This patch is gonna fix A LOT of things so you'd better read up on it. Fresh out of Pasta Padre, we've got the list of tweaks and fixes for
NBA 2K9 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360). There's a lot to read so enough with the babble and onto the list:
General
- Inbound Bug - We have corrected an issue where teams would not
inbound the ball after a made basket, resulting in a non-authentic
experience. This turned out to be a timing-specific issue with regards
to quitting out of another game mode.
- Player DNA – We found an issue where face sliders were getting
offset when downloading the DNA of a player that another user has
previously uploaded. Downloaded players should now look identical to
when the original user uploaded the Player DNA.
- Created Player Scrolling Crash – When a player was created with the
‘Thick’ body type and was not placed on a team, on the Bobcats, or on
the Thunder, the game would crash when attempting to load the player
model in the create player screen or in-game. This issue has been
addressed.
- Exiting Game Mode Crash – A crash was identified when the user
attempted to leave a game mode (Association, Playoffs, etc.) when
starting the game mode after receiving an updated Living Roster. This
issue has been addressed.
- Development Drill Crash – Related to the issue above, a few users
were seeing a crash when attempting to perform a development drill
after loading an Association file. The triggering issue has been
identified and resolved.
- Substitution Issue – It was discovered that when the user would
change their ‘Substitution Method’ to ‘By Rotation’, the CPU would
remain in the ‘By Fatigue’ method which would result in inconsistent
subs or none at all. The CPU will now replicate the ‘Substitution
Method’ chosen by the user’s team.
- 2K Cam Framerate – We have greatly improved the framerate gameplay
in the 2K camera. Additional cameras have also seen performance boosts
with the changes made.
- Injury Frequency – In-game injuries during The Association will now
occur at a lower frequency. This is particularly true with hard fouls,
loose ball dives, and general falls.
- Association League Leaders – Users playing through The Association
with 5 minute quarters were finding that their players who should
qualify for the league leaders weren’t properly being listed. This
issue has been corrected.
- Association Simulation – The simulator inside The Association has
been tuned to produce more realistic game results. We found the final
scores for most games to be too high pre-patch.
Online
- Player Match Crash – It was discovered on launch day that when a
certain number of users simultaneously select the ‘Player Match’
option, the game will eventually crash when looping through the
available players.
- Team-Up Lag – An intense round of optimization has taken place for
the Team-Up experience. The changes made grant significant speed
improvements for users on slower broadband connections such as
lower-end DSL connections. The end result is a much smoother gameplay
experience for everyone.
- ‘2K’ Cam – In order to increase user satisfaction with the title, we
have added the ‘2K’ camera angle as a playable camera angle when
playing online.
- First FT Lag / Difficulty – The first free throw of an online game
had a variable amount of lag depending on which camera was chosen for
the shot. We have corrected this issue by asserting a fixed camera for
this shot that eliminates any controller lag. In addition to this, the
‘make’ window for free throws in online play has been increased to
account for the timing difference.
- Waiting For Opponent – Users with poor connections were causing the
game to loop too long on the “Waiting for Opponent” dialog before
continuing on into the game. We’ve cleaned up this behavior to place
players into the game in a much quicker fashion.
- Quick Match Connection Problems – An issue was identified where
users were being re-directed to the online FAQ instead of being taken
into a game. This message will now only appear in appropriate
situations.
- Online League Injuries – In online leagues, injured players that
were taken off the roster weren’t healing. The game now properly
detects injured players and heals them in the appropriate time frame
regardless of where they are placed on the roster.
- PS3 Voice / Team-Up – An issue was uncovered where voice chat would
drop or become intermittent when more than two users were talking
simultaneously. This issue has been resolved.
- Team-Up Cameras – The Broadcast camera for Team-Up has been
optimized to show the user a better balance of their player, the ball,
and they player they should be guarding. Also, 2K Cam has been added to
the list of cameras the user can use during Team-Up play.
Gameplay
- Subbing Fouled Out Player – A bug was found where you could
substitute in a player who had previously fouled out, only when using
the quick-sub method of the On-The-Fly Coaching menu.
- Resetting Substitutions – When the user queued up substitutions via
the On-The-Fly Coaching feature, re-accessing the feature before the
substitutions actually took place would cause the subs to be reset such
that the user would have to manually perform them again. We have
addressed this issue.
- Points Off Turnovers – It was discovered that this statistic was not
calculating correctly when it is reported to the server for online
league games. We have isolated the issue in the AI and have addressed
the problem such that the stat is correctly reported.
- Double Dribble Issue – By performing a sequence of moves that ended
in a hop step, the user was able to perform a double dribble. This
issue has been corrected.
- Jab Step Fixes – The ‘Jab Step’ move has been reconstructed to be
more balanced in the post. Specifically, it should not be effective in
user vs. user games unless the ball-handler touches the defender. Also,
performing the ‘Jab Step’ should no longer make the defense go back
when the ball-handler loses the dribble.
- Points in the Paint – In an effort to increase user satisfaction, we
have tuned interior defense in combination with shooting percentages
for shots taken in the paint. The result is something we feel will be
more in-line with what our users are expecting.
- Shooting Percentages – Continuing with the above description, we
have tuned down shot success of perimeter shots when the defender is
amply covering the offensive player taking the shot.
- PlayVision – PlayVision in Team-Up was showing everyone’s starting
point with no indication on which was yours. We have changed the
behavior to only show the floor art for the player you are controlling.
- General Fixes – A large number of other smaller issues have been
addressed with the aim of increasing user satisfaction. These changes,
while minor, have improved the quality of gameplay.
Did you get all that? With the NBA season heating up the way it's doing right now, it'll be nice to relive the action in-game minus the crappy bugs. Did you happen to catch Andrew Bynum against the Raptors by the way? The kid's got major potential. Why don't you try him and the rest of the Lakers out on
2K9?
The patch comes out this Wednesday for the PS3, and we can expect it to come out for Xbox 360 soon after.
Other recent patches that you might need to know about:
Titles
