When you first start NBA 2k11 and the game opens, it gives a little montage of michael jordan, if you dont press anything, the bulls introduction music starts as used in the arenas, it then flashes to a shot of Jordan standing in the hallways before running out onto the home court and the crowd going nuts. Then the commentating starts and its Game 1 of the 90-91 finals, Lakers vs Bulls. Extremely epic feel to it.
I jumped in and played a couple of quarters of that game & then moved on and played some Celtics(me) vs Lakers and 94-95 Knicks (me) vs 94-95 Bulls.
The demo of this game did not do it anywhere NEAR any justice, the movement of the players, the animations and the framerate are top notch, the game feels a lot more polished then NBA 2k10.
I find I really miss using the B button to call out screen plays, you can use LB but I dont find it as intuitive, maybe its just a matter of getting used to, however I think that the fake pass is pretty much useless.
The baseline cheese is gone, the pressure up the court cheese is gone.
My games were played in simulation style (except bulls/lakers which was on Default), I find that you have to move the ball around a lot, its much harder to get penetration, however you can still throw lead passes on the baseline and get easy buckets under the paint, maybe some slider settings can be changed to fix this
Graphics 9/10
The graphics have taken a step up this year, the animations and the fluidity are a BIG improvement
Controls 7/10
Maybe i'm just not used to it yet, but I find it a bit more clunky compared to last years game
Gameplay 10/10
It feels much more like REAL basketball. On a simulation game at then end of 24 minutes the score was 51-50, so in a full 48 minute game on pace for 101. Kobe had 14 and Rondo led my team with 9.
I'll write more thoughts as I play the game more..
Final note:
First play of the game, Lakers won the tip, Magic set the ball up in the half court offense, he took a screen from sam perkins and got all the way to the cup, I selected Pippen and did an "aggressive block" (Turbo + Y) and Scottie blocked his layup off the backboard.
The block animation was awesome, smooth and it didnt feel like 2k10 where the game generates a block animation, it looked like it just added pippens block into magics layup animation.
I came back down the court, gave it to Jordan in the post for a classic "MJ" baseline fadeaway. It was EPIC!
The game truly has an epic introduction and feel to it.
Also for classic teams, these are available under quick game to go against todays teams, they have a whole bunch of bulls teams, i also noticed 94-95 knicks, 95-96 sonics, 96-97 jazz & a celtics team. Thats all I can remember for now.