15 Ways to Make NBA2K12 the Ultimate Basketball Video Game

Hey, Bleachers! I was recently playing NBA2K11 and realized that there were so many wrong things with this game. Of course, I've noticed this long ago, but this time, the game really pissed me off. They called this the best basketball game ever made, and even though it is, it's not that great. In general, basketball video games aren't that great anyway. However, they're still as addicting as any other game.

If you haven't heard, MJ will be back with 2K, as will legends like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. They're also adding players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving. Now, Greatest Mode is the only thing that I've actually heard that they're adding to the game. OK, good concept, but if they're going to shift all their focus on that, I will be disappointed.

Now, where do I start with this game? It's actually going to be rather easy to point out the flaws in this game mainly because they are many. With that being said, I'm going to break this up in three separate headings:

Visual Presentation

Game Play

My Player

Note: I updated this article on several more things I noticed that also pissed me off. In a way this is a rant.

Visual Presentation

This is basically how the game is going to look and feel. They did a great job last game, but they can always improve and there is need for improvement.

The Players

As you can see, Dwight Howard really looks like himself. In reality, most players look like themselves, but some are horrendous. Take Steve Nash, for example. His facial features are good, but his hair makes him look like the exorcist. It's actually sort of the reason why I never choose the Suns in an exhibition match.

Also, Kobe looks like an alien. It's Kobe, but they made him look more like an alien than himself. Andrew Bynum also looks more like a baby in the game. Hopefully, they will improve the players faces as well as their accessories and shoes, which they did a great job with, in my opinion. 

The Fans

It was hard for me to find a picture of the fans, so I just stuck with this one.

From far away, the fans look great. And really, in most games, you don't want the fans looking better than the players, right? That's why fans look 10 times worse than the players. So I'm not looking to really improve the look of the fans except with them wearing the same shirt when it's time for the Playoffs.

I want the sound of the fans to be way better. They should be chanting "DEFENSE!" when the times correct; they should be booing Kobe and LeBron just like every other arena does; they should be screaming out "AIR-BALL" when an actual air-ball happens (not when the player gets fouled and throws up a shot); they should be as real as possible. Hopefully, they make a variety of chants because having just a couple would really make the game stale after a while.

The atmosphere should be really improved like adding a couple of celebrities at the Lakers and Knicks home games as well as the games. What I mean by this is that if it's an NBA Finals game, it should be 20 times louder than a regular season game with the Cavs.

Pre-Game

They did a great job in doing this. Whether it was the Bulls mascot waving the flag or the 76ers mascot acting stupid, they did it well.

Nonetheless, I do hope that they add the pre-game introductions. As in "At 6'6" from Lower Marion High School, No. 24, KOBE BRYANT!" They should announce all the players on the starting lineup, and it'll make the game that much better.

That's it for Visual Presentation.

Gameplay

Gameplay is how it will be played, what your teammates do, etc. There's actually a lot to talk about.

Technical and Flagrant Fouls

A lot of fans are hoping to see technical fouls and flagrant fouls added to game. It would be hard to do that, but I have an idea of how it could work.

An intense rivalry game between the Celtics and the Lakers is taking place. Paul Pierce is having a horrible shooting night and Kobe Bryant is taking him to school. So it's the fourth quarter and the Lakers have a 15 point lead with just under five minutes to go. Kobe is driving in and Pierce bumps into him, Raja Bell style. Because Pierce has been cold all night, and Kobe has been draining shot after shot, this should factor him into making a poor decision. So once that happens, Pierce is sent off and they have a minor altercation (mainly because it's an "E" Rated game).

The way technical fouls should be imputed is simple in my opinion: add a "Complain" control. By this, you can basically alter the way refs will be officiating. Say Blake Griffin drove in, and out of nowhere, a foul is called. They call charging on Griffin while it was clear there wasn't a charge. So with that being said, if you press the "Complain" button, Griffin should be at the ref's ear making sure that doesn't happen again. The ref thinks Griffin took it too far, and BAM! Technical foul is called on Griffin. But now the ref will do a better job of making a mistake like that again.

Of course, the players aren't going to fight or anything because of the rating of the game. But they should make it more realistic by adding these two aspects of a real basketball game.

Commentary

The commentary is very good...the first time you play the game. After maybe 10 games, it's stale, repetitive and doesn't sound like a Kevin Harlan broadcast. They do a good job of adding stuff like "The basket good from Gasol after Kobe's nice pass". But then sometimes, Harlan is boring. He's hardly boring in real life! Like what happened to "KOBE JUST SUCKED THE GRAVITY OUT OF THE TARGET CENTER?" He doesn't even scream at the top of his lungs sadly.

