Tag Archives: 2K

NBA 2K MyTeam- Robert Pack! Game Changer!

Weekly Challenges have been revamped for MyTeam this year. Every week of challenges completed nets you a token. 3 Tokens and get a reward. The first reward is a Saphire Robert Pack!

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Robert Pack is super black! Im talkin’ high top fades, high top dunks, and high speed! He also is a great example of one of my favorite things that MyTeam does; they highlight really good, fan favorite players from the past who are probably not Hall of Famers or had a short span of relevance. Pack is a perfect example of this, he started in junior college, went undrafted and had an avg. rookie season in Portland. He then goes to the Nuggets and becomes one of the best PGs in the league for a 4-5 years period, peaking with an avg. 18 points per game in the ’95-’96 season.

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He would never achieve those numbers again declining every year after that, eventually playing over seas and becoming an NBA coach. There is no way you could have watched the NBA in the ’90s and not been hype watching Robert Pack play. Those Nuggets teams were awesome! They pulled off some great play-off upsets and just exemplified fun basketball.

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His card is SO NASTY in NBA 2K17 MyTeam! He’s fast and doesn’t turn the ball over. 2K still has this issue where if you dribble near other defenders the ball will dribble off their foot. It’s like NBA guards can’t handle ANY pressure. If they don’t lose the ball they pick it up. Pack can keep his dribble. He dunks HARD and he makes his lay ups.

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Pack also has a high steal rating so he can get the ball without fouling on players as good as Westbrook. Pack’s biggest weakness is that he is a C three point shooter. He will hit the open three but he is not pulling up like Curry. Pack is also a great free throw shooter. He can slash inside and draw contact and get you easy buckets. For 2K this year, that skill is invaluable. If you shoot more than 3 three pointers and 10 free throws you earn MT by the % of shots made in those 2 categories instead of just getting MT for made shots.

 

 

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He also has a dope hairstyle. The high top fade with the part is nothing new in the NBA these days but there is something special about it when Robert Pack is rocking it and that’s because he is wearing it as a current style and not a throwback.

 

 

 

 

 

His cards also just look awesome!

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All that said the final challenge to unlock Saphire Robert Pack is a beast. You need to beat the New Jersey Nets on All-Pro and hold them to 50 points or less total in a 6 min Quarter game. Winning the game is not too hard, the issue is holding the Nets to under 50 points. This probably took me 10 attempts. My issue is that everyone on the team can hit an open 3, and Lin/Lopez run a devastating pick and roll. Jeremy Lin plays like John Stockton in this game and Brooke Lopez plays like Karl Malone, it’s so frustrating. If you play man to man, go under the screen Lin will hit the J. Lin will also drive and always draw the foul. Lopez will pick and pop and hit everything with a hand or 3 in his face. The issue here is the defense starts to sag inside leaving a myriad of open 3’s. I tried a 2-3 zone and No. They shot me out of the zone asap. What I ended up doing was choosing very specific personnel, turning off auto computer coaching and ran Man to man defense with the “No three’s” call. J.J. Hickson owns Lopez and Jay Williams/Doug Christie kept my defense solid. Derrick Favors is killer on offense and rebounds extremely well! The most important things you need are rebounding and somebody who can guard Lopez. I also had Q, J.J. Redick, and Robert Horry hitting 3’s for me as well. Aaron Brooks was my bronze card of the bench. He’s very fast, and can shoot.

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On offense at first I tried to be sllloowwww. I would run the shot clock down to 3 seconds and dump it into the post to score. The problem I would have is that the game would slow down but the computer would be hyper aggressive. I would score in 22 seconds, the computer would score in 7 seconds. If they went on a run it was almost impossible to make up ground. What I learned is that all you need is one good quarter that keeps the computer off pace for 50. Play normal, try and get as big a lead as you can in the first half and then clamp down and slow the game down in the 3rd Quarter.

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Hold the computer to 25-30 in the first half and then shut them out in the 3rd. No more than 6-8pts. Control the possessions. Take 4 seconds to throw the ball in, the clock runs. Foul bad free throw shooters on the Nets to keep them from hitting easy shots. Take all the shot clock you can to score, miss shots grab boards and spend another 24. You can use a minute in 1 possession with a good offensive rebound. If all goes well the computer will play desperate in the 4th and start jacking contested 3’s. You win. Enjoy Robert Pack. You earned him.

 

UPDATE- New weekly challenges. Complete the newest round to get that 3rd token if you haven’t already. Final challenge is rough. You must beat the Mavs and hold them to only 8 three-pointers or less. I suggest going into the menus (coaching) and turn off help defense and adjust man pressure to tight. Put your best defender on Dirk. Keep the game close. Closer score, fewer desperation threes. Otherwise you can try the 3-2 zone but I don’t think the players rotate well and you get killed in the corners. Be careful running the break, the computer pulls up a lot. The computer also refuses to shoot mid-range J’s. They are always stepping back so be aware! and Good luck!

