I even suck on Rookie, strange FG%

[Leander]

Come on, I even suck on Rookie. Yes, I am not that sober but I just got blown away 19-65 at halftime (10 minute quarters). Wow...I had open jumpers, layups, whatever...nothing went in but the cpu drowned everything for almost 1.5 quarters. It felt like a bug.

[Leander]

Lost with my custom team 77-100 against the Kings.

My team:

Howard
Garnett
LeBron
Crawford
Calderon
Shaq
Nowitzki
Josh Smith
Nate Robinson

Rookie? Pro? All the same. I don´t notice a difference.

[Angelo]

That just shows how you suck in playing the game with that lineup you can beat anyone but still you fail

[Doobie]

How do you lose wit that line-up bro? You have got to be kidding me.

[Leander]

I don't know. At the start of the game I shot 6/38. They just missed everthing, even layups. In training mode I know how to make shots and get a "perfect release" most of the time.

[Patr1ck]

Try turning on Clutch Factor and then turn cpu clutch factor to 0 and user to 100 in the sliders. Not sure if that will od anything, but it could give you some more buckets.

I don't know how you can be that bad. Just take a good ballhanlder, call isolation, tap the turbo button for the hesitation, move the leftstick opposite of the ballhand, then quickly hold turbo and aim your player towards the basket and as soon as you get to the freethrow line, push the rightstick in any direction. It will get you some layups/dunks, some fouls shots, and you will get blocked a couple times possibly. Once you get comfortable with that, try some driving and dishing. Once start your layup animation, take a look at where the defense collapses on you and try to pass it to the teammate that he left open.

[Leander]

Laaaaate release. I am too anxious, don´t wanna get blocked or something. I know how to shoot in training mode but have a horrible shooting in quick games. *drumroll* Here are...my...glorious stats. One game on Allstar, one on Rookie, the rest on Pro. Default sliders, playmakers´ sliders and PDub´s.

Is it true that I can upload my profile and others can play against me, against a team with my profile?

[Patr1ck]

Don't worry about the isomotion usage. It's broken. I do tons of those moves per game and they only count the hopstep. VIP playback (user profile sharing) is broken, too. Try watching a cpu vs cpu game with your profile loaded for one of the teams. It's horrible.

If you really want to practice stuff in-game on offense, just turn off the shot clock and go nuts.

[RayZLAL]

Or go play NBA LIVE 08

[Leander]

My gamepad sucks. It is calibrated but still sometimes moves to the left after I moved it to the right. e.g. in 2K´s menus. I sometimes jumps right back.

[Patr1ck]

Sound like it's way too sensitive. Do you have the official drivers installed for it? If you don't, try them. If you do, try changing the driver to the native windows driver.

[Leander]

No, my gamepads do not require drivers. They are all treated as user input devices by WinXP but as I said many times before, they work perfectly in all other games. I don´t know why 2K has problems with them.

[RayZLAL]

Like I said try NBA LIVE 08

[Leander]

Played another game on Rookie and lost by 30 points. After the first quarter OKC lead 26-19. Afterwards, I only scored 12-14 points / quarter. I missed shot after shot while OKC hit everything. They only shot 42% in all four quarters but I had just 30%. Almost half of OKC´s shot attempts were made under the basket -> layups and easy shots.

Westbrook scored 28 points with some 12/16 shooting or something like that. He always started at the 3PT line, called a screen and drove towards the hoop. I could not stop him, even with a defender under the basket...could only foul him. Westbrook destroys me in each game.

How do you play? Do you run plays and actually know where to run? Do you play with manual offensive and defensive strategies? I just enter the game, use automatic strategies, don´t change anything except for some manual plays such as "free SF". I also use the dual control often to call for a pick but that`s it. Sometimes I can get past a defender just to have another wall in front of my player.

