Demo Impressions Thread

One thing I'll put out there as we continue to share our impressions and discuss them with each other: to a point, the feel of the game is subjective. What feels fine to one person, or at least a marked improvement, may be a disappointment to someone else. Both people have a point, and reasons as to why they feel the way that they do. Let's not fall into the trap of dismissing each other's point of view as mere opinion, while stating our own take as fact. Let's also refrain from fallacious reasoning, such as appealing to authority/popularity.

Again, it's been a pretty good discussion so far, but I can see us starting to head down the path of insisting there's only one correct opinion, when both sides have a valid point and valid reasoning behind the impressions they're sharing. Let's not get bogged down with that, as it ultimately derails the discussion, and gets in the way of giving good feedback, which as always is something we have a chance to do here.

"This gameplay look jus like that it came from Nba Live Mobile app i downloaded"

"Thats why EA wont let 2k make a football game. THEY KNOW 2K GOING TO MAKE MADDEN LOOK TRASH LIKE THIS!!"

"Lol it looks like it plays like an arcade game"

"You lame ass Live fanboys need to stop defending this piece of shit game. It's shitty!"

"2 years and this is what they came up with?"

"Body models, movement, gameplay all looks like SHIT. I can't believe EA still can't get it together, just give up....honestly"

"You are so damn right.the movement body models...remind me of fifa 17,its the same awful shit omfgg cant believe how bad ea are"

"haha look shit , its look like playing phone graphics "

"This gameplay is always stiff when is it going to play and feel fluid like 2k?"

"Even if this game was $5 I'm still not buying it. Why would I spend time playing a shitty ass game?"

"I wouldnt play this shit for free"


That's a fair point about first impressions mattering, especially when you're trying to win back the crowd, but let's not pretend that any of that comes close to being nuanced, intelligent, or unbiased critique. It's little more than tired buzzwords and rhetoric, profanity, and Internet slang, from people who, in all likelihood, would sneer at NBA Live even if it somehow magically got on par with NBA 2K overnight. That approach lessens the credibility of the criticism, or at the very least, it's usefulness.

That's not to say there aren't legitimate criticisms of the demo, because there obviously are. A few of those commenters have kind of scratched the surface of them - perhaps accidentally, in some cases - but let's not give too much credit to kids thinking that they've achieved the height of wittiness with remarks like that, or rather more unfortunately, adults who are still unable to express intelligent or thoughtful critique, and likewise resort to expressing themselves in such a manner. We can critique the demo and basketball games in general far better than that, and we have been doing so thus far in this very topic. There's no need to give credibility to individuals who can't offer up criticism that's any more profound than "lololololo itz fucken shit kys ea omfgggg plz plz plz lololool lmafaoooso!1!".

One of the problems is that you can't pick hair colour independently of style, which you can in NBA 2K. Even with a lot of different styles, it feels a lot more limited if you're trying to pick the most appropriate hair colour.

You're right. What gives with that?

It's odd, and frustrating. Even if there's no option to pick style and colour as two independent options, providing each hair and facial hair style in all available colours would be a viable solution. There also needs to be an option to change or correct eye colour, especially with the app messing that up for a lot of people.

Great points, I'm just saying the reasons why I believe it's not selling, and commenting on the majority of the comments (type of) that I see.

Either way, let's hope they make a splash on release day.

[quote="Andrew"]One thing I'll put out there as we continue to share our impressions and discuss them with each other: to a point, the feel of the game is subjective. What feels fine to one person, or at least a marked improvement, may be a disappointment to someone else. Both people have a point, and reasons as to why they feel the way that they do. Let's not fall into the trap of dismissing each other's point of view as mere opinion, while stating our own take as fact. Let's also refrain from fallacious reasoning, such as appealing to authority/popularity.

Again, it's been a pretty good discussion so far, but I can see us starting to head down the path of insisting there's only one correct opinion, when both sides have a valid point and valid reasoning behind the impressions they're sharing. Let's not get bogged down with that, as it ultimately derails the discussion, and gets in the way of giving good feedback, which as always is something we have a chance to do here.

That's a fair point about first impressions mattering, especially when you're trying to win back the crowd, but let's not pretend that any of that comes close to being nuanced, intelligent, or unbiased critique. It's little more than tired buzzwords and rhetoric, profanity, and Internet slang, from people who, in all likelihood, would sneer at NBA Live even if it somehow magically got on par with NBA 2K overnight. That approach lessens the credibility of the criticism, or at the very least, it's usefulness.

