NBA 2K3 Preview

[Joeiss]

An Opening from Joe :

Steve Nash brings the ball up. He shakes and bakes and throws a hard pass to Tracy MacGrady. T-Mac fakes a pass to Jamal Mashburn, and drives to the net. Drawing the double team, T-Mac passes to Ben Wallace, who takes a shot from the elbow. Rebound by Keon Clark, and he slams it home! Boo-yeah! The Bulls win the championship!

Yes. It may happen one day. But why wait when I can just start a franchise in NBA 2K3? Oh yes, the unbelievable mode from last year's game is back, and it is even better than before. In fact, everything is back and is improved on! This game is not just a carbon copy of the last version like some sports games. This year's game features new lighting effects, player faces, franchise mode, create-a-player, official courts, street modes, plays, animation... I'll just stop here, because the list goes on and on.

NBA 2K3 will be released on October 22 at the price of $49.99 (79.99 CDN)

Call us jaded, but when we check out the latest version of a sports franchise, we tend to expect last year's horse with updated rosters and possibly a glossier coat. Certainly that's what we expected to get from Sega's NBA 2K3. Developed simultaneously for all three consoles, Sega's latest bball game boasts a surprising number of additions and some much needed fixes. If you figured NBA 2K3 was just going to be the some old thing, then you are as sadly mistaken as we were.

Visuals
The most noticeable change graphically is the specular highlighting. Each player is now lighted specifically by the individual stadiums, meaning that a game in Oaktown will look darker (the Warriors are afraid of bright lights) than a well-lighted stadium like the Air Canada Centre. As the game progresses, players get sweaty and therefore a bit more shiny. A change in camera angles brings a change in highlighting as all the lighting effects are done in real-time. All this helps make the game appear more realistic than previous iterations.

As if this weren't enough, Sega has done away with previous head models and come up with a new system. There are a variety of different head shapes and many players have multiple head- types. This means that one game Ben Wallace will bust out with the cornrows and the next he'll go full-on afro. Faces are not only more accurate (Iverson is dead on, right down to his weak little Aunt Thelma mustache), but are also animated. You'll see eyes blink, mouths curl into snarls, and even a sleepy-eyed look from Adonal Foyle.

Another nice touch is the new replay effects, which will be available only on the Xbox version of the game. Pixel-shader effects make the primary baller in the play stand out amongst the rest with color variations. It's quite sweet to see Shaq prominent in a shot where he denies Vince Carter of a lay-up.

The Street Mode, which was a big hit last year, has also seen some graphical improvements. The courts are more inline with their real-life counterparts and you can see much more of the peripheral environment. Weather effects have been added including rain, heat wave, and wind. Rainy courts see Metal Gear Solid-like footsteps and splashes from the ball pounding the blacktop. A heat wave will sap player energy and (for Xbox only) have a heat effect similar to the one seen in Wreckless. Windy conditions can be added to any other weather effects and will affect the environment. Trees sway in the background and even the angle of the rain is affected by the wind.

The Fixes
While the majority of NBA 2K3 was carried over from NBA 2K2, the team at Visual Concepts heard enough complaints and suggestions about that last game to warrant a few major and a few minor changes that will certainly be welcomed. There are actually three major adjustments that dedicated hoop fans should definitely appreciate about NBA 2K3: more realistic shooting percentages, more realistic goal-tending and improved fastbreak mechanics.

The CPU and human controlled teams as well, were able to shoot ridiculously high percentages game in and game out in NBA 2K2, especially jump shots. If you braved franchise mode you could easily set an NBA record for team shooting percentage for a season, that is only if the 28 other CPU controlled teams ahead of you didn't all beat you to it. Rather than simply lowering shooting percentages for every team in the game, VC chose to undo some of the defensive/offensive tinkering that lead to the situation to begin with. Now, the company is forcing gamers to actually create good shots whether they're on the perimeter or in the paint, rather than simply assigning probabilities based on the players involved and their talent levels. Shaquille O'Neal will be much more successful inside, but now it's because he can take advantage of more opportunities you create for him rather than because he's simply Shaquille O'Neal. Reggie Miller can kill you from behind the arc, but only if you create good shots for him. Shooting with Larry Bird with three guys on him will be bad news whether it's the CPU or your buddy controlling him.

