Review for NBA 2K9

NBA 2K9 boasts all the same features and gameplay types as last year’s game, including quick match, season play, online play, NBA Blacktop, and, of course, The Association. Blacktop consists of several street ball modes, including pick up games, three point shooting competitions, and dunk contests. While I would never, ever, suggest that 2K should bring back the irritating 24/7 mode of yesteryear, Blacktop is pretty ho-hum. The dunk competition, which should be the jewel here, is fairly difficult to master, made worse by the fact that the game seems to revel in not adequately explaining the controls beforehand.

But you didn’t buy NBA 2K9 for Blacktop. You bought it for The Association, where you get to be the general manager and coach of an NBA team through multiple seasons. The mode has always been the high watermark for basketball simulations, and this year it is better than ever. A very appreciated feature is that you can delegate any number of managerial and coaching tasks to your automated assistants. This helps alleviate some of the tedium that could set in when trying to set up practices, scouting reports, or negotiations with the team waterboy. However, if you want to manage these things yourself, they are there for the taking. Trades and contract signings are more fleshed out than ever with the addition of “Larry Bird” rights and the ability to attempt 3 team trades. You will no longer have an onscreen indicator showing you the other teams’ level of interest in your trade proposals, so common sense will be required.

When signing players to a contract you will have loads of options, including player/team option years, and the designation of “player roles”. Players’ personalities will dictate their mood throughout the season, and if they feel like you have not lived up to your word their ratings will drop off, and they will be more likely to demand a trade or decline their player option to return the next year. For example, say you are the GM of the 76ers, and you’ve promised Samuel Dalembert the starting center position, possibly because someone replaced your Folgers’ with a hallucenagetic compound. All is well until midseason when, due to a contract dispute, Rasheed Wallace suddenly becomes available. After swinging a deal to bring in Sheed to split time in the pivot, Dalembert will be none too happy that his minutes, and more than likely his starting slot, will be taken, and his mood and play will deteriorate. Needless to say, this feature really deepens the feeling of immersion you get in The Association.

So NBA 2K9 has lots of features. Big whoop, says Leroy, our man on the street, because it probably plays the same as any other basketball game. Well, Leroy is an idiot. The gameplay in NBA 2K9 is still quite a few ticks above the competition. Players in NBA 2K9 look and act like they do in real life, and games will play out accordingly. Steve Nash will drive the lane and kick out a crazy pass. Lebron James will amaze you with his high flying antics and deft passing. Samuel Dalembert will run successfully from one end of the court to the other, often times without tripping over his own feet. Almost every player has their own signature shooting styles and ball handling animations as well, and these animations are so eerily realistic and flow together so smoothly that the trite saying that you’ll think you’re watching a real game will often times be very close to the truth. Watching players seamlessly move through their animations based on position and physics is really awe-inspiring, and the first time Marcus Camby runs up behind you on the fast break and blocks your lay-up by slapping it off the backboard, your initial “damn!” will be replaced with a resounding “daaaaaaaaamn.”
NBA 2K9‘s gameplay is quite demanding, as usual, and can be brutal on a player who doesn’t run his sets or tries to use cheap tactics. There are tons of offensive and defensive sets to choose from, the only downside being that this year’s diagrams no longer animate to show player movement, so it is harder to figure out how to move the ball while running certain more complex sets. The computer AI will pick up on player patterns and adapts accordingly, so you will have to mix up your strategy and keep things fresh. Even at the easiest difficulty settings, computer opponents will give you a run for your money, especially the elite teams, so casual players who are looking for a more arcade-like experience may be turned off, but in all fairness, they probably were turned off to the simulation-heavy 2K series years ago.
While the AI is improved from years passed, it still has it’s flaws. After playing through several games certain weird little hiccups occurred. For example, your teammates are often slow to rotate on defense, and as a result if you’re playing a team with a strong point guard you’ll find them driving to the basket for uncontested layups all night, which is frustrating. In one game the Knicks fired up 45 3-pointers....that’s not a typo. And often times you will find yourself cursing how easily the computer can score with a hand in its face when you’re botching open lay-ups.

Also, while the level of depth to the game is great, it can be overwhelming at times, and the game is not really aimed at bringing new players into the experience. The manual alone might give you a heart attack when you open it to find 10 pages of maneuvers that are all seemingly executed by some variation of tapping the Y button while swirling the right analog stick and reciting the Bhagavad Gita. You can perform a myriad of moves depending on your position, which hand the ball is in, etc., but trying to execute all of these moves can be tricky, and you have to wonder how much easier ball-handling would be if the game mapped jukes to the right analog stick like most other games instead of using the left stick plus a trigger modifier. In general the game’s instructions, both in the manual and from game menus, are unhelpful, to say the least.

But these are relatively nit-picky complaints, because the game is so good. With amazing player animations, spot-on, realistic gameplay, and unparalleled depth, no hoops fan will want to miss out on NBA 2K9.

PS3: How to Add Soft Subs in DivX

Steps:

1. Use Google to look up a program called AVIAddXSubs v7.0. Essentially this is a program that creates "Xsubs" which are soft-subtitle files for official DIVX and XVid files. This works much in the way that it would with a Matroska (MKV) or OGM video file, but it's used with Divx containers.
2. Using the program you now have FULL control over the subtitle options. You can change the font sizes, colors, fonts, etc. as well as support for several subtitle files within one movie (meaning if you want to have say Japanese/Chinese/English/Korean/Spanish subs on one movie, you can).
3. The program will take your original video and the subs and merge them into a new file that ends in the .DIVX extension. You can rename it to be .AVI if you like, but the PS3 does recognize the .DIVX extension regardless.
4. Once you have the new file that's been created, you can load it to your PS3 however you like (streaming it, copying it to harddrive, playing on external USB drive, burning to disc, etc.).
5. Play the video file and once it's playing press the Triangle button on the controller to pull up the menu options. Go over to subtitles and you will now find that you can toggle between the various languages there.

Enjoy it!

Dragon Ball Origins

Dragon Ball is, in general, much less complex than Zelda. For one thing, it's completely linear. Where Zelda has a whole world to wander, Origins is a series of self-contained levels, unlocked in sequential order. Side quests take the form of silly "bonus" episodes unlocked after completing a chapter. This may be a dealbreaker for some, but for me it was nice not to have to wander around. It makes Origins a different, more straightforward kind of game.

Furthermore, most levels have a fairly obvious progression, again eliminating wandering. With the exception of the dungeons, which require some exploring, the levels are point A to point B with a few digressions for extra treasure. The focus here is on fighting, and not on exploration. Luckily, the combat is great, thanks to the variety of attacks Goku has and the enjoyable touchscreen controls.

The biggest problem, then, is this focus on combat: you basically walk from location to location, beat up a few enemies, and find the exit, learning a new ability every few levels, and building up points to level up existing abilities. Some players may find this repetitive, especially those coming in expecting a Zelda-like adventure. The combat is also rather easy, with few enemies posing a threat except for the bosses.