NBA 2k8 Preview Thread

[shobe81]

King2k, you're making the 2k community look bad with your idiotic statements and posts. Well maybe it has to do with your age, by the way, how old are you?

[king2k]

I'm a proud 13 year old, thank you. They say with age comes wisdom; I disagree.

[Jackal]

They say with age comes wisdom; I disagree.

Proving that the statement is true.

[[Q]]

sooo that's why 2k's been withholding info about their game... so they can wait for ea to announce first and then copy them after. so much for being the "kings of next gen basketball"

[SUPASAVAGE]

i happen to like both series........

[SUPASAVAGE]

i just wanna see gameplay from both series..........

[shobe81]

sooo that's why 2k's been withholding info about their game... so they can wait for ea to announce first and then copy them after. so much for being the "kings of next gen basketball"

Might be so, but they have done a spectacular job at implementing it, instead of seeing a rainbow 70's disco dancing basketball court, you have a small cell-phone bar under the players providing "Can you hear me now" every now and then

And what's with the cries of "OMG they copied something another game has" that I've been hearing from gamers?

[SUPASAVAGE]

2k sure get even better.................along with live 08

[[Q]]

I forget if it was Street Vol 2 or vol 3 that did this too. players would have red circles under them when they're out of range, yellow when it's ok, and green when they're in range. I hated how Shawn Marion couldn't hit 3s

[nba_baller]

ya i remember that.

[JaoSming]

Actually Q Street 1-3 had that, homecourt didn't I dont think because it's just a dunk contest.

[Steve [The Spiderman]]

Oh god...another 2k idiot that can't speak proper english...

[shobe81]

I forget if it was Street Vol 2 or vol 3 that did this too. players would have red circles under them when they're out of range, yellow when it's ok, and green when they're in range. I hated how Shawn Marion couldn't hit 3s

Surprised Marion couldn't hit 3's in their game, sadly it wasn't that good except for the cool dunks which got boring after a while as well. #1 was great because it brought something innovative to the market but after that it just didn't seem fun anymore.

[[Q]]

Actually Q Street 1-3 had that, homecourt didn't I dont think because it's just a dunk contest.

check that. its a double dunk contest

[Sauru]

I'm a proud 13 year old, thank you. They say with age comes wisdom; I disagree.

you gotta be the biggest fag the internet has ever known

[ThaLiveKing]

LMAO

[king2k]

Many of you probably remember the first look Vetz got at NBA 2K8 this past July when we premiered their exclusive Black Top mode that featured the new Slam Dunk contest. Other than that, 2K Sports has been very hush, hush about their critically acclaimed basketball simulation. Well finally, Vetz got another look at 2K8 and while we had limited time with the game, we saw enough to know 2K isn't resting on their laurels one bit.



First off I'd like to thank Anthony Chau for taking the time for showing us a build of NBA 2K8 that was roughly 80% complete. The team is still working on nailing down the player motion to eliminate as much skating on the floor as was seen sometimes in last year's game. I mentioned to him that sometimes the isomotion moves weren't as smooth as they could've been last year, and you got stuck in canned animations as the moves were finishing. Something he agreed with and assured me that they were working on delivering as tight as player control as possible.

The first thing that jumped out at me was how well done the player models were looking, even from afar. Kevin Garnett looked exactly like himself, especially on post moves. From his body type, to the shape of his head, 2K nailed him. The movements of the player's shorts looked even more fluid than last year. On the announcing side Chris Sager, Kenny Smith and crew are back calling the action and from what I heard, the announcing sounds similiar to last year but they do have some new lines thrown in. Personally, I liked the crew, so this was good to see.

Gameplay. Aside from the overall game speed being a tad bit slower, the game moved very smoothly, and it was a upgrade from last year. Passing was improved as the ball moved crisply instead of those lazy passes you saw sometimes in 2K7. I still saw some players jumping for passes when catching the ball on the break, but this did not deter from the transistion game. Rebounding, sometimes a sore spot last year, seemed more intuitive this year as I didn't see any balls touch the court like we saw all too often in 2K7. Players really seemed more aggressive attacking the ball as it came off the rim. If you noticed that I keep comparing the game to last year, that's just to accentuate how much this game has improved over it's predecessor.

Another element that got a huge upgrade was the dual player control. If you remember last year, dual player was kind of hit and miss. Too many times you'd set a command for a player and the A.I. would fail to execute it correctly. This has been addressed this year by new off-ball controls which will give the player a lot more flexibility on the court. Essentially the system lets you chose a two-man play to run. For example, if I'm controlling my point guard, I'll first call the play (left bumper), and you'll see the four plays pop up, get open, come off a screen, got to the post or set a screen for another player. In this instance, I'll use Jamal Crawford here, I told him to run off a screen. I immediately saw Crawford highlighted (indicated by the 'rb" icon over his head) and he runs the play accordingly. In this case, Eddy Curry moved out to set the screen for Crawford to run off of. After Crawford reached the open spot on the floor, a button icon appeared over his head and you have to press the corresponding button to pass him the ball. It even goes further as you also have the option of taking control of Crawford before he makes his move. You can select any player on the court by using the D-pad, then you can call the play with the point guard. Still using Crawford as the example, say I highlighted him first (d-pad to select him, "rb" indicated highlighted player), I then have the option of taking control of him by pressing the "rb" bumper. I can still tell Crawford to come off the screen, but only this time I'll be controlling him and have to move accordingly as the play calls for. It may sound complicated at first, but after awhile it will become second nature.

