Official 2k9 Impressions thread

[Angelo]

Damn this post of yours will surely motivate the people to buy the game

[MacBryce]

As long as they don't pirate it, I'm happy. This game is actually worth the money IMHO, and not many games these days are. Let's turn this into a nice profit for 2K so that they invest into 2KX as well. Heck, I'll probably buy another copy for my brother's birthday. The game is so cheap right now that I still feel like I robbed 2K for that price.

I'll add some images to my review. The PC version actually looks this good on a decent PC. Thanks to the posters on this forums for posting these in other threads:

Crazy T-Mac move.




(For the people who don't own the game already. The moves above aren't random. If you practice, you can actually pull them off.)

Nice quote in your sig there, Kris.[/url]

[shadowgrin]

3.9PPG and 3.8RPG sure fulfills the requirements of a basketball messiah.

Simply put Jing:

Amir Johnson >>>>> You

[JWL3]

I decided to write a little review for people who are used to Live on PC. I can understand that you're doubting on whether or not to purchase this game, so here's my review:

Good review. I'm in exactly the same boat as you. Never once played next gen on the console. Faithful Live fans since NBA Showdown '94.

Two words - GET IT!!!!!! I can't emphasize this enough. It's like getting out of a cave you've been in all your life and seeing the sun for the first time. The graphics are insane. Crowd looks beautiful. The animations are awesome.

Gameplay is without equal. When you kick it to an open shooter, he remains...open! In NBA Live, it was pointless to pass cause the defender would move faster than the ball. In 2k9, players have mass and existence (you can't pass a ball through the guy). The Ball has mass. Most importantly, the ball is not locked onto players like a string. The ball feels loose and can be stripped, stolen, intercepted. In Live, you could throw ridiculous passes that go through the defense. Your jumpshots are either swishes or bricks. (one of my shots rimmed around 5 times before dropping!) Defenders have mass, if you're a big dude, you're not keeping up with a speedy PG. If you're a speedy PG, you have no chance defending a big dude posting up. And the computer finds mismatches.

Teams have a different feel. I played the Suns and they ran me out of the gym. Nash kept outletting for fast breaks. When I played Detroit, they slowed it down to the half-court. Players cut and set picks.

I can't emphasize this enough. Get it. There is a steep learning curve with all the options and moves but there are tutorials that walk you through step by hop step.

[MacBryce]

I decided to write a little review for people who are used to Live on PC. I can understand that you're doubting on whether or not to purchase this game, so here's my review:

Good review.

Thanks. I normally don't do stuff like that but I was so impressed with the game that I couldn't resist.

I'm into my second year of rebuilding the Timberwolves and I'm still loving it. (Foye - Joe Johnson - Gerald Wallace - Love - Jefferson are the starters now after some serious trading.) Another awesome thing is how well the computer generated rookies are. Maybe they'll all look the same after a while, but right now they really don't. And their stats are actually realistic while Live would create rookies with ridiculous stats. I'm actually trying to pry away a young talent from the Bobcats who would be a great role player and a threat for Love's starter job. And I even did a three-team trade the other day. How awesome is that?

[el badman]

Taking a break from Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3, I finally got a chance to play a full game of 2K9.
Great stuff, I kinda suck because I'm still getting used to some of the controls, but at least that allowed me to adjust the sliders and see how the CPU AI reacts in various situations. A lot of the in-game elements feel like the real deal, and it looks pretty damn good too.
Congrats 2K, nice job there

[jlaman_26]

NBA 2K9 is so awesome. when i was playing it I couldnt believe my eyes that its so damn good. The Game wrap up for me is awesome..imagine having the option to see the highlights of the game and also the top 3 countdown..wow..There is also the create ur scenario game where you can set the score, time left, quarter etc and play it..Im loving this game...

[noballer08]

This game is amazing. I have played 2K6 and 2K7 on PS2, so I figured I would be a pro at 2K9 as far as Isomotion and the game flow is concerned...WRONG...it takes a lot of skill to master the nuances of the left stick, not to mention each player is different. I love it and will be playing it throughout the season.

[EMan]

Just got this game today. PC version.

This game looks 100 times better than any recent NBA Live for PC.

My only real gripe is the way the menus were set up. Having to use the keyboard instead of the mouse to navigate is quite lame.

I'm loving Association mode. Some of the trade requests were pretty unrealistic though. I had to reject the Bobcats about 20 times over 2 weeks. They want Bibby bad and offered up just about everyone except Okafor for him. I don't see them doing that in real life. (I eventually accepted a trade they offered, they sent Adam Morrison and Matt Carroll for Acie Law.)

