All right, so instead of re-listing all the questions from the other thread and then answering them here, I'm just going to try and answer as many of those questions as possible as I pepper through these various portions of the game. Obviously you can ask more questions, and I can try to answer them as well.
You should also know that I played four matchups, all against other human players -- three against my OS cohort Rich Chavez, and one against 2K developer Rob Jones. I was at the studio from like 10-5 (minus one hour for lunch) so I got time to be walked through pretty much every aspect of the game before playing at the end of the day.
-The matchups were Spurs vs. Suns (me) on Christmas Day -- this was just a feature for the demo, you won't have access to last year's game via NBA Today. The developers want NBA Today to be, well, all about today in the NBA. The other matchups were Jazz (me) at Portland, OKC at New York (me) and Atlanta at Golden State (me).
My Player/Create A Player
Creating A Player
-50-something hair styles to choose from (including the Gooden patch).
-Facial hair is improved in the visuals department.
-50-60 different types of tattoos per body part.
-When working on the created player's face, the developers got rid of the 125 sliders or whatever and instead now there are various presets to choose from for each part of the face. Then after you choose a preset, you can still go to this 2-D style plane and work on each part of the created player's face -- it's just a more simplified version of the old sliders, so it should be more user friendly. Think of the presets like Mr. Potato Head, and then you can still get really deep into creating the guy via the 2-D plane.
-Finger straps, ankle braces, compression shorts, undershirts are all now available.
-All the major shoe brands are in the game, and you can customize the colors for every shoe -- pretty much can make 15 million different shoe combos if you want. You can also have home and away versions of the shoes.
-For the accessories and headbands, you can choose white, black, secondary team color and primary team color
-You no longer have to apply an entire "package" to your player. In other words, this means you don't have to pick a specific dunk package or whatever, you can choose various types of dunks per created player instead -- if your guy has enough hops you can choose 10 different dunks for your guy to use. Once again let me be clear, you are not choosing a "Josh Smith" dunk package, but rather specific dunks that make up your own unique dunk package.
-When you originally create your 'My Player', you don't have access to every specific animation in the game -- your attributes won't be good enough at the start for you to select some of the more spectacular dunks for example.
-The only portion of your guy that is still tied down by a specific "package" is the layup package because the layups are all pretty basic outside of stuff like floaters. The floater is really the unique part of the package so to speak -- Nash and Parker have their own specific floaters like in the past.
-The 'My Player' create-a-player system is the same one used for the standard create-a-player system. Same goes for editing existing NBA players. This means if you don't think a certain player can do a specific dunk anymore, or you find a dunk that you think is unstoppable or something, you can remove it from any player.
-The lighting on the player you are creating is much improved within that CAP hub, and he just looks more realistic looking as you are creating him.
-In 2K10 once you DL your 'My Player' from the 2K server -- assuming you did the Draft Combine before the launch of 2K10 -- he goes where Kobe would be on the start menu screen (aka the screen you see where it says 'press start'. You can change it back to Kobe if you don't want your created guy on there.
-You can only upload one 'My Player' to the server.
Draft Combine
-Your player starts around a 37 overall when you create him.
-The goals you get before a game are based on your play style. So a rebounding center will have goals based on something like getting a certain rebound total rather than scoring 15 points.
-Speed is insanely expensive (as it should be) so it will be very hard to earn enough points to boost your player to a high level in that department.
-You can lose skill points if you play real poorly.
-The Draft Combine is not exactly what 2K10 will be like from gameplay perspective, and because most of the virtual players within this portion of the game are subpar, you won't see a lot of the new animations etc. in this mode. I'd say treating the Combine as a nice RPG element and filler to tide you over until the game actually releases is the best way to look at it -- assuming the other option is judging the gameplay as being exactly like 2K10, because it's not.
Beyond The Combine
-When you get 2K10 and download your player from the server, you head to the NBA Draft. If you get drafted, you go to the summer league with that team. 2K has the 30 unique summer league jerseys and also the actual summer league rosters -- of course only the names will show up for players in the NBA already. It will be generic names for players who are not in the NBA.
