Anyone who plays games?

nowayThere's definitely some maddening bugs in 2K11, but this is as realistic as it has ever been... unless of course you enjoy being able to shoot 70% from the floor on the highest difficulty setting while getting burned by Brandon Rush.

I disagree 100%, last year's was the worst ever and this year is a slight improvement, but nowhere near the quality of the PS2 games 2K8-2K9 as far as realism is concerned. Obviously the graphics are gorgeous and the animations are beautiful, but the cheap AI and animation driven engine is maddening. The catch up AI (for both player and computer) is so maddeningly obvious this year, it's beyond broken, it's impossible to have a normal game. There's zero balance to the game, anything below Superstar is easy as hell and Superstar and Hall of Fame (while still easy as hell because it's so easy to burn the defense in the paint all day) is so incredibly cheap and biased towards the AI. If you do not cheese the AI back you will have no chance to win, if you do cheese the AI you will win in a blowout no matter how high you tweak their defensive awareness, etc. Also, how can you possibly consider this game "the most realistic it's been" when certain huge facets of the game of basketball do not exist in this game (i.e. there is no fast break offense for the player - does not exist, there is no pass first point guard play in the game - impossible to run, the post offense is laughable in the game, the post defense is even worse). So, basically, you're forced into two styles of play (two subsets of the many forms of the game of basketball), and once you've become very good the computer is forced into one style of play (that cheap football pass fastbreak they do to get free points on your defense - it's the only way they can keep the game competitive, that and the glitchy animations they force you into when they want the ball back). No amount of sliders can fix this game. In 2K9 I was able to really refine the sliders after about three weeks of play and had badass hardcore down to the wire playoff series with sim stats and sim results. I was only able to win the NBA Finals once out of 20 seasons, and I enjoyed every friggen' minute out of all the series' I lost and I felt very rewarded when I won. In this game, I'm sweeping through the playoffs on Hall of Fame (I have one or two cheap losses per playoffs) and I feel like I was raped every time I play, I feel dirty after winning, it's not even enjoyable. Forget about the few times the computer makes you lose (which I can usually prevent no matter how hard they try), it's like being raped.

No, the games from 2K8-2K9 were definitely not perfect, lots of problems and bugs I didn't like, and definitely some noticable catch up AI. However, they were getting close to a pretty good representation of the game of basketball (save for the animations and graphics). A few fixes of some things and some refinement would have made an unblievable game. Instead, they just completely digressed to the shittiest game ever made in 2K10 and then took a small baby step forward in 2K11 (and in some ways made it even worse than 2K10).

Oh and by the way, if you don't think Brandon Rush doesn't burn you and you can't shoot 70% on the highest difficulty setting in this game, you have another thing coming. Play a few games against Danny Granger on Hall of Fame or Bargnani, Al Jefferson, Tim Duncan, Zydrunas Ilgauskus, etc, throw on a double-team or "Deny Ball" for good measure. And then run the pick and roll all day and backdoor to the hoop, you can set the "attempt dunks" slider down to 30 if it's too easy. It won't matter, both teams will have shot 70% for the game, a guy like Danny Granger most likely will have shot 9 for 11 from 3. Tweak the sliders all day, I've been trying for weeks now, it's broken beyond repair.