Amazon.com: NBA 2K9: Xbox 360: Video Games

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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still The Best...Despite EA Gimmicks!, October 8, 2008

By	Neal Robinson (McChord AFB, Wa.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

What did I do yesterday? I played 2k9 all night! Okay, I stopped for dinner, but that's about it. Remember loading up 2K8 and going "Hmmm...not sure I like it."? Well this is the same way. In 2K8 I initially thought that the animations were too much. That you go to do something and you're out of control while he finishes the animation. This is the same way. There are new animations to get used to. But by the end of the night I was having a ball! You have to get used to the animations.
So, first I'll start with my only downer...Clark Kellogg! I really miss Kenny "The Jet" Smith. Clark is just boring. He says all of the lines that Kenny used to say (I guess he didn't have much original material), but without the flare. He would have made a better commentator and they should have brought someone else in to add the color. But Kevin Harland is still good and Cheryl Miller is neither here nor there.
Game-play's a bit more realistic. There aren't nearly as many slams, and so far the alley-oops seem realistic. And the computer plays much better defense now. You're going to have to rely on a cross-over if you want to get to the hole. I have a tough time getting Iverson's cross-over, but Melo's is sick! It's just a really quick cross-over and as you look up there's a lane to the hole. It looks exactly like Melo's cross, and then his slam looks like his slam...but you better hurry because the lane closes in a hurry as the defense recovers so you've gotta hit it!
The computer controlled players move more realistically this year. They cut and come off screens and set picks on their own instead of just standing around. And if you want to run a play you can turn on "play view", which draws the play on the court for you. Oh, and the defense is smarter this year. If you get too hot with someone the computer will start bringing the double team. Didn't stop me from going for 34 with Melo though!
Also, instead of assigning certain coverages to certain positions, you actually assign a coverage to a player. So when you go to the coverage screen you scroll through all 12 of your opponents players. That way if you had the double team on the power forward because KG is playing, you're not stuck still double-teaming when his scrub back-up comes in. There's also been another coverage setting added, "deny ball". I like to use that on the post players to try and stop the entry pass. I'm not really seeing much of a difference in it so far though.
The graphics and animations are pure! Everyone's shots look like their shots. Melo's free-throw looks correct this year. Oh, and I'm playing from the "Broadcast" view. I tried to play from the 2K view I normally play but they seemed to have flattened it out (the camera's not as high). And then for some reason the transition when you get the rebound and head the other way is kind of stuttery. Basically, if you've seen what they did to the view in Madden this is the same thing. I guess they're trying to show the whole court. I'm actually enjoying being on the side again though. I haven't played like that in years.
When you start playing don't be immediately disappointed. Think back to 2K8 and know that it's going to get better. The graphics/animations are amazing!! Oh, and if you play in Hi-Def make sure you take the time to look at the crowd. It's not the blurry five generic people drawn 20,000 times. Oh, and there's no "fatigue" slider. This year you adjust the "stamina" slider. I'm playing 8 minute quarters and have the stamina set at 44. 44 seems like they tire just a little slowly, but 43 makes them tire too quickly. I think 44 is about right. And I turned all of the fouls and stuff up to 60. So far nobody has fouled out but I do get people in foul trouble (playing 4 fouls per game).
Oh, and during timeouts you can boost one thing for your team (rebounds, defense, etc.). The book doesn't tell you much, but there's an in-game tutorial you'll want to do. It's under "practice", and it lets you learn exactly how to do the everything from the basics to the advanced isometric moves.
So overall...one day in...color me impressed!
WTG 2K Sports!

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3.0 out of 5 stars NBA 2K9, March 13, 2009

By	Eugene Mont - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

The bad: Very similar in gameplay to 2K8, but it seems like like 2K Sports made it harder to rebound and defend in general. The AI defense is terrible in my opinion and only a few star players (Dwight Howard, Yao Ming, Tim Duncan and a few others) can consistently play good defense in the paint. I hope for the 2010 version they can really work on defense. Oh and one more thing - is it just me or is it impossible to win the three point shootout?

