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

[Murat]

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).

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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.

hey can we move this scoreboard into actual game lol

[BPDHoplite]

I don't know if it's hardware limitations on the original Xbox One but the reflections on the court seem not existent and looks like I could mod a court on 2K11 and it would look better


(Judging on China courts)

Like if your gonna go with a Chinese court at least plaster it with ads like the G-League courts and it would look better

[RayRay_953]

I don't know if it's hardware limitations on the original Xbox One but the reflections on the court seem not existent and looks like I could mod a court on 2K11 and it would look better

It's not your console's fault, it's just the way that the past two 2K games have looked. 2K14 next-gen had some awesome reflections, and even stadium fog, something that just isn't present in the newer games. Still can't believe how some people simply respond with, "lol, it's basketball, what else do you want upgraded", or "the game's graphically maxed, there's nothing to improve."

[cavs4872]

After your first sub, the NBA stars always take a 10-point lead in that game; I don't know what happens if you win. Literally nothing has ever had a significant impact on the story.

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

Yeah, there were also no crossovers and stuff. I would argue it was better relying on memory for the player shots.

hey can we move this scoreboard into actual game lol

It definitely gave me vibes of playing Crash in Uncharted; kudos to that lady for having a PS1 in 2016.

[Dee4Three]

I don't know if it's hardware limitations on the original Xbox One but the reflections on the court seem not existent and looks like I could mod a court on 2K11 and it would look better

It's not your console's fault, it's just the way that the past two 2K games have looked. 2K14 next-gen had some awesome reflections, and even stadium fog, something that just isn't present in the newer games. Still can't believe how some people simply respond with, "lol, it's basketball, what else do you want upgraded", or "the game's graphically maxed, there's nothing to improve."

Yeah, it's really dull all around graphically, doesn't do anything for me.

I can live with that, if they can patch in some foot planting. I can't handle all of this skating around the court, the new motion system introduced the issue, and it's the exact same as last year. I sent out a video about it, but I doubt it will be fixed or improved.

Probably going to spend very little time with 2K19 (just like 2K18). Because while the defense looks to have been improved, the overall feel of the game just isn't fun for me.

I hope a lot of people get enjoyment out of it, though.

[[Q]]

After your first sub, the NBA stars always take a 10-point lead in that game; I don't know what happens if you win. Literally nothing has ever had a significant impact on the story.

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

Yeah, there were also no crossovers and stuff. I would argue it was better relying on memory for the player shots.

hey can we move this scoreboard into actual game lol

It definitely gave me vibes of playing Crash in Uncharted; kudos to that lady for having a PS1 in 2016.

I won my game. My player drove and I had the choice of two dunks via cut scene on Harris. And then the choice to help him up or not

[Andrew]

The ten point deficit does seem like a predetermined situation; only the score itself will differ, depending on how many points the Bears manage to score before you get subbed out. The cutscene indeed doesn't seem to have a big impact on the story, and that is part of the problem with the story-driven approach; the choices really don't matter that much. If there were some more branching options, it'd make things more interesting, and the decisions more meaningful.

[ThePointForward]

From Reddit (by credible source):

You will get to choose the team you want to play for out of all 30 in MyCareer, but you will have to deal with various interest by teams (depends in large part on your position).
You will get to negotiate VC earned, minutes, teammate grade bonus, contract length.

[Andrew]

Some may not like that and prefer the random chance of the Draft, and that's not a bad way to go. I've had fun with MyCAREER games that have taken that approach with their story (as well as before the story-driven approach came to be). However, I'm in favour of having the option to play for the team of your choice, as it's a way to keep you more invested in the mode. I think it's fine.

[ThePointForward]

Well given we knew the player went undrafted, into China and then G-League it makes sense that we won't go to draft again.

What is really nice is the negotiation part - VC earned, minutes, teammate grade bonus, contract length. Sounds like a very nice feature.

[ThePointForward]

More info:

Team Takeover allows you to take control of all 5 players on your team, essentially turning MyCAREER into a 5v5.

More in-depth info on MyCareer will come later today from Brian Mazique and Chris Smoove.

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[Andrew]

That's definitely an interesting mechanic. I liked the Orange Juice dual controls in NBA 2K17 and felt it was a fun and creative innovation, and that seems to be along the same lines.