Inadvertent goal-tending was one of the most frustrating parts of 2K2. In your zeal to grab a precious offensive rebound with a perfectly timed leap, far too often you'd end up touching the ball while it was in the cylinder. Your timed jumping skills will come in handy because now a leaping player will recognize if a shot has a chance to go in and wisely pull his hands away to avoid the penalty. How easy is this? If the shot caroms off the rim or backboard first, you'll still be right there for a putback or vicious defensive board. Now you'll be able to send Ben Wallace to crash the boards with reckless abandon knowing he'll know to leave well enough alone.

The fast break is more or less a product of the improved passing dynamic which is more or less a product of improved ball physics in NBA 2K3. Imagine this, the basketball actually has realistic physics that cause it to bounce, fly and move like a real rock. On the break this means players will make logical passes to each other based on the fast break situation. What was the point of having Andre Miller push the ball up the middle of the floor if Wesley Person, who'd have an open lane to the rim, would simply stop in place when the ball got to him on a spiffy bounce pass? Now, players will continue to fill the lane, like they teach you in seventh grade and ball handlers will make the best pass they can make given the situation and their talent level. This works for delayed fast breaks as well, when all 10 players are in the frontcourt but the defense hasn't had time to set up yet.

One last beautiful fix that will thrill you playground masterminds out there is the new "non-out of bounds" crossover move. Too often you'd have plenty of room on the sidelines for a quick shake and drive to the baseline, but the animation would carry you out of bounds much to your dismay. For NBA 2K3, anytime you put on a crossover move going away from the basket in any direction, the animation will quickly re-orient the player so that he is facing the basket and then initiate a special shake move. This is all done automatically and doesn't look like a conventional crossover move but more like a big dramatic playground setup and move. Using this move along the baseline should open up all kinds of possibilities for quick offense.

Continued in next post...

[Joeiss]

The Newness
Sure there are up-to-date rosters (Vin Baker is already on the Celtics) and rookies like Jay Williams and Mike Dunleavy, Jr., but it's the new gameplay additions that may push NBA 2K3past its predecessors. Visual Concepts had a good thing last year, but wanted to add more realism to the game and give fans some of what they had always been craving in a basketball game.

The post-up game has been greatly improved over last year with the addition of dekes and positioning. There's much greater control offered in the post both for defenders and ball- handlers. Ball handlers can back down a defender, or turn, face, and fire or back out of the post- up, or dribble step, or pass out of the post. The biggest improvement, however, might come from the new positioning abilities. Defenders can try fronting in the post (gaining position in front of an offensive player to deny him the pass) or can stay back and defend against the shot. Last year you could only post-up on offense if you had the ball. This year offensive players can fight for position without the ball simply by posting up (left trigger) and moving the thumbstick to try and maneuver around a defender.

You can face up a player just like last year. Jab step, pull off a sweet crossover, or even shoot a fade away jumper. This year defenders react more realistically to jab steps and fakes. A bad defender will often bite on a jab step, taking a step back and giving the shooter space. The face- up and post games often blend together to help the game flow better than in past years.

The passing game has also seen improvement with the ability to choose between lob passes and faster, chest-high passes. A tap of the pass button performs and lob and holding down the pass button will cause lower passes and even bounce passes. This should help provide smoother fast breaks. And just to throw in even more NBA flare, players will now step out and pass around defenders. And should you make a pass you're not supposed to, you may get to see one of the nice new bobble animations, where the recipient tips the ball to himself several times before gaining possession.

Though the standard crossover moves return from last year, there are some new touches, including the ability to perform a double crossover. Basically, if you do a crossover to get around an opponent and they step to block you off, you can tap the crossover button again to perform a second crossover and blow past them the other way. This, of course, will vary on the player. You'll see Vlade bouncing that second crossover off his calf and into the opponent's mitts, but Allen Iverson will make the same move seem easy like a Sunday morning.