-If you perform well enough in summer league, you get to go to training camp. If you don't perform well enough, you might get an invite to another team's training camp (assuming you were a second-round pick and got cut), or you might get no invites and have to join up with a D-League team before training camp.
-Training camp consists of five games. The team invites 20 players and only 15 can be on the roster, so one player gets eliminated after each game. This should be the first point where you feel a difficulty spike because you'll be playing against other NBA players on your team rather than other prospects. All five games are intrasquad games.
-If you make the team, you'll probably start by getting 2-3 minutes a game. In other words, you have to build your way up. You might also get a different role at points. If you get drafted as a SF by the Warriors and make the team, you might find yourself playing PF a good amount. So be ready to handle different positions and styles.
-If you don't make the team, you are sent down to the D-League, assuming you were drafted in the first round. If you were drafted in the second round and get cut during training camp, you have to go find a spot in the D-League.
-If you get two 10-day contracts from the same team, if you get that third 10-day contract, you get to stay on that team for the rest of the year like in real life.
-It is meant to be hard to make it to the NBA and stick as an NBA player in this mode. 2K feels like most career modes basically give you an easy road to the pros/becoming a legend, whereas in this mode the developers want you to earn your way to being a legit NBA player. Their thinking is that it's a way to make their mode stand out from the rest.
-There are other camera views to pick from if you don't like the modified 2K cam when being your player.
-You always have a one-year contract. The better you play, the more offers you will receive during the offseason. It seems like this route was taken because the NBA is not a huge fan of players demanding trades, and in addition, the developers didn't want you to go through a two/three/four-year rookie contract, then get your first max deal, then get another max deal because it wouldn't allow you to change teams if you wanted to play for someone else -- especially if you were drafted for a team you do not like in real life or are stuck behind a superstar at your position. Take that for what it's worth.
-When you take 'My Player' online and use him, you play in what are called Pick-Up games. You play these games in outdoor environments and earn points for your player in the same way you would offline -- sans getting goals before the game. In these games, you will be playing with nine other humans who are also using their 'My Player.' The game will match you up so you are the only PG or SG or whatever on your team.
Presentation
-If you had a beef with the presentation in the past, I'd say this version will be the best chance to redeem itself in your eyes.
-Three stars on your team will be shown with their stats, rather than a video of one player on each team before the game.
-The game gets to the starting lineups right away when the game launches before cutting to something happening on the court before the tip-off.
-In addition to a lot of the postgame stuff you have come to expect, there is also this new "slideshow" feature that basically takes still images of some of the moments of the game and flashes them on your TV in slideshow form. You can save these images if you want.
Graphics
-Lighting has been redone this year. So individual arenas should have more unique lighting.
-Textures have also been redone. Nash and other white players I checked out looked a bit better because of it.
-In general the game looks amazing graphically, I came away very impressed. It's a clear-cut improvement over last year's game.
-This is the only Live/2K comparison I'll make, and I only do it because Dwight is the cover athlete of Live. The Dwight in 2K10 looks better than the Dwight I've seen in Live 10.
Commentary
-Examples of what the commentary duo will discuss: They talk about injuries that occurred in real life, will mention Valentine's Day is coming up, and will even tease upcoming games and say tune in to play/watch so-and-so game this Sunday. They will also discuss trades that occurred in real life.
-During quick games, the commentators will still talk about the real-life standings and all that, so it's not just tied to when you do matchups within NBA Today.
-Kevin Harlan's "right between the eyes" comment is not allowed to be in the game because it's a violent reference -- would affect the ESRB rating.
-The commentary and presentation might sound cool when reading about them, but you will appreciate these aspects a lot more when you're actually playing the game. And what's nice is that is the commentary will be fresh throughout the year, because it won't be until playoffs time that you see the duo discussing the playoff matchups going on and all that.
NBA Today
-This is the hub you see when you start the game. It shows today's matchups, as well as box scores and stats from yesterday. You can also access the league leaders, All-Star voting and so on right from this screen.
-When you get the game, the NBA will be just starting preseason games (I believe) and so the announcers will pull stats etc. from those games -- so NBA Today is in effect once you get the game.
Signature Style
-Teams that stand up until their team scores the first points of the game will do that in the game.