[Andrew]

As with my NBA Live 19 impressions, I've discussed my thoughts on NBA 2K19 The Prelude on our Podcast and in an article over on the front page. However, for the sake of discussion, I wanted to share them here as well.

Positives

• The game remains very fluid and responsive on the sticks. The controls are very familiar, so if you've been playing NBA 2K in recent years, you won't have any trouble picking it up and playing it.
• CPU teammates seem a lot smarter this year in terms of moving without the ball and getting into position; NBA 2K18 felt like a step back in that regard. I noticed players making smart cuts and picking gaps when their defenders committed to a double team or otherwise gave them an open path to the hoop.
• Shooting mechanics seem a lot better, moving away from the concept of Good releases being harshly nerfed Excellent releases, and thus lower percentage shots than Slightly Early or Slightly Late releases. It just felt better shooting the ball with NBA players in 2KU games compared to NBA 2K18.
• MyPLAYER creation is much more informative and transparent. More details could stand to be shown (and some of them will be displayed in the full game), but it looks like we'll be able to make a more informed choice when it comes to the effects of choosing specific combinations of Primary and Secondary Archetypes, as well as height, weight, and wingspan.
• More hairstyles are available at the beginning, along with the new Create-a-Player features such as customisable hair length. Facial hair options are also available when initially creating your player, whereas last year you had to get to The Neighborhood first. Along with haircuts being free this year, this is a welcome change in approach, and definitely the right way to go.
• This year's story already seems like it will be a lot better. The fact that we'll be able to skip cutscenes (and the entire Prelude on subsequent playthroughs) is definitely welcome, but the narrative and the characters are far better written this time around. The tone, the humour, and their overall characterisation and performance, should make the story far more tolerable at the very least.
• XP (now called MyPOINTS) seems to be earned a little quicker if you put up numbers, and it looks like it'll be a little easier to make progress on all Badges without as much tedious grinding. It remains to be seen how progress will be made outside of the preliminary stages of MyCAREER and in training drills, but it's promising.
• Likewise, Virtual Currency rewards seemed like they'd been beefed up a bit. The Road to 99 is still going to be quite a journey, upgrades do of course get more expensive, and there will be items for sale in The Neighborhood that will require you to budget your VC. However, I'm cautiously optimistic that VC rewards will be somewhat fairer this year, and again, the mode less of a grind.
• Many more of the basic animations are freely available this year (or at least, they are in The Prelude). It would be more convenient to have all of these animations by default instead of having to go to the store and purchase them all for 0 VC, but I do like that a lot of basic animations aren't behind a paywall as they were in NBA 2K18.
• Steals feel a little less canned. I'd compare them favourably to NBA 2K17, where good timing allowed you to poke balls loose when locking down the ballhandler. The scramble to scoop up the loose ball makes the system a lot more organic as well. Canned fouls are still an issue, but not quite as much as last year.
• Body blocks are reduced. I noticed some great hand-on-Spalding animations where a well-timed block attempt resulted in the defender's hand making contact with the basketball and swatting it away.
• The part of the story where you play an abbreviated game of "NBA 2K8" using the 2008 Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets was a nice touch. I liked how they even disabled right stick dribbling, which along with the lower resolution and old score overlay, made it feel like an authentic retro gaming experience within a much newer game.
• Outside of a Green release, free throw shooting seems to be determined by ratings rather than a percentage, as was the case last year. As such, it feels like competent free throw shooters will hit a reasonable amount of foul shots, even without a perfect release.
• Absolute is now the default setting for most of the Pro Stick controls. Beluba solicited feedback on the matter via a Twitter poll and Absolute controls won, so I'm glad to see the change implemented. Gamers who prefer the Camera Relative setting can still choose it if desired.

