"Can gameplay HANDLE it?"

New features sell casual fans. HARD. They are the main reasons fringe fans pick up a new game every year. While hardcore players want to see improvements on current gameplay and old exploits rendered useless, new players need high-profile, headline-worthy new additions that warrant their purchase. This can often be a double-edged sword as we often see elements to gameplay added before they are fully fleshed out and balanced.



Most of you will remember that two years ago developers decided to give users a bonus when they closed out and challenged shots. This sounded like a good idea initially, but when you added lag and a lack of shot feedback online it was almost a disaster. Bonus? Why? A game that already had realistic shooting percentages didn't need some corny way to reward players for using its new feature. Hardcore players highly regard 2K because of its great simulation depiction and realism. Let's leave the videogames to Electronic Arts. Here are a few other features that lacked balance when they were introduced to gameplay in the past.

Double Team - Long time 2K veterans can think back to 2K6 online when we had lobbies and other aspects we miss now but also the game-breaking double team. As bad as exploit as there ever has been, few will forget how cheesers were able to go to the strategy menu and double-team everyone and force you out of any semblance of offense. Holding the ball for any length of time allowed a trap to come and either got the ball stolen or resulted in a tie-ball situation. We all wanted a way to force the ball out of a designated player's hands but because a lack of balance didn't limit this mechanic with fouls and higher fatigue it destroyed gameplay online. Talk about horrible.

Paint-to-Paint Passing - One has to wonder with gameplay having more deflections out of bounds why interior passes aren't limited more. One of the last parts of 2K's stellar gameplay that still needs improvement is allowing this type of passing (especially between bigs) in the paint. We should see deflections out of bounds AS A RULE in situations like these. Help defenders still automatically rotate to a player with the ball in the painted area allowing us to easily fool the AI into bad defensive positioning.We'd also like to see more handoffs rather than passes from short distances. This would improve gameplay a great deal and allow the defense a realistic way to keep up.

Deflections of out Bounds -We added these for one reason, because we simply don't see ENOUGH of them. Gameplay becomes sloppy in many instances because the AI has defenders play the passing lanes too well resulting in too many steals. We're baffled by this because a system where more balls were deflected out of bounds would have balance, punish bad passes while still rewarding the defense by making offenses operate late in the shot clock. LETS MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Lack of Fouls -The almost total absence of foul calls finally looms large this year. Its one of the longtime issues in gameplay that simply has to be resolved. Players that shoot a large number of FTs are having their impact on the game lowered a great deal. When you look at the fact that we have realistic FG%, FT% and quarter lengths, one thing is sure: DEFENDERS ARE GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER. Play a full game and look at the amount of FTs. Now look at the final stats in an NBA game. You're harded pressed to show me a 2K game where teams shoot more than 15 FTs. In reality Dwight Howard is AVERAGING 17 FTs per night this season. Even moreseo, players like Lebron, Howard, Melo, Griffin and Durant who score a large number of their points at the line are much less effective because the whistle is rarely blown. Why can't gameplay handle it? We assume because devs don't want to slow the game down or frustrate users. This is the same thing people thought for years regarding SIM gameplay and we see how much players appreciate it now. Right now the expanded post game has no defense save the all-steals, all-blocks options of the past and pushing and shoving and contact animations that would often be called fouls in reality. We hope to see more counters next year like the Defense Stick we keep lobbying for, but we also hope next year 2K turns over a new leaf in regards to the proper depiction of fouls. 2K can't claim Real Scores, Real Stats, Real NBA until fouls are done right.

Inbounds - Another longtime issue that needs addressing is the steal system that allows users to place themselves between the inbounder and player receiving the ball. This probably seemed like a great addition at first but once again, lack of balance hurt it. Why don't our PGs aggressively come back to the ball? Why do they allow defenders to easily get between them and the inbound? Why aren't fouls called from the holding and jostling that often takes place when players are fighting for position in situations like these? All of these elements would add strategy and have users weigh the risk/reward of a certain action rather than continue to use an exploit because they know it is 100% effective.

Spin Dunks - Until gameplay has a true collision system where physics are a part of every interaction or maneuvers like these are called offensive fouls as often as they succeed, triggered animations like these simply can't exist. We too often see these animations rendered undefendable because of the higher ratings of some elite players. These seem like a good idea at first, but when users learn how to trigger these animations each and every time down the court without balancing them, a few-times-a-season spectacular play becomes routine based on its frequency.

Hopstep - While not an issue this year, this is another perfect example of mechanics not being balanced correctly. This all-but destroyed gameplay in 2K10 when it could have easily been balanced by calling offensive fouls 50% of the time it was used. Any mechanics that aren't implemented without thought to how they will be countered on defense or offense are usually a bad idea.

Off-ball Defense - In 2K10 when this feature made its debut it was wonderful because it allowed us options other than the all blocks/all steals defense we were used to. Sadly though, it was imbalanced because it prevented the ball from being passed to players we had initiated Ball Denial on--a very bad mechanic. Its another instance where the balance of fatigue, holding fouls and even vulnerability to back door plays would have given it the paper-rock-scissors strategy aspect that real sports gamers crave so badly. We hope it returns next year in a balanced fashion.

Zone Defenses - Few things point out the need to balance gameplay before implementing advances than zones. Madden is a subpar game made horrible by its refusal to provide balance and zone defenses in NBA 2K bring back memories of the horrible way EA fixes gameplay issues. Zones are too strong and even worse display none of the weaknesses that they have in reality. Excessive deflections and recovery makes it more difficult than it should be to break zone defenses down. Da Czar made a great example of how badly they are depicted in last week's show. In short: Zones can not be added into 2K gameplay until gameplay can handle it. Right now it simply can't.

Box-out Animations - Another great new feature made imbalanced by the fact that its a factor in the excessive amount of Offensive REBs, loose ball fouls are rarely called and rebounders don't attack the ball. The first major gameplay patch simply has to render this a non-issue.

Long Passes - We love the open gameplay this year but some elements of it need refining. The problems with transition defense this year make long passing exploitable. You also have to ask yourself how often you see NBA teams thrown the ball the length of the floor successfully. Where are the bad passes, fumbled catches and deflections out of bounds we should see plenty of? Our defenders act inept and too often watch instead of acting and mistime their steals on passes like these much too often.

These are great examples of how past and present gameplay has been affected by elements that weren't tuned correctly before being added. Keeping this in mind will be a good way to focus on potential imbalances before they have the chance to make it into future games.