Next Gen Gameplay With Developer Commentary

[Andrew]

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[big-shot-ROB]

Some thoughts:

Positive:
- Lightning looks good, specially one the court and on white players.
- Some of the cyberfaces look really nice (Curry, Zion, Thompson)
- The stadium feels a lot more alive with the new characters.
- Loading times are surprisingly fast.
- It's true there's a lot of fast foot-planting for small movement.
- I guess we have now contact-alleyoop animations? (like we had with dunks)

Negative:

- They'll need to fix SO SO many cyberfaces. The new lighting makes poorly made beards (Wiggins) and dark players with no skin texture (Wiggins, Green) look horrible. I'm hoping this is fixable with modding in next gen, face hair specially has been done quite horrible even on current-gen.

- Despite foot planting being improved, the gameplay feels way more "skaty" than previous-gen. I don't think it's a problem of foot planting but rather the players feel WEIGHTLESS, maybe there's something wrong with the animation system.

- Crowd and commentary are still bad, no-one reacted to Zion's crazy alley-oop dunk.

[big-shot-ROB]

Also, fun fact: First time I've realized the "Beluba" camera is named after a dev.

[miki_92]

watch how around 2 min mark Jrue gets sucked in by Draymond's screen, these guys keep on lying, nothing to see here

[Marvin00]

not impressed

[sticky-fingers]

"NBA 2K21 is built from the ground up for PS5"

[[Q]]

When they showcased the footplanting, I tihnk they really tried to make it look real but not necessarily responsive. I think that in their quest to make the animations look good, as in many cases, it makes things a little less responsive. I guess we'll see when we get our hands on it

[sticky-fingers]

Seriously, the more i watch this new video in 4K, the more i think that 2K went back on 2K16 as source, and mainly updated the lighting.

edit :

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[[Q]]

I sawa glimpse of the sweat playing 2k20 today and thought about them hyping the sweat in the video as if it were a completely brand new thing lol

[TRIIIAD]

Seriously, the more i watch this new video in 4K, the more i think that 2K went back on 2K16 as source, and mainly updated the lighting.

Wouldn't mind that tbh. It's sad that they change what wasn't broken in the first place, but 2K16 was probably the most enjoyable of all the current gen 2K's.

[jmmontoro]

How long have they know the next gen was coming Q4 2020? Probably since or around 2K16. So if they take away 5% each year, for 2K21 NG that 15%-20% you lost, refurbished into new features, they seem like a big bump.

[ThaLiveKing]

Also, fun fact: First time I've realized the "Beluba" camera is named after a dev.

Scott OG's camera was the swivel cam, I wasn't a fan of that camera angle lol...

Game play looks improved, but the perimeter defense is UGLY.

[TGsoGood]

here is some gameplay. Caught it off of a stream

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[TGsoGood]

Here is more gameplay but with G League

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[Dee4Three]

Here is some 5 on 5 footage on Series X (Not a stream) at 1080p60fps

The guys playing is.... absolutely terrible (Airballs, backcourt violations, etc). But yeah, here you go.

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[jayzmagz]

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CPU vs CPU game. Still feels like the PS4/XBOX One and also I hate the shadows. Feels like they are floating in the air.
Nice graphics but nothing makes me feel like this is really a next gen game. Skating on the court still there. Also not liking the color maybe more contrast would make it better. It looks pale. I still like the NBA Live color contrast as it looks more lively.
Also the CPU AI still sucks. Hate the final seconds of the game.

[goma76]

Mmmh, I still see a lot of old gen stuff in this gameplay. I’m not convinced at all seeing the latest gameplay,I hoped for a truly next gen game but what I can say at now, this is a 0.5 2K21 next gen.
I’ll see other gameplay for a definitive valuation, but where is the new AI of the player? Rebuild from scratch?

