The Official PC/PS360 NBA 2K14 Impressions Thread

[dim-3D]

It's just my idea or the game favors overtimes way too much? So far I played more OT that 2013 in one year. If the game is very close the cpu will do everything to go to overtime. They made some really grazy baskets some times. In at least 4 games I had the lead 6-7 points near the end and went to overtime. In the last minutes cpu can't miss if the team is behind the score. (superstar mode).

[shadowgrin]

I'd would rather have close OT games than blowout wins.

[dim-3D]

Yes but that's not realistic at all. From the moment i went to superstar mode every game is close. I doesn't make any diference who i play against, every team is being played the same way and with the same effectiveness from the cpu. Thats ridiculous!!!! Your defence ratings does't seem to matter at all in your gameplay. I played better defence in all the games with Rockets than with Heat. That doesn't make any sense to me. I started to like this game more when my pc was shutting down.

[Spree#8]

I played better defence in all the games with Rockets than with Heat.

Well, the Rockets do have much better rim protection in Asik and Howard. Again: the CPU wants to go into the paint every single time, so it's not very surprising that the Rockets' long shotblockers would do better on defense than whoever the Heat have. Also, using the Rockets you're probably not getting cheesed on the glass as much.

[fjccommish]

I've been playing with commentary on tonight. I usually turn it off, because it's been so bad in the past. It's still just as bad. This is an Emperor's New Clothes situation. Everyone gushes over 2k14 commentary. It's false gushing.

There are a lot of wrong calls. All of this took place in one game. It was the 71-72 Lakers v 95-96 Bulls.

- Quite often the announcers call the action before it takes place. For example, Wilt gets the ball in the post, announcer says "throws it up with the hook", then Wilt fakes left, and hooks it up going right.
- Bulls up by 10 in the 3rd quarter. Bulls get the ball after a turnover by the Lakers. Announcers say something to the effect of "Bulls still in the game. They have to take one possession at a time. They can still win it."
- Wilt backs down Longley. Wilt scores on a turnaround short jumper. Announcers (Kerr I think) says something to the effect of "He went right by his man as he thundered into the paint." Harlan "He jammed it down hard!"
- Lakers turn over the ball. Bulls inbound it. Bulls up 8. Harlan and Kerr go on about how "they" have to try to score in the paint on this possession to cut into the lead.
- Jordan hits a short jumper. Harlan says something to the effect of "he laid it up off the glass with a finger roll".

The anecdotes and banter, because they're repetitive and often don't fit the situation within the game, detract from the atmosphere.

The anecdotes and banter are fun the first time, but they repeat constantly. The little jokes "you eat anything that's food put in front of you" are nice the first time, which is as far as reviewers go, so they say "wow, that sounds real". But after the second, fifth, tenth time it no longer sounds real. Repeating the same humorous exchanges and anecdotes detracts from immersion. It doesn't add to the game feeling real. If the commentary would stick to calling the game action with some mentions of what happened in a recent association/myplayer game (for ongoing modes), it would be much better. The player anecdotes also repeat over and over and over and over and 10,000 times.

Sometimes the player anecdotes (stories) don't fit in the association or myplayer. For example, I trade Rose, but when the Bulls play the announcers still talk about Rose coming back from injury. Or it's 2016 in the association, but the announcers still say "Rose missed last season". Why not skip them in those modes? Just call the action and mention recent events in the mode. "Rose is coming off a 30 point game against the Knicks" is a lot better than "he missed last season" in an association in which he played the whole previous season.

Overall, when playing many games, the announcing element to 2K14 is bad. It detracts from the atmosphere. It doesn't sound real. I'd love to hear announcers just calling the action. That helps create a game feel. But the repetitive and inaccurate elements ruin the commentary. The play call mistakes aren't good, and they detract from the real game feel, but if that were the only problem it wouldn't be necessary to turn down the announcer volume.

[dim-3D]

That's probably my last post about 2k14 since I'm returning to 2k13. I don't know if they gave all their attention to the new gen game but this version that i play on my pc it's a mess. The game is very bad and 10 times worst than 13. Probably it's best if you play against a friend but the way cpu use the teams is HORRIBLE just HORRIBLE.

