Another year, same problems. Cheap AI, bad controls, unplayable online. Jordan mode and my player broken.
The main big leaps this year, supposedly. Once you spend more and more time with it, you realize this game is just not fun.
The cpu is still telepathic, for instance if you kick the ball to a wide open guy in the corner, rest assured that the cpu that is standing under the basket will have him covered by the time the ball gets to him.
The cpu still has rocket boots. Pick off a pass with Chris Paul which should result in an easy fast break bucket? Well to bad. The cpu still has rocket boots as soon as a steal happens, so fast breaks you find your self unable to get the bucket. Because as soon as a defender passes you up you stop like you've hit a brick wall. How did the slow moving PF catch Chris Paul, he has rocket boots. But even if you beat the odds and get a 3 on 1 attack, the cpu will pretty much deflect any pass thrown, again they must be telepathic.
Running plays, 2 problems here. First, it still isn't fixed like the claim. Alot of times plays break down for no reason, you'll be standing on the spot you are suppose to be with the right player, teammates will just stand there until time expires on the shot clock. 2nd problem, you are forced to run plays. Which is fine if you are a slow pace half court team like the Blazers, but your team is the suns... prepare to never play like the suns. The suns in real life rarely call plays, yet you have to each time down the court to have any success in this game on sim lvl difficulty. Why can't you attack the basket with steve nash and kick it out like he does instead of running plays, you ask? Well that's the next problem, and maybe most biggest.
Invisible brick wall. Instead of using footwork on D to keep your man in front of you. In this game, on offense or defense, stopping a driving steve nash you just have to stand in front of him.... WHAM, he hits an invisible brick wall. The game shows this a body contact animation. Playing 1 game with a penetrating PG, and you'll see more physical contact no where near the rim, than that PG will the entire season.
Telepathic steals. Happens alot, they can be looking/following a guy away from you, yet know right where your passes go. I love watching the replays of these, because they apparently have eyes in the back of their heads.
Controls. Oh where to start. How about L2 & R2 to post up in the post. Who ever decided on those buttons should be fired, as they are 2 buttons used to modify hundreds of things. So often you will want to back down, instead you get your big guy picking up the ball and doing some weird animation with it, instead of doing the simple thing of turning his back to the basket. Shooting the ball has the same problems. Driving to the hole and wanna lay it up, well good luck. Because if you start it a split second late, you will do an awkward jump shot that is sure to miss. On defense, if you like to control a big man like I do, be prepared to fly by your defender constantly leaving them open for the easy jam. Why? Well when they post you up, you are pushing back to stop them from getting better post position. Why when the animation decides to end the physical contact without warning, you are still pushing away from the basket. So now since you are suddenly kitty pride, you go flying right threw them. Happens every time.. or you can chose not to push back. So the offensive player can get right under the basket. And while isomotion has improved some, it's still completely awful. If you put roses on dog poo, it's still dog poo.
Jordon Mode, broken. Why? 8 minutes quarters. To play the game at a sim lvl and to do the required scoring to meet the challenge, requires 12 minute quarters. But you can't change the quarter length. So what does this mean? It means you have to adjust the sliders to make the game a 5 on 5 NBA Jam to meet the high scoring challenges. Making reliving these moments, completely 100% useless.
My player. Did you know every NBA draft pick, can't run, can't shoot, can't pass? Neither did I. Whats worse than being a worse player than a middle school-er, is the game punishes you for things out of your control. Making you actually go backwards in skill points earned. If you feel like toughing it out being a slow clunky bad shooting blob, you can change the sliders to make in super easy so you can actually lvl up. Still, mode is still completely broken no matter how you look at it.
All in all, this game is not what it's cracked up to be. Same cheap ai problems exists, and the brick wall effect. Some how, putting jordon on the cover makes people not see these problems that have plague the 2k series for years.