-To give some example of the non-gameplay signature style:
* DHo does his fadeaway before the game
* KG and Pierce will be screaming on the scoreboard during the initial zoom in to a game in Boston.
* KG will bang his head off the stantion under the rim.
* Ray Allen also rocks the powder before the game.
* Wade will lift himself on the rim.
* Vince will lift himself on the rim.
* Cleveland will do the picture thing before the game.
* Shaq will do his bowling thing.
* Cleveland will also do the knocking it out of the park thingy.
* LeBron of course has his powder.
* Boobie and LeBron will do the brush off your shoulders and salute thing.
-The cool part about a lot of these pregame rituals and so forth is that you won't see the same ones every time. So maybe you see KG bang his head off the stantion one time, but the next time you see Ray Allen making sweet love to the powder. It happens this way because the camera is dynamic so it won't always focus on the same stuff or players.
-I was told LeBron and Kobe got new shots, but I didn't see those teams in action. As for the players I did see, Ray Allen got a new shot, as did SJax, Deron Williams, Korver, Boozer and Nash. Many many more apparently got new shots, but I didn't have time to scope them out.
-Nate Rob has his free-throw routine in the game.
-The ImageMetrics people (the folks behind GTA IV) created the signature and generic facial animations in the game. I didn't see too many signature ones while playing, but was told that LeBron puffing his cheeks out after he does something big-time is in the game. The facial animations looked good when I saw them, and the eyes looked pretty lifelike as well.
-The organ will be playing at Madison Square Garden.
-Signature play involves all the signature stuff done before as well as the tendencies. The AI system was also built on the tendency system. How does a player like to get to a particular spot, what moves does he like to do to get to that spot -- think of it as "the how" -- is where 82games.com comes into play. So the point is that someone like Iverson would not do a spin move to get to where he would want to go on the court, he would do a crossover -- so the tendencies tie into that fact.
Online
Team-Up
-The teammate grade within 'My Player' is the same one used for Team-Up mode online -- sans getting three goals before the game.
-The Team-Up grading system is much deeper, and as a result, it will be much easier to avoid the people who ruined the mode last year. If you see a guy with an F grade you will know not to play with that person. In addition, I would think the guys with F grades kind of become lepers because no one will want to play with them. Obviously, it will still be up to the individual user to decide if he or she wants to play like a sloppy mess, nothing can physically stop that person from doing so.
-You will also get dinged for dribbling the ball too much, not passing, taking bad shots and so on. Basically a lot of the things that would barely hurt you last year (leaving your assignment etc.) will hurt your grade much more this year. And just because you score 30 points, that won't make your grade an A when you are not playing the game the right way.
-I have more faith in this grading system because I watched a developer play within 'My Player' and even in that mode he couldn't pull off an A grade. Since it's the same grading system for the online Team-Up mode, there is hope the actual good teammates will shine through.
-Cherry picking won't be smart for multiple reasons. The first is that your team grade will be terrible -- remember the grading system is based on how good a teammate you are not how good your individual stats are -- because you will get dinged for leaving your defensive assignment. The other reason is that not every pass will automatically make it to the cherry picker. If someone is trying to do those full-court passes there will be errant ones.
Servers
-Yes, they did/are working on new server code this year.
-The Team-Up experience should go much more smoothly this year, and the developers realize how badly they fouled up last year.
-The 2K leagues should benefit from the server code as well as there should be fewer disconnects.
-The leagues didn't get any new features, but there should be even more Web functionality this time around.
Miscellaneous
-You can play in random quick games with your 'My Player' within Team-Up mode and earn skill points in the same way you would offline. You play with/against other people using their 'My Player' on outdoor courts when within this portion of Team-Up.
-"Crews" is another new addition to the Team-Up mode. This is the ability to get together with friends and form an online team. You get to compete against other crews, and there are leaderboards that rank the top crews. You use NBA teams for these, and you can also use your 'My Player' -- but you don't earn points since there is no rating during this mode. This is partly because you're playing with friends and also because the number one goal is getting the W.
-You can invite friends to a game right from quick game screen if you choose, you don't need to go to the Xbox Live tab and go through that whole process to invite someone to a game.