I mentioned the problem before that all games are very close no matter the opponent (superstar mode). You have the same chances winning against the Pacers or Jazz. The real problem is when your team takes a small lead in the game. Let's say 8-10 points. From that point your team dissapears from the court. Nothing goes in and the cpu can score in every way with every player. I just had my last game (ever) I took Heat and played against Nuggets. I took a 7 point lead.. all of the first 5 stariting for Denver went to bench and cpu made an 13-0 with just the bench players against my first 5 (not with low fatigue if you wonder). That happens in every single game. It's nice to play close games, I myself enjoyed many close games in 2k13, but come on, it suppose to make some kind of sense. You can't have the bench players from every team in the NBA make a come back with crazy baskets, just to keep it close till the end (were ussually if you have a better team you will probably take a big lead in just the last 2-3 minutes... 11 minutes quarters).

That wasn't so much of an issue in 2k13, every team was different and the cpu used every team different. Here they could just as easily made only 2 teams in the whole game and it will made no differece at all. I have no idea why the hell they screwed it that bad. No idea.

[bowdown]

I've rage quit this game more times in the past 2 months than I did 2K13 all last year. Too frustrating. Too many animations that give delayed and unwanted reactions to your controller commands. I see a lane open but I can't attack it since right before it I get stuck in an animation that allows defense time to recover. Stupid shit like that. It adds up especially when you're on your way back into a game and only a possesion or two behind. Then you get hit with the bullshit and its like fuck it, Im out.

The scoring opportunities that you do get are too predictable. All you have to do is attack the rim and the defense over-helps leaving obvious shooters open.

[fjccommish]

More on announcers.

"Burkes hasn't scored yet in this game." Burkes scores. "That's his third basket."

Something to the effect of "They're not shooting well here early in the game. They're just one for their first five." Then the announcer audio becomes a little muffled. Kerr "They're shooting well." Harlen "Everything they put up falls."

This one leads me to believe the player stories trigger by position. For example, when the Bulls sub the starting SG back into the game, the announcers launch into talk about Butler. In this association I placed Jordan and Chamberlain onto the Bulls. Butler was in the game. Jordan subbed back into the game. The announcers launched into talk about Butler. He played for about 3 minutes (into the second quarter), scored no points, had no rebounds or assists. Yet, with Jordan on the floor at SG, the announcers talked about Butler's offensive contribution.

"But above all else, the series has done a marvelous job at its play-by-play voice commentary..." That's from Gamezone. I can't believe someone who wrote that listened to more than a small snippet of the commentary. It sounds great at first. Then it's repetitive, many things the announcers say don't fit the action or situation on the court, and there are mistakes.

Kerr, talking about Jordan who just scored, said something like "Every night this guy is featured on the highlight films. He can score, rebound, dish assists - he does it all." Kellogg follows with "And don't forget, he's a human highlight reel." That makes no sense. Don't forget? Kerr didn't forget. He just mentioned it. Something like "Yeah, he's a human highlight reel" makes sense. "Don't forget" makes no sense, because Kerr didn't forget. He just said it.

Sacremento's Thompson drives for a dunk attempt. Chamberlain blocks him from behind. Thompson gets the loose ball and lays it in. Kerr says something to the effect of, "Trailing they're relying more and more on jump shots. That made that one, but they need to go inside." As the Bulls inbound the ball, Kerr says "They're doing a great job on D. They're not letting them get inside or get any second chance points."

[fjccommish]

This wasn't bad, but it will get repetitive.

Kerr (95-96 Bulls) hits two FT's. Harlen (chuckling) "The second one is good." To Kerr the announcer he says "Nice job there buddy boy!"

[orby]

here's mine:

1. the basket pall are not solid in animations. when player go to the ground he just went throw the pall - that odd and weird. it's funny because 2k14 has good animations when players jump into the crowd and above the desk.
2. the announcers - something weird happened to me: when i switch players sometimes the announcer sayd that the other team switch players. something like "the hawks make change - rose come into the game" or stuff like that.
3. cpu Intelligence is not good enaugh - in all of the nba video-games i've ever played the PG are dominant no matter who he is. you play against the pacers and you can see George Hill taking 20 shots in the game when Paul George finish the game with 8 shots only - it's very unrealistic. and another thing - CPU playing a lot of 1 on 1 plays and get stuck in shot clock violation because their not playing smart basketball and the ball is stuck in one players hand. if someone want to check it just count the number of passes that the cpu made in 2 minutes and watch how much passes in a real nba game in 2 minutes.
4. because of the PG domination teams that don't have a great PG are easily beaten, no matter who else playing.
5. another thing that the lack of Intelligence made: it's very easy to block shots. i'm playing on hall of fame level with block slider on 5 and i still manage to block 13 time in a game! i have 7 players in my team that above 1.0 blocks per game.
6. sometimes my players do stupied things on defense. like loul deng leaving OJ Mayo open for free to double-team against dejuan blair when blair hasn't even have the ball (which is illegal - by the way). why the hell a smart player like deng will leave player like mayo alone? even i can play better defense

