Why NBA2K17 Is A Worse Release Than No Man's Sky

As many people are well aware of the complete mess that followed the release of No Man’s Sky, I am going to explain why it isn’t the worse game release this year. That dubious title belongs to NBA2K17. To be fair, I’m ONLY referring to the MyCareer game mode in 2K. I have no experience with online games with other users, but from what I’ve gathered from players who do play online with other humans the problems there are just as troublesome.

For those not fully aware of the situation with No Man’s Sky, I suggest you look up all the nastiness surrounding the game. For me, I didn’t find the game to be all that entertaining. There simply wasn’t enough accomplishment to justify all the grinding to reach accomplishments. A vicious cycle of bad, bad, bad. For many other gamers who had followed the extended timeline of NMS (all along their expectations growing exponentially with each video release) the game failed miserably to meet perceived promises. Many consumers of NMS railed endlessly about how they believed the game was falsely advertised. Again, I wasn’t aboard the hype-train so I can’t make a reasonable comment about the game being guilty of false advertisement. In addition to the “false advertisement” the game dropped with several glitches and bugs, some involved the pre-order goodies. And as the world bore down on NMS, the game developers went dark. This only fueled the fire and suddenly it seemed as though the purchasers of No Man’s Sky were on a witch-hunt. But...there is a game release that has been far worse.

I’ll share some of my gaming experience with the NBA2K franchise so you all can get a better feel, and ultimately decide if I have the qualifications to explain all that has been and is wrong with NBA2K17.

I started playing the NBA2K franchise with the NBA2K16 release. I picked up 2K16 a month  or two before the release of 2K17 to get a feel for the game. The storyline in 2K16 was terrible but the gameplay seemed to be good. Buying the game late, I didn’t have to suffer with all the glitches and bugs that apparently hampered the game upon it’s release. Now, hold onto that statement as you are about to see a pattern develop. Anyway, I enjoyed 2K16 enough to download 2K17 Prelude, which was an enormous waste of time—thankfully it was free. And 2K17 had some significant changes over the previous year’s release. A new shot meter and new player archetypes, which I’ll discuss a bit later. Some new play-calling functions that aren’t even worth the effort to figure out. And a new storyline, which up to that point, was far better than the 2K16 release. So, overall a step forward. But then the other shoe drops.

And this is where shit gets real.

I’ll begin with the new player archetypes. Now again, this review relates to the MyCareer mode. When starting a new MyCareer you are prompted to pick a player position, point guard, small forward, center, whatever. Then you are forced to pick an archetype. And at first blush it seems like a good idea. I can pick a playmaker point guard or a slasher small forward. Maybe a post up power forward. But this initially great idea quickly turns into a player who ends up constrained to the archetype. I’ll use the slasher archetype as an example. According to 2K a slasher is a player who excels at making layups and dunks, can shoot off the dribble, and has some reasonable skill as a post player. A slasher can’t shoot threes, can’t make plays for others, and is only a marginal midrange shooter. Now, I’m not sure how they came up with the qualities for each archetype but they obviously never watched Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippen play. Yes, Jordan was a drive-the-lane first player, but he was excellent off the dribble and in the midrange. And he proved in the finals he could shoot the three by making ten in a game. And although Pippen wasn’t as consistent a scorer as Jordan, he was a great player with all of Jordan’s abilities plus a great playmaker. And the slasher archetype isn’t a top flight defender. Again, I refer to Jordan and Pippen. There are several archetypes available and I could easily find players who clearly fit the mold but are also excellent at the positions 2K believes they aren’t. Flaw number one, but only a minor annoyance.

The real trouble, and a major annoyance, is the game play. It’s supposedly smoother and allows for more user control, specifically for dribble moves. In previous versions the dribble moves were animations the game picked for you based on a series of circumstances. But I can assure you the gameplay, if it is indeed smoother, is bogged way down by animation locks. It constantly feels like the player is locked into an animation. And some of the animations don’t even look right. Often players appear to be “skating” to a spot or “skating” instead of dribbling. Skating as in on ice. But those are things you can get used to with a little gritting of the teeth. But the actual gameplay isn’t something that can be ignored…