The good: The animations are even better this year and I think that is the strong point of the series. Presentation has been excellent for the past few years and it really does feel like a real basketball game. Anyone who wants an authentic game experience should really enjoy this title. There are a bunch of extra gametypes available including slam dunk contests, 1 on 1 or a game of 21, season/association mode, practice, online play and more. Also the new roster updates that come out every once in a while are a great addition and something that should have been in the 2K8 version last year.

Overall I would give the game a grade of "B" for good. If the defense wasn't so bad the grade would definitely be higher. I also think the menu's (especially in the Xbox Live menu) can be improved. We'll see what happens in 2010, but I hope to find some great new features.

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4.0 out of 5 stars ALMOST perfect, despite its online failures, November 5, 2008

By	Negative Comments (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

At the time of this writing, there has not been any patches to correct the issues plaguing the game that the creators were too incompetent to see beforehand or prepare for. Even with these issues, which I'll talk about specifically in a moment, this is still the best basketball game I've ever played.

No matter what happens in the future to correct this game, this will forever be remembered for its absolutely and completely broken online game. A lot of people use hyperboles and exaggerated adjectives to describe an aspect of a game that fails to live up to standards to emphasize their point, but I mean this quite literally when I say it's unplayable. Here's the chronology of how things will play out if you attempt to play an online game: for an Unranked Team Up game, out of 10 tries, you'll fail to connect 7-8 times, when you do eventually connect, the game will either disconnect upon entering, or sometime within the 1st quarter. If you're lucky enough to not experience any of this, even then, your BEST CASE scenario is to play a completely lag filled game for 4 quarters. If it weren't for the lag, I wouldn't be as angry about the disconnects, because at least then, I can still enjoy a quality basketball game online, for however long it lasts (because the gameplay is almost perfect, which I'll get into). It's not much better with Ranked Team Up, your connection success rate is a lot higher, but it doesn't matter since you still either get disconnected midway through the game, or you're treated to a slow-motion, herky-jerky, lag filled game.

Some other points:

**The 2K Camera view LAGS in offline single player mode. How is this happening. How can you knowingly release a game knowing that two main elements of your game are severely flawed. I can almost buy the online excuse that they didn't expect this many players to bog down their servers, but how do you not see that the camera view you've used for the last NINE years lags. Well, this is supposedly being patched, we'll see, no patch as of now, 11/5/2008, 11:30pm EST waiting for my shift to end..

**There's way too many blocked shots around the basket that END UP GOING IN ANYWAY. If the impact of the block was loud enough to be heard clearly, then surely the trajectory of the ball should change enough to NOT go in the hoop. Every now and then sure, but it happens too often.

**Lot of people complain about the right stick menu navigation, but my problem is with the pause system (what's up with me and pause menus?) In most games when you pause, you have the separate menu options to choose, and there's usually a menu option that you can click for something like "resume game," or "return to game," or if you're a normal human being, you'll simply press the equivalent of whatever the B button is on your controller, no matter what console or game it is (or you'll press Start again, thereby returning you back to the game). Well guess what, you can't do that here. You have to specifically choose the menu option that says "resume game." It may seem like nitpicking, but I despise bad, unintuitive controls. It just shows thoughtlessness from the designers. It's like putting the ignition to a car six more inches to the right, sure, it doesn't affect your ability to start your car, but why not make it as comfortable as possible?

**The only reason I play this game is because of the included option of playing as ONE player on the court. This feature has had many monickers over the years, but always been poorly implemented due to the fact that it's only superficial. Previously if you controlled one player, most of your teammates would just stand around waiting for you to call for the ball, doing absolutely nothing. The last game I played that had this feature properly implemented was Slam 'N Jam '95 for 3DO. 2K9 finally does it properly because even while you control a single player, your teammates are still reacting to what's going on on the court, hitting the open man, taking open shots, cutting, passing YOU the ball if you're open. It's a fun challenge to see how well I can carry out my assigned duties and play within the offense, and thanks to the on screen diagrams, you know where you have to be at what time, and what you're supposed to do, whether it be to curl, set a screen, etc. My only complaint is the location of how to access this feature. They've got this thing hidden in the button configuration menu, and even then you have to access the advanced subpage of it, where you designate whether you want to play PG, SG, etc. Why isn't this under the GAMEPLAY menu??? I just wonder how many people even realized this feature existed..