 

NBA 2K17 MyTeam Stories- Jugs v. Nugs

I was asked this weekend why I play video games and is captivating about sports games. For me it’s the stories, the competitiveness, and the connection it gives me to both the games past and present. Let me tell you bout a game I played this morning… 

It was 6:30AM, MyTeam mode.

Cincinnati Juggernaut vs. Denver Nuggets- Domination Game (current players)

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This game should be an easy win so I choose to play some of my lesser players to not waste to contracts of my superstars. I have crafted the Cinci Juggernaut to be a balanced team that can guard anybody. My starters were D Rose, J.J. Redick, Robert Horry, Z Bo, and Joel Embiid. Those were mostly gold cards and my bench is 1 gold card (Tyreke Evans) and the rest Bronze cards, most notably, Aaron Brooks. I love the Nuggets because my favorite NBA player is Wilson Chandler, Ill Wil was a Knick and he’s my heart. This game should be a cake walk. It’s early in the Domination progression.

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Quarter 1- J.J. Redick hits a 3 to open the game. This would turn out to be foreshadowing in the 4th Quarter. Things are going well in Q1. I am running a flex set on offense and sitting in a 2-3 zone. Embiid and Randolph are animals in the paint blocking everyone! Rose is shutting down Mudiaye and I am up 10 points to end the quarter.

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Quarter 2– Second Quarter much of the same just with my bench. Aaron Brooks comes out and hits three straight 3’s to put my team up 15. Defensively, the Nuggets are missing open 3’s and Spencer Hawes is blocking shots like a mad man.

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Quarter 3- Still holding on to the lead but the Nuggets ball movement is getting better. The lead is cut to 10 but the game is still in control. I am not having any trouble scoring in the paint with Randolph. We are running pick and roll sets with Rose at point. Uncharacteristically, D Rose is hit 2 threes in the Quarter. 

 

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Quarter 4-  The wheels come off in Quarter 4. Flex stopped working. The defense was forcing the flex cut to go underneath and that pass is very difficult. The 2-3 zone started getting killed by Wilson Chandler.

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He capped us with 4 threes in the 4th. With 1 minute left, we are down 2. We have the ball coming out of a timeout. Do I play conservative? Normally yes. I trust I can finish a lay-up ( drive with Rose), get a stop (lots of blocks) and then end the game with another layup. BUT J.J. Redick had other plans. The Juggernaut come out of the time out and we set up in a Princeton style set. I have Redick bring the ball up, and he is wide open for the 3 with 57 seconds on the clock. I pull the trigger. I can’t help it. Redick is rated as a A grade 3pt shooter. He nails it! We go up 1. Spencer Hawes gets the steal on the other end and we dribble the clock out. JJ seals the epic win and avoids and even worse collapse.

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These moments only happen in sports games. It was exhilarating and fun. I was geeked off that Redick 3 for the rest of the morning. I could have taken that shot with Big Shot Bob (Robert Horry) and did my Spurs impression but I didn’t need to. I felt like the coach, the player, and the biggest fan. Nothing beats winning.

 

NBA Live 16 Review (XBOX ONE): A Storm is coming…

The metaphorical storm being NBA Live 16 as a real competitor in the basketball scene this year. That said, I grew up playing NBA Action, NBA Live, NBA 2K, Jordan vs. Bird, Tecmo NBA, and many other basketball games. I use to relish in playing different developers vision of the sport. The differing takes on how to shoot, how to dribble, player ratings.

 Kobe Bryant with the YAM in NBA 2K for Dreamcast!

Bulls vs. Lakers for NES, back when Jordan gave his license like every other player.

Konami NBA In The Zone! A personal favorite game that was underrated.

That era died years ago, and the nail in it’s coffin was Jesus’ Bynums NBA Elite. That debacle of a game ended EA’s basketball run and it has taken years for them to recover. During that down time NBA 2K has been defining and redefining the genre in incredible ways throughout the years. EA started over with NBA Live 14 and it was absolute trash. That is the nicest thing I can say about it. It’s so bad they gave away Live 15 instead of Live 14 on EA Access so people wouldn’t play it.

All of that said NBA Live 15 came out last year and I really enjoyed it. NBA Live 16 has brought the life back to EA. This game is a return to form for EA in a big way.