Upon release the game default during transition offense was to rebound and give it to any player to start the break. This seldom happens in the NBA. You have a point guard for a reason. But that never mattered because the AI doesn’t know how to run transition offense. The basic premise of fastbreak offense is to get quick, easy baskets from high-percentage shots. How is this done? Start backward from the rim. It’s well documented that the closer to the basket you are the higher the chances of scoring points. But I’ll allow for leeway here and go with taking shots within the paint—twelve-foot shots or less. But at the launch of 2K17 all shooters not with the ball went straight to the corner three shooting area. This negates the high-percentage shot. It also prevents an outnumbered situation, which is also a major factor in transition offense. Easy buckets, high-percentage shots, outnumbered situations, and/or mismatches. So if you are on a 3 on 2 break and two guys set up at the three point line the fastbreak is squashed because it’s now a 2 on 1 transition defense situation. Sure you could dish it out and hope someone drains an open three but the odds are slim. And the longer the shot, the longer the rebound, and suddenly you went from a fastbreak to poor transition defense. Of course the thought is to put more threes in the the game because that’s the way the NBA game is shifting. And yes that’s true, but not in a fastbreak scenario. If there is an outnumbered situation in the painted area, that’s where the ball will go. If it’s a 2 on 2 in the paint and a trailer on the three point line you may see a kick out to the shooter. As a player, I wouldn’t have ever done that. Take your chances near the basket.

And there’s more. This game flaw pertains to both set offense and transition offense. The AI simply isn’t coded well enough to understand the player position on the court or mismatches. I can’t count how many times my big man is in perfect position at the rim, the defender under the basket, and upon receiving a pass for an easy score, the big man passes back out. This leads to the extremely flawed offensive three-second violation. Of course there is more going on within the painted area to cause a three-second violation. The AI is coded to prevent the player from traveling through the paint. This includes apparent holding from the defender. In one game I played during a baseline inbound play, the screener for the offense stayed inside the paint for 7 seconds. No call. A similar situation occurs during transition offense. It appears that the code is written in a way that once a certain amount of time has elapsed transition offense becomes set-offense, and this is accurate for the most part. When it isn’t accurate is during a wide open, uncontested shot being passed out. The AI simply doesn't take advantage of the opportunity. Instead it goes into set-offense mode, which can lead to a three-second call.

Still more. The shot-meter and Relentless Finisher bug. When the game was released it came with another bug or two. For some players the shot meter wouldn’t complete its cycle, forcing missed shots. The Relentless Finisher badge, which was designed to help boost the chances of making contested shots going to the basket, was also buggy. This badge was especially important to the slashers since layups and dunks were the main offensive attribute. See, the game grades you on you shot selection and shot timing. I’m sure you can deduce where this is going. If your shot meter doesn’t work, your shot timing will be off. The Relentless Finisher fuck-up would charge layups with poor shot choice. Poor shot selections impact your teammate score, which affects your game salary. At this point I’m certain that the game developers have never played basketball or watched basketball, or didn’t send the game to game testers who played or watched basketball.

Let’s go to the hot fixes. These were small patches designed to improve gameplay a little bit. Something they could download while you were playing the game. So, the braintrust at 2K decided that the best way to help players enjoy their fucked-up game was to apply a bandaid. Instead of actually fixing the shot meter issue, they made three-pointers easier. So somehow boosting three-point success percentage to the 80 plus-make mark was going to repair the disgruntled consumers. Of course it was two months later before they finally got around to fixing the Relentless Finisher badge. And when they did that they also “fixed” the fast break offense. Sure, they went from three pointers to no transition offense at all. And they practically patched the three pointer out of the game unless your player archetype is designed to shoot threes.

And these aren’t even all the problems. How about the magnetic defense or the player speed issue or the servers or the moving screen or that every patch and hot-fix isn’t an adjustment, it’s a complete one-eighty. I could go on and on but this post is already too long.

The most disturbing part of this is that developer Visual Concepts has been making this game for seventeen years. How the hell do these major game issues fall through the cracks? Visual Concepts and 2K Sports aren’t Hello Games. A person can expect an indie game to have flaws, but a big-time institution like 2K? Give me a break.

Life is Strange First Impressions

Life is Strange First Impressions

Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay, a blog dedicated to gaming. Ranging from first impressions to game reviews and a bunch of stuff in between. I’ll be sharing my first impressions of Life is Strange for the Xbox One.

I was browsing in Best Buy when I first came across this game. It might have even been mentioned by a friend but I can't recall for sure. Anyway, I grabbed the box and read the little blurb on the back. A young girl with the ability to rewind time. She saves someone and then must face the consequences of her actions. And this is throughout the game as each decision can affect the way things play out.

