DEMO IMPRESSIONS

[sdot_thadon]

So I sat with the game for a while and had fun this is what I thought afterwards:

Graphics are improved, but jaggies are present on cut-scenes. Possibly due to it being a demo and not the actual game, we'll see.

Iso motion is different and so far not as responsive as I'd like. Have to re-learn the iso skills. Maybe its a rhythm based deal like live this year. More realistic looking handles though.

I wasn't able to dunk at will with Kobe, which is a good thing. However, I had my way under the rim as KG, bad thing.

New animations for steals and layups popped out at me. Stealing feels more like a gamble this time around. Being able to poke the ball from different angles around the ball handler is cool. Blocks happened fairly often though, maybe too often?

Sig shots are not as accurate as live's imo.

Beautiful in motion as always, but I still get that clunky/ too heavy feel from execution of things like pull up jumpers.

No play calling or subs in the demo, one 4 min quarter. The presentation is nice. While loading you get a preview of the match-up complete with live action highlights of a top player from each team.

I'm still on the fence........

[Cool2Fool]

Graphic got worse if you pop in 2k8 and see the difference. 2k9 only look good during Cutscene and replay while looking all blurry during gameplay. Everything from player to court is half resolution and transition into cutscene makes it feel like a complete different game. 2k8 on the other was more clear during gameplay. 2k Decide to upgrade the crowd while trying to keep the game running at 60 frp they had to lower the resolution on the whole dammmme court you could barely read the logo. Sweat, Lighting, And depth of Field don't even exist during gameplay and I thought this 2kHD thinngy was suppose to be for gameplay graphic not freaking Replay mode!!!!!!!!!!!

[Oreo.]

ehh could it be the same on PC Graphics cards?

higher res. > XBOX 360s?

im still getting this game on PC

[NJNETSFANFORLIFE]

the PS3 is more powerful,but the frame rate of their games are soo shitty compared to the 360. Im going to post my impressions after i download and play the demo tomorrow.

[RayZLAL]

the PS3 is more powerful,but the frame rate of their games are soo shitty compared to the 360. Im going to post my impressions after i download and play the demo tomorrow.

True, 360s might get better Framerates then that of PS3's

[GuCcI08]

this is juz a demo.

[joejam999]

Anyone else notice the blurry court textures? Also I don't like what they have done with the PA announcer. He hardly ever says the players first name. I also hate the violent screen shaking when it shows replays on the dunks. (it does it from any of the camera angels) It is cheesy and you can't enjoy the graphics.

[Jing]

Pretty nice demo, graphics seemed a bit average, but the moves are nice, and Kobe is pretty much automatic ... And of course 2K's faces are on the spot. Will be tough to decide which one to purchase.

[JaoSming]

First off, holy shit. Loose ball in the offensive court, Garnett saves it from OB. Fisher steals the save, Rondo does a quick steal from Fisher, Rondo to Pierce for a quick adjusted layup.

Alright, so I'm a 360, 32" insignia, 1080i. The only 2 times I saw any jaggies were in the font & border for the starting 5 overlay and when the game was paused or asking to be restarted.

Good Stuff

Graphics are tight as hell, I am overly impressed with them this year.

Animations are sweet, "little things" from 2k8 are still in the game like running into the coach/refs/press.

On defense you get a little arrow pointing towards who you should be playing D against. That offensive player also gets a little circle under them.

Also with lockdown D is much improved by letting you change from left to right, back off or get right in on the offensive player with the right analog while in lockdown mode.



Bad things

Isomotion, seemed to be very unresponsive in the demo. No idea what is going on there.

Canned steal animations. No idea if poke steals are still in since every attempt or foul was a canned two player animation.




So yea, overall it is looking very promising, and I dont care if the PC version gets a bit watered down, this is going to be an amazing game for us to get our dirty little hands on.

[FiZzO]

Why cant i find the demo on the marketplace ?? Im using canada account if that makes any difference ..

[sdot_thadon]

Wanted to add some things here:

Computer player movement is really good, guys set picks, make cuts, and try to get open on their own.

I did see jaggies and the white outline from heaven on a lot of close ups.

The blurryness when the camera is zoomed out is a 2k series staple, thats how they keep the game running normal speed.

No frame rate problems on ps3, thats old news from back when devs couldn't program as good for ps3. This is a year or two later.

still on the fence...........

[N'JAN]

Graphic got worse if you pop in 2k8 and see the difference. 2k9 only look good during Cutscene and replay while looking all blurry during gameplay. Everything from player to court is half resolution and transition into cutscene makes it feel like a complete different game. 2k8 on the other was more clear during gameplay. 2k Decide to upgrade the crowd while trying to keep the game running at 60 frp they had to lower the resolution on the whole dammmme court you could barely read the logo. Sweat, Lighting, And depth of Field don't even exist during gameplay and I thought this 2kHD thinngy was suppose to be for gameplay graphic not freaking Replay mode!!!!!!!!!!!

The game looks like this only on PS3.I'm a bit disappointed too.I hate this blur on the court.There is no AA and it's also annoying.Hope 2K will fix in the final release.

[thaKEAF]

Game's gonna be crack.

[cj_miranda23]

Game's gonna be crack.

what do u mean??