looks like 2k was trying to make the game more realistic by adding some animations and stuff like that, but they realy should focus more on the gameplay to make it real.

[Kieran]

Here's something I found amusing, check this out:

For those that didn't see this a couple of years ago, watch below:

phpBB [video]

And thanks to 2K, a sneaky little wink to the above situation has been slipped into the game, see below:

phpBB [video]

Well played 2K, well played.

[shadowgrin]

loul deng leaving OJ Mayo open for free to double-team against dejuan blair when blair hasn't even have the ball (which is illegal - by the way). why the hell a smart player like deng will leave player like mayo alone? even i can play better defense

It's legal afaik.

[dim-3D]

here's mine:


3. cpu Intelligence is not good enaugh - in all of the nba video-games i've ever played the PG are dominant no matter who he is. you play against the pacers and you can see George Hill taking 20 shots in the game when Paul George finish the game with 8 shots only - it's very unrealistic. and another thing - CPU playing a lot of 1 on 1 plays and get stuck in shot clock violation because their not playing smart basketball and the ball is stuck in one players hand. if someone want to check it just count the number of passes that the cpu made in 2 minutes and watch how much passes in a real nba game in 2 minutes.
4. because of the PG domination teams that don't have a great PG are easily beaten, no matter who else playing.

6. sometimes my players do stupied things on defense. like loul deng leaving OJ Mayo open for free to double-team against dejuan blair when blair hasn't even have the ball (which is illegal - by the way). why the hell a smart player like deng will leave player like mayo alone? even i can play better defense

looks like 2k was trying to make the game more realistic by adding some animations and stuff like that, but they realy should focus more on the gameplay to make it real.

cpu Intelligence is the worst in basketball games ever. It's a disgrace for baskeball games. I wanted to return to 2k13 but i said lets give this another try maybe i judge it unfair but no just NO!!! I started playing basketball games since bball (who remembers that game?) and yes this is the worst cpu intelligance. Nothing matters!! your gameplay doesn't matter, anything you do doesn't have an actual impact in the game. The only thing that matters is what the cpu allows in a single game and what does not.

pg and sg take 70-80% of the fg in game and ussually they are unstoppable. I don't think the quality of the players matters for the cpu so much since in superstar mode i always beat the Bulls in all 3 games i played against (with Rose on the team) and lose from Wizzards and Hawks with dominant performamces from their pg (Wall and Teague). Rose always played bad against me.

Your wins are not always yours... I played with the Rockets against the Jazz. I was behind for the most part. In the 4th quarter i scored 31 points only with james Harden and won. He had 6/6ft and 10/10 fg (5 - 3s) only in the 4th. I just couldn't lose a basket with that guy, everythng just went in no matter what. I felt that many of my wins was just given to me wih the cpu playing waay too dump. Backcourt violation, throw the ball outside wth dump passing, shooting 3s at the end of the clock with the center holding the ball in his hands way too much, and many dump things like that. Felt like the other team wanted to lose the game, and they did.

Another game i have the Rockets played agaist Spurs, close game and Ginobilly had a similar 4th as I had with Harden previously and Spurs won. It was impossible to stop him, the defence had zero impact on him, he finished the game with 33 points (Parker had 20).
As for the lazy defence of your players. I played minutes ago Heat vs Pistons (i had Heat, Rockets and Heat are the teams i use). had Battier on Smith with "play tight" and "deny ball". I was defending with Chalmers on Jennigs. He threw 3 alley oops in a set game and Smith dunked every time with Battier being miles away from him all 3 times. I changed the defence, they did the same with Drummond, Pistons had 4 alley oops in a row and not in fastbreak. My players just refused to play defence. About that time i quit the game (just in the 1st quarter), i almost threw the gamepad out of the window.