After an hour or so of play, I find myself more and more drawn into the game. There's a girl missing and a bunch of people connected to the girl, which leads to a huge suspect list. The more I play the more clues come to the surface. And, as one might expect, some of the potential perpetrators are simply too obvious for me to take as a serious suspect in the disappearance of a young art student. And there's an equal amount of suspects who are not obvious choices as kidnappers (and potentially murderers, although I don't know if the missing girl is dead yet) who I must take a closer look at.

The story is full of typical teenage drama surrounded by a mysterious disappearance and the introduction of an FNG (fucking new girl) not unlike many stories available we’ve all read about or watched in movies or television or even been an active participant.

Keep an eye out for my gameplay videos on YouTube as I unravel the mystery.

No Man's Sky Review

Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. I'll be reviewing No Man’s Sky in this post. The review will be several categories with a 0-10 rating in each category. The numbers will be tallied up at the end for the overall rating.

My how my feelings have changed from my initial thoughts post to this review. But first a little about the game. No Man’s Sky was developed by Hello Games, a small indie group from the UK. It's a single player exploration and survival game based in a procedurally generated universe where our own solar system doesn't appear.

Fun Factor: This is the hardest category for me to rate. I hate to say this game isn't fun. But at the same time I can't say this game is barrels of fun, either. No Man’s Sky is a game with a limited audience. That being said, I'm not convinced anyone but severely hardcore fans will find this game overly fun. Scored 3 of 10.

Replay Factor: Once the game’s primary goal is completed, which is apparently reaching the center of the universe or galaxy (something that isn't quite clear even though the two aren't synonymous with each other), I would be hard pressed to say the game is replay-able. The mundane, and often arduous, tasks would forfeit any desire to start over and try it again. I would be surprised if even the hardcore fans would start again. Scored 1 of 10.

Story Factor: Well there isn't much story. The game allows you to learn other languages but that isn't really what I would consider story. This game is completely about an individual exploring planets and moons and mining necessary consumables to survive. Even the alien interactions are solely for the purpose of reaching a goal. Scored 1 of 10.

Imagery Factor: Now this is where the game shines. Although much of the imagery in the game is the same, regardless of what planet you're on, the images never get too old. During my gameplay, I found the images amazing even though they were rather cartoonish. I found myself fascinated by the color schemes, the blues were amazing, the greens were lively, and the images of each planet’s atmospheres were inspiring. No matter how gloomy the planet was, if you found a cave filled with colors, you felt immediately warmed. Scored 6 of 10.

Overall Factor: The score here won't be great. That isn't to say the game is as bad as the score, though. I tried to base each score only on its respective merits, and in doing so, the cumulative result will mark the game much lower than it really is. I do believe there will be a special group of consumers who find the game breathtakingly amazing. And for those people this review will be blasphemy. But I'm not writing this review to please any one person or groups of people. Scored 2.75 of 10.

Last Minute Gripes: The game lacks any kind of real action. Sure there are moments you have to blast some predators or angry drones. And at times fighting off pirates is a must. Maybe even engaging in a full space battle is an option, but it's relatively limited. The opening to the game was incredibly long and drawn out, and this alone could have easily turned players off the game. That's not to say other games don't have long openings, but the opening to No Man’s Sky just felt excessive. Maybe it's because you are so alone, which is kinda the point. The game aims for you to feel small and insignificant, and for that it does a magnificent job. Unfortunately for me that vast emptiness was more than I could tolerate and I've shelved the game. But since it does make you feel small so well, I'm going to give the game rating two extra bonus points. Score it 4.75 of 10.

Dying Light Initial Thoughts

Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. Several weeks ago I was asked what game I had played that with the best story. I believe my response was something to similar to “I don’t know that I have ever played a game with a story or storyline. I mean where is the story in Madden Football or Gran Turismo? There isn’t one. And I suppose games like Metal Gear Solid and Tomb Raider 1, 2, 3, had some story to it but not much. And I’m certain Resistance: Fall of Man had a story but I wasn’t interested in doing anything in that game other than shoot the chimera and get to the end.

I recently finished DOOM (the 2016 release) and found it had a fairly decent story in it even if it was easily glossed over or dismissed altogether. The story had to be read, which easily slowed the game down from its balls-to-the-wall gameplay. Who wants to slow down to read anyway? It would be easy for me to argue DOOM had the best story in any game I’ve ever played.

But that isn’t true anymore. Although, I’ve put several hours into Dying Light, I’m still only fifteen percent finished with the game. Now I’m not certain if all the side missions are included in the game completion percentage, and if they aren’t, then the game will move along quickly as I’ve only done a few main story missions. Compare that to seven or eight side missions or quests. Hell, I’ve even done a scene for a movie with some film director whose camera I tracked down during a side mission. And I have to say splattering forty zombies with a double barrel shotgun in under two minutes (I think) was great fun (I had forty-four seconds remaining).

