealistic super saves of the ball going out of bounds (especially after the CPU magically knocks it out your hands), none 3 point shooting centers hit damn near half court shots on fadeaways, your own teammates setting screens for the CPU's offensive players against you (wow...), CPU traveling left and right, CPU gets caught on a screen and left in the dust but somehow the same defender makes a block at the rim, CPU gets shot or dunk blocked but it still goes in the basket, you can have your hand literally through the face of a CPU shooter and the CPU hits the shot, the CPU breaks your arm causing it to spin on a 360 just so you can't block its shot, you time a steal perfectly only to see your own player jump in an odd direction or go into this retarded animation that holds long enough for your man to blow by you for an easy score.

Believe me...I can go on forever with the cons of nba2k.  It looks so lame when you start running full speed and a defender can not only run with you while "shimmy" stepping (not even probable unless the ball handler is turtle slow), but move like your shadow.  Again, that's do to speed and other attribute ratings meaning nothing.  I know I addressed  this earlier but I want to follow up.  In real life, if somebody started to run around you at full speed, you have to stop "shimmy" stepping and run at full speed yourself.  If that ball handler is running out to the side of you, which is usually the case when they want to go around, it's almost impossible to cut their path off (unless you're clearly the faster guy at full speed).  In a situation were you got an MVP Derrik Rose hitting the gas to go around you, you'll most likely find yourself running as fast as you can at his side because again, you'll have to outrun a ball handler in order to get in front of him for a cut off.  Once the ball handler gets on your hip, you have to turn and run with him full speed.  It's all about help defense in moments like that but 2K(sports) don't understand that apparently.  You'll eventually get tired of seeing centers and power forwards with speed and quickness attributes under 45 run with guys who are 80+ on speed and quickness (your attributes mean nothing!!!!).  That's almost double a defender's speed and if you're twice as fast as somebody, you're going to leave that person in the dust at will, which is why we don't see center vs point guard match ups in real life (unless on a switch or during a displaced defense trying to get back in place).  I've seen Chris Paul on centers in real life and no crap...the man could of just wiggled his pinky finger and blew by those slower defenders.  Of course, Chris Paul at times made them look even more slow by getting them off balance and dropping a floater over their long, out stretched arms.

If it were the nba2k game, those centers would have been on Paul like the white on rice and probably knocked his a#$ over, causing him to stumble out of bounds for a lame turnover; or maybe bounce their thumb against Paul's jersey, causing him to just lose the handle on the ball for a turnover.

Going back to teammates...  Another thing your own teammates are good at doing is getting in your way on offense (and defense for that matter) and they do this several different ways.  One, if you're posting up for a shot, they'll come over and just stand right on top of you, totally not caring about spacing at all (they even follow you!).  Two, if you have the ball and looking to drive, they'll post up right in your driving path and at times, they'll do it just as you start to drive.  Three, they'll get right next to you when you're looking to score, which also brings their defender into the picture and now you have two guys on you instead of one.  It's bad enough you're teammates won't take wide open shots when you pass them the ball or move around, set screens and cut to get open.  When they do finally take a shot off your pass, it's either just before the clock expires (forcing them) or after they stood there and let a defender get in position on them and then force a shot.  If they truly take a wide open shot off your pass, bet on it missing 9 times out of 10.

Next time you play nba2k, just think about the fact the players you see on screen have no individuality other than their appearance; because the attributes that should define them are just there to fool players into thinking the skill points are needed to build a better player.  It's all in the AI sliders and if we're talking a mode like "MyCareer", you can't get to the AI slider (besides, it uses the default AI slider anyway and that one you can not change unless you do it using something like cheat engine).  Even if you did have sliders in "MyCareer", the game would still suck because of no individuality from player to player athleticism wise.  There is one mechanism that make players act differently such as how often they shoot or don't shoot and that's tendencies.  Tendencies however, are not the same as attributes.  Tendencies don't define athleticism but more or less, game habits.

Another thing you should notice about the game is the fact, it does not keep track of what’s going on in the league.  You can be going against your next opponent only the hear the broadcasters say, it was a stream of threes from your team last game and that got the win.  You know for fact, your team won the last game by scoring in the paint, so what the hell are the broadcasters talking about?  Why is it, when you’re in the press conference, a reporter will ask a question about you getting 11 assists in the game when in fact, you’re averaging a triple double?  Why would a reporter talk about your 8 rebounds when you had 20 assists?  Nba2k doesn’t follow what’s going on in the league or individual games and it doesn’t address what it should address during a press conference and as a result, you get a strong feel of an unrealistic league overall.

Let me just jump to game versions for a minute...

It's fact the PC version of nba2k is not the same as the console version.  The console version is way more polished, even though the AI is still broken.  Fans of the game have all stated their opinions of why 2K(sports) would create a half-assed game for PC fans and drop the full production for console fans.  For starters, that's a slap in the face for fans who enjoy playing on the PC platform.  I don't care if the game is sold cheaper or what ever, I have never seen a professional company, make a game for multiple platforms, and their game gets half-assed for one or more of the platforms.  2K(sports) is the first company I have ever known in all my years of gaming to do such an unprofessional thing.  So why would they do it?  Is it because they feel the game will get hacked on the PC platform...?  Maybe, maybe not but the real reason is this folks...  There's money developing for the console platforms.  When you develop for the Playstation, you're developing for Sony's system.  When you develop for the Xbox, you're developing for Microsoft's system.  You best believe your a&% there is money slid under the table for developing for the consoles because you are in fact promoting those consoles.

PC platform has the best hardware, PEROID and that's no secret.  A console can not complete with a server build desktop designed for gaming.  The PC/Laptop platform also get faster hardware upgrades.  Every new console that hits the market is just playing catch up, hardware wise, to the PC/Laptop platform.  Here's the thing, there's no one to promote when you develop for the PC platform except your own company.  Developers are free to develop for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems but why go there if you can earn money by promoting a console, just by simply releasing a console version of your game?  Get a clue folks, that's why you see 95 percent of games released on consoles and not PC/Laptop because if all those games were released for the PC as well, how many people would actually want a console given the hardware power and usability of a solid desktop?

The name of the game is money, gamers...  It's not about you...  Never has been and never will be so stop acting like these companies give a damn about any of you.  The men at 2K just 'wanna' get paid big so they can get their blow jobs, the hell with you liking the game or not because you're going to buy it anyway...year after year because it's the best sugar coated "doodoo" on the market right now.

Sorry to hit you all with the truth like that but it's always better to live in the real world.

2K needs to just drop the PC version altogether because fans of the game should be treated as equals and not split up based on platform.  Why feed one group super "doodoo" while the other group swallow regular "doodoo?"  Complete bulls*_t is what it is!

Mark my words folks...  There will one day be a company that will drop sports simulation games that will not only take over and redefine sports simulations but will also end all current sports game titles on the market now.  Such a company is going to do it by coding the greatest sports AI written and that AI will be so perfect, it'll never have to be re-written from year to year, just made even smarter if anything.

Making games is work “kiddos”…  It’s easy to pick one up and play it but designing one, especially solo, can be a real testament to your man-hood or woman-hood but there are those who just make them for a paycheck, and there are those who really want their work to reflect back on their professionalism.

If I were to judge 2K(sports) professionalism by their work, then It’s safe to say their professionalism is about as professional as sugar coated “doodoo.”

Regards