That's not to say there aren't legitimate criticisms of the demo, because there obviously are. A few of those commenters have kind of scratched the surface of them - perhaps accidentally, in some cases - but let's not give too much credit to kids thinking that they've achieved the height of wittiness with remarks like that, or rather more unfortunately, adults who are still unable to express intelligent or thoughtful critique, and likewise resort to expressing themselves in such a manner. We can critique the demo and basketball games in general far better than that, and we have been doing so thus far in this very topic. There's no need to give credibility to individuals who can't offer up criticism that's any more profound than "lololololo itz fucken shit kys ea omfgggg plz plz plz lololool lmafaoooso!1!".

Thanks for saying basically what I was thinking. When Dee posted comments from like you said, mostly kids or sadly enough, adults who can't express themselves intelligently, I remembered your article about providing insightful feedback. EA was confident enough to release a demo and by the looks of it, they are listening to feedback by releasing updates...for a demo! Does that make us seem like beta testers? Perhaps. But if it means our beloved series will get better, then so be it. Personally, I've had enough of feeding into these trolls online. I do believe the game will sell more just for the fact that a lot more popular YT'ers will be playing this game. You can't just look at the negative comments from 2K fanboys in these channels on YT. There are generally some positive comments on there as well from people that are actually convinced that the game looks good enough to warrant a purchase.

EA is listening. They've actually taken a lot of my advise from back in the days and one of them was selling the game for a minimum of $39.99. I remember having a discussion with a couple of devs on Twitter and they didn't believe the game can be sold for a discounted price. I pointed out to them that wasn't true because they were going to sell Live 13 digital only for I believe either $20 or $40? Look at it now. Yeah it's a preorder bonus/price but still, they LISTENED!

Totally agree about the updates for the demo. I think it's amazing. I think they have put through 2, maybe 3? I am behind that, and applaud them for that.

Which game was it, I think one of the NFL 2k's? 2k made it like $29.99, while Madden was still $59.99, and it launched 2K in the right direction. It had more people buying the game, trying the game. Now, that wasn't at the height of social media, but still. I think that is a brilliant move by EA Sports.

Totally agree about the updates for the demo. I think it's amazing. I think they have put through 2, maybe 3? I am behind that, and applaud them for that.

Which game was it, I think one of the NFL 2k's? 2k made it like $29.99, while Madden was still $59.99, and it launched 2K in the right direction. It had more people buying the game, trying the game. Now, that wasn't at the height of social media, but still. I think that is a brilliant move by EA Sports.

It was NFL2K5 which I still play from time to time. They sold it at $19.99 and that game was feature rich especially the Xbox version. I still believe that game has the best halftime and postgame presentation of any sports game EVER.

But yeah man, continue to provide constructive feedback for the devs. They are looking and listening. We're lucky that we actually have 2 basketball games that can push each other. I wish the same can be said with other sports games.

Totally agree about the updates for the demo. I think it's amazing. I think they have put through 2, maybe 3? I am behind that, and applaud them for that.

Which game was it, I think one of the NFL 2k's? 2k made it like $29.99, while Madden was still $59.99, and it launched 2K in the right direction. It had more people buying the game, trying the game. Now, that wasn't at the height of social media, but still. I think that is a brilliant move by EA Sports.

It was NFL2K5 which I still play from time to time. They sold it at $19.99 and that game was feature rich especially the Xbox version. I still believe that game has the best halftime and postgame presentation of any sports game EVER.

But yeah man, continue to provide constructive feedback for the devs. They are looking and listening. We're lucky that we actually have 2 basketball games that can push each other. I wish the same can be said with other sports games.

Yeah, it sounds like they are listening more than ever now. I'm buying the game regardless. And, I'll be posting Ultimate Team highlights on my youtube channel. I'm actually excited to dive into that.

Anybody feel that the transition defense is broken, mainly getting back of defense. AI teammates seem to get lost leaving the CPU wide open.

Anybody feel that the transition defense is broken, mainly getting back of defense. AI teammates seem to get lost leaving the CPU wide open.

Yes.

One of the biggest problems on defense is that wide open corner three (Where in one of the broadcast cameras, the screen doesn't move fast enough for the action, and the player catches it and goes into his shot almost completely off screen)

Basically, on a long miss.. the CPU will get a board, and the offensive player(s) is already ahead of the defense, and it's either a dunk or an open three in the corner. One game they had open three's on 3 consecutive possessions from the exact same corner.