Basically, I pass around just to be forced to take a contested shot at the end of the shotclock or dribble around with my PG just to see the clock expire. I also run, pass, run, pass and players start moving but they always have their defenders in front of them. All those button pressing leads to the same situation that I have to shoot with a defender in my face. Everything is so static and slow. Only about 15% of the time do I pass to a guy, pass back and the first player gets some kind of open shot. It is a two-men-show then...I cannot create a flow with 3 or more players and create some "woooow"-plays. With my PG I tap the backdown button, the turbo button, fumble around with the spin and crossover buttons...but it does not change the fact that I end up in front of a defender with a forced contested shot.

How can you spin in a direction you want? My player always spins to the right, then to the left, to the right in an alternating way. I cannot spin to the right twice when I want to.

[Leander]

I just played a totally different game!!! Played with another gamepad (both for PS2 and PC)...and I could actually move and do things. Unbelievable. Take a look at my "lag"-thread. I did not block the internet any more and suddenly the slight lag was gone (even low quality lagged). Now I can play the game with better graphics and controls. My offense is NOT static any more. They react, I can control them, wow. LOL
Everything is so smooth. I still cannot believe that a blocked internet connection (and Steam in offline mode) caused my lag.

[Patr1ck]

Here is how I play. I didn't post the second half because it got really bad. It's weird how the game was constantly trying to use the internet and causing your lag.

[Leander]

You're the man. Very interesting, thanks. How did you record the game?

I was quite surprised that your play was not that different from mine. I was expecting lots of very open jumpers. Nice airball by Kobe by the way.

25:57: I still cannot pass to the player closest to the basket. You told me to press turbo + something but it does not work.

You did not use many iso moves and also went up for shots like I do. The only difference is that yours drop while I miss. And the cpu team fastbreaks so much after many of my misses.

What are those arrows? It sometimes showed you where to run with your player. I´ve never seen such arrows.

26:10 Kobe drives to the basket. This is the typical Westbrook move...Westbrook scores 25 or more points against me each game and I can just sit and watch.

[Patr1ck]

25:57, I cherry picked with my CAP and did icon passing, and I know what position he was playing at the time. I haven't even tried what I suggested yet, it is the icon pass button and turbo. I'll have to try that today.

I recorded it with FRAPS. Half resolution captured at 29.97 fps for compatability but that didn't work because fraps only captured at 29 fps. I'm sticking with 30.

Cpu Specs - Core 2 Duo @2.66 ghz, 3.25 gb ram, Win XP, Radeon HD 3850 256 mb, SATA-3 500gb 32-bit HDD with some perpendicular read/write technology or something.

I didn't play very good defense that game. I can usually strip layups pretty well, but I was being dumb and trying to draw alot of charges and not contesting shots as much as I usually do. I actually use alot of isomotion, but I use it at the wrong times which results in a collision animation with the defender, which doesn't get me anywhere. I use triple threat moves and the hesitation alot since I am better with them.

I played out of my element. I usually don't pass out of a shot, which resulted in some turnovers. I think I was pretty tense becuase they wooped my ass in game 3, and in this one I played really hard, kept the game close, but then overadjusted on defense when they took the lead. You know you are kicking ass when the cpu takes two quick timeouts, and you know what you are doing is not working when you have to do it. They ended up 12-23 from downtown. I had Kobe in foul trouble n the second half, but Sasha Vujacic ended up with 25.

It was a pretty hardnosed game and sometime in the 4th quarter, I knew I wasn't going to make a dent in the lead because I felt as if I had a lack of control over what I was trying to do. Any isomotion move would either not trigger or I would end up hugged by the defender. Post shots were bricks, missed some gimmies and basically said if I miss one more easy shot, the cpu has decided this game already and there is no reason to continue the frustration. So I simmed to the end. Series all tied 2-2.

The arrows are a "who to guard" reference. A blue circle appears under the defender, and blue arrows appear under the player you are controlling. There is an option for it somewhere.

By the way, my sliders changed a while before this game but after I sent them to you. I'm not sure about the changes I made other than game speed to 75 and player speed to 70. Of course, that can only be applied in association mode.