[BIG GREEN]

The gameplay is smoother than live and the graphics are improved. I can't find too much to complain about nba 2k9 from the demo other than the jagged lines. I feel like I want new extra teams to play as and the live 365 gimmick is enticing me. I'll probably get live on 360 and 2k on pc. I don't have to worry about 2k cause they are always solid...but if live doesn't live up to their hype machine...back to gamestop it goes.

Game's gonna be crack.

what do u mean??

Crack is an addictive drug.

[cj_miranda23]

OHH I get it , I'm so slow man

[buzzy]

Just played the demo, its simply awesome in my opinion.

I jsut can agree what people above me said.
Aweome ball movement by the CPU, player faces are spot on as hell. Heads and bodies do look a little choppy in close ups though.
They finally added a running shot which is a thing I definitely wanted them to add.
Post up moves seemd to be improved as well as .. hm .. every layup in traffic.
Hell, even the free throws look smoother.

As someone already said, the textures look alot blurrier that in 2k8, not feelin' that.

I agree with the Isomotion, kinda unresponsive, though they are alot more spin moves now, which I kinda like.

Oh and someone experieng that ultra fast switching on D? In 2k8 you had to put Lock On D on somebody to make him the guy you wanna guard. in 2k9, once you get any near another guy your defender immediatly runs to your guy, even though you are like 2 metres away from the other guy.
Kind leads to open passes for the CPU ..

Anyway, It's the best bball sim ive played

[keem21]

graphics are better in 360

[JWL3]

First off, holy shit. Loose ball in the offensive court, Garnett saves it from OB. Fisher steals the save, Rondo does a quick steal from Fisher, Rondo to Pierce for a quick adjusted layup.

Whoa whoa. Stop right there. LOOSE BALL? That's awesome! NBA Live always felt like the ball was stuck on a string yo-yo dribbling and from player to player. There were no scrambles for ANYTHING.

And saving a ball inbounds?????

[Scotty]

There's only graphics problems for the PS3 version. 360 is fine, run it in 720 and it'll look at it's best...

[joejam999]

They better clear it up for the PS3. If anything the PS3 should have better graphics on the final release. They wont have to compress the files like they did with the demo. Even the NBA 09 demo was like 1 gig this was only half that.

[ThaLiveKing]

The game is As is. . .Cause doesn't it come out on Tuesday?

[Patr1ck]

The only thing that could cause the game to look bad is poor filtering. If you look at 2k8, it has good filtering, and there are no mipmap problems. Everything looks great upclose, so it's not a graphics problem it's just that the filtering needs to be tweaked. If the full version looks like that, we should ask that it be patched.

Looks like isomotion has a new learning curve. You can't just do a bunch of moves and get to the rim. I tried with Kobe and couldn't really get anywhere. I ended up in a 2 player animation with tight defense.

I am loving the post moves. It looks like there is alot of improvement in this area.

I am not sure if there is any offball control like in 2k8 because it doesn't seem to appear in the demo, but the b button does call for a pick.

It's been 3 years and the goaltending problem has only gotten worse. Block a shot right near the rim and it's goaltending.

I actually feel like I am locked into animations more than in the past. This could be a placebo effect from learning a new version, because I felt the same way when I first tried 2k7 after playing Live for years, but then I got used to it.

CPU AI looks to be very smart. If I leave a man open on defense, that player will find a good spot and the cpu ballhandler will find him.

[hova-]

Played it and I think its pretty solid. I love the new moves and the gameplay which was amazing before has made another step forward. I love to post up with KG against Bynum for example. I have the fulll control and imho the defenders look better in the post now. They are really fighting for position and for blocking the shot. So even if they have no chance to guard you (like KG) their effort can be seen.
Furthermore I love the running shot just like Buzzy said.

The graphics are wicked. You see the fans grabbing these lil plastic sticks from under their seats when the away team is at the charity stripe. Thats just awesome. Faces are so realistic. The crowd has improved same goes for the bench. The only thing I dont like is the blurry vision but well see how it ends up. Great game, ordered it yesterday and I m looking forward to playing it.

/edit: what they really improved is the whole alley-oop. Totally reworked and great. Furthermore the ball is more often like "lost". Loose balls happen after blocks and other situations. I had Kobe lucking in a shot he just got off in traffic which was almost a loose ball. Akward and 1 play, very nice. Another good thing are the touch passes. You can swing the ball around so fast now. Im starting to love this game the more I play.

[volsey]

Dammit, didn't really notice the blurry court until people started bitching about it. I did notice graphics weren't as great as they should've been but it didn't bother me at first. Now all I see is the crappy court. GD. Anyways never bought 2k for the graphics (which still look good anyways). As said presentation is sick, alley oops is improved, AI is amazing on D and O, because of this court spacing is alot better and offense and defense in general is more fun.

Still not familiar with the new isomotion moves, finding it hard to do a simple crossover on a 1 on 1 fast break with Kobe. And while the post moves do look to be simplified and improved, I still don't know them either. Went to EB games today (Canada's Gamestop), and they said they're getting it Monday. Was hoping to get it early as many have on the 2k forums from Gamestop. Oh well, hopefully the game is still as good as hoped.