Before I get into the videogame stuff I have to talk about my favorite aspect of this game, play calling! The over lay for running plays is incredible. It does 2 things that make it great and usable; 1) The over lay discreetly tells you the next 2 moves coming up (if you need to dribble towards a screen then pass, they inform you of that pass while your dribbling). This is huge because because the hardest thing about running plays in basketball games is that rarely does a player (at least me) look at the play in its entirety before entering the game. That requires memorization of both the play and the name. That’s a lot to ask, but by showing you where the play is going you can move accordingly instead of waiting to see what’s next.

2) They run motion offenses. They ran a flex style offense and it never stopped. I have seen my offense run Princeton style offense as well. Impressive stuff, especially because I rarely deviate from running the pick and roll.

The graphics- The graphics look very smooth and crisp. Last year looked a little sterile, but this year the stadiums are full of life and the player models are more realistic than last year. The biggest thing that Live has struggled with are animations and clipping. Players would have wonky animations (quick impossible lay up scoop shots, weird defensive blocks, etc) and they would clip through each other during steals and blocks. This issue has been toned back hugely this year. I compared blocks shots and steals from this year to 2K and neither was clipping in a major way. The arms, the ball, and the air all took up space in a meaningful way. I love the dunk animations in live. There are still too many hook shot animations in the game though, most players can hit a baby hook and it’s a move rarely seen in the NBA outside of the Grizzlies big men. I love how colorful NBA Live 16 is. The reflections off the court look amazing. I’d say the graphics are very impressive this year and dare i say look “next gen”.

The gameplay- The best compliment I can give the game this year is that Live 16 has put enough work into the A.I. that it feels like a game of basketball is being played. Adjustments are made on the fly, players are constantly running plays and moving. Last year, if plays weren’t called players would be standing around. This year players are doing their own thing to try and help the team. It makes a huge difference. The ball handling controls are tight as ever. The right stick controls moves like a fighting game. Momentum is more realistic this year so players aren’t sliding back court or out of bounds this year.

The Modes

Pro Am- This is my dream mode, it’s P v P or P v E basketball. You can do  progression through the P v E either alone or with people. And P v P is 5 on 5 goodness with bots if needed. My only issue with this mode is that not a lot of people own Live. What separates Pro Am from other games is the progression of your character. There are a lot of clothing and show unlocks as well as the ability to unlock NBA player animations for your person. My player Jax Briggs is currently decked out in some nice J’s, camo shorts, and a Melo jersey. Very much me.

Ultimate Team- Ultimate team this year is a mixed bag. I love it, it’s cards. But I really wish these modes would have a way to actually play with the cards….think bud bowl with NBA Cards.

I CAN’T FEEL MY LABEL!

Seriously though, it’s a tough progression. The rookie challenges are a breeze but everything after that is on Superstar difficulty and frankly the rewards have not been worth the grind. In Madden, you get lots of Elite cards for single player grinding. In Live not so much yet. I get that in basketball 1 great card can make a team so I get why they are frugal but it puts too much pressure on getting lucky in a pack. That said it provides tons of content and they added specialist players. For example, Eric Gordon is rated 92 for 3’s. His 3-point specialist card is a 97. Much like in Madden, these specialist cards are required for certain challenges.

The comparison- It’s the elephant in the room, how does this game stack up with NBA 2k16? The biggest thing I can say as a plus for NBA Live 16 is that they communicate information in an incredible way. They communicate info better than 2K does on every level. Miss a shot in Live 16? They tell you 12% (he’s not a good shooter). Hitting the back of the rim on your shots? The shot meter shows you a hoop and you can aim for the front or back of the basket via the meter. Let’s say you are having trouble defending the paint ( a big complaint for the game), the game communicates that you are successfully defending a lay-up by vibrating your controller.

They show and vibrate countdowns when you are crossing half court or throwing the ball inbounds. It’s amazing. In my opinion it replicates the info a player has looking at a shot clock or hearing the coach yell at you. 2K has a shot meter at players feet. It works but staring at Melo’s feet is dumb.

All of that said, 2k16 is a better game. The Spike Lee Joint that is the MyPlayer mode blows NBA Live’s equivalent out of the water. The lay up animations are much more consistent in NBA 2K every miss feels fair. I think graphically, Live is better but 2K has an art style and realism that is fantastic. I think 2K is a little slow but the precise controls this year are fantastic. Also, the worst feature of the series for me has always been the servers and this year they have been great on PC.

In summary, the biggest compliment I can give NBA Live 16 is that I am not embarrassed to say I like it. Operation Sports had good thing to say about it, and it has been getting fair reviews. my only frustration is 1) Game journalist refusal to take sports games seriously 2) People’s immediate dismissal of the series due to NBA Elite 11. Live 16 is good and EA does a great job updating their games.

Thanks for Reading. Peace!