I guess the embargo is up.
http://kotaku.com/nba-2k14-the-kotaku-review-1375407856
(Yes)
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1781 ... video-game
(4/5)
http://www.gamesradar.com/nba-2k14-review/
(9.2/10)
As the PS3/360 generation closes out, NBA 2K14 arrives as a superbly tight gameplay experience--but it feels like it could have been so much more.
there is not a lot new to experience this season. The wildly popular My Player returns virtually the same as last year, and while the on-court improvements certainly help its case, the fact that almost everything else surrounding it is a carbon copy of the last two years is depressing. So much is the same--the awkward pre-draft interviews, the David Stern-led NBA Draft (replete with pictures of current Net Kevin Garnett proudly displayed in Celtics garb behind him), the post-game interview scenes, GM sitdowns, and so on--that if you’ve spent any significant time in that mode the past year or two you’ll be hard-pressed to start it again.
with the continued refusal of 2K Sports to keep the Jordan Challenge, Legends, or Dream Teams in their games moving forward, you could argue that there is less to do in 2K14 than in previous seasons. While Path to Greatness is fun, it pales in comparison to past modes that have served to transform the overall franchise from a good hoops game into the cultural icon that it has become.
NBA 2K14 could have--should have?--been the defining hoops game of the generation. Instead of building on the remarkable experiences its predecessors offered, however, the overall impact has diminished even as the on-court gameplay has improved. While it still exudes personality, style, and class, some of its key areas are in need of fresh ideas. NBA 2K14 is great, yes, but somehow feels like a missed opportunity.
Throughout the pre-release hype, you may have heard community manager, Ronnie Singh mentioning the game's 3,000-plus new animations. I haven’t exactly counted, but thus far, I can easily see that number being spot on.
There are too many new occurrences to point them all out and that’s a good thing. It looks almost as if the physical interaction possibilities are endless. NBA 2K14 looks as real as the series ever has and the additions to the animation are the main reason why
There are hard fouls and dynamic spills after contact near the basket. I haven’t seen any injuries, which is something I’d like to see more of considering collisions are such a big part of the game this year. However, you can adjust the injury sliders for frequency and severity to add realism.
My Career is a huge part of the NBA 2K package, but the mode saw little-to-no changes this year. The creation and ascension of your My Player will take place exactly as it did in NBA 2K13.
The Association mode is also largely unchanged, with the exception of improvements to free agent logic from CPU-controlled teams and a more realistic way to handle injuries and recovery.
Players will be forced to play limited minutes upon their return to the lineup while they recover from more serious injuries.
I simulated an entire season and saw much more plausible decisions being made on free agents during the offseason.
If you were a fan of the Create a Legend mode, you may be a little disappointed to see that it is no longer included.
But it regrettably has had little done to it this year, apart from stocking the draft with this year's class (and using audio from the draft itself in announcing the picks, including the "whoa!" from a stunned Bill Simmons when Anthony Bennett was selected No. 1.)
There's an element of grind, too, because simply playing key games won't rank you up with enough XP to acquire signature skills on top of attribute improvement,
Online, I did not yet see much of what the game will offer (the game releases Oct. 1, and servers came on only over the weekend)
Julius Erving is not on the 76ers, alas. The 1992 Olympic Dream Team also does not return
It's also aggravating that the entertaining mini-games of the All-Star Weekend can be accessed only when you get to the all-star weekend of an Association campaign. You can set up a throwaway association savefile and sim up to the weekend if you want to fool around in the dunk or three-point contest, but why couldn't these be broken out?
We've been told for some time that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 version of this game is going to be a distinct experience from the current generation version.
This year, developers have seamlessly integrated the two mechanics with no modifier. Players tap the right stick for dribble moves, and hold the stick in the preferred direction to shoot. Surprisingly, it works well, but still needs a little tweaking. There were moments where I'd want to pump fake on a shot and ended up shooting anyway, or I would want to execute a layup and perform a dribble move instead. It's not common, but might happen periodically.
For players new to NBA 2K14, the simplicity is welcome. However, if you're a veteran player, and loved the ability to have more control over your shots or dunks, you might find yourself frustrated.
“Basketball isn’t easy.”
This is the way LeBron James greets you every single time you load up NBA 2K14and you can’t skip the intro cinematic until after he says it, so get used to it.