[Leander]

Here is my video. 2 quarters with PDub´s sliders on Pro level. See me suck. LOL The cpu shot 66% from the field while I had a glorious 31%.

http://www.llcp.at/temp/nyk_leander.avi

Right click, save as...
154 MB, 1st half of game (2x10 minutes)

[Patr1ck]

Try the Nosebleeds camera at 5 zoom and 5 height. It's similar to press but higher, giving you a better view of the court for angles. Also, make sure you record sound in your video next time, because it was kind of boring to watch without it.
You need to turn on the play diagrams so you can see what to do during a play, and where to stand to initiate it.
Your not driving to the basket correctly. To actually get around your man, you need to hold turbo then press the left thumbstick to your defenders right or left. Maybe at a slight angle.
You giving up to easy and just passing it off, which can result in a turnover with a cross court pass or a denying defender. Try resetting at the perimeter and try another move.
Don't use the hands up defense. It literally does nothing, and your stuck. It might do something during a shot attempt, but I have never gotten it to do anything because your stuck in the animation and cannot recover quick enough if they dribble. The cpu rarely picks up their dribble, so there is rarely a reason to use it.
You need icon passing and icon switching immediately. You know your team, all you need to know now is the buttons.
You've gotta be a bit more aggressive at taking it to the rack. The sweet spots for triggering dribble drive layups are between 10-15 feet from the basket.
Your not changing any of your team strategies during timeouts. Why? You need to lower help defense to stop that autoswitching. Among other things like you may have seen in my video. I switch it up sometimes as an experiment, because I know that the cpu will adapt. I'm not sure if it is a guessing game or if there is some hidden AI that penalizes you when you use the same strategy the whole game. It could be possible that it makes you seem "more predictable" to the AI.
I think I am seeing your controller problems. Some non movement here, some jerky movement there, etc.
Recognize situations where you lose the ballhandler on defense and try to use the lockon defense. Remember the lockon doesn't do the work for you, but it helps as long as you use the left analog with it.
1:13 - Is that a controller problem? Your man is just standing there.
1:53 - look at Quentin Richardson cutting baseline. You could have dished it to him with Lee. Try not to get locked into what you are trying to do and survey what your teammates are doing.
5:19 - Q Rich should have gone to the basket looking for a layup and contact.
7:30 - Don't try to steal the inbounds with a player who is not guarding the passer. Just select that player, usually your PF, and back up off the passer and look to cutoff the passing lane of the player who will flash to the ball.
8:16 - Another controller problem? If not, don't try to lockdown the ballhandler 30 feet from the basket.
8:48 - Pass it to Lee. What took so long? You backed your defender in instead which could have been done without a pick.
9:38 - That's a layup. As soon as he finishes that spin he has room, you gotta press towards the basket and use the shot stick to the right for a right handed layup, or up for a finger roll, or back for a floater. Not sure what kind of layup would have been performed if you had pressed left.
Looks like you are doing the same thing I do. When the game gets out of control, I get a little desperate and try to isomotion to the basket too much. The correct thing to do is to slow it down and run set plays.
16:12 - That is bullshit. Poor programming. That's a bucket if I ever saw one. When I see too many gimmie's in one game while I am losing, I come to the conclusion that the cpu has decided the game already.
19:07 - Shot release way too late.
19:26 - Very bad pass. The following shot wasn't very good either, trying to use Curry like that. Use the step back move to create a little more space in that situation.

That was a horrible second quarter. You seem to have attention deficit disorder or something because you will call for a screen then just do some isomotion and drive. You do some isomotion drive and then quickly pass cross court. Overall, combined with a controller compatability problem, there is just alot of bad decision making combined with a lack of knowledge of how to play the game. I suggest you try to not be competitive at all and just practice. Make a decision on the court, stick with it, and see what happens. Once you learn what happens, you can then modify your plan the next time you attempt it. Get used to the shot stick, lockon defense, and icon switching/passing. Try different strategies by pressing the d-pad to the left during the game or by scrolling through the tabs during a timeout with the trigger buttons. I always lower help defense because it causes me more bad than good when it is maxed. It is always maxed at the start of the game for some reason, despite it being lower in coaching profiles. You also need to set your points of emphasis during timeouts. You get two per quarter, and they last about 3-4 minutes. With the lead, use ball control. When you are losing, use defense. When you are not hitting shots you think you should be, choose shot selection, and when you are getting beat on the boards, choose rebounding.