Another thing Anthony stressed to me was, they wanted to make playing defense fun in NBA 2K8. As most of us remember, that could be quite a chore in 2K7 at times. This year the focus is on defense and improving the defensive controls. On display was the new lock-on defensive system that assists the user in playing tighter defense on the ball handler. To initiate it, you hold down the left trigger and you'll see a small target start pulsing under the player's feet. Once it's complete, your defender will be locked onto the ball handler. This system is tied into the defensive attributes of the players, so poor defenders will have a much harder time locking down the ball handler. When I said assists the user earlier, that means the CPU will kick in and help you play defense. This isn't to say ankles can't be broken anymore, as I saw a few players even locked on to the ball handler, still get beat off the dribble. But overall, I liked what I saw, the defenders played the ball handler a lot more agressively when you locked on. Keep in mind when the ball swings to another player, you'll have to initiate the lock down process all over again with the next player. So you'll want to choose wisely who you want to guard tighter.

NBA 2K8 also has a system that is an answer to NBA Live 08's hot spots. You'll notice under every player's feet a small icon that looks similiar to cell phone reception bars. The icon represents each player's shot tendecies at different areas of the court. This data was compliled from real life NBA data, to ensure every player plays as close to their real life counterpart as possible. This system will indicate when a player is close to his hot spots on the floor and whether he's hot or cold. As the player moves closer to his spot, the yellow bars in the start to fill up. So you can imagine that Rip Hamilton's icon was completely filled from any midrange shot on the floor. If a player gets hot, that is indicated by red bars in the icon. If you're laying bricks all over the court, the icon will have blue bars. I just want to stress that, just because a guy's icon is completely filled, that does not ensure that he will make the shot everytime. I saw Nash miss a few close ones inside despite him having the icon filled because the shot was contested. So these are just tendencies, not assurances.

A few misellaneous things I noticed:

- Free throw system has returned from 2K7
- on the fly subs are back
- Half time show has been scaled down considerably. Instead more of a focus was put into the post game wrap up. Kenny Smith will have the plays of the game and you also have the option of viewing any replay of any player that partcipated in that game. Want to show your boy that bogus foul on Marbury back in the first quarter? You can call that particular play up with a DVD-styled menu with the player's name highlighted.

- Association has been beefed up. Players now have roles that can adversely affect team chemistry. You might want to play that dynamite rookie you have, but it might be at some veteran player's expense. These kind of decisions will affect the team chemistry.

- Slam dunk contest had more players from what was seen last time. Added in were high flyers like David Thompson and Dr. J.

From what I've seen in the short time with the game, it has improved considerably from last year. In the coming weeks Vetz will have more coverage on the game as soon as possible. In the interim, stay tuned for an exclusive NBA developer interview that will cover any loose ends not in this preview. Look for that in about two weeks. NBA 2K8 releases on October 2nd, on the 360, PS3, Xbox and PS2 consoles.

http://vetzballin.com/modules.php?name= ... cle&sid=53






Now, everybody knows 2k7 was the greatest basketball game ever made by 10,000 miles...and then this dude comes along and say "it has improved considerably from last year" for its 80% built, then once again, the competition is eaten alive.

[Its_asdf]

Well someone loves riding 2k cock.

We know that 2k's better than Live. So what? Half the people in here don't even care about the rivarly that these 2 companies have, they just want to play a decent basketball game. I fail to see why you act all high and mighty because you've got 2k's dick in your poop hole.

[J@3]

Team chemistry, yawn.

The lock on defense thing sounds stupid. If I wanted the CPU doing everything for me I'd watch the computer play itself.

The dual player control, to be honest, the last thing I want is an even easier way to score. When you can slice your way to scoring 50+ points with Andray Blatche on the hardest difficulty with harsh sliders you know there are gaps in the gameplay there. Fix that, don't make it easier.

And this coming from a big time 2K fan.

[The X]

Its_adsf is right....as a former owner of 2k5, 2k6 & 2k7 (I enjoyed 2k6 on 360 the best) & former owner of live 95, 96-00, 02 & 04-06, I think I have the right to say, stop smoking cock....

whilst I prefer the 2k series these days, just because a preview said it's looking like it will be better than 2k7 (which frankly wasn't that great a game compared to previous versions), doesn't mean jackshit....

as a fan of basketball games period, I think I can speak for the majority & say that we all want as many good basketball games as possible....for me, I couldn't care if the best game comes from EA, 2k or Sony, as long as I get my fix....

but I guess the same people that smoke 2k series or EA are Microsoft or Sony fanboys....

I think you will learn with time that variety is a good thing & having a plethora of riches is a great problem for consumers to have....heck, if the two games are both good, I'll buy & support both

[Fitzy]

Kevin Garnett looked exactly like himself

phew, thats a relief

[Patr1ck]

you also have the option of viewing any replay of any player that partcipated in that game. Want to show your boy that bogus foul on Marbury back in the first quarter? You can call that particular play up with a DVD-styled menu with the player's name highlighted.

That sounds awesome.

[ThaLiveKing]

2k has a lot of good things about it. . .It still a good game, but Live is making a serious comeback this year!!! I'll be buying both

[[Q]]

after claiming to be "the kings of next gen basketball" last year, they are sure doing a lot of catching up to Live.

king2k, seems like the last few posts you've made have been posting a big long article and then a
I'm deciding who has a better use at the NLSC... you or ConverseWade

[king2k]

We claim it to be the king, yes, but IGN, Gamespot, Operation Sports, and every other credible reviewers validated our claim, also yes.

As for all of you hyped up about Live already, keep in mind that only two very earlier and similar to 07 videos of 08 were realized. Screens, "killzone2 vids" and blogs written by the LIVE DEVELOP TEAM renders no validation.

Although we may not have any videos at all, at least we have comments from a third party, objective source.