Anybody feel that the transition defense is broken, mainly getting back of defense. AI teammates seem to get lost leaving the CPU wide open.

Yes.

One of the biggest problems on defense is that wide open corner three (Where in one of the broadcast cameras, the screen doesn't move fast enough for the action, and the player catches it and goes into his shot almost completely off screen)

Basically, on a long miss.. the CPU will get a board, and the offensive player(s) is already ahead of the defense, and it's either a dunk or an open three in the corner. One game they had open three's on 3 consecutive possessions from the exact same corner.

maybe they are trying to simulate all the open 3's in the current day nba..... I'm joking. This needs to be fixed asap. Especially those cameras. I think they spent so much time trying to show off these player models. They forgot we need to see the court, other teammates, ourselves, and the defenders.

Anybody feel that the transition defense is broken, mainly getting back of defense. AI teammates seem to get lost leaving the CPU wide open.

Yes.

One of the biggest problems on defense is that wide open corner three (Where in one of the broadcast cameras, the screen doesn't move fast enough for the action, and the player catches it and goes into his shot almost completely off screen)

Basically, on a long miss.. the CPU will get a board, and the offensive player(s) is already ahead of the defense, and it's either a dunk or an open three in the corner. One game they had open three's on 3 consecutive possessions from the exact same corner.

maybe they are trying to simulate all the open 3's in the current day nba..... I'm joking. This needs to be fixed asap. Especially those cameras. I think they spent so much time trying to show off these player models. They forgot we need to see the court, other teammates, ourselves, and the defenders.

Some tweaking to the defenses reaction timing should fix it.

But yeah, the NBA is so much about 3's now... I miss the mid range game.

One thing I'll put out there as we continue to share our impressions and discuss them with each other: to a point, the feel of the game is subjective. What feels fine to one person, or at least a marked improvement, may be a disappointment to someone else. Both people have a point, and reasons as to why they feel the way that they do. Let's not fall into the trap of dismissing each other's point of view as mere opinion, while stating our own take as fact. Let's also refrain from fallacious reasoning, such as appealing to authority/popularity.

Again, it's been a pretty good discussion so far, but I can see us starting to head down the path of insisting there's only one correct opinion, when both sides have a valid point and valid reasoning behind the impressions they're sharing. Let's not get bogged down with that, as it ultimately derails the discussion, and gets in the way of giving good feedback, which as always is something we have a chance to do here.

"This gameplay look jus like that it came from Nba Live Mobile app i downloaded"

"Thats why EA wont let 2k make a football game. THEY KNOW 2K GOING TO MAKE MADDEN LOOK TRASH LIKE THIS!!"

"Lol it looks like it plays like an arcade game"

"You lame ass Live fanboys need to stop defending this piece of shit game. It's shitty!"

"2 years and this is what they came up with?"

"Body models, movement, gameplay all looks like SHIT. I can't believe EA still can't get it together, just give up....honestly"

"You are so damn right.the movement body models...remind me of fifa 17,its the same awful shit omfgg cant believe how bad ea are"

"haha look shit , its look like playing phone graphics "

"This gameplay is always stiff when is it going to play and feel fluid like 2k?"

"Even if this game was $5 I'm still not buying it. Why would I spend time playing a shitty ass game?"

"I wouldnt play this shit for free"


That's a fair point about first impressions mattering, especially when you're trying to win back the crowd, but let's not pretend that any of that comes close to being nuanced, intelligent, or unbiased critique. It's little more than tired buzzwords and rhetoric, profanity, and Internet slang, from people who, in all likelihood, would sneer at NBA Live even if it somehow magically got on par with NBA 2K overnight. That approach lessens the credibility of the criticism, or at the very least, it's usefulness.

That's not to say there aren't legitimate criticisms of the demo, because there obviously are. A few of those commenters have kind of scratched the surface of them - perhaps accidentally, in some cases - but let's not give too much credit to kids thinking that they've achieved the height of wittiness with remarks like that, or rather more unfortunately, adults who are still unable to express intelligent or thoughtful critique, and likewise resort to expressing themselves in such a manner. We can critique the demo and basketball games in general far better than that, and we have been doing so thus far in this very topic. There's no need to give credibility to individuals who can't offer up criticism that's any more profound than "lololololo itz fucken shit kys ea omfgggg plz plz plz lololool lmafaoooso!1!".

One of the problems is that you can't pick hair colour independently of style, which you can in NBA 2K. Even with a lot of different styles, it feels a lot more limited if you're trying to pick the most appropriate hair colour.

