NBA 2K12 - Catch-All

I was all set to buy 2k12 but got it out of the Redbox first, just to be careful.

I was put off by two things: the AI seemed way too fond of using the entire 24 seconds EVERY time down the floor. And, of course, the lack of rookies (aside from Rubio). I played a couple of the legend games, and they're cool, but not really worth a new purchase ATM. The improvements to My Player are awesome, letting you influence where you end up is great. Still, I may just skip 2k12 and wait in 2k13. Next year's rookie class is freaking awesome.

The post play also rubbed me wrong, but I know that's me. It's just not very accessible. I have never been able to memorize the dozens of button/stick combinations for it.

Okay, I'm starting to get really frustrated with this game. Nostalgia-be-damned I might have to check back in next year. First off, broken GM AI. I'm playing "My Player" mode primarily. I'm a SF on the Phoenix Suns. It's December and in that time Grant Hill was traded for Tyson Chandler, Steven Nash was traded for Marcus Camby and Raymond Felton, and then Raymond Felton was traded for Nick Collison. There are another 6 players on the team who are also new. Insane.

I also just find the mode very unforgiving. So I made an NBA roster and get minutes. I rarely meet goals or get my player above a C rating. Mostly because he controls awkwardly and slowly. I wish 2k realized that players don't get faster as they get older. Or quicker as they get older. They become better shooters, become more clutch, etc. but they don't start as old men and progress Benjamin Button-style into superstars. I'm also noticing the thing where the CPU holds the ball for most of the shot clock almost every time down the court.

Yeah, the GM AI is atrocious. It's been noted in other places, and it pretty much breaks Association mode. LeBron for D12 trades are the norm, and the FA period makes today's GMs look like spendthrifts. I've stuck to Season, Playoff, and Greatest modes, because if you let the AI start trying to manage a team, it goes berzerk.

The only possible thing one could do in the meantime to ameliorate the stupid is flip off trades, I guess.

This is pretty much standard. I've never found a GM AI in any game that is really compelling. People will swear by the franchise mode in the show. But what they don't tel you is that they control all 30 teams.

If I play season mode in any game, I will always turn trades off. I try to avoid turing injuries off, as adjusting your line-ups and roster to account for injuries is part of the fun.

Honestly, until the NBA starts playing games, my interest in the game is really, really low. NBA Today is what made the game for me. Playing with constantly updated rosters and line-ups, with real stats and information as part of the broadcast presentation, has made franchise modes unimportant to me. So the lockout has really screwed that up.

And apparently "My Player" doesn't support sliders. Looked into this on Operation Sports. I might be done with this one and go back to just playing FIFA.

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/nba-2k/518478-enjoy-2k12-you-have-make-cpu-more-stupid-6.html

How are the telepathic AI defense in this years version. I loved 2K11, but the picking off of passes, especially at higher levels was insane. I tweaked it a bit with sliders but it was stil always a problem.

El-Producto wrote:

How are the telepathic AI defense in this years version. I loved 2K11, but the picking off of passes, especially at higher levels was insane. I tweaked it a bit with sliders but it was stil always a problem.

It's about the same.

Blind_Evil wrote:
El-Producto wrote:

How are the telepathic AI defense in this years version. I loved 2K11, but the picking off of passes, especially at higher levels was insane. I tweaked it a bit with sliders but it was stil always a problem.

It's about the same.

I honestly haven't had much of a problem with this, but I play with player lock on a lot, so that may be a part of the reason why, as the AI is usually pretty good about passing, but last game I played, both teams had 13 turnovers combined.

Prederick wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:
El-Producto wrote:

How are the telepathic AI defense in this years version. I loved 2K11, but the picking off of passes, especially at higher levels was insane. I tweaked it a bit with sliders but it was stil always a problem.

It's about the same.

I honestly haven't had much of a problem with this, but I play with player lock on a lot, so that may be a part of the reason why, as the AI is usually pretty good about passing, but last game I played, both teams had 13 turnovers combined.

It doesn't bother me either, once I learned the AI (took about 2 weeks last year) it wasn't an issue. If it turned people off then, it will now too though.

I'm really enjoying the My Player mode, but until they can patch the GM AI, I feel like I cant continue. I dont want to develop a player for 3-4 seasons, then start over. Seems silly as I am not a huge NBA fan (I wish they would bring back College Hoops), but playing against the Lakers without Kobe or the Heat without LeBron OR D-Wade just feels wrong.