Not enough for you? Sega has finally bit the bullet and added what was always lacking from their game -- diving for balls. When a ball hits the floor players can dive for it. Want to keep a ball from going out of bounds? Just press the jump button and you will dive and try to swat it back inbounds. There are a bunch of animation variations and all of them let you feel the fervor of NBA play.

Okay, so diving for balls, more crossover choices, and some cool new post-up moves are great, but isn't it really all about the dunks? Sega knows that's where it's at and has included well over 200 dunk animations. NBA dunk champ Jason Richardson was motion-captured for many of the dunks and every one of them looks deliciously sweet. But that's not where NBA 2K3 will dazzle you. Added this year is the ability to change your shot in midair. Let's say you go up for a lay-up and Mutumbo steps in front to swat your upcoming shot away. Just tap the shooting button again and you will adjust your shot. This could mean you pull back the shot a moment and then put it up again or you could wind up switching hands a la Jordan.

There are new shooting factors in NBA 2K3 that take into account not only skill, fatigue, the defender, and the shot angle, but also what you do with the shot. So if you get open on the fast break and try and change your dunk midair for something truly dazzling, you run a slightly higher risk of bricking the dunk. On the other hand, adjusting the shot when a defender comes at you may increase your chances of making the shot.

Franchise
Like Sega's other recent sports titles, NBA 2K3 features a new ESPN presentation style. The Franchise Mode looks similar to NFL 2K3 with an actual office for your Coach/GM to operate in. The office is not the same one used in NFL 2K3 but will feel familiar to those who've played that title.

You can keep your franchise around for up to 30 years, building them into a powerhouse dynasty or totally ruining them. Your choice. Like World Series Baseball, you hire your coach. Each coach has different abilities in the following categories: Offense, defense, and teaching. The type of coach you hire will affect player performance and development. Coaches can be fired and their contracts do run out.

Visual Concepts was not content to just take last year's solid franchise mode and replay it this year. The NBA will be dynamic and will change over time. European players will become more dominant over the years and you'll see an even heavier presence in the later years of your franchise.

Currently classic players available in Street Mode are not available in Franchise Mode. Hopefully Sega will allow classic players to be imported into a franchise as rookies much like ballers are imported from NCAA College Basketball 2K3.

Even if this awesome feature is not implemented, NBA 2K3 looks to be dunking along nicely. NBA 2K3 ships in October to GameCube, Xbox, and PS2.

-From IGN

Ever since I purchased NBA 2K2 last year, I realized that Sega Sports makes the best basketball simulation games on these next generation platforms. I never really enjoyed EA's Live series ever since it started on the Super Nintendo, I still do not like it. NBA 2K3 will be great, trust me. If you are already a fan of the series, I suggest you mark this date on your calendar. I am looking forward to this game very much, and I will most definitely be purchasing this game in October.

Screenshots

[Perfect Stu]

Top-notch preview, Joeiss. I look forward to your next one. Keep up the good work.

As for the game, I liked NBA2K2, so I might check this one out.

[Joeiss]

Thank you, Stu.

And one more thing that I forgot the tell you guys in the preview, but this game will be online. Sega has stated this, but has unfortunately not announced any details (extra costs, etc.). So, I will look forward to kicking all of your arses online on October 22.

[Crono]

Originally posted by Joeiss
Thank you, Stu.

And one more thing that I forgot the tell you guys in the preview, but this game will be online. Sega has stated this, but has unfortunately not announced any details (extra costs, etc.). So, I will look forward to kicking all of your arses online on October 22.

If Sega is making NBA2K3 online...I don't understand why NHL2K3 won't be online...hmm.

Yeah anyway, good preview.

[Joeiss]

Originally posted by Crono

If Sega is making NBA2K3 online...I don't understand why NHL2K3 won't be online...hmm.

No idea. It should be, I mean, Sega allready tested the 2K series being online via the DC. It makes no sence to me either.