-You can also do Association mode games online like NHL 2K10 has this year. That doesn't mean online Association mode, it just means if you want to invite one person to play as the other team in your Association game, you can do that.
Gameplay
General
-The post game is really intuitive this year, and I don't think it is being appreciated enough at this point. It's the first time where I really think 2K might have found something that works for good. I struggled the first game because I had to get used to the new controls, but after that, I really started to understand the way to manipulate the controls and started to do some nice moves. And the great part is the moves aren't overly canned and extended, so you will really feel like you are the one doing the up and under, rather than pressing a two-button combo to do it.
-I do think if you have a dominant post player, you will WANT to feed him more than you did in the past because it's just more enjoyable during that interaction.
-You don't have to hold a trigger to post up, now it automatically goes into a post up if the scenario is right. To get out of a post up, you just push away from the basket with the left stick.
Defense
-When in the post, you can strip the ball during an up and under if you time it correctly.
-If you know a player wants to go baseline or to the middle of the paint with a move while posting up, you can lean on the post player in such a way (pressing left or right on the stick) to cut off their attempt to do so. But attribute checks are still in place, so leaning one way or the other won't help you if you're trying to guard DHo with DFish or something.
-Patience will be key when playing defense in the post. I didn't feel nearly as helpless when playing D in the post because now it's easier to block shots and contest them, but if you flail during a pump fake you will get disowned more than ever. I think being able to strip the ball during more instances along the way will be a big deal as well.
-Help D isn't purely based on closest guy now, same goes for double teams. The defense does rotate accordingly as well. I saw a lot more hedging and recovering this time around on help D.
-When it comes to the double teams, they do feel more natural, but I did still feel a little suction going on. However, it won't be easy to simply shoot over the double now since it's not canned -- you can swat away the shots or whatever.
-Lock-on D is now not automated at all, you just get really close to the player you're defending when you hold the trigger -- you get more physical and crowd him. You now need to guess where the player is going to go to stay with him, otherwise you will get burnt, plus turbo gets used so there are two downfalls to it. I am the ultimate hater of lock-on D, but I could actually see myself using it in this case since you are controlling every aspect of the D outside of the proximity to the person when using the lock-on. If you liked the old lock-on D style, there is a defensive assist slider you can boost to 100 if you want it to be entirely automated, or anywhere in between.
-The focus this year on defense was help D and guessing correctly when someone dribbles. The thinking was that since in the NBA most would agree that stopping someone from driving while in the center of the court is pretty unstoppable, you just need to have better support behind you or you need to take a risk to get a better outcome for the defense. If you are playing against someone who is a cheesing punk, I do still think if you stop that player a couple times, if the player truly wants to, the player probably can still get around you. But if the help defense is sound (it's looking good as of now but does need a bit more tuning, which there is time for) then that player will have to drive and kick or get mauled in the paint.
-The developers redid the zone logic for zone defenses, so there is hope they may be work for a change of pace. I didn't actually use any zone defenses while there -- I found out they were redone near the end of the demo session -- so I can't personally comment.
-It's closer to 3 in the key now, not 6 in the key when dealing with a post player.
-Illegal defense was a bit too rampant right now, 2K says they are going to tune that further. Frankly, though, it was kind of nice to see the illegal defenses because it was proof that the help D was present.
-You can more easily lose the ball when trying to dribble through a crowd, and it's also easier to swipe the ball away in high-traffic areas. In addition, using the "cheesing punk" as an example once again, you can lose the ball if you are doing move after move. I tested this and it did occur while even playing with a guard.
-Blocks are tied into vertical now -- the animations you get are tied into that as well. So now DHo should be a better blocker than Yao and should also have different block animations than Yao. The height of a player also ties into how you contest shots via different animations.
-There was an instance where I was controlling Eric Maynor and had a relatively clear lane to the hoop. Unfortunately for me, Brandon Roy was tracking me on the break, and so he came in from the side and threw my layup attempt out of bounds.
-Another cool blocking animation I was told about involves one guy trying to go up and grab the ball off the backboard with two hands (I guess think MJ vs. Ron Mercer during the Wizards era). It seems like you will see more spectacular blocks by the JSmoovs and DHos of the world. I guess we all have to hope that the Shannon Brown "foul" block on Mario West makes it into the game.