[Luricz]

phpBB [video]

CPU vs CPU game. Still feels like the PS4/XBOX One and also I hate the shadows. Feels like they are floating in the air.
Nice graphics but nothing makes me feel like this is really a next gen game. Skating on the court still there. Also not liking the color maybe more contrast would make it better. It looks pale. I still like the NBA Live color contrast as it looks more lively.
Also the CPU AI still sucks. Hate the final seconds of the game.

The worts and most unrealistic nonsense layup ever made in a basketball videogame is still there 23:19. The game is ugly to watch like it is in current gen (bc is basically the same) clunkiness totally unesplicable animations from a basketball player, ugly stances,running and jogging, quick catch and go still nowere to be seen, and whats going on with this slow walking with the bball like they were sneaking behind someone to steal his wallet, nobody moves like that in a game or at leats not all the freaking time. They focused 100% on my park circus using the current gen game as a base and tweaked a few gameplay things that are absolutely cosmetic and won´t fix the big problems, I´m very disappointed and the worst part is they will continue to build their game on this crap for years unless they burn it and start from scratch which is not going to happen anyways.

[[Q]]

Te PS5 disc version will also take up over 150GB of hd space, out of like 667. I don't understand how they expect you to only have a few games on your system. I've been teetering back and forth on my PS4 hd with call of duty warzone which was up to 120 at one point and required that much free in order to update. Luckily they've reduced the size down to about 80 gb

[sticky-fingers]

phpBB [video]

CPU vs CPU game. Still feels like the PS4/XBOX One and also I hate the shadows. Feels like they are floating in the air.
Nice graphics but nothing makes me feel like this is really a next gen game. Skating on the court still there. Also not liking the color maybe more contrast would make it better. It looks pale. I still like the NBA Live color contrast as it looks more lively.
Also the CPU AI still sucks. Hate the final seconds of the game.

I totally share your point of view, lighting is better but it saturates the color, skating is still there, and we can see common issues from older games.

[Rodzilla91]

Wonder how the ppl feel on OS now with the disappointing gameplay coming out. Anything negative said about 2K up until now was absolutely bashed by them. God forbid you brought up Live too, however this is more or less directed towards them and less of 2K. I'm not going to say that they get a pass with it, but with what's going on it's at least a little bit understandable... Unfortunately that will not stop them from receiving criticism,

[Dee4Three]

phpBB [video]

CPU vs CPU game. Still feels like the PS4/XBOX One and also I hate the shadows. Feels like they are floating in the air.
Nice graphics but nothing makes me feel like this is really a next gen game. Skating on the court still there. Also not liking the color maybe more contrast would make it better. It looks pale. I still like the NBA Live color contrast as it looks more lively.
Also the CPU AI still sucks. Hate the final seconds of the game.

The skating/sliding/gliding and even hovering over the floor looks even worse here over PS4..... wow.

The footplanting is absolutely terrible. Look at Lebrons feet all through the play where he ends up driving and dunking at the end... he is sliding all over the place and even hovering above the court at times.

Watch the players movement/feet off the ball as well... in the first half they also just walked out of bounds or passed it out of bounds like 4 times. And I didnt see one new layup, dunk or pass animation in the entire game.

"Built from the ground up".. come on man... and they kept talking about how they improved footplanting, and look at it...

I swear it is all mind games, as in they HAVE to know that the skating is incredibly obvious and hurts the look and feel, but they have to plant the seed in your head that it is improved.

This gameplay looks almost exactly like last gen, with WORSE foot planting, and better lighting/graphics overall.

[Andrew]

On one hand, I'm bummed that I can't get in on the ground floor with the Next Gen version at launch, since I was able to last generation and FOMO is a thing. On the other hand, looking at the gameplay, I don't feel like I'm missing out on a hugely improved experience, so that makes it a bit easier.

[[Q]]

Re: mind games

They're lying, basically telling you about stuff that's there that's not really there trying to sell you on the same product they've been selling you for years

[Andrew]

I'd say it's an effective tactic.