Even though all that zombie killing is great fun, and gets even better once the player levels up and the weapons can be modified into serious zombie destroying tools, the story behind the game is equally good. There are some real-life politics and stereotyping in the game. Some high drama and backstabbing. And the commentary of the main character is wonderfully clever and witty. And the thing is, all the quests or side-missions are key into unravelling the entire story.

Initially, I found the controls to be complicated and not well thought out. But I was also coming off hours and hours of DOOM where all the controls had become second nature, and they were also fairly standard controls. But now that I’ve put more hours into Dying Light the controls are easily to handle and don’t feel nearly as cumbersome. (And with the acquisition with the grappling hook everything thing has become just a bit easier—you’ll need to be survivor level twelve to receive the grappling hook.)

During the night missions, stealth plays a major factor in succeeding. Again with the grappling hook night missions will become far easier. During my first night mission, I was killed in short order but have successfully survived the night four times without even being noticed. Still, the stress level goes up quite a bit during the night, armed with the massively destructive double-barrel shotgun or not. (All those hours spent looting, accomplishing side missions, stealing airdrops from thieves, unlocking all the safe houses,and killing zombies will level you up quick enough to get specialty weapons. But you can craft one of the best weapons in the game right away—the Molotov cocktails. These bottles of flaming liquid will dispatch nearly all enemies, and multiple enemies, with little to no effort. One Molotov is good for a least six dead zombies all at once so long as they are grouped together. Nothing works as efficiently.

Dying Light is a must play game for anyone interested in first-person, zombie, horror, or survival games. And it has a wonderful story to boot.

No Man's Sky Initial Thoughts

Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. Quite possibly the biggest game for PlayStation 4 for 2016 has been released and I'll share my initial thoughts about No Man’s Sky.

No Man’s Sky is a space exploration and discovery game developed by Hello Games. It's a procedurally generated game, which means something that I'm not sure I fully understand. Here's a link to help explain it.

I'm not going to get into graphics and gameplay and all that jazz with this initial thoughts post. But I can say the game runs smooth and the images can be fascinating.

I open the game as a crash-landed space explorer to my best guess. There isn't any story so far so I'm only able to piece together what I've experienced. My first job is to repair my busted ship—which for me is a similar looking machine to the X-wing fighter. I have to search the area to find repair items. The items aren't hard to find (once I got the handle on it) but they're vast distances away from the crash site. I'm armed with a multi-tool, which looks a lot like a toy blaster I had as a kid. The kind you pulled the trigger on and sparks shot out the top or sides. And I'm inside a protective suit that needs various repairs during my sojourn for organic materials and various items from the periodic table.

My character is all alone aside from the plants and various creatures on the planet. (There is an element of creepiness during the exploration because anything can appear at any time). And these drones that are sometimes friendly and sometimes not, which may have to do with me destroying a couple.

The game is open world to the extreme, which for all intents and purposes, is all new for me. I'm not convinced I'll enjoy the game yet. Perhaps when I finally get off my initial planet and into space it'll improve. And there will certainly be more aspects to No Man’s Sky once I get further into the game, but my big concern will be my attention span for the game as it unfolds rather slowly for me.

And although this game may eventually be one I could easily place on a shelf and forget about, I do believe it'll be a big success for Hello Games, PlayStation, and gamers all over the world. And perhaps beyond.

DOOM Review

Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. I've now completed my first game since I began this blog. So that means it's time to write my first review. The review will be scaled from zero to ten in several categories. Here's some history of DOOM. 

I line up the shot!

DOOM, a first-person shooter, was first released on December 10, 1993 by id Software. Although it wasn't the first, first-person shooter it did remake the genre with heavy violence and gore and 3D graphics to IBM-compatible computers. Do you all remember IBM-compatible computers? DOOM II: Hell on Earth was released in 1994, which was followed by addition releases from that same engine, and Final DOOM released in 1996. In 1997 DOOM 64 would be released followed by a several year hiatus. In 2004 a prequel of the first DOOM as released but with all new technology. All of the previous versions of DOOM would have secondary releases except Final DOOM. There are books, comics books, and a movie based on DOOM. All in all, a successful institution. 

The newest version of the game, titled DOOM, was released on May 13, 2016. And that is what this review will be covering. I haven't played many first-person shooters so I won't have much history to compare DOOM and other games in the genre. This review is based on the PlayStation 4 version. 