-If the game ships with blocking balanced this way, I do think some people will complain that there are too many blocks. I'm not sure whether they would be right or wrong because for example I swatted Oden with Okur, Millsap and Boozer at different instances. Obviously those three are not known for their blocking prowess, but if Oden is trying to do a little putback or something and does not respect his defender being there, shouldn't he still get swatted even if he's much taller and stronger? I think a lot of the blocks you deal with when you get the game will occur because of old habits. You can't just go into the paint against three guys and assume the layup or dunk or whatever is going to just go in or be uncontested. Your shot will be blocked.
-If you get turned while playing D, there is more weight to your guy this year, so you won't be able to just magically get back on your guy or somehow magically catch him from behind. This ties back into the risk/reward again.
-There is no defensive stance off the dribble, it's more or less automated and based on distance from ball -- that means one pass away or two.
-Three dude dunks should be out -- still will see some of the big boys like Bron hammer on two guys here and there, but more based on vertical, momentum and so on this year. During my play time, I saw Richard Jefferson throw down on Robin Lopez, but otherwise I really didn't see any hammers on other players. In the RJ instance, he beat his man and had plenty of steps to get his momentum going, while Robin Lopez slid over late so he just put his hands up and took RJ's balls in his face under the hoop. Now that doesn't mean insane dunks are not there, but it's a good first sign if anything that I didn't see any instances of two-three person dunks.
-There are more tips and pass interceptions this year. Really this means you can't be so lackadaisical with your passes -- and that doesn't mean on the perimeter so much as when you are trying to throw it across the court or into the paint. Not every pass will be an interception, some might just be tipped away or tipped out of bounds, but it was definitely apparent. This was another old habit I had to try and break while playing -- I turned the ball over a ton by just throwing passes that would always get through in the past.
-A lot less of those BS passes threading through four guys in the paint are gone. The same goes for some of those lob passes to the guy in the post -- they are now easier to snag.
-You can't move with your hands up while covering someone.
-The run-down strip system has been changed. You will see less of those automated strips where you are magically caught from behind -- last year if you pressed the button at the right time it was almost a guaranteed steal. Now you will see more fouls when trying to pull these off or just missed attempts in general.
Physics/Tech
-The developers grabbed some of the tech from NFL 2K5 where a guy will twitch or twist a bit when he gets hit in a certain spot. Basically think of when a running back would contort his body to fit through the line or something like that.
-Removed most of those really long layups, as well as the infamous "ghost" layup. So now you are not starting your layup animation from way outside the paint. As an example, I had a couple breakaways, and since it was an old habit, I pressed the the shot button way early to begin my animation, which led to me shooting jumpers rather than taking the ball in for an easy two points. One reason why these were taken out (outside of the obvious canned factor) is because now it is easier to line the layups from multiple angles and block them, so you would have been helpless during these layup animations as Camby or DHo or whoever lined up to pin your shot off the glass.
-Examples of new animations: A lot of animations added for blocks, various under the basket moments, drifters, floaters, running jumpers.
-Examples of animations removed: Took out a lot of the unstoppable under-the-basket animations, in addition to those long layups and various other overly long animations. There was more focus on giving control to the player at all times this year.
-No new camera angles, but the developers said they refined and improved the existing cameras.
-There are now kicked balls -- yes you have to inbound the ball after.
-There's a lot more physical play when you go in for a layup with a full head of steam. Beyond the blocks, I saw some charges and a bunch of shooting fouls. I think this plays into the fact that help D is better, so you are just inevitably going to run into more guys in the paint.
-Game pace has been slowed down a bit. Default camera has also been pulled out a bit more.
-Players are smaller, but the court seems to be the same size.
-The alley-oop system is now based on level and ability, and basically it's all new. James "Flight" White came in to mo-cap some of the oops. That doesn't mean there are a ton of insane dunks, it just means he was there to do some of the new oop animations. I just think it was interesting, so forwarding it on to you guys.
-If there were too few oops last year, in the build I played there were probably too many. They all looked natural and made sense, but the developers also seemed to agree that right now too many are happening, and so I would think they will be tuned further before the game ships.
