Gameplay Courtside Report

[Andrew]

Full report here: https://nba.2k.com/2k25/courtside-report/gameplay/

My summary of the key points:

• Year 2 of ProPLAY - which translates real NBA footage to in-game animations - has added 1,500 new dribbling animations, 1,100 new signature shot animations (covering most of the rostered players from the 2024 season), and 1,300 off-the-ball animations.
• The all-new dribble engine has been "built from the ground up". It's being touted as the biggest change to the gameplay engine in years, with dynamic motion driven by ProPLAY technology. In particular, it mentions tighter stops, more explosive launches, and movement that's "smoother, more lifelike, and more consistent than ever before".
• Holding up on the Pro Stick (right stick) will trigger Signature Go-To shots, featuring dribble-into-shot combos.
• A new shot cancelling feature will allow breaking out of any advanced shot into other moves, such as a hesi or shot fake. In this way, you can begin a move like a stepbacker jumper, cancel it, and smoothly transition into a different dribbling move, or go into a drive.
• The Shot Timing profiles are based on feedback from gamers regarding the level of challenge in shooting. Essentially, we'll be able to customise the risk-reward factor of shot timing. "Low-Risk Reward" favours ratings, openness, and smart shots, with more forgiving shot timing but a smaller window for Green Releases. Conversely, "High Risk-Reward" is basically "green-or-miss", but consistently good timing will be rewarded with great results.
• Visual Cues for the ideal release point can now be set to any point in the shot in the Jumpshot Creator. This is intended to provide full control over when to release the button/stick.
• All of the shooting methods from NBA 2K24 are returning, but NBA 2K25 also introduces Pro Stick Rhythm Shooting. This method involves pushing the Pro Stick down and then up in a way that mimics the shooter's signature form, with higher accuracy yielding better results.
• Rhythm Shooting also takes into account Shot Timing profiles, and is being hyped as more skill-based, with the opportunity to outperform gamers using the traditional method.
• A new defensive cut-off system involves using the right stick on defense to slide into position and stonewall ballhandlers by accurately reading their movement and anticipating a drive.
• The new Shot Contest system is described as using a dynamic weighting system rather than a fixed one. It also evaluates the impact of the defense at the start of the shot rather than the release, calculating the coverage accordingly.
• Perimeter and interior defensive ratings will be more impactful, and height difference will also impact the level of coverage.
• Spacing has been enhanced with over 20 adjustment locations inside the three-point line. Freelance offense has been redesigned to account for these adjustments by the AI, and double team reactions also make spacing a priority.
• Improvements to AI mean smarter cuts to the basket, and thus better driving lanes and drive-and-kick opportunities.
• Defensive logic has also been improved, allowing for better pursuit angles and rotations.
• Custom playbooks can be shared with other gamers, similar to rosters, sliders, MyNBA Eras setups, and other settings.
• AI difficulty isn't just about shooting percentages, but also aggressiveness and adjustments at both ends, to scale the challenge accordingly. Attacking the basket will be noticeably easier on lower difficulty settings.
• A new Learn 2K mode will provide more detailed onboarding this year.

[Andrew]

My initial take on the developer blog is that it's saying a lot of the right things, but we've heard this stuff before. We've also seen improvements before, so I'm not about to rule out that possibility, the same way I'm not going to declare that they're going to deliver on all the promises and the game will unquestionably be awesome. However, history has taught me to take these previews with a grain of salt, and reserve final judgement until I get my hands on the sticks.

Once again though, it is saying things that I want to hear, so it does have my attention. If the dribbling has been overhauled so that it feels more responsive and player movement in general is less clunky, I could see myself warming up to this year's gameplay. AI enhancements...all good in theory, if they pan out. It sounds like a better approach to difficulty levels, indeed more like we used to have in NBA 2K. More animations that are more authentic, more explosiveness, better onboarding...all positives on paper.

The Pro Stick Rhythm Shooting feels like this year's gimmick, akin to Shot Aiming in NBA 2K21. In other words, a mechanic that's supposedly all about skill gap and for hardcore competitive gamers. The "get good" crowd will latch onto it, and then it'll be gone in NBA 2K26 because it turns out to be broken and/or OP. They keep trying stuff like this, and while on one hand I appreciate the desire to innovate, it means that every so often we get a really gimmicky mechanic that leads to more problems than improvements. I could be wrong, but that's my immediate thought.

Shot Cancelling is also good in theory and it sounds like something we need to avoid getting stuck in animations, and to get creative with the basketball. Like Rhythm Shooting though, I could also see it becoming something that's too easily spammed because of its effectiveness, ultimately spoiling the competitive scene. Cue some post-release fine-tuning to try and achieve better balance, and then complaints about how 2K are "catering to casuals".

Still, I am intrigued. I'm not going to be convinced until I get my hands on the game and it ends up delighting me, and I'm not going to get ahead of myself in believing that that'll be what happens. If nothing else, the blog said all the right things - some of which we've heard before - and has given us an idea of what to look out for as supposed improvements. As always, that should be the starting point for any gameplay critique.

[Patr1ck]

Shot timing profiles are interesting. I think the low risk one is basically a dice roll judging your shot selection, which would be ideal for players who experience lag issues with shooting online, and the other is just your hold and release normal shot timing with a new name.
The rhythm shooting is a nice idea, but it's essentially taking hold and release into hold and push all the way forward, but tuned for matching the animation speed. I bet it will be exploitable with special shooting animations. My idea would be to hold down to set your feet and gather the ball for your shot with a longer hold giving you a wider release window at the penalty of it being more tightly contested due to the extra time holding it, then press up to extend upward into the shot form, and let go at the release point.

As for the dribbling and movement, it's all about responsiveness. I can deal with isomotion, quickstrike, freestyle, hands-on control, or whatever they want to call their dribble system as long as the player animations respond with minimal delay to controller input as to represent the professional athletes as respectable as possible. If I have to wait a whole second for my dribble move to trigger or a pass animation to execute so that the fake defense can have time to recover, it's not going to be fun trying to create off the dribble. If early players aren't raving about how responsive and maybe even calling the controls "touchy" or sensitive, then it won't be a big difference. Knowing 2K, they would alienate a lot of players who are used to their game by reducing the input lag, so they probably don't want to make such a drastic change and are just trying to make it look better.

I thought they had a form of shot cancelling in past games already, but maybe it wasn't as fleshed out to be named a feature.

[Andrew]

The timing profiles do sound good in theory. I agree that the low risk option sounds like a good way to combat lag. Beluba did note on X that Real Player % is still disabled for online play, which seems only fair. The profiles should hopefully be sufficient.

Completely agreed about the dribbling. Responsiveness and sluggish movement have been two of my biggest complaints in recent years. "Built from the ground up" has become a marketing slogan of questionable reliability (to put it nicely), but here's hoping.

Shot cancelling has been in the game before, a few people have been calling that out on X. Apparently it's different in NBA 2K25 - more reliable, more polished, more of a thing, whatever - but yeah, it's not entirely new. It's been missing though, so hype aside, it seems like a good thing to have back.