Rookies in Association mode look relatively normal too. They don't have horrible looking fake faces like the made up rookies in NBA Live do.

I'll be very happy if 2K Sports takes over permanently for EA when it comes to the PC. I hope they're planning on making NFL and NHL PC games. No more EA Sports PC/PS2 port trash, yay.

[bbvideogamefan]

I got the game recently and have only played through some Quick games (haven't tried Association yet). Here are some of my initial impressions.

Good - Graphics overall are very clear and sharp. Player models look great for the most part. Game scores are quite realistic (I've been playing 12 min quarters on Pro level). My AI teammates react quite intelligently, for example, if I'm controlling the PG at the top of the arc, the SG and SF will automatically run their curls and try to get open for a shot.

Bad - Create-A-Player mod is horrible in my opinion. This is a huge part of the game for me, since I like making up my own characters and putting them in the game. 2kSports airballed this feature big time if you ask me...

Additionally, some of the ISO motion moves are kind of hard to pull off so far, but I guess thats just part of the learning curve.


Overall, the experience has been quite good so far. But again, the CAP mode is a big letdown.

[trailrunners]

This game is just a lot of fun to play. I'm really enjoying it. The gameplay to me is a lot better than any Live game I've played. I just love the way the players move around the court and the animations are unbelievable. It feels more like a real game of basketball than any game I've ever played. In fact, it might be the best playing sports game I've ever played period. I'm definitely sold on NBA 2k9. I'm a PC gamer only so that's where my experience lies.

In addition, the game works real well for me on my relatively low end laptop - not low end, but almost two years old - HP nc8430 with an ATI x1600 graphics card, 2ghz. I think it actually runs pretty smooth on this rig.

The only possible negative would be the lack of shoes to choose from. That's one thing I loved about Live - I could choose the actual shoe that each player on my team where's in real life and the appropriate colors. I sort of liked that. Not much for shoes in 2k9 and they don't look very good either. But that's IT!

[tee-pane]

This game is amazing! Getting a new computer is worth it, if one is really into pc basketball gaming! As i tried installing Live 08 and 2004 on my new pc, i could not play either games! Is it fate that got me playing 2k9? 2k9 is a great pc game, with next gen graphics and everything. Although, live users like myself is just overly adapted to the live system. It is so hard to switch over to 2k controls. But if live would release their next gen live game then i will give it a try.

[goodlikesweeper]

I don't know where to ask this,so I will just do it here:

How do I watch replays in slow motion?I tryed every combination and nothing?Is that option in the game at all?Will the patch add it if it isn't?

[supreme]

iight first off i want to say
i know im stupid for still playing with live 08
i was at my boys crib and dam.
it was a console but i got a pc
live 09 looks sick and all that but im a pc guy
i hang up live with all the scatterd files all over my desk top
and a bunch of new folders every were with court files
im just sick of this shit.



what do i need to play 2k9 guys
i see patches are out already
alby got roster patch out
theres shoe patch out plz
some one put me on.

[ChrisBrodbeck]

In my opinion, 2k9 is a great game,no doubt about it! Its by far the best NBA game in years, the gameplay is just amasing! If you dont own it till now, you should pick it up this instand!

Never the less, there are some things about 2k9 that really piss me off everytime I play it! Dont get me wrong, I´m not a 2kSports hater or something like that,I really love 2k9, but there are just some things I need to get of my chest!

First and foremost is the fact that 2kSports used a totally unknown filetype, the iff type to create this game,which leads to the fact that, even though its already 2009 the game is hardly modable at best at this point,which is really stupid in my opinion because 2k has to know that NBA games can never go without mods in general (new players,jerseys,courts,mj,etc) within its fanbase! And if you as a publisher dont supply those updates yourself,at least give your customers not such an hard time modding the damn game!

With that said,there are some other minor things I dont like about 2k9:

-The Training System

Generally speaking, this mode makes no sense at all! Dont get me wrong,everything about it is just fine,except the fact, that its MISSING in Association mode! Why should I run plays over and over,when playing the main mode,my roster is constandly changing, and with that my style of play! Also, Training mode in Season or Association would have been a great way to improve your teams chemistry rating,by running plays and stuff...now you just have to win game after game an keep the minutes up on your players!

