NBA 2K15, the evolution of the species – the proof
Cologne – This start of a generation was quite troubled for many developers. While long overdue, the “next gen” has arrived with changed hardware specs on the fly, immature development kits, and even little time to develop launch games.
All of this resulted in a first wave of products that either failed to take full advantage of the functionality of the consoles or had planned different hardware, arriving in stores with lower graphics than expected.
Despite the positive feedback from critics and the public, even Visual Concepts with NBA 2K14 had to rush things through. Finding a significantly different product a year later is therefore not a big surprise, since the developers were finally able to work a whole cycle with tools, machines and technologies that are now stable. This has enabled them to make better use of the memory and computing power at their disposal, thanks to which they obtain results previously inaccessible.
We could tell you about the fact that Kevin Durant, the game’s cover man and this year’s MVP, being a gamer, has given Visual Concepts some suggestions that can improve their product from both a technical and a technical standpoint. of realism. . Or that Pharrell Williams showed a much broader musical culture than LeBron James or Jay Z and concocted a varied and sophisticated soundtrack.
Kevin Durant is the cover man of this year. Did you recognize him?
Or we could describe MyLeague mode, a new variant of managerial seasons in which you can decide, through the classic sliders, almost every aspect of the game, like the frequency of transfers.
However, we prefer to take the seeds out of the developer presentation at gamescom 2014 to focus on the aspects that we think may be of most interest to gamers, as they are the ones that interest us the most.
Let’s start with the fact that Rob Jones, the show’s lead producer, grew up in Rome and speaks perfect Italian with a fun Roman accent. Tifa Banco di Roma and Detroit Pistons, or the two teams from the two most important cities of his life, where he grew up and where he was born.
That said, we talked with him about the game, the gameplay, what was possible with the new hardware and the Euroleague. Let’s start with the 5,000 animations announced by the development team. These have been exploited to fill various gaps that appeared in previous editions. Indeed, the developers noticed that some animations were missing to highlight the contacts under the basket, those in the rebounds or to give variety to the interceptions.
The Birdman is ready to dominate under the basket.
Lots of login animations have also been included, thanks to which the response to commands is much more immediate. In short in NBA 2K15 it will be much easier to stop an athlete at the desired point or to make him make short trips simply, because animations have been introduced that allow him to take even short steps.
Pad in hand, the difference is obvious. You immediately notice more precise contacts, smoother movements, but above all you will find yourself moving freely on the floor, without rails or constraints. Finally, stopping at the exact spot where you want to shoot or where you are supposed to be for a pattern is a small satisfaction but has been expected for many years.
The only time the basketball player will get a little out of control will be during the dribbling, as the dribbling is always made up of fairly long animations that will need to be completed before putting the player back under your full control. Usually, the oddities in the animations can be noticed most easily in the myPlayer mode, but at the moment everything seems almost perfect.
The most immediate difference from last year, however, is in the new version indicator. Everything will be much clearer and the new graphics will minimize the percentage of randomness in any given shot. Last year, in fact, in the calculation of the percentage of completion of a basket, there was always a fairly high percentage which depended solely on luck. So a Ray Allen alone on the three-point line still had a good chance of missing a shot, despite a perfect release.
In NBA 2K15, on the other hand, the area in which to achieve the highest possible hit percentage will always be visible, making it clear when it comes to your mistake or just bad luck. In addition, the graphics that show confidence with a shot have also been improved and will no longer be indicated by notches, like those on the cell phone, but with a more progressive indicator.
Having a lot of memory available has also allowed us to significantly increase the number of statistics that describe each athlete, allowing Visual Concepts to draw even more precise and precise profiles. Thus, each NBA champion will be truly unique and will be able to count not only on his face and his build but also on his style of play and on technical skills very close to the real ones.
Finally, the developers have worked hard to piece together the sets of plays for each team in the league, so as to see the same patterns and movements on the pitch that are for example performed by the Clippers or ignored by New York. The ability of teams to read movements on the pitch has also been improved. This will allow your fellow attackers to start a pattern based on your moves, using a block or the back line, without being called before. Specularly, defenses are also able to provide countermeasures to adverse patterns.
These two elements help define team chemistry, a new parameter that defines a collective’s ability to play together, which is why the San Antonio Spurs dominated last season by putting under franchises with a certainly superior talent.
The Euroleague will also benefit from the game’s many improvements.
As for the Euroleague, Visual Concepts learned from the mistakes of the past. It will thus close the achievement of the more than 20 European teams present at NBA 2K15 during the final stages of development, so that we can provide players with the most up-to-date rosters possible. In NBA 2K14, in fact, half of Olimpia Milano was still in Siena, which makes using it little fun.
This marked improvement in the veracity of the competition, combined with a more in-depth study of the dynamics and patterns used by Euroleague teams, which took place thanks to the guidance of figures such as Ettore Messina, and the possibility of using them within the MyLEAGUE mode should also allow European training courses to be better integrated and usable.
It is almost superfluous to talk about the graphics area which has been further cleaned up and improved. Thanks to the more time available, the mascots and cheerleaders have been reinserted, the models that will make up the audience have been improved and many bad clipping or interpenetration errors of basketball players’ uniforms have been corrected. The similarity of the Superstars to their real version is further reinforced as the team increased the number of athletes scanned.
As for the old-gen version, Rob Jones said virtually all of the improvements described so far can be found, except for those that inevitably rely on the greater computing power of next-gen consoles, like the renewed artificial intelligence. , graphs or the many new statistics. The step forward must always be visible.
Through team chemistry, Visual Concepts hopes to tell us why San Antonio won the final ring.
When we first met NBA 2K15 we found the game to have improved dramatically in almost every way. The work done by the developers seems to have corrected many of these negative aspects that emerged last year, in order to offer an even cleaner, more satisfying and more complete experience. The appointment is therefore set for October 10, the date on which NBA 2K15 will be released on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and PC.
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