Everyone knows how deep my new-found love is for NBA 2K11, after all I was pretty hyped about Elite. Now, that being said, I feel that 2K Sports has taken a HUGE step back with this patch. Before I get into the nitty-gritty, I’m just going to boil down the entire patch into one simple sentence: this patch takes the fun out of 2k11…and it completely ruins the My Player mode. Before you attempt to challenge me on this, you must keep in mind that since the game dropped, I have not missed a single day of playing at least a few My Player games, Association, and a few sprinkles of online game play…so I know what I mean when I say that this patch has sucked the life out of 2k11.
Sure, the patch got a few things right, like the nonsensical charging algorithm that was calculated, dear simulation refs boxing out is not an over the back foul, directional passes are finally really directional, the defensive logic of backing off poor shooters, buttoning through the extra long substitution animations, and of course the dreaded long socks glitch. Getting past that, I feel compelled to say, “what da f*ck 2k?” Because this patch literally breaks more than it fixes.
First off..rolling out a patch to fix the Cav’s home court…seriously? What about Utah’s home court or Toronto, New Orleans, Phoenix’s? What about the fact that the arena names are fake and/or incorrect? What about fixing the server timeout issue?
The biggest flaw in this patch is that whatever the sentient beings at the 2K studios did to up the turn-around shot stats is beyond real. Literally, anyone no matter their size or stats will make a basket in the post if it’s a second chance shot…go ahead and try it, you know you want to. Talking this over with a friend of mine he said, “Danny Granger (ironically) had 40 points on me last night because he got on fire by shooting turn arounds. And it’s virtually impossible to stop without a double team, which is risking because they will pass to an open shooter the majority of the time. And I had no idea that there were users using the exploit as well. I haven’t done it because it seems I don’t have the timing down for those types of shots.Anyway, I hope this is in the next patch.”
The second really huge mistake in my humble opinion is 2K messing with My Player in the first place. I think 2K failed to realize just how deep the My Player mode is, being that it was a huge step up from 2k10, and light years beyond anything EA could ever dish out. I mean the fans crooned over this mode, some hailing it as one of the main selling points for the game. I mean, what is Play Vision and why is my court marked up with idiotic and colorful jibber jabber telling me where to go, and if i don’t follow these directions then my team mates don’t pass me the ball? Keep in mind that my player is the esteemed floor general on my team so this makes absolutely no sense what so ever. This feature has single-handedly killed the enjoyment of the My Player mode, even though the easy exploit is to mash the quick screen button so a play cannot be called, this is a game breaker for me. As my boy Manny_Fresh_9 said, “this patch sucks my player mode is all dumb now i want the way it was back.”
Also another glitch I experienced while in My Player (I haven’t really researched this to see if it’s been duplicated or not) is the fact that when you have a custom playlist going, pausing the game during one of the scenes that a song is playing causes the song to play in the background throughout the game, menu, home screen, pretty much everywhere until you restart the game. Not really frustrating, just something I never had until this glorious patch.
I really hope someone from 2K takes a read at this because I’m a very pissed off consumer who’s 60 bucks has been greatly devalued. On that note, I payed for the game, shouldn’t I be able to decide if I want the game patched or not?
Here’s the actual patch details:
GENERAL GAME FEATURES
- Fixed a soft hang that would occur when loading an in-game save that was created during a timeout situation. This change also affects in-game saves created in the various game modes (Association, My Player, etc.). It addresses the My Player freeze issue that some of you have run into
- Fixed a hang on startup (when the game went to load files) that would happen when the user had a large number of saved files on the hard drive/storage device.
- The Cleveland Cavaliers court floor has been updated to reflect the design being used for the 2010-11 season.
- The ‘My Rookie of the Year’, ‘One for All’, and ‘Not Over Yet’ Achievements/Trophies should now properly unlock once the necessary conditions are met.
- Long socks should no longer appear visually corrupted during gameplay.
- Correct player signatures are now shown on Pressbooks that are uploaded to the 2K Sports server.
- The ‘Player Progression’ menu (Located in Features -> Living Rosters) should now properly work when new Living Roster updates are applied. Please delete the ‘Player Progression’ save file after the patch is released so the system can bring the file up-to-date.
GAMEPLAY
- Improved Shot Stick shot release timing and consistency across offline and online games.
- Fixed a rare hang that would occur when intentionally fouling the inbounder.
- Dunks will now branch into mid-air collisions, resulting in contact layups and changes in shots.
- Big men with low vertical ratings will now jump the appropriate height when rebounding and contesting shots.
- Addressed an exploit when using the Hopstep Dunk. Players will now branch to a contested shot animation when defenders are nearby.
- The ballhandler will no longer pick up his dribble when a ‘take charge’ attempt fails.
- Users are now able to execute the Crossover move when using the ‘Alternate A’ controller configuration.
- Added high trajectory shots when the shot is taken along the baseline. This will reduce/eliminate baseline shots that just hit off the side of the backboard.
- Addressed a playcalling issue where non-stars are getting a bulk of the plays run for them during specific situations.
- Queued pass/shot commands are now deleted when a fumbled catch occurs.