90% of the time it's the cpu that chooses the winer of the game not the quality of your gameplay. Yes the graphics are great, some animations give the necessary realism, but the cpu sucks waaaaaayy too much. I just can't enjoy the game win or lose. So fuck it i'm done!!

[bowdown]

This game is better in playing Association or any other game mode where you can use your custom sliders and have more control of your teammates.

[escaladeskistruck14]

I wish the real life presentation nba live 14 has could merge to create an ultimate hybrid wit the gameplay and graphics of 2k14

[xerion]

Does anyone on PC ever play online anymore? Since last month, I've had problems finding an opponent for an online match (lets me play like one game in two days lol). Also, when I enter team up game, it crashes to desktop.

[Kemp11]

Does anyone on PC ever play online anymore? Since last month, I've had problems finding an opponent for an online match (lets me play like one game in two days lol). Also, when I enter team up game, it crashes to desktop.

Yes, same problem here. Online is very bad compared to last year... I am very disappointed.

[rikardo03]

is this features available on pc?

"MyCareer:

MyCareer has a brand new look, your MyPlayer this year will look more lifelike from new hairs, tattoos and more details put into how your MyPlayer looks. This year MyCareer will be story driven, it is different from past years. Over 40 hours of gameplay in your first year alone. This year your MyPlayer will have rivals, agents, and friends. There are tons of new conversations added in MyCareer, this year you really interact with the gamemode."

Source: http://nba2k4life.com/2013/10/23/everyt ... gamemodes/

[Andrew]

Nope, that's the PS4/X1 version.

[rikardo03]

Nope, that's the PS4/X1 version.

So it's really just like 2k13? No rivals and friends like the one on next gen consoles.

that sucks.

[Andrew]

It's pretty much the same as 2K13, yeah. You can earn a few extra Skill Points through the social media challenges, where an upcoming opponent challenges you to achieve a certain statistical milestone. That's about the only new feature in the PC/360/PS3 version of MyCAREER, though.

[XBRoughneck]

HATE the soundtrack. The only song I like is Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" but that song is so played out, he should have went with "I Don't Care Anymore". Thank god Leftos & nesa24's Audio editor still works.

I could not have an opinion more opposite yours if I tried. From 2k9-2k13 no soundtrack has had grooving while I've gamed like 2k14.

Maybe it's my love for top 40 hits. I prefer that to off track titles that might be unique, yet less familiar.

Last year's soundtrack was the worst.

[air32]

I really love 2K14. Only problem is, its so watered down. I hate how you can't exceed a certain value because it doesn't allow you to enjoy a specific kind of play due to the fact that a certain attribute is so low.

The other thing is the inability to decrease/increase difficulty in certain Game Modes (specifically MyCareer). I'm a noob to PC 2K14. I was barely able to play actual console 2K so the only place I was really able to thoroughly play and learn 2K was on the PSP version of 2K13. We all now the AI in that game is far from great so when I got my hands on my PS controller in my PC and started playing, I got alienated almost instantly. I was barely able to make shots and not able to make the blocks and rebounds like I was used to. The fact that I can't slowly adapt it did nothing more but hurt my MyPlayer in terms of stats.

The control is okay depending where you're coming from and the graphics is okay but has no changes whatsoever from the previous generations according to reviews.

[Lamrock]

I've had a love hate relationship with this game since it came out. For the most part, it's a lazy roster update for 2k13 with modified controls and a LeBron mode nobody likes. However, because I loved 2K13, I've embraced it despite its faults. However, I've officially had it.

After getting to season two of myCareer, I played my first game against the Knicks (12 minute quarters). Had a pretty bad game but got an A+ teammate grade fwiw. After the postgame conference, it froze and I lost my progress. Figuring it was a one time thing, I was dumb enough to play the game again and did quite well this time. Everything worked out well.. Until it froze again.

I was really enjoying myCareer, but now, since that game versus New York is a key game, it looks like it's over. Certainly won't be starting another one since I'd have to pay even more money to a company that obviously doesn't care about customer satisfaction or quality control. Besides, it'll probably do the same thing once I get to season two.

It's a bummer that EA sucks at making basketball video games, because 2K will just keep becoming more anti-gamer with VC and its cynical business model. Not even looking forward to the next gen NBA sims any more.

[Culture Games]

Is run plays slider in coaching profiles reversed in 2k14 as it was in previous years?