You're right. What gives with that?

It's odd, and frustrating. Even if there's no option to pick style and colour as two independent options, providing each hair and facial hair style in all available colours would be a viable solution. There also needs to be an option to change or correct eye colour, especially with the app messing that up for a lot of people.

Great points, I'm just saying the reasons why I believe it's not selling, and commenting on the majority of the comments (type of) that I see.

Either way, let's hope they make a splash on release day.

I think we all agree with you on why they sell less...a lot less, than 2k. it's the visuals/animations. Thats not really up for debate at this point in time. What I'm saying is, Live has been trying to give us a game where we have the most freedom out of any basketball game ever made. To pull this off its going to be very hard for them to also give us 2k level animations/graphical advancements. The reason we know its super difficult to pull off is due to the fact 2k has never done it and they are far ahead of live and have been for a very long time. They had more money in their teams budget, more people, etc. Think about it Dee.. They would've gone this route long ago if it was easy or not that hard. but they havent. they stuck with the 2 player canned animations. Truth is, I have a funny feeling this is why Mike wang left the first time and went to EA then ended up coming back after he found out EA was not serious about Live(financially/backing wise.) You have to understand Dev's have their own personal agendas. Then the companies have theirs. Mike said he wanted to create the most realistic basketball game ever. He said this years ago and I believed him. He wasnt just talking about 2k. he was talking about what HE dreamt of doing. If I ever became a game dev, that would be my #1 priority. If i could ever get the time, resources to make a game. it would be to create the most realistic basketball game of all time. But he realized one team was about making the most realistic LOOKING game of all time with a nice company push/budget behind them. While the other was about making the most realistic playing game of all time on the cheap. That on the cheap part is what has plagued LIve for a long time. but the devs can never admit that. We know EA wont tell that truth. So here we are, finally with a game that at least worth a look see. This is a true foundation to build upon. last year you could kind of say that but after seeing this game and playing it. This by far is Live's best foundation since they fell off. lets be honest about that.

Anybody feel that the transition defense is broken, mainly getting back of defense. AI teammates seem to get lost leaving the CPU wide open.

Yes.

One of the biggest problems on defense is that wide open corner three (Where in one of the broadcast cameras, the screen doesn't move fast enough for the action, and the player catches it and goes into his shot almost completely off screen)

Basically, on a long miss.. the CPU will get a board, and the offensive player(s) is already ahead of the defense, and it's either a dunk or an open three in the corner. One game they had open three's on 3 consecutive possessions from the exact same corner.

maybe they are trying to simulate all the open 3's in the current day nba..... I'm joking. This needs to be fixed asap. Especially those cameras. I think they spent so much time trying to show off these player models. They forgot we need to see the court, other teammates, ourselves, and the defenders.

Some tweaking to the defenses reaction timing should fix it.

But yeah, the NBA is so much about 3's now... I miss the mid range game.

The art of the mid range game. the in between game. The Mitch Richmond. The Brandon Roy. I really think the impact of the mid range might have survived if B.roy would not have been so injury prone. Especially if portland would've won a ring in the past few decades.

I loved Roy's game.

Kobe had a great mid range game. And while not as deadly of a shooter, Wade still utilizes it. Melo still uses it as well.

But it's seldom that NBA teams use it, it's either a hard drive or a three. The 90's and early 2000's were my favorite times for the NBA, and the all around offensive game was a big part of it.

My Celtics drafted Tatum, and I love his mid range game. He showed a lot of it in college and during summer league. I would love to see more of it during the season.

Guy's i just saw on another forum that NBA LIVE put out another Patch for the demo. yes this is a 2nd patch if you guys havent already seen it. I played the other day but that was prior to this 2nd patch. People are saying they think it feels better now. Dee word on the street is they tightened up the jump shot animation. I think me telling them what you said with the video evidence may have paid some dividends if they did fix it. now someone said it looks much better but still a bit of a hitch at the top of the jumpers they need to work on. we'll see. some guys said they went ahead and preordered the game based on that 2nd patch. Tell me what you see/and feel DEE, drew, etc

Guy's i just saw on another forum that NBA LIVE put out another Patch for the demo. yes this is a 2nd patch if you guys havent already seen it. I played the other day but that was prior to this 2nd patch. People are saying they think it feels better now. Dee word on the street is they tightened up the jump shot animation. I think me telling them what you said with the video evidence may have paid some dividends if they did fix it. now someone said it looks much better but still a bit of a hitch at the top of the jumpers they need to work on. we'll see. some guys said they went ahead and preordered the game based on that 2nd patch. Tell me what you see/and feel DEE, drew, etc

Sweet, thanks for the heads up!