[Leander]

Thanks for your long review of my brilliant game.

I used broadcast (10/10). The defender was just standing there because I can only see the attacker coming very late due to the zoom. The cpu team brings the ball, I do not see my players and within one second I can see them but the cpu player is almost at my 3PT line.

I do not change my strategy because I have everything set to auto. Thought that the cpu would change it for me.

Yeah, my players always want much attention. LOL That´s because I bring the ball, press some random buttons to select a play or pick a random player with dual control to do some random move. It is just a wild pressing of buttons before I pick up my standard passing, dribbling and moving. I call a screen and do not use it...because I do not think about my moves. I just press the buttons randomly to tell my players to do some random thing...I do not know all the arrows of NBA plays like Inside triangle or motion. I do not want to learn them either. My players should just run around on the court and I pass to a player in a good position (if he has randomly run there because I have pressed a random button ).

"Pass it to Lee"...yes but I cannot pass like I used to in Live 2003 and 2005. Sometimes I want to pass from A to B but the ball goes somewhere cross-court instead. And yes, my problems are a mixture out of controller problems, lack of training and lack of basketball knowledge. I just wanna play to get realistic statistics without having to actually work with my controller.

I really like the game but will have to do some training or adjust the sliders (to super noob-mode).

I could pass really fast in Live 2003 and 2005 and knew the buttons by heart but 2K´s buttons are not familiar to me. I only know B11. The others are not difficult but icon passing makes no sense when I have to think for a second which button to press. Will have to work on it though. I am a lazy gamer by the way. I don´t want to learn a game as I have many hobbies and not that time to focus on one.

Played my first full 4x12 game yesterday on Rookie. And yes, I sucked! It was fun though. Had the same problems like before, with a high cpu FG%, poor shooting and too many offensive boards by the cpu despite your sliders.

Here are the stats:

[Patr1ck]

Thought that the cpu would change it for me.

Nope. Only the substitutions are auto and auto playcalling, but strategy sliders are different.

It is just a wild pressing of buttons...

If you are patient enough, players will move around on their own. I don't see how you are lazy because you created several threads on this game and it sounds like you are dedicated to wanting ot have fun playing this game, but you are impatient. Once you are patient enough to learn the buttons, you can then be impatient in the game and get away with it. Icon passing is very similar to Live, other than the Center being the dual control/double team button, and the point guard button is the pass button and doesn't switch like in past Live's.

If you really don't want to learn plays and just play playground basketball, then turn up the user attributes like ballhandling, offensive and defensive awareness, quickness, clutch factor, strength, vertical, hustle, hands, and on-ball d. Then you can just wiggle around and have fun.

[Leander]

No, I am lazy. I want to play the way I play but should get the stats I am after.

Yes, I could have recorded the movie with sound but this would have resulted in a much bigger filesize. Gotta drink another beer and watch your movie.

The AI is pretty good in 2K9 unlike the Lives I have played. When playing Live I could have some bites of my sandwich during the cpu team´s offense or just sit back. In 2K I have to guard the cpu closely all the time...the AI finds open players, exploits my mistakes, shows no mercy. Each slight mistake is fatal.

PS I still don´t understand how the cpu can do things like in 1:43. There is no mass, no body contact. It looks as if the opposing team´s players ran through mine.

[Patr1ck]

He did clip through you on that play. I think that is a broken animation, because I have actually seen it alot worse, where it is completely obvious that the player goes completely through the defender.

I recorded an entire game and it was like 40-50 gb. It's hard to play with the lower framerate, though.

[Leander]

Maybe my players are not fat enough. I should use Curry.