The Prelude Out Now (PS4 & X1); Post Impressions Here!

[bluejaybrandon]

ying.
[*] The old NBA 2K minigame was bad, half of the controls we are now used to simply didn't work.
[*] Some goals are simply out of player's reach - in the first game the opposing star scored 4 points while I was guarding him. He still got 25 total while I was not playing or when he was guarded by others (I was SG). And I lost against the NBA stars after my teammates just decided to give away the ball 3 times in a row.
[*] Fouls not called, if I did that bump in local league I'd get slapped with intentional foul - 2 technicals and possession of the ball. 2K just didn't call it and in one case lead to turnover.

• phpBB [video]
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[/list]

Tweeted those two videos at Mike Wang, hopefully he'll notice.

I don't think the contact is the problem. Those aren't particularly physical interactions. Its the reaction by the ball handler that is entirely exaggerated. It makes sense to feel and react to that much contact, but to stammer four steps back is excessive. It looks like it just triggers a canned animation that seems over the top.

[Dee4Three]

Been playing the prelude for awhile (the 5 on 5), I've been playing on HOF.

They curved the blow bys, I can't just run to the hoop, I'm being forced to do moves or get a realistic first step. The help defense also SEEMS to be better, but it's tough to tell.

Major props to them for fixing the blow bys, I just hope it's in the regular game when I get it.

The skating is horrible, they need to implement foot planting.

[cavs4872]

Right off the bat, you can tell they're conscious about how much people hated the cutscenes by the "rushed" player creation (actually, it was longer than before since we didn't used to have cutscenes); what is completely ludicrous is you have buy all the default animations for 0 VC... just a total waste of time. Why 2K?!

The face scan app is pretty buggy and broken again this year. After it failed to process the scan and then crashed, I gave up on it. I'm not going to bother.

I went through hell and back with this; essentially, you can't allow your phone screen to shut off during any part of the uploading process. I had to reinstall the app.

Meanwhile, some classic stuff to send my first game into OT:

phpBB [video]

I'd actually say this was more impressive than (and eerily similar to) my Prelude last year:

phpBB [video]

[mrk326]

Can you tell me guys how to change the difficulty?

[Andrew]

Thanks for the tip about face scanning. I still think I'll give it a miss because it's just too much of a bother, but it's good info to have out there for anyone who wants to troubleshoot it.

I agree that "buying" all the free animations is a chore. I do like that there's a wide selection of free basic animations this year, but yeah, we should have them by default. It's the higher tier and signature animations that we should be vying to unlock and then go to the store to buy. I am glad they walked back on charging VC for the basic ones, though. It's not entirely convenient this way, but it's fairer than last year.

[The X]

Can you tell me guys how to change the difficulty?

Go to 2KU game, change difficulty. Apparently it will flow through to MyCareer.

[Yuurei]

I finished playing Prelude yesterday and I’m having a hard time to decide which road to take - Live or 2k. I must say that story in 2k19, at least in the Prelude, was quite good and interesting and I would like to see what’s coming next. But also I remember how poorly this stories can develop in full versions. On the other hand, I had fun playing Live 19. For me it was (I’m no expert of course) more, I don’t know, physical (I don’t know if this is a right word to describe it). Eh, decisions decisions :/

[ThePointForward]

I don't think the contact is the problem. Those aren't particularly physical interactions. Its the reaction by the ball handler that is entirely exaggerated. It makes sense to feel and react to that much contact, but to stammer four steps back is excessive. It looks like it just triggers a canned animation that seems over the top.

I honestly don't care how it gets resolved, but it definitely should be.

About my comment, maybe I should rephrase. If I initiated contact that would result in that kind of response I'd get slapped with foul.

[cavs4872]

There's a really cool thing at the end of the Prelude where you play an arcade version of 2K7; the gameplay is actually 2K19, but it's pixelated and stuff to make it look old (starts at the 15 minute mark).

phpBB [video]

I spent a lot of time with that Rockets team in 2K18, and I don't remember Hayes or Head being there; they might've lost Scola as well.

Also, that whole Garnett pass to Rondo "mucking around" at tipoff was amazing.

[Daex]

Here's my impressions after couple of hours of 2kU and 2 preludes:

• Blow-bys appear fixed, defenders were solid and not letting me pass unless I did some moves.
• New boxout rebounding seems tentatively OK, in stars game Anthony Davis was able to beat me in the boxout couple of times but not random Chinese players from earlier.
• Generally rebounding still appears to have some flaws, I noticed some situations where smaller players got the rebound that I felt they shouldn't have. I think it's kinda similar to earlier 2ks where offensive rebounding is too weak artificially to generate correct stat lines. I really think 7 foot center that is not boxed out should get an offensive rebound over a 6 foot guard more often, but this is not what happens in the game.
• Contest from behind no longer registers, which is what everyone wanted I guess, but it felt awkward in some situations, for example I was DIRECTLY behind a guy that shot midrange, and I was a foot taller than him, and I pressed triangle to try and block him, this seemed to make no impact whatsoever on his shot. I felt that realistically it should have been a block or a murder, or something, but since it didn't register as a chasedown, it was simply nothing, which was less than ideal.
• Stomach and ass blocks appear gone. In one situation I was able to get a block on a pump fake, but my guy basically swatted the ball away with his hand, over opponent's head. It seemed realistic and possible, and not similar to body blocks from earlier. In one situation where I jumped on pump fake however, it ended up in a steal - but it was clogged area with 3-4 players and I don't think my jump on pump fake directly caused a steal. Actually I think the steal/to happened because of other player hanging around and, I am not sure how to explain this the best but you must know those steals where you just walk into the player on the side where the ball is.
• It seems significantly more difficult to nail green timing on higher difficulties. I am not great with timing, well not even good, but this seems visibly different than earlier.
• I did a spin dunk with Durant, of course it was super fun as you would expect.
• Stealing the ball off an inbound is still relatively easy. This really bothers me a lot because you know when it comes to a close game and you need to win you will do whatever it takes.

