by cerebus23 on Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:53 am
ok i just got installed and played the game a bit for PC.
my first impressions:
Bugs? i have yet to run into any bugs that make the game unplayable, granted i have not tried dynasty, but most of the modes i have peeked at played or simed a game and not seen anything that made the game crash out, or show any major annoying bugs at all.
Framerate 60 fps down to 34fps in max gfx settings full croud full lighting etc. in a team on team game hi res. Graphics look better than last years go, not xbox quality (of course what else to expect from ea but a half @zz port) but they are improved over last year. No AA so your gonna see jaggies if you look real close or run at really low resolution. oh and the net animation looks much more fluid overall, not perfect but way better than last years 3 piece net.
Gameplay, less skating in general over last year some dunk animations the feet slide to get the player in rhythm. but overall musc much better than previous versions.
Much harder to steal the ball over last year, i could snag maybe 15 20 steals a game easy by mashing the steal button last years game, steals come alot harder now, and also seems to me when you press the steal button repeatedly your whole team will try steals by jumping into passing lanes etc, kinda a neat change IMO.
AI not messing with setting too much, the AI seemed vastly improved over last years offering. I lest found it much harder to just repeatedly blow by or just walk thru the defense like last years game. tho one tatic the AI will use if your are close to a defender in open court and are trying to juke and crossover etc they will just grab and hold onto you slowing you down, kinda lame imo, but i guess its better than just blowing by a defender in the open court all the time, but its the pc cheating better d there not actually playing it. but overall the defense of the pc seem much tighter, defender will collapse on you if you drive the lane so you have to pick your spots.
Controls, they seemed tight to me. One annoying thing i noticed tho is last years game with my Saitek Rumble Force controller i could walk by gently pressing the movement stick, or run by pushing it all the way. This years game its auto run can't get the player to walk the ball up the court, even nudging it sends the guy into a sprint.
The turbo button seems much more tamed over last year years version, maybe a tad too much IMO, when pressed and your running down court the difference is barely noticeable, and any boost there only seems to work in very short bursts, maybe more realistic but i think they nerfed it a tad too much.
Sound good lot of the comentary ported form last years game so the same announcer phrases etc. one nice touch to be mentioned is marve albert and steve kerr will say your custom players names now, lest he did for Jordan and my own name, imagine if you do some very uncommon name maybe not, but the home annoucer will not say your name just player 23 or 10 or whatever.
my initial impressions anyway, give it a more thorough look over later when i have time to mess with the game some more.
oh and i think my custom created michael jordan looks pretty good, by just using the in game face editor. maybe i try posting some pics at some point, get some feedback.