**When you're double teaming someone, once you are in that double team animation, it's impossible to break out of it. If I want to harass a post player, once I'm locked into my animation, I have no way to run back out to the now wide open player at the 3 point line. I don't care if they go 5/5 from the 3 point line, at least give me the option to run at them and put a hand up. This, and the camera issue is the only gameplay flaws that made me give it less than a perfect 10 score (the broken online doesn't factor in) Problem is, although the camera problem is supposedly going to be patched, I can guarantee you this gameplay flaw will most definitely NOT be patched. They may correct it for next year by chance, but they won't waste their time patching it this year, they probably don't even realize it's an issue.

**Speaking of doubleteams, when you doubleteam someone, if you don't pass the ball out fast enough, it ends up as a jumpball. Well here's where the problem is, you end up with 2-3 jumpballs a game. Instead of the end result of not passing it resulting in a jumpball EVERY time, how about simply a TURNOVER. That'd be much more realistic, and wouldn't ruin the flow of the game so much. In the NBA, a player who gets caught in a trap or doubleteamed in the post rarely gets in a jumpball situation, they usually end up getting the ball stripped. The jumpballs happen when someone's going for a layup or a dunk. Hopefully they realize this for next year and have the jumpballs be a result of a defender getting a hand on the ball as you're taking it up, and not because you were doubleteamed (again, those should result in a turnover).

Apart from all that, I've never played a basketball game that was this realistic and this close to perfection. The gameplay is unbelievable. I can't believe the number of nuances and details they have in this game:

**I really like the driving mechanic on this game. This game has a perfect sense and understanding for feel of *space and *momentum. It breaks down in a couple ways: depending on your relative positioning to your defender, you either have the space and/or the player quickness to get by that defender or you don't; and if you don't, you can then dynamically switch directions, or come to a quick stop, and your defender will realistically be off balance for a split second, giving you the time and spacial advantage to bury a quick jumper, or drive AGAIN and this time get by them, since you now have a step on them. I really like the sense of being able to fully control your dribbling player and school the defender.

**It's perfect the way they captured the essence of *getting by someone. Once you have a little bit of space and you get that first step on them, your player lowers his shoulder as you barely get by them.

**The triple threat option is done perfectly. You can do all kinds of footjabs and ball fakes and your defender reacts so realistically and perfectly as he desperately shifts his body weight keep up with you. The AI won't react the say way every time either, you can jab step to your right, and they may not bite, then you pump fake, and quickly jab step a second time, and this time the defender might shift in that direction thinking this was your real move, as you take off towards the left side towards the basket. The same thing goes for a live ball, just like I said earlier, you really have a sense of rocking the defender as they respond to your every dribbling move to keep up with you, and depending on their reaction, if you're quick enough and savvy enough, you can pull off some really cool appropriate counter moves (I say 'appropriate', because sure, maybe you can react and do the same exact counter move every time on the opponent, but for the true NBA fans, you'll want to try to do the most realistic move given the situation, and you have a lot to choose from).

**How's this for authenticity, on one occasion I jumped into the air trying to anticipate a CPU player that I assumed was about to shoot the ball so I could block it, but before he jumped to shoot, a foul was called on someone else off the ball, so in order to get two shots at the line, the CPU player actually JUMPED INTO ME while I was in the air to initiate the contact. And yes, it looked exactly how you would imagine. Show me one other basketball game that does that.

**The motions and movement of people's bodies in this game in general is amazing, particularly on the defensive end. Defenders are keenly aware of the man they're guarding, relative to where the ball is. So he'll kinda put his arm out, to keep contact and feel his man, as he tries to also watch the ball on the other side of the court.

**The faces of players may not look perfect, but the details of their bodies are crazy. Sure, we all know about T-Mac's protruding vein on his right arm/shoulder, and obviously Sheed's white patch on the back of his head. This is nothing new, but who else noticed that they actually included Kobe's NECK FAT? I watch enough basketball to pick up on small details like this, and Kobe has this layer of fat on the back of his neck. Any game that's detailed enough to draw someone's neck fat definitely has my respect.