I'll try it when I get home and give feedback. Good on them with the patches for the demo.

Anybody feel that the transition defense is broken, mainly getting back of defense. AI teammates seem to get lost leaving the CPU wide open.

I was having issues not being able to see the corners on both offense and defense, but I turned off zoom in the key so now it's good.

Cool to see them already getting a start on those fixes. There's a sense of urgency for them to have a product people like to play before the release date who's is good for all of us. First patch did clean up some shot animations

Anybody feel that the transition defense is broken, mainly getting back of defense. AI teammates seem to get lost leaving the CPU wide open.

I was having issues not being able to see the corners on both offense and defense, but I turned off zoom in the key so now it's good.

Cool to see them already getting a start on those fixes. There's a sense of urgency for them to have a product people like to play before the release date who's is good for all of us. First patch did clean up some shot animations

you have to turn that zoom in the key off. I would love to have it because you can finally go to work in the paint for boards, blocks, and post moves. Since you can clearlys ee whats going on in the paint. BUTTTT, neither game has figured out how to pull that zoom in the paint feature off while also being able to see your guy and the other corners.

The animation issues on shots still persist. No dialogue on this video, but I made it and listed it as unlisted (So you can give them the link). The jump shots just really need to be smoothed out. Stepping into a shot should be smooth, not like 3 animations in one, or a robotic movements. Same with step backs, etc. They hould find a way to smooth out the shooting, it would make a huge difference for feel and the visual appeal. Please pass this along.

phpBB [video]

Honestly I have no problem with this "3 in 1" shooting animation approach. A lot of people do, especially since it's such a big difference from 2K's "let's mo cap the whole damn motion in one animation" style. 2K has also built this huge database of complete jumpshots over the years which also helps add to the authenticity.

My thinking is that it's "ehh close enough" and am actually impressed they figured it all out with syncing the different animations together and managing to have the foot planting mostly right. But the fact of the matter is that if you're waiting for animations in Live to be as smooth as 2K, it's simply not going to happen as long as they continue with this style of putting together multiple animations instead of doing one long one. And as a result, I feel that some people can be a bit ambitious for Live and at the same time a little nitpicky, especially in that clip Dee posted where Shumpert is shooting at the end.

Honestly I have no problem with this "3 in 1" shooting animation approach. A lot of people do, especially since it's such a big difference from 2K's "let's mo cap the whole damn motion in one animation" style. 2K has also built this huge database of complete jumpshots over the years which also helps add to the authenticity.

My thinking is that it's "ehh close enough" and am actually impressed they figured it all out with syncing the different animations together and managing to have the foot planting mostly right. But the fact of the matter is that if you're waiting for animations in Live to be as smooth as 2K, it's simply not going to happen as long as they continue with this style of putting together multiple animations instead of doing one long one. And as a result, I feel that some people can be a bit ambitious for Live and at the same time a little nitpicky, especially in that clip Dee posted where Shumpert is shooting at the end.

No, I'm waiting for a smooth jump shot. It doesn't feel right, it's delayed, it doesn't look right. It's an actual problem regardless if 2k even existed. The Shumpert shot he does the exact same thing.

Bottom line, humans don't move like that. It has nothing to do with canned animations, this is literally a shot, a shooting motion. The delay because of the way the players move impact how the defense gets back to the player as well. When it impacts these things (visuals, feel, etc) and it's a common complaint, it's not nitpicking, it needs to be addressed.

I respectfully disagree.

Well it's probably not going to happen this year. They need more time to build a bank with a nice variety of animations that will allow them to thread animations of the same speed together. The problem is that right now they have a limited amount to choose from and they are at different speeds

The animation issues on shots still persist. No dialogue on this video, but I made it and listed it as unlisted (So you can give them the link). The jump shots just really need to be smoothed out. Stepping into a shot should be smooth, not like 3 animations in one, or a robotic movements. Same with step backs, etc. They hould find a way to smooth out the shooting, it would make a huge difference for feel and the visual appeal. Please pass this along.

phpBB [video]

yep. still not quite right. but they did fix the foot planting issue that lead to it being even worse early on. I used your video and started posting a video of richard jefferson talking to a reporter about how to catch and shoot, and some other video showing catch and shoot situations from all over the court. different sides, etc. they have seemed to correct the feet. but there's an animation or 2 missing in that jumpshot. this has the same thing to do with why the dunks were horrible looking in previous lives especially anything after live 10 up until the last live. it was literally 2 or 3 animations points missing in the dunk animation as a whole. I have a feeling they are missing not because they were not captured but because they might be trying to save on ram/memory. Which just might be another reason why Live plays smoother than 2k. The more animations you have in the game the more steps to get from point A to point D.. The longer the animations are even if they are all one motion. the more likely you are using more ram. and the more ram you use. the less can be used for other things. The less responsive controls become. It can start to delay certain things as if you're playing online when you're actually playing offline. I dont think the devs would ever be honest about this either if I'm right.