-This stupid passwort system to unlock stuff

I mean why the hell dont you just unlock things by winning games or challanges? Nobody was complaining about the old way to unlock shoes or jerseys in the past, so why change it? And not only that, they just dont announce new codes! So whats the point in this whole thing? Are they thinking,okay,we´ll announce the code to unlock the pacers´ and raptors´ other retro jerseys by the time the playoffs start?! I really dont get this!

-The Soundtrack of 2k9

Well I dont know about you,but as a basketballfan myself I do not listen to too much electronical music (not to say people who do so are bad people)
And yes, I get the fact that they wanted too reach a brighter audience with this soundtrack, but the first thing I saved in my settings was mude menu music. Even the few good songs are really repetitive and get on my nervs after the 2nd or 3rd time!("Jump and move and jump and move and jump and move....") Why not some general, nice, soul-hiphop-rap style Soundtrack? (NBA Street v2) And again: Soundtrack should be mod- or changeable nowadays!

-The repetitive commentary

""Player" is really spreading the ball and has his team working in harmony because of it! Its like he has a second set of eyes!
He´s doing such a great job...How do you counteract that? "Team" has to put more presure on the ball, before he gets comfortable!"

nuff said

-The fact that the PC version gets neither updates nore patches(still hoping though!)

That is a slap in the face! You just cant do that, when you are trying to steal costumers away from your competition! Why is it so hard to just release the xbox360 roster update in .ros format on your website?
Same goes for the sliders and the online features in general! Xbox and Ps3 owners can even play in amasing and moderated online leagues, while the pC of all systems cant go online at all?! This just totally sucks ass!

-The games menus

I´m playing 2k9 since its release and I still get lost most of the time searching menus! There are just too damn many of them, and its all so unecessarily complicated! "PLAY,MODES,OPTIONS"....DONE!!! And the worst part of it is the fact that in association the menu "NBA.com" just changes to "home" in mid-season...and deletes all of its options as well! Why I ask? Why?



Okay, I guess I´m done now but those things really bother me! How about you guys?

[Patr1ck]

The Soundtrack and the commentary, yes. The training, you can use the Export team option in the association mode to export your team then you can load it in the main menu so you can train or practice. As for that menu, just select home, and then bring it up again and it should say nba.com and have all the sub menus it normally has.

[neo_zycho]

2k9 nba for pc is great, although its lacking the online or network play. hopefully they can improve it much better by patches and next release. its the best nba games in pc, in my opinion. and also, please dont pirate the copy, its just 20 bucks.

[TheBigEasy]

-The Soundtrack of 2k9

Well I dont know about you,but as a basketballfan myself I do not listen to too much electronical music (not to say people who do so are bad people)
And yes, I get the fact that they wanted too reach a brighter audience with this soundtrack, but the first thing I saved in my settings was mude menu music. Even the few good songs are really repetitive and get on my nervs after the 2nd or 3rd time!("Jump and move and jump and move and jump and move....") Why not some general, nice, soul-hiphop-rap style Soundtrack? (NBA Street v2) And again: Soundtrack should be mod- or changeable nowadays!

-The repetitive commentary

""Player" is really spreading the ball and has his team working in harmony because of it! Its like he has a second set of eyes!
He´s doing such a great job...How do you counteract that? "Team" has to put more presure on the ball, before he gets comfortable!"

nuff said

Well I haven't played 2k9 yet but I doubt you can much improve in those two categories. I haven't played Live 07 overly much ... but the commentary is very repetitive and sometimes just plain wrong. And I think it just doesn't matter what type of music is played. If the same dozen or so songs are played over and over and over again it gets on your nerves. And you are right ... especially the soundtrack should be modable or changeable.

[Kite]

2K Sports have saved us from the burning pits of hell known as EA Sports.

[JaoSming]

have you played 09?

[fumanchu]

we can't really make comments like that if you haven't tried Live 09...btw is Live10 gonna be released for PC?

[JaoSming]

it's "supposed to be" but we don't have a confirmation yet


once we do, you'll know

[TheBigEasy]

Finally got a new graphics card and picked up 2k9 along with it (10 Euros bargain bin). So far I have only played one game. Changed nothing on sliders or some such, just right out of the box. And this game is freakin awesome. This was the most fun basketball game I had played in years, if ever. I can only imagine what some roster patches and slider tweaking will do to the experience. The graphics are amazing and the game play feels much more like a real basketball game than Live could ever achieve. Just awesome.

[dyeggoo]

This game is totally different level than Live. Finally you can't defend a PG with a center. And this control over players is just amazing. I feel like I've been living in Dark Ages and just stepped out into the light.