I'll be rating the game in different categories with a scale from 1 to 10. 

Fun Factor: wow this game was a hoot. It moved quickly and the interest stayed up. And I stayed up late many nights playing the game. That being said, I'm scoring DOOM an 8 of 10. 

Replay Factor: I often returned to previous missions to complete missed challenges, work on weapon mastery, or discover missed secrets. I found myself enjoying the game as much when I repeated a level as I did when I first played the level. I mean pulling a demon’s arms off under the influence of the Berserk power up or hacking a demon in half with a chainsaw never gets old. Again an 8 of 10. 

Story Factor: I found rating this a bit more difficult. The story in DOOM is there and it's a good story. But the story isn't easy to follow with the multiple ways it unfolds. At times there was the magnificent demon voice narrating a story during the trips to hell. Other times Samuel Hayden told a story. But most of the story was developed with the Data Logs, which could easily be glossed over or ignored altogether. Understandably, DOOM is designed for high RPM fun and too much story would lug the engine, but at the same time I felt like the story needed to be more forced. Certainly the artifacts picked up in hell don't take away from the energy of the game. A similar design needed to be employed for the rest of the story. Say, for instance, Olivia tells the story of the demons and Hayden discusses Mars and the work done on Mars. For story factor DOOM receives a 6 of 10. 

Imagery Factor: I considered breaking this category into several but chose against it since this category is rather subjective. Sure there are obvious differences in last generation console and current generation, and even current generation compared to PC games. So I felt it best to keep concepts like graphics and images and real life modeling and soundtrack in one category. For DOOM, the imagery factor is high—8 of 10. The soundtrack was perfect, high octane and aggressive, which fit exactly with DOOM. There are several sections in the game where the imagery was so life-like it can easily be passed off as real. The smoke and fire and explosive barrels are all images that appear real not game. And I could easily peruse my gameplay videos and literally take hundreds of incredible stills. Other things like Samuel Hayden's size was subtle imagery. And Olivia’s degradation in the game as she slowly fails to accomplish her promises. And several of the gruesome images in the game tell a subtle story. One of which we would expect when dealing with demons and hell. 

Overall Factor: This is an accumulation of all the category ratings added together with category totals and averaged out. DOOM gets an above average score with a 7.5 of 10. 

Last Minute Gripes: I didn't include this in the main review because it didn't play a significant enough part to be included. Although the game never locked up on me, it did have a glitch or bug or something in one level where the mission challenges weren't being recorded. This forced me to complete the mission and restart. Ultimately this didn't have a detrimental impact on my game goals and was only a minimal annoyance. 

Dying Light Fitness Challenge

Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. I hope you're enjoying the blog and the videos of my gameplay on YouTube. 

For August I'm focusing on Dying Light and will be finishing up DOOM. Also of note No Man’s Sky will be out on August 9. I haven't decided if I'll do videos for that yet. But enough of all that business, let's get to the challenge. 

In Dying Light there's a focus on parkour. And for those who don't know what parkour is I hope I'll help you understand what it is. Perhaps some history first. 

Here's a little information on parkour. And if you go by the simple textbook definition you'll be able to find suitable obstacles to use. http://www.wfpf.com/parkour/

No I don't expect people to launch themselves off rooftops or do flying somersaults over vehicles traveling at 40 miles per hour. I mean that shit is just nuts. There's a fine line between brave and idiotic. I wouldn't expect people to climb a fence like Jackie Chan, either. But I do think there are some simple parkour things people can do safely and get in a great workout. Find a balance beam at a local park or walk the curbing along the sidewalk. Climb a jungle gym. Do pull-ups on the monkey bars. Vault a park bench. I have a skateboard park where I live and it gets no use whatsoever so I'll be doing some parkour something or other there. 

Now I'm definitely not a parkour-er and won't claim to be. I won't be doing any cat grabs and muscle-ups any time soon. My strength to weight ratio leans way too much on the weight side. Still that doesn't mean I can't try. And who knows maybe by September 1 I'll be able to do cat grabs and muscle ups. 

So here's the challenge. Three days a week do twenty-five minutes of parkour outside. Being outside is important. Or check a local gym for parkour classes. Now I understand it's August so be sure you exercise safely. Drink plenty of water and take it slow. Going balls to the wall is a good way to get injured. At least until you get better. Then you can speed it up and drink more water. I expect everyone will be sore after the first time since it isn't something most people do. But go and have fun. And get healthier to boot. 

Now go out and have fun. Most importantly be safe!