Thanks for passing the info/video along!

The input lag certainly hurts sometimes. Maybe they can address that.

I've not had the time to play the demo that I have in recent years but after a couple of weeks playing here and there I really don't see any major improvement from nba live 16 other than graphics and they changed a few animations. The shooting feels robotic the player movement feels robotic still.

I also don't like how they have changed the buttons to feel a little 2kish, that's one thing about Live that I used to like.

Also I didn't like the way they forced me to start play "The One" before I could play the cavs/Warriors game, if and when I play that game mode should choice not compulsory and have to sit through the many cutscreens

I've not had the time to play the demo that I have in recent years but after a couple of weeks playing here and there I really don't see any major improvement from nba live 16 other than graphics and they changed a few animations. The shooting feels robotic the player movement feels robotic still.

I also don't like how they have changed the buttons to feel a little 2kish, that's one thing about Live that I used to like.

Also I didn't like the way they forced me to start play "The One" before I could play the cavs/Warriors game, if and when I play that game mode should choice not compulsory and have to sit through the many cutscreens

The buttons are almost identical to 2K (Vanilla buttons), even fancy pass and alley-oop are the same now. Dribbling is a bit different though overall.

And yes, the animations that I've been talking about is the biggest issue with the gameplay, the robotic animations you speak of (And the input lag). The good thing is: They are sending this feedback to EA Sports, hopefully they can do something about it. If it's about saving RAM like King is saying, I think that's a lame excuse, considering other sports games can pull off smooth animations while maintaining a stable FPS. Also, on consoles.. not many people really care of the cutscenes are a bit choppy, they always are on consoles. They are on Madden 18.

I think they need to fix that feel and look, especially shooting the ball. If they can do this, the game will be a lot more appealing and playable.

I've not had the time to play the demo that I have in recent years but after a couple of weeks playing here and there I really don't see any major improvement from nba live 16 other than graphics and they changed a few animations. The shooting feels robotic the player movement feels robotic still.

I also don't like how they have changed the buttons to feel a little 2kish, that's one thing about Live that I used to like.

Also I didn't like the way they forced me to start play "The One" before I could play the cavs/Warriors game, if and when I play that game mode should choice not compulsory and have to sit through the many cutscreens

The buttons are almost identical to 2K (Vanilla buttons), even fancy pass and alley-oop are the same now. Dribbling is a bit different though overall.

And yes, the animations that I've been talking about is the biggest issue with the gameplay, the robotic animations you speak of (And the input lag). The good thing is: They are sending this feedback to EA Sports, hopefully they can do something about it. If it's about saving RAM like King is saying, I think that's a lame excuse, considering other sports games can pull off smooth animations while maintaining a stable FPS. Also, on consoles.. not many people really care of the cutscenes are a bit choppy, they always are on consoles. They are on Madden 18.

I think they need to fix that feel and look, especially shooting the ball. If they can do this, the game will be a lot more appealing and playable.

its not about just having so called "smooth animations" while maintaining a stable FPS. It's about the players foot planting mechanics and not sliding all over the court on offense or defense. this happens a lot on 2k. which is weird that we are in year 2017 and guys are still ice skating a ton. But that usually happens because its too much information to process with not enough memory to do it so something gets left on the cutting board, like that players foot planting on the ground on every step, not every 3rd step. This gives you that feel of not being in control. This is why I have that possible theory that EA may be saving on ram by cutting the animation sequences down from say 6 steps to 4 steps(the cut is between 3 and 5 there's that silly looking hitch since its missing those middle to ending steps. They think its not that bad. We know otherwise. lol. But doing this frees up ram, processing power. now that power could go to make sure the players feet touch the hardwood each time. making it more responsive while moving around pre shoot, pre layup, or on defense. It is a known fact just moving around the court with your guy with no ball is more controllable in Live vs 2k.