-Tipped dunks seem legit now. They don't just happen out of nowhere, now you can see the guys step into their jump as they line up to put a dunk back. There was one instance where Horford was under the hoop and he just went up and put the dunk back, nothing too fancy. It was the only tipped dunk I saw during the game. I was told that guys like JSmoov will have access to some pretty sick tip dunks, but they will be very rare.
-The developers are saying that the hand-rim interactions should be much better this year. I didn't go into replay mode and examine the hand and hoop after every dunk or whatever, so you guys will have to be the judge of that one later on.
-The pro-hop system has been rebalanced. I really didn't mess with it much (not usually my style to use it much in 2K9) so I don't have much to say on it at this point.
-There are no new passing buttons.
-Saw a lot of new bounce-pass animations
-The ball will go off the back of the backboard if you shoot from too far behind it (can't remember if this is in 2K9 or not).
-People (including myself) were unhappy with shooting of the dribble in the past. 2K has worked on the gathers/foot planting when shooting off the dribble so it should be better this year. In the past, someone like Ray Allen or Michael Redd was a real pain in the arse to shoot with, and I think you guys would agree. I didn't see Michael Redd, but Ray Allen got into his shot much quicker off the dribble. Basically this is because your feet don't need to be stuck on the court like glue and you don't need to be completely rigid to shoot. But the bigger thing is now the gather starts quicker, so Ray Allen is already getting his shooting form ready as he picks up his dribble and gets ready to fire -- he doesn't need to do the whole animation process after he stops dribbling and gets his feet set. I would say it's not perfect -- I still say Ray can get a shot off quicker than he does in the game off the dribble -- but it's definitely noticeably improved.
-Rebounding has been tuned so there are more players fighting for the ball, as well as more physical box outs.
-Foot planting has made some pretty big leaps this year. I do think this ties into the fact that less turbo is being used, and also the fact that the game pace has been slowed down a pinch, and because there is more focus on giving the players weight and having each step mean something. There are still cases where your guy won't plant his foot (aka ice skating), but I saw these instances less and less. It seemed like when the ice skating happened, it would occur while mashing on the turbo button when dribbling with the ball. 2K is saying they are still tuning this aspect and are trying to improve it further before launch.
-New dribble movement model for when you first begin dribbling inside -- you go slower, can't accelerate as quickly and are more aware of protecting the ball.
AI
-I didn' play against the computer so I don't have too much to say on this front as of now, at least in terms of ho they play against you. I have a couple things to say about teammate AI though.
-According to the developers, there will be mid-range shots and dribble pull ups from the AI. MomentousCeltic was there -- presumably cutting together the infamous trailers -- and the developers told me he was impressed with the overall shot chart as well as the fact that the AI was doing pull-up jumpers.
-The AI is built around the 40 tendencies in the game, plus all the spot-up locations where they like to be. So you will look for Kobe in the high post when you're not running a play because the game is driven by tendencies not playbooks when you don't call a play.
-The player spacing was much improved, which also led to a healthy amount of drive and kick game. When I was the Jazz, Andre Miller did not stand a chance against Deron Williams, so you know Kyle Korver and Okur got some open three-pointers because other players had to help to stop the penetration. When I covered Parker with Nash I was equally as abused. I don't know if that's proof-positive that the ratings stretch means speed will play a bigger part, but the developers felt pretty comfortable saying Shaq has no chance of guarding CP3 anymore for example.
-The player spacing did still get jumbled at times, which I think is because of the tendencies. Since certain players like to go to certain places on the court, there would sometimes be a jumble of players clogging the mid-to-high post when you didn't call a play. This is still apparently being tuned.
-The AI players did a better job filling the lanes on the fast break. I saw less of those instances where you pass a player the ball and he catches it and goes in a big loop towards the sideline rather than catching the ball and continuing towards the hoop.
Playcall System
-The playbooks have been expanded, and now the plays that are called are based on what position you want to use.
-The players get to their spots much quicker to run plays.
-I'd comment more on the playcall system, but it didn't seem to be working right in the build I had. Basically after you would get to the first spot during the play the next part of it wasn't showing up. So I guess chalk that up as a bug for now.