I guess I can work through the Legends in the meantime... the presentation alone in that mode is fantastic.

hoosierjoe wrote:

I'm really enjoying the My Player mode, but until they can patch the GM AI, I feel like I cant continue. I dont want to develop a player for 3-4 seasons, then start over. Seems silly as I am not a huge NBA fan (I wish they would bring back College Hoops), but playing against the Lakers without Kobe or the Heat without LeBron OR D-Wade just feels wrong.

I guess I can work through the Legends in the meantime... the presentation alone in that mode is fantastic.

I'm here now. Didn't seem too bad at first. I started with the Phoenix Suns and a few minor players were traded. I feel like my player was still too underpowered, but whatever, I'll give this a try. Next thing I know this is the parade of players playing PG for the Suns. Nash, Raymond Felton, Darren Collison, Gary Neal and someone else I forget. That's all in the FIRST season. I also picked up Marcus Camby and Tyson Chandler as teammates as well as Ron Artest and many others. I'm in season 2 and the roster is completely different. This game is ridiculous. Without sliders to change this behavior in My Player (as well as the defensive awareness) this game is just getting on my nerves too much. Especially when FIFA is flawless. So I might have to bag it and wait and see if it gets a patch.

Anyone know if the trade logic had been addressed in this? Been thinking about popping it back in, but if this is still broken this game might be destined for GameStop's pre-owned rack.

hoosierjoe wrote:

Anyone know if the trade logic had been addressed in this? Been thinking about popping it back in, but if this is still broken this game might be destined for GameStop's pre-owned rack.

Has there ever been a sports game that has had decent trade logic? I'm not even familiar with a text sim that is good enough.

Yeah, but NBA2k12 is insane. You can literally watch as 4 different starting PGs cycle through your team in one season. My first My Player season I had Nick Collison, Andre Miller, Raymond Felton and the original Knicks PG (that's who drafted my player). Nevermind that most of the supporting cast was traded by the time my second season had hit mid-point. I gave up then.

DSGamer wrote:

Yeah, but NBA2k12 is insane. You can literally watch as 4 different starting PGs cycle through your team in one season. My first My Player season I had Nick Collison, Andre Miller, Raymond Felton and the original Knicks PG (that's who drafted my player). Nevermind that most of the supporting cast was traded by the time my second season had hit mid-point. I gave up then.

I'm sure it is terrible. So was every edition of Madden, NFL 2K, NHL 2K, EA's NHL series, MLB The Show, MLB 2K, MVP Baseball, and so on. They might be different degrees of terrible. But there is not a one of those that is acceptable to play vs the AI in terms of GM AI.

I have limited myself to playing single seasons with trades off for years.

I'm still playing 2K11, and it really pisses me off that they won't release roster updates for the older games. sh*t, I'd even pay $5.

Think it's time I switch to PC, where I'm assuming they have modded them in.

El-Producto wrote:

I'm still playing 2K11, and it really pisses me off that they won't release roster updates for the older games. sh*t, I'd even pay $5.

Think it's time I switch to PC, where I'm assuming they have modded them in.

Yeah. I had a similar thought this year. I universally preferred NCAA 11, NBA 2k11 and Madden 11 to all of this year's releases. Especially in the case of NBA2k, though. The defense is insane in 2k12. Insane as in psychic and cheating. So I'd love to go back to 2k11 with current rosters.

Between that, terrible XBLA experiences and games being sunset by EA a gaming PC attached to my TV is becoming more and more attractive.

From NBA 2k11 thread:

DSGamer wrote:

Turn off the setting where they anticipate the passing lanes. Or change the mode to simulation. The CPU does cheat. You can replay one of those "how did that go wrong."'steals and see CPU players doing a complete 180 and reaching to steal the ball with their back turned to you. To me it's like the AI in Madden/NCAA where suddenly a player leaps two feet in the air while facing the other direction to bat down a pass. The CPU is cheating. At that point it's time to give up or adjust the settings to retain your sanity.

Don't ever change!

But really, can't you change the settings this year too?

Blind_Evil wrote:

From NBA 2k11 thread:

DSGamer wrote:

Turn off the setting where they anticipate the passing lanes. Or change the mode to simulation. The CPU does cheat. You can replay one of those "how did that go wrong."'steals and see CPU players doing a complete 180 and reaching to steal the ball with their back turned to you. To me it's like the AI in Madden/NCAA where suddenly a player leaps two feet in the air while facing the other direction to bat down a pass. The CPU is cheating. At that point it's time to give up or adjust the settings to retain your sanity.

