[Michael.S.Participant]

Last year’s NBA 2K game was solid. There’s no doubting that. It featured the same good looking gameplay that we’re used to with an insane amount of fidelity in terms of the animations the series has always possessed. Yet, when I sat down with NBA 2K10, I found myself staring at a bunch of cool-looking basketball moves with the feeling of total control being a bit muted. But man, they sure did look great. While I’m happy to report that this year’s NBA 2K still looks wonderfully polished even in the early build I just played, gone are all of those canned animations that constrained some of the action to looking more like a movie than a user-controlled basketball game.

This year, just about every single animation can be broken out of and altered in some way. Going for a layup but see a center looming in the lane? Simply alter your shot by tapping the shot stick in either direction (this can also be used to trigger different dunk types, including one that forces your player to hang on the rim after flushing it). In-air collisions that alter your set animations are also in; so even if you don’t willfully change your shot, chances are a big center like Yao Ming is going to alter it (and, in turn, your body) for you.

Break it down, son.
Of course, interruptible animations aren’t confined to driving the lane and shooting the rock. Dribbling animations can be interrupted just as easily. First, let’s go over how the dribbling mechanics have changed. Rather than holding the right trigger and the left trigger or just the left trigger or some weird timed combination of the two of them, the left trigger holds most of your dribbling moves this year. Simply holding the left trigger and maneuvering the left stick gets you all sorts of moves, but this year they should all make sense.

If the ball is in your right hand and you flick it to the right, he’s going to feign a crossover. If you then bring the left stick over to the left, the animation is going to bridge to a full crossover. Of course there are also variants of the crossover from there. Through other finite motions with the left stick (such as going from the left to tapping to the right to going back to the left) you can pull off things like an in and out and a double crossover. Spin moves are pulled off how you’d expect, but in NBA 2K11 the stars of the game make better use of them than ever before.

You know how Kobe does that little spin move directly into a pull-up jumper? Lakers haters despise it, I’m sure, but that’s not stopping it from making an appearance in this year’s game and looking great. Speaking of Kobe, players can now do his annoying size-up dribble (and pretty much any other player’s size-up move) by holding the left trigger. If you hold both triggers you’ll instantly enter a post-up position. Players can use this anywhere on the hardwood, which means you’ll be able to bring the ball up the court Gary Payton-style if you want.

See More NBA 2K11 Various at IGN.com
This year’s “Videogame Team” as 2K Sports put it. Meaning everyone is going to use them.

The depth of the new dribbling mechanic is huge. Far beyond anything I could grasp in my short demo. Thankfully the 2K developer, who was kind enough to beat the piss out of me in my first game, showed what a little practice could bring. He was pulling off moves like the Euro-step layup all over my grill and everything I saw looked great in motion.

While dribbling was no-doubt a huge focus for the development team at 2K Sports, the passing game has seen a similar number of refinements. Total Control Passing, a feature that made its debut in NBA Live 10, is being brought to NBA 2K11. Simply hold the right shoulder button and you’ll be presented with the typical icon passing prompts, then you’ll need to either press or hold a player’s button to get him the ball. Pressing it will pass it instantly while holding it will allow you to control that player manually until the button is released, at which the point the pass will be made.

Play calling has also seen a great overhaul. I’ve never been one to spend the time calling plays in a basketball game — call me a newbie if you must – but this year’s game is going to change all that. Now all you have to do is tap the left shoulder button to bring up what looks like the same Total Control Passing button prompts, but this time when you press a player’s icon you’ll be presented with a list of plays for that player. You can also instantly become that player with a press of the right shoulder button and send him on a cut in any direction you want with a flick of the right stick.

Oh, and cuts to the basket are finally made with a sense of urgency so that it will be painfully obvious when you’ve missed an open man streaking to the hoop (as I did during the demo). If you want to intentionally miss the guy cutting, you could always fake the pass (new this year) with the B button (Circle on PS3), causing the defender to swipe at the ball and drive to the hole instead. Of course, you can run a list of plays by pressing the appropriate button on the list. This year, each team has a list of roughly 30 authentic plays that 2K got right from the coaches with over 1,000 true-to-life plays overall.

Give it a kiss off the glass, Tim. You big pansy.
It’s that sort of attention to detail and authenticity that really makes NBA 2K11 what it is. Lebron James feels like Lebron James, and he damn sure looks like Lebron James. His jumper, his crossover, the way he finishes at the hole, the way he runs up court; it’s all vintage King James. 2K Sports put a lot of emphasis on making sure that the players always moved in some sort of rhythm so as to avoid looking like robots at any point. There are still some transitions between animations that need some work, but for the most part they’ve nailed it even at this early stage.