-I can say that there was a lot less jogging when guys were making cuts at the very least.
-There is no play editor.
-It doesn't seem like there will be branching plays. If anything there will be a couple branching plays only because they were designed that way.
-Not every team runs Motown music anymore.
-The default playbook is different for each team, so not every team has the same plays from the get-go.
Association Mode
-2K is dubbing it as the "year of the fan" when it comes to Association mode.
-D-League players are not part of the D-League license, so you won't have real players on the teams.
-The D-League is only available within Association Mode -- as well as 'My Player' when you are on those teams.
-The D-League is fully integrated into Association mode. You can play those games if you choose, you can sign players from the D-League, and you can send your players down to the D-League.
-The proper D-League rules are in there, so you can't send Kobe down and score 60 points a game with him so he progresses more.
-You can create your own draft class, which means you can create 72 guys and then upload that file to the 2K server. That means you could create 72 of the top prospects or you could re-create an old class and upload that one. You can download a new draft class before each season. Obviously you can just have a class generated for you if you don't want to download a draft class. I know some insane people on OS will create entire draft classes, and bless you if you do.
-The NBA.com style is still the hub when you are in Association mode.
-The developers added a lot of new headlines and added some new headline categories.
-There is a "league history" feature now. Basically it's the archived history of the NBA. So you can look at league leaders from any season, playoff matchups, team records, Finals matchups etc. It goes back to when Dolph Schayes led the league in scoring (I think that's 1961). The "league history" continues to build as you play, so you are "writing" history so to speak in your own Association.
-I don't think there is any sort of weekly recap feature or whatever. I didn't ask specifically (sorry forgot) but I would think the developers would have shown me it if it was there.
-You can control all 30 teams this year.
-There are 10-day contracts.
-No bi-annual exceptions or stuff like splitting the mid-level in half.
-Restricted free agency is now in the game.
-There is a full-on practice mode within Association mode. You can go in with your team and practice plays (full 5-on-5 if you choose for this and you can set the defense up in various defenses as well). There is also free-throw practice and "freestyle" where you just mess around with one player. You don't get performance boosts for doing practice -- this is probably for the better in my opinion because it would probably be one of those things that you only get boosts from -- not the computer -- so it would essentially be an unfair advantage. There is no "scrimmage" feature where you play full-court 5-on-5.
-No dunk contest or 3-point contest during All-Star Weekend. The thought was since the dunk contest 2K created is not like the one that occurs during ASW, it wouldn't make sense to use that for ASW.
-Rookie/Sophomore game is fully sponsored for ASW. The game has the right court logos, T-Mobile sponsors and jerseys.
-There is a new player progression system -- you shouldn't see the 12th on a team progressing to 90 overall anymore. The progression system is now based on playing time and performance. Players do have peak ages and peak decline ages -- these ages vary so it's not always the same age when players peak or decline.
-Dynamic attendance is a maybe for now. They are working on it, but don't want to promise it yet, because it may not be ready in time.
-The commentary you hear in Association mode is dynamic. So while quick games/NBA Today will be based on real life, the commentary duo will talk about trades that occurred in your Association mode or any other things that happened in your Association, not real life.
-There is a new simulator this year. In the past the person working on simmed stats only had a couple days, this year the developer got three weeks. The shooting percentages are a bit high still (according to the developers) but that's still being tweaked. Otherwise the simmed stats should be better.
-In-game saves are present.
Random Stuff
-You can upload images and video right from the game you are playing. In other words, go into replay mode during a game (or after) and upload something right away without Reelmaker.
-No new sliders outside of defensive assist.
-The ref doesn't bounce the ball to your player at the FT line as of now, but apparently it's on the devs' to-do list during the last few weeks of development, so hopefully that small touch is present at the end.
-Achievements in the game are based on 'My Player' as well as Association mode. There are also those individual player achievements like getting a certain stat line with CP3.
-Ratings were mostly built internally, not based much on tendencies. However, the former College Hoops developer who used to do all the ratings in that game, used 82games.com as a baseline to write all the ratings formulas in NBA 2K10.
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