The on-court action of an NBA 2K game has likely never looked more similar from one year to the next than it does from 2K13 to 2K14. Fittingly for a game that has been exploring every nook and cranny of a set of hardware for eight years, NBA 2K14 is more about refinement than revolution.
The good news is that passing is once again a joy in a way it hasn’t been for years. Even without the new array of options at your command, the passes are crisper without feeling cheap; you’ll still get picked off if you blindly dump it into traffic in the post, but there are far fewer eyes-in-the-back-of-their-heads plays from defenders.
That said, the removal of auto-contest -- which went a long way towards making defense feel smooth in 2K13 -- will be a speed bump if you’ve grown used to it. Simply standing up to defenders in the post will likely not trouble their shots; you now have to actively block them both in the paint and on the perimeter. Some will cheer this decision while other will just have to get used to it.
The rebounding in particular remains squishy and sometimes ghostly. I frequently saw three defenders go up for a rebound and then just slough off to the side of the offensive player who grabbed it for an easy putback. In fact, against the CPU it feels like any offensive rebound they get around the hoop is an automatic bucket, while your own offensive rebounds feel like a coin flip.
This disconnect in rebounding is also only the most obvious symptom of a more pervasive lack of genuine physicality in the game. For whatever reason -- and this may be down to endless tinkering with finesse elements over the years -- NBA 2K14 lacks a certain visceral weight on the court. Dunks in the paint don’t have quite the oomph one would expect, nor even on fast break alley-oops from LeBron.
This is maybe how the overall level of realism the game achieves also serves to highlight the moments when it fails, as when CPU playcalling results in players standing stock still waiting for a play to develop. This leads to things like Chris Kaman isolations beyond the 3-point line (a thing I saw multiple times in one game against the Lakers) that ruin the illusion of competent play the CPU generates when it does smart things like entering and re-entering the ball into the post or exploiting mismatches. The latter actually seems to be a mixed bag in terms of awareness; sometimes the CPU is very savvy about it while at other times it completely misses Derrick Rose matched up against Roy Hibbert on the perimeter.
There also seem to be a preponderance of bailouts for the CPU on offense. If the shot clock gets under five seconds, shots seem to magically stick to the rim and drop or else fouls get called with eerie regularity.
The crowd’s reaction during these momentum shifts is the best I’ve seen it in NBA 2K with a realistic roar building as a team builds a ten-point lead or falling silent as the opposing team cuts into it.
Drills in MyCAREER have been streamlined so there’s no backing all the way out of the gym and reloading it every time you want to do another drill. Instead, the gym loads and you’re allowed to select from a menu. The drills themselves have also done away with the confusing points and point threshold requirements. Instead, your success is predicated only on, say, eliminating all the players in Around the World or your time in running the Dribble Course.
It feels like 2K punted on some things in anticipation of next gen. Create-A-Player, for example, is exactly the same as last year, with no new hairstyles or tattoos or accessories. Oh wait: Now there’s a wristband with “I Promise” written on it because LeBron wears them
As they stand, the European teams exist in a universe of their own where players are not editable or able to be moved to NBA teams (which is too bad because Sergio Rodriguez’s majestic beard deserves another shot in the L), plus they seem to be graded on a curve. Exhibit A: Jordan Farmar on the Lakers is a 69, while Jordan Farmar on Anadolu Efes Istanbul is an 80.
NBA 2K14 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is the Fast and Furious 6, the Saw 3D of video games. It’s not a brand new idea, it’s not a reboot. It’s the result of all the lessons Visual Concepts and 2K Sports have learned in this console generation, and yet it struggles against its own excellence. For the hundred things we now take for granted, there are a few new things that work brilliantly and a few old things they still struggle to get right. This is the struggle any maker of an iterative franchise takes up, but it’s a worthy one.
Building teams through Association is still an entertaining way to explore what-ifs; building your own avatar through MyCAREER is still a slog (with no ability to sim specific games, still) that might inadvertently simulate the tedium and seeming endlessness of an actual season.
Uncle Drew wrote:I just hope they fixed the offensive rebounding bug where guards can sometimes out rebound guys 3 times their size, or when a player out jumps 2 or 3 defenders and gets the ball. That was annoying in 2K13.
The rebounding in particular remains squishy and sometimes ghostly. I frequently saw three defenders go up for a rebound and then just slough off to the side of the offensive player who grabbed it for an easy putback. In fact, against the CPU it feels like any offensive rebound they get around the hoop is an automatic bucket, while your own offensive rebounds feel like a coin flip.
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