And they made Clark Kellogg sound harsh sometimes.

Hopefully they'll improve this and make commentary sound fresh.

Keep Blacktop Mode, Add in All-Star Mode

That's the best picture I could find for Blacktop Mode. Blacktop Mode is where you can play pickup games (1 on 1, 5 on 5), as well as a Game of 21, Three-Point Shootout and Dunk Contest.

21 and Pickup games are a great addition, but the presentation for the Three-Point Shootout and Dunk Contest is horrible!

They should really add an All-Star mode just like the NBA Live games had. They should also add the Skills Challenge to it as well.

Whatever Else to Make the Game More Realstic

Whether it's Griffin posterizing another player; whether Kobe is giving us a game winner with 0.8 seconds left; whether LeBron is messing up in the fourth, they should add.

Seriously, if Griffin is running the fastbreak and little Earl Boykins is taking a charge, Griffin should posterize him to the max.

They should also make better animations, like making 0.8 buzzer beaters possible.

Whatever they do, they better make amazing happen in these games.

My Player

My Player mode is easily the most addicting mode in the game. It's you playing in the NBA on the comfort of your couch. But after awhile, it does get repetitive and you just want to reach the playoffs. So here's a couple things they should fix and add.

The Creation of Your Player

The moves you can use for NBA2K11 were great. They would add signature dunks and layups. I wish that they could add signature passes. Like, have Steve Nash's or Chris Paul's passes inserted into the game.

Another thing they should add to your skill set is double crossovers and in and outs as well as adding way more to the original crossovers, spin moves, and behind the backs. In NBA2K10, you had the option to choose 15 different types of crossovers, spin moves, etc. as well as having the oppurtunity to choose your double crossovers and in and outs. But in this year's version, you only had the option to choose around seven moves for each one and you couldn't choose your double crossovers and in and outs. Ironically, they went a step back in this one.

The shoes and accessories are also satisfying, but I do wish that they could add maybe the Amar'e Stoudemire glasses, or the Rip Hamiltion face mask. Just to kick it up a notch.

The biggest flaw in the creation of My Player is the facial features. The hair choices suck! They're unrealistic and there really isn't a decent one to choose. Hopefully, they could do what FIFA does when creating a player. Just upload different screenshots of your face to their website, and they do it for you, making your player look just like you.

Picking a voice would help too, so not everyone who plays My Player would have the same exact voice.

Your Teammates

Your teammates are idiots. Gladly, not most of time, but when they are, they are complete idiots.

Let's start off with the fastbreak. It does this maybe about 90 percent of the time. Say Dwyane Wade was dribbling on the center of the court during a fastbreak. He has LeBron James on one side and Mike Bibby on the other. It would be smart to alley-oop the ball to LeBron when he gets to the hoop, right?

However, LeBron sees otherwise and stands next to side line to run a play instead of getting two easy points. The reason this happens is because of the Automatic Play Calling System. I hardly run plays in NBA2K11 so I don't have a problem with it in an Exhibition game, but in My Player, it's annoying. Your teammates become so problematic sometimes, I feel like breaking the game!

Their cuts are horrible. When they try to get open, they sometimes make good cuts, but then other times, the opponent deflects the ball and your teammate basically gives you a turnover.

The final reason why your teammates are idiots is the fact that they sometimes don't know what they're doing. An example is something that almost always happened to me. I would pass the ball to Carmelo Anthony out on the wing when he's wide open and think "He's a good mid-range shooter; surely he should give me an assist."

Well, I thought wrong, because he thinks it's a brilliant idea to drive in and go for a contested layup rather than take an easy shot. And when he does take the shot, he misses it half the time! How does he miss it? Because he stops and takes the shot two seconds after catching the ball, making it a contested shot instead of catching and shooting.

What I am really trying to say is that they don't cease great opportunities. They're not as smart as you would hope they are, and the creators really have to fix that problem. 

Commentators Should Actually Say Your Name and Use You in Conversation

One of my biggest pet peeves in this game is the inability of the commentators just simply saying your first name. It's so damn annoying that they can only say your last name. How simple can it be for them to just say your first name? Should be easy.

 Another thing is that if you led the league in scoring and then Kevin Harlan says, "Let's look at who led the league in scoring this past month." If you are on the top five they won't even acknowledge you. Why? I don't know. They don't even talk about you during the game other than if you have the ball, took a shot, or committed a foul. I believe it's simple just to stalk more about you in this game.