Negatives

• The new motion system still doesn't look right. While the game is responsive on the sticks and isn't riddled by bad player animations, there is still a ton of skating. Players glide along the floor as though they're on ice, and often warp or snap into position following weird speed boosts.
• As noted above, there is still an issue of canned fouls on steal attempts. Even though steals do feel better, there are moments when a single press of the button at a fairly intuitive moment will result in your player wildly slapping at the ball or grabbing the defender. That should only happen on button mashing.
• I encountered some elbow blocks which left me feeling a little concerned that certain cheesy builds are going to get a lot of cheap rejections once again in Pro-Am this year. It might not be quite as bad, but is still potentially an issue.
• Despite assurances that Archetypes will be more balanced this year, it seems as though there will still be overpowered and underpowered builds. The point guard builds once again have some harsh trade-offs, and there are still builds that do not have Hall of Fame level Badges. Hopefully, NBA 2K19 won't have a trophy/achievement for getting a Badge to Hall of Fame level as NBA 2K18 did. Otherwise, you'll need a second playthrough, or to avoid certain builds.
• It would appear that the MyCAREER story will once again include a bunch of predetermined moments, meaningless quick time events, and inconsequential choices. Stuff like that drives home the scripted nature of the mode under the story-driven approach, and just feels rather pointless.
• In regards to The Prelude itself, the brevity and lack of depth do unfortunately make it somewhat of an unsatisfactory glimpse of NBA 2K19. It's handy to get a head start and there are things we can glean from it, but three brief games from the early stages of MyCAREER and ten minutes of 5v5 gameplay that's constantly being interrupted by tutorial videos doesn't make for a great demo with any kind of replay value as we wait for the full version.
• Instant replay controls are still clunky. They're a bit freer than previous years, but the free camera still wants to snap to certain angles, and won't maintain an adjusted height when the play is in motion.
• There are some weird and clunky animations, like the "push" layup that halts your player dead in their tracks. It looked and felt awkward last year, and I was disappointed to see it in there again this year.
• The face scanning functionality in MyNBA2K19 hasn't improved. It's still vastly inferior to NBA Live's face scanning with the process feeling far more cumbersome than it should be. As it turned out, my scan failed to render and the app crashed, then it couldn't access the camera upon relaunch. Feeling frustrated, I gave up and used one of the generic faces. On the bright side, it looked a lot like Eminem by default, so that gave me an amusing idea for a MyPLAYER character; especially with the big name actors in the mode.
• Although we can skip the MyCAREER cutscenes, there are still moments in gameplay where skipping through certain presentation elements takes a long time, or results in everyone just standing around (such as before a free throw). It seems that once again, gameplay won't be quite as streamlined as it could (and arguably should) be.
• Once again, audio is disabled during video capture on PlayStation 4. I do have an Elgato capture card, and I also have Bandicam for the PC version, but it's still a bit inconvenient for content creators, as well as anyone else who wants to keep their favourite replays and cutscenes.

Looking Ahead to the Full Version

• Even though it was brief and I would've at least liked to have had a short Play Now game with the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers instead of just the 2KU tutorial, I did have fun with The Prelude. MyCAREER is going to be a lower priority for me this year - at least, that's my intention - but I did enjoy that part of The Prelude as well.
• VC earnings and the prices of both upgrades and cosmetic items are going to be critical this year. NBA 2K18's approach was downright anti-consumer, doing its utmost to push gamers towards microtransactions in order to have an enjoyable experience. The Prelude suggests NBA 2K19 will be better in this regard, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it remains to be seen.
• There's obviously a lot more to NBA 2K19 than is shown in The Prelude, so if MyCAREER isn't your thing, or you feel like taking a break from it, there's plenty to sink your teeth into. I'm still eyeing MyLEAGUE, personally.
• Mike Wang has mentioned that shooting won't be nearly as easy in the full version. This is a little concerning, as while it is important to tune the game for realistic results, last year's approach was contrived and felt artificially difficult at times. Ideally, The Prelude should give us a good idea of what to expect in the full game as well, so I'm hoping it won't turn out to be a deceptive demo.
• As always, balance will be crucial. Last year, it felt like all the focus was on making a game for the NBA 2K League, with the offline experience leaving much to be desired (and the Pro-Am experience wasn't that much better, in my opinion). I don't want to see a lot of tweaks to the point where the game feels different week-to-week, but if something needs fixing, I hope it does get fixed.
• The situation with the motion system is an interesting one. It doesn't feel like it got any better in terms of skating and warping, so I'm not sure how long 2K will end up sticking with it. I assume when the next generation arrives, they'll have a new engine/motion system in place.

A couple of videos demonstrating the skating and the aforementioned momentum-killing "push" layup that I dislike.

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[ThePointForward]

Some screens from Smoove's video and some info.