- Improvements have been made to the directional passing system with the end result being more accurate pass targeting.
- Tuned under-basket shots such that big players are no longer overpowered by smaller defenders, thus forcing a bad shot.
- Body-ups have been re-tuned such that good dribblers do not ‘lose’ during a mismatch or by taking good angles.
- Queuing a fake pass command when catching the ball will no longer result in a touch pass.
- Missed and inaccurate passes will now play at an appropriate rate when passing out of a shot or contact shot.
- Long range passes have been re-tuned to fix a gameplay exploit. Also, improved defender reactions on such passes so that they are properly contested.
- Users are no longer able to call a timeout when they are bobbling the ball.
- Improved AI logic for boxing out, ensuring that players go into boxout situations when appropriate.
- Players boxing out their opponent should no longer be called for Over the Back fouls.
- Tuned ‘Take Charge’ logic such that charges will now be properly called when the defender is set. This includes a fix for the pro-hop exploit where charges were not being called.
- Fixed an issue with player swapping during rolling inbounds; users will no longer be stuck controlling a player with the inability to switch players.
- AI defenders will no longer closely guard bad shooters far from the hoop when not necessary.
- Improved AI steal behavior and tuned the overall steal frequency/difficulty; defenders should now only attempt steals when they are actually looking at the ball.
- On the ‘Casual’ game style only, defenders are now slightly slower to react on passes, thus limiting the number of pass deflections.
PRESENTATION
- Fixed a long hang that would sometimes occur at the end of the highlight reel between quarters.
- When an Arena Music event is triggered, it will now randomly select one of the available songs instead of always playing the first song in the list.
- Addressed a few minor audio issues including instances where the commentators would call a few players by the wrong name, instances where a commentary line would cut out mid-sentence, instances where the commentary would refer to a missed shot as a made shot, and clean-up in the Doris Burke analysis during playoff situations.
- The commentators will now tell Coach ‘stories’ during gameplay. These stories tie-in with the Player/Team stories for an increased presentation experience.
- Users are now able to button through lengthy substitution overlays and get right back to gameplay.
- Fixed a very rare hang that would happen during the Player of the Game segment at the end of the game.
- Fixed an occurrence where the incorrect portrait was displayed for a created/generated player.
ONLINE
- Voice Chat improvements have been made to eliminate/reduce the amount of background static that can be heard in Team-Up/Pick-Up games.
- Users are no longer able to substitute in injured/fouled out players during Crew games.
- Opponents can no longer see Pick and Roll and Play Calling icons during online games.
- Addressed a game disconnect issue when one user would call a timeout, quit out of the game, and attempt to start another game.
ASSOCIATION
- Addressed a hang that would occur in the transition between the 1st and 2nd quarters in the weeks leading up to the All-Star break.
- Injured players will no longer lose their Player Role due to an injury, which ultimately led to may unhappy players around the league.
- Fixed an issue that caused a decrease in trading activity in future years. This same issue also resulted in valued free agents not signing during the free agency time period of the offseason.
- Home court advantage (for simulated games) has been toned down during the regular season, and even more so during the playoffs (this fix also applies to My Player mode).
- Participating in Intra-Squad Scrimmages will no longer disable Intentional Fouls during regular NBA games.
- Addressed an issue where trade values would drop to 1-star when a Weekly Practice was scheduled.
- Fixed a bug where coaches would get fired continuously (this fix also applies to My Player mode).
- Users are now able to properly waive players in the Training Camp period of the offseason when there are more than 15 players signed to the team.
- Corrected an issue where the Qualifying Offers period was automatically getting skipped, thus not allowing users to make qualifying offers to their restricted free agents.
- Addressed an issue where Potential values weren’t being properly updated in the player progression system.
- Existing NBA players should no longer have their signature animations changed at the end of every season based on their skill progression/regression (this fix also applies to My Player mode).
- Fixed an issue where generated players would be created with the award history of a player currently in the Hall of Fame (this fix also applies to My Player mode).
- Tuned rookie generation code such that incoming talent is more in-line with players already in the league. Other generation improvements were made as well, including better secondary position logic along with adjustments to the size of the incoming players (this fix also applies to My Player mode).
- Users are now able to call plays during Intra-Squad Scrimmages in the Live Practice feature.
- Players who have the ‘Prospect’ player role are now much more forgiving of their role, meaning they will no longer become upset when they are in the role until they have reached a high rating.
- Addressed a number of other smaller issues within the mode (better CPU logic when accepting/declining Team Options, undrafted rookies should no longer sign larger than expected contracts, etc.).
MY PLAYER
(A number of issues that also affect My Player mode were listed above in the Association section. Those issues were noted as such.)
- Addressed a hang that would sometimes occur when completing a game during the NBA time period.
- The user’s team will now be more efficient in finding a trade to one of the requested teams when a Trade Request is made.
- The Rookie of the Year Milestone should now properly unlock when the conditions are met.
- Addressed a playcalling issue where the dribbler would hold the ball until the last second during My Player games.
- PlayVision art is now drawn on the floor when the CPU calls a play, easily enabling the user to follow the action on the court.