Don't ever change!

But really, can't you change the settings this year too?

You can but I found that you had to tune it down to the point where the game got too easy. It's more aggressive so to tune it down to sanity you end up with a CPU that doesn't play defense.

Does anyone know.. can you mod in updated rosters to the PC version?

EDIT - Wow, looks like you can import your own rosters to 2k11 on the xbox!

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...

Strange thing happened...

I have an 80 overall center playing for the Timberwolves, went into the All Star Break leading the MVP/ROTY races, the league in FG% and blocks, etc. I had been starting since 14 games into the season. I played in the Rookie/Sophomore game, and was supposed to start the All-Star game, but came off the bench. Very limited minutes, too.

I get back to the regular games and I'm out of the starting lineup. They've moved Love to 5 and put Derrick Williams at 4. What gives?

Like i'm sure i've said here before, the biggest hit against 2K12 is that its roster management AI is so dumb it makes Isiah Thomas look like a great GM.

Prederick wrote:

Like i'm sure i've said here before, the biggest hit against 2K12 is that its roster management AI is so dumb it makes Isiah Thomas look like a great GM.

Yeah. See my post above where I cycled through whole rosters of teammates.

I've actually seen very little movement league-wide in my first half season, definitely less than in 2k11. I suppose it varies pretty wildly.

With all of he Linsanity, I've been in the mood to play some NBA, but I'm holding off on the game until MLB 2K12 comes out. 2K is selling a combo pack of the two games for $70. Since MLB 2K12 was a first day purchase for me anyway, I can't pass up NBA 2K12 for $10. But at $35 apiece, it's a great deal for both games.

But it is killing me to wait right now, as it doesn't drop until March 6th.

IMAGE(http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/222029-NBA-MLB-2K12-360-Bundle_header.jpg)

I was thinking about getting the double pack, but the MLB reviews have been so-so. I did get NBA 2k12 and I am loving this game. The game play is great especially after finding some good sliders at operation sports.

I still enjoy the game, but i'm increasingly frustrated with the contact on drives.

This could be the last NBA I need until 2020 if only I could get a handle on the controls.

I don't care much for current rosters, so I've been spending most of my time trying to unlock the classic teams and toying with pickup games in showcase. I can rarely win a game though due to the cryptic controls.

I appreciate the amount of stuff they put into the game, but a lot of the controls seem counter-intuitive. Pressing triangle (PS3) to go into post up mode just doesn't come naturally at all. I also have trouble going up for a simple power dunk when under the hoop. Instead I have guys like Cartwright trying to do ballet moves from 3 feet away.

Any tips on getting used to the controls? Maybe I should just focus on a few moves and not even try to do the rest (although some tend to come by accident). Maybe I'll have to suck it up and go into practice mode for a while. I really want to enjoy this game because it has the legends and I can see the depth that is in there.

I bought this during the Steam sale and have been playing with a 360 controller. Despite buying a tonne of games, I'm only playing this. I play sports games like they are RPG (or occasionally management sims). This is a fantastic game. I haven't watched basketball since the Grizzlies moved to Memphis so I went in knowing anything, anyone, or have any allegiances. It was weird to see a few recognizable players still around.

I'm been playing the my player mode. Drafted by the Knicks 17th overall. Managed to get to the second round in an upset win over the 2nd seed. About 1/4 through my second season and have just been named the starting SG. My guy is a SF but there weren't many other options. Unfortunately the team went in to a tail spin and lost 9/10 games. Knicks have no depth and their starting centre is pretty terrible. Doesnt help that Carmelo Anthony is either scoring or doing nothing. Contract is up at the end of the season and am looking forward to seeing what options I'm given.

I usually am a superstar by the end of my rookie season so the slow progression scratches a nice itch. I've had to temper expectations and adjust on a week by week basis. I find myself actually practicing to get shot timing and moves down. I don't understand the advanced controls, my defence is average at best, I commit far too many turn overs, and I still don't know some of the rules.

My only gripes are that I can not see what offseason changes my team made and I would like to have a little more control on simming through non-key games.

Started a topic for 2k13. Dream Team, oh yeah.