You can become All-Star game captain if you have good enough season. They're gonna roll with last year's All-Star game model as they don't know what NBA is planning next.

We could see that in the Prelude, but worth mentioning that you can see impact your plays on teammate chemistry and fan count.
Personally I'd appreciate if we could turn off the fans etc popups and separate them from playcalling popups and shot feedback popups.

Endorsement events come roughly every 10 games.
Marketability rises with highlights, good stats and especially when they happen in nationally televised games.

Also look below, looks like you can get 1000 VC per game in first season.

Team interest and negotiations:






Trainings are now 4 after each game without need to visit the stand + sometimes you get 2 random drills from team like last year. Every drill is 1-on-1.



Partially streamlined experience for going straight to next game or practice gym:


Some endorsement stuff, like picking your own incentives:



Looks like we'll have to pick our endorsements from PR lady this year:


And finally daily goals:

[Andrew]

It's looking like the VC rewards are more generous. Of course, that might be balanced out by expensive upgrades and items, but if it's anything like The Prelude, it might be a more manageable curve the higher your ratings get. I'm not a fan of having to physically pick up endorsement money again, though. Can't anyone in this Neighborhood work Internet banking and set up a direct deposit?

I do like the option of being able to go straight to the team practice and save some loading time, but I wish there were options for MyCOURT, and perhaps even The Playground and Pro-Am as well.

[ThePointForward]

I mean we landed little vehicle on Mars yet banks can't work on Saturdays

[cavs4872]

I don't think I'm gonna spend much time playing solo vs. the CPU, but I wouldn't be able to justify chasing anything other than VC.

[StyxTx]

Ah, the Prelude sham again. Last year Prelude was pretty good. Unfortunately the game wasn't anything like Prelude when it was released.

[ThePointForward]

This year they did team up with some of the youtubers/streamers which did show some pros and cons. It definitely seems they scaled back on VC gouging. It also definitely looks like last year was very much half arsed when it comes to MyCareer.

That said, if you have a sliver of doubt, wait for reviews from players.

[Andrew]

The fact that we could start upgrading players in this year's Prelude - similar to NBA 2K17 - offered more transparency than last year in terms of VC earnings and attribute prices. Of course, it also offered the chance to buy VC for a MyCAREER demo that is over in three games, but at least the progress carries over. That being said, I think anyone who did that was being silly, especially as there's value in testing out a couple of Archetypes/builds before committing to one, via grind, VC purchases, or both.

[ThePointForward]

Not to mention that in Prelude build you're not able to see final caps on creation while you will be in final game. To be honest anyone jumping the gun and then disappointed with not having 2 more points in X attribute deserves it as a lesson though.

After some mulling over I did pull the trigger on Xbone deluxe edition (yes, I have weak will and the work has been hard this week too) and I'll be aiming for 99 OVR while never dipping below 100K VC in the bank.

[Andrew]

It's definitely been my mistake in previous years. In a rush to get our NLSC squad up and running, we've created our players and dived right into the mode, some of us paying a little extra for some initial boosts to be competitive, or at the very least, grinding away on what in some cases turned out to be a broken build (as Sharpshooting Playmaker was last year). You want to get a head start, but sometimes it's worth waiting to find out about any issues, and also run a few tests yourself, before making the commitment.

[cavs4872]

What was broken about sharpshooting playmaker? The dunking thing? Were you actually ever able to dunk with that player?

[Andrew]

The inability to dunk despite sufficient dunking ratings is definitely one of them. Occasionally I'd dunk, but not as often as the ratings suggested I should. The Archetype was also one of the ones that lacked a Hall of Fame level Badge - a design choice they've stuck with this year - which doesn't exactly gel with having a trophy for getting a Badge to Hall of Fame level. On the whole, it felt like the trade-offs in choosing the hybrid Archetype weren't worth it, and that I wasn't getting any of the advantages of either while dealing with the disadvantages of both.

I think that remains the concern with Archetypes this year as well, at least when it comes to competitive online play. Last year there were Archetypes that you really needed to avoid choosing if you were playing online, and a select few that were OP and must-haves. The end result was that there wasn't a lot of variation, and anyone who didn't choose one of those few viable Archetypes was at a disadvantage. It's an area where there needs to be more balance and more viable options, especially for people who want to play both offline and online.

[cavs4872]

What build did you go with this year?