Physical play (bodies jostling in the post or when a player drives to the lane) is getting an overhaul this year as well. If you played last year’s FIFA game from EA Sports, you’ll know what to expect from NBA 2K11. In other words, you’re always able to have a sense of control even if your player is bumping into someone else on the court. No matter the collision, the goal of the development team is to ensure that players always feel like they’re in control of their player’s weight and momentum. I didn’t get a chance to get a feel for the feature yet, but I’ll be sure to dive a bit deeper the next time I get my hands on the game.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, there are a lot of gameplay changes in NBA 2K11. Far too many to be dished out in a single preview. Rest assured, if you were someone who hated the feeling of being out of control in last year’s game, you shouldn’t have that problem with NBA 2K11. From spin moves that branch into one-armed pump fakes to those that end in jump shots to dribble animations that can branch into any number of moves, 2K11 seems to have really nailed the look and feel of the NBA with the gameplay revisions.

Thankfully the graphics follow suit with some of the most realistic player faces ever seen in a basketball game. The framerate still needs some work during transitions between gameplay and shots of players on the sideline, but for the most part everything runs well. Oh, and the cheerleaders have seen a visual upgrade as well. I’m not kidding; the Lakers girls actually did look quite nice.

We’ll have a lot more information on NBA 2K11 as we get closer to the October 5 release date – including information on how Michael Jordan fits into all this madness

[Michael.S.Participant]

See More NBA 2K11 Various at IGN.com

[Mr.Knick 32Participant]

As much as I like 2K, they really need to tighten up a couple things.

Scoring in the post is too easy for me.

The Free Throw discrepancy.

That would make it perfect for me.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

“Rest assured, if you were someone who hated the feeling of being out of control in last year’s game, you shouldn’t have that problem with NBA 2K11.”

Yes…

[SubZeroParticipant]

Yeah I felt out of control at times. Like when you’re running out of bounds and it won’t let you turn around :/ And how on the first free throw, I had to flick it up half a second before a normal free throw. Did anyone else have that problem?

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

LOL… Yea… I think it’s a problem with 2K. I hate it when the players run out of bounds or in circles lol.

Another problem is with the passing icons button… IF you push it a few times before the play starts on defense, they won’t let you do it anymore.

[SubZeroParticipant]

Never had that happen

[SubZeroParticipant]

And of course the Heat are in the picture…and of course Lebron is the only one with color…I can’t even find D-Wade jerseys anymore. All #6 jerseys now

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

Just change the free throw thing, so you are in control of the player shooting the free throw, and its not too hard to actually make 1. Thats all I really need. The other things, I can just live with. The free throw glitch is the only thing I hate about NBA 2k games.
But it looks great. Players look more real, instead of robotish and fake. Oh yes and when you create a player and use that player in association, don’t make it so he wants to automatically leave the team and is only there for the money, but never wants to stay for more than his contract is. Let the user control that. Also when you create a team, create like an expansion or some kind of draft, so no players are duplicated.
I can’t wait till it comes out.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

It’s annoying as hell lol. I don’t use the x button to switch men. I bring up the passing icons so I can switch to players all over the court. And if you push the RB button a few times before the play starts, they won’t let you bring up the passing icons when the play actually starts. It’s like that for the entire possession too.

[redheadedbastardParticipant]

i see mike miller still has that ugly hair

[SubZeroParticipant]

dwilljazz, I can make it, but it does this thing where if you use timing that usually works, it says it’s super late. If it’s on the drive camera (at least for my game), the 1st free throw is always screwed. I can make the normal ones.

Oh and another thing that happens alot, when I start an Association, sometimes it only lets me control one player. Like I can’t switch, no matter what I do

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

They also need to fix the body sizes in create a player. You’re either too big or too skiny lol. If you create a guard or small forward that weighs more than 194 pounds, he looks like a power forward.

[SteroidParticipant]

I think they need to make online play a lot better too. The pickup game idea was really cool to me, but it seems like there was no real effort to it. Not to mention how half of the real players lag out of the game before it even starts then the rest quit out. I’m not really sure how the rest of the online gameplay is, but I really haven’t had an incentive to try the rest of it out.

Lol @ Joel Anthony in that picture… I don’t know but for some reason. I just did..

[SubZeroParticipant]

Wade, James and Bosh all look like they got stoned

[IknoBall12Participant]

but i agree with all of u. their are a lot of things that need 2 be fixed. the free throw thing has always been a b**ch but watever. i also sumtimes get caught running in circles or even getting a backcourt violation out of nowhere. my biggest gripe used 2 be how when u play on hall of fame the other teams used to always shoot 6o% or better but its not a prob no more. the biggest thing is online play 4 me. i wish it wouldnt lag but hey nuthing can be perfect

[WrecklessParticipant]

Lmao, they Made Lebron look like God in the middle.

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