Make Play Calling Available at Every Position

If you are a point guard, you are able to call plays. But if you are a PG who plays SG at one point in the game, you don't get to call plays! It's annoying because every team I end up in, they never trade away their point guard even though I am the best one on their team. They have me playing SG, and I don't get to call plays.

However, in exhibition mode, you could be a center and have your power forward set a pick and you end up doing the pick and roll. The same should happen here, except you should be limited to calling plays, like centers should only really be calling isolation and post ups. Same goes for the PF.

But PGs and SGs should be getting the same gift of play calling.

Management Should Be so Much Smarter

Management is actually more clueless than your teammates. The trades they make do not help your team, and there's also no point of having them ask you who to bring in your team. (If you didn't know, once you become their star, they do that.)

Here's an example from my My Player mode. So I played for the Knicks, and management thought it would be a great idea to trade away our only backup PF, Jared Jeffries, to Chicago for mediocre center Kurt Thomas. OK, so now 'Melo would have to play backup PF; maybe not a big problem. Billups is then injured for at least six weeks, and now Landry Fields takes over the starting SG position. During his absence, management should have been thinking to get another center or PF that could help out Amar'e and Thomas. But no, they do nothing and just let losses pile in bringing our team down to the fifth seed in the East.

And coaching sucks in this game too! Every game during the fourth quarter (clutch situation or not), Mike D'antoni thought it would be a smart idea for our lineup to be Toney Douglas (PG), Me (SG), Landry Fields (SF), Derrick Williams (PF) and Camelo at Center! Are you kidding me? You think we're going to get rebounds and win like that? NO!

Our season ended in the first round when Josh Powell hit a buzzer in Game 7.

So now the new season starts with management making yet again another brilliant trade. They trade away our only center, Ronny Turiaf, (Thomas retired) for another guard. Now we have one PF, two SFs, four SGs and three PGs. When the draft comes, they draft a center who is really bad. So now we have one center. They have to fix that. Management should be making trades that help a team, not rip it apart. We could hardly win games, and I eventually requested a trade.

I got traded to a team I had no intention of going to, the Charlotte Bobcats. And guess what? They already had three other PGs; two of their three were Ramon Sessions and D.J. Augustin. Now that's just plain stupid. Come on, 2K Sports; fix that.

Better Press Conferences and Keep Track of Everything

So a great feature in NBA2K11 is the Press Conference Room. They basically ask you a question and you have to answer with:

Indifference

Loyalty

Proffesionalism

Arrogance

They should add more selections like sarcasm and comedy. How did Shaq make a name for himself in the Conference Room?

And after you answer, it tells you three things:

Whether your Team Chemistry improved, stayed the same or decreased and ditto, to your League-Wide Popularity and Local Fan Support. What if you could keep track of it with a bar or something so it actually becomes a factor in My Player mode, as well as knowing how popular you are with your teammates, the league and your fans.

Your Opponents

Okay, I get the fact that your opponents should be good. However I don't understand how they can make 90 percent of their post-up shots. It's so annoying because if you're in a tight game with little on the clock, they just post-up and they hit the shot no matter where they shoot it.

Another weird thing is that shooters with a 90 mid range shooting rating won't make a mid range shot. But a player who's mid range is 60, of course they make the shot. Even with two guys in their face. It's something that I just don't understand how it's possible. It's something that pisses me off so much I start screaming at my T.V. feeling pretty idiotic.

The Unrealism in My Player Mode

One of the funny things about this game is the fact that contenders in real life, aren't contenders in the game. In fact, my current My Player mode has the Clippers, TimberWolves, and Nuggets as the top seeds in the West. Actual contenders like the Lakers, Mavs, and Spurs find themselves around the eight, nine, and ten spots. How weird.

Stuff like that shouldn't be happening. It's something that has to get fixed because even though the Clippers, T-Wolves, and Nuggets have talent, there is no way that they are better than the Lakers, Mavs, or Spurs. Come on 2K.

What to Keep

Even though there are several things to change, they have certain things that should stay the same.

Like at halftime, they have a great one minute half-time show. Their "Player of the Game" presentations are also sick! Those two should definitely stay along with having the old teams like MJ's Bulls.

Conclusion

NBA2K11 was the best basketball game ever made. But still, it's not as good as the FIFA games in my opinion. Nonetheless, they have the potential to make the 2K series the best basketball franchise ever.

If they can improve most of the stupid things your teammates do, trades management does and the bad fans, it will be 10 times better than NBA2K11.

I can't wait to get this game and see what you guys have to say. Comment please! Thanks for the read.