Basically it's improved 2k18, as someone said, it's what we should have gotten last year, or after couple of patches. But it's mostly the same game. Also, if it's not immediately obvious, this whole MyCareer thing is a massive sucking up to the Chinese audience with hopes of tapping more into that 1B people market. Even when you play that fake "old school 2k" arcade machine you play Rockets with Yao Ming. Although I am sure it will work just as they intended from the business/sales standpoint.

[Sith]

Couldn’t scan my face properly, but made Kobe with 2k poor editor to bring Lakers to championship this year

[Dee4Three]

Couldn’t scan my face properly, but made Kobe with 2k poor editor to bring Lakers to championship this year
[ Image ]

That's not half bad!

[Andrew]

Yeah, that's a pretty decent Kobe using the in-game tools!

[PeacemanNOT]

Yeah there's been some pretty good CAPs over on OS too. It's a big improvement but it could be a lot better, some of the sliders don't change that much in the face, especially around the skull. There's also a couple areas which aren't even editable at all.

But I have to say the hair editor where you can select a certain fade or a hair length is awesome. I'm interested to see the full list of hair/facial hair in the full game.

[cavs4872]

Yeah, the face scanning is brutal; I essentially had to nurse my phone through the whole thing, making sure my screen never shut off during the uploading process, and my scan ended up looking less like me than 2K18.

The hair editor is awesome.

[ThePointForward]

Even though I had my reservations I was really fucking tempted to pull the trigger on the game.
The issue was I wanted to play the game on my Xbox One (I want to play online but I very much prefer Xbox One controller to PS4 controller) and the deluxe edition is already sold out in physical version. The standard edition provides exactly zero incentives to me to pre-order.

So I finally decided to let it go, wait for the game to release and buy if the reviews look favourable (I'm counting on you guys lol).
Given I don't have that much time during the week and I'm attending a military show (anybody wants pics of BMPs?) on 14th to 16th there should be enough reviews by then.

[timmyd]

Couldn’t scan my face properly, but made Kobe with 2k poor editor to bring Lakers to championship this year
[ Image ]

Dude, you gotta show me how you made this Kobe! WOW

[[Q]]

My first game since 2k16. Was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the story. It was written well, outside of a few small inaccuracies and breaks in continuity as I found myself questioning whether I actually hated Harris or myself more. It would make for an interesting movie plot as I was a little curious to know what happens next.

That said, I don't know if the story if well in the context of a game. There were only a few choices to make and I don't think it affected your overall experience. BTW, that first scene where they ask you to pass to your teammate, can you choose not to?

Gameplay wise, it was cool. Some things I did like i.e. freedom off ball on offense to move around. Feels like I was free to run around o we Live's system of counters and holding

I also liked the way they did the initial player set up. Was a cool idea and reminded me of the way they did it in Blitz the League 2. Was surprised by the ability to edit each of the choices that you picked for your face.

I thought the whole playing in China thing was fun to play through. Was funny to have Chinese commentators and I was curious to know what they were talking about. Also, I know they wrote the story to make you seem like you're completely out of your element and sick out like a sore thumb, but my created player's face looked exactly like everyone else so I fit in just fine haha

Some things I didn't like. First,the camera I wanted to play with the 2k camera but wanted to face my basket. Every half I had to manually switch sides. Second, at times I felt like I had lost complete control of my player, as if my car ran over a huge puddle and hydroplaned. Also, I chose shooting defender, but could not hit any open 3s. The game set a goal for me and encouraged me to score 20 points in the second game but I don't know how they expected me to do that

The game of "2k8" was fun. Was cool to get a chance to play with historic teams. I was actually up 3 and made a mistake by allowing Chuck Hayes to get fouled to see if he had a signature free throw. He did not and I missed two only for Allen to tie the game. I wound up winning in quintuple OT lol

Even though I spent a couple hours on this and it was pretty fun. I also had fun playing previous Preludes but I also know how much of a grind the regular game is and I have plenty of other things to do so I won't be getting the game.

[cavs4872]

I wound up winning in quintuple OT lol

[cavs4872]

Prelude was kinda perfect length; don't have much more desire to play career vs. the CPU. Was actually able to net a triple-double in the second game, but the best part was the Rockets/Celtics throwback; the pixelated effect did hurt my eyes after a while though.

Just looking forward to playing with NBA teams and seeing if the new Neighborhood is worth the hype.

[[Q]]

Yeah man I was over that game in the 3rd so imagine how annoyed I was to see it go to 5 OT. I considered just losing on purpose so it would end lol

It was weird playing without any kind of shot meter. I got so used to it I forgot what it was like without one

[ThePointForward]

BTW, that first scene where they ask you to pass to your teammate, can you choose not to?

I don't think so (feel free to try waiting), it's about as useful quick time action as "Press F to pay respect".

[Andrew]

For a while, I was wondering if the game of "NBA 2K8" was rigged. I'd been messing around and was losing kind of badly, then I just started chucking threes with T-Mac and making them to catch up. I missed a potential game-tying three and ended up losing though, so obviously not; especially if it's possible to win in quintuple overtime!

[sticky-fingers]

I cant find a video with timeout menus and ingame tactic selection.

[ThePointForward]

Yeah, with how seamlessly the exhibition game was scripted it makes you wonder about all those close games, doesn't it.