NHL 2K11 - Road to the Cup By: 2K Admin Ron | Wednesday August 18 2010 Hi everyone, My name is Ben Bishop, producer for NHL 2K11, and I’m here to talk to you a little bit about our new Road to the Cup mode, as well as offer up a few extra tidbits on other new things that have been added to the game this year.
In NHL 2K10, we had the Mii Superskills mode, which allowed you to compete with your Mii characters in events themed after the Superskills Challenge at the NHL All-Star Game. It’s a lot of fun to actually see your Mii out there pulling off hockey moves like an NHL player would, so it seemed natural to try to expand that for NHL 2K11.
Road to the Cup is our biggest new game mode addition that once again pits Mii characters against one another in an attempt to earn as many fans as possible on the way to a final competition for the Stanley Cup. Players take turns by spinning a wheel that dictates what type of mini-game or event will take place, with the winner of each one earning a set number of fans. When one player gets to 1000 fans, the final event is played to determine who gets to claim the Cup. The more fans you have going into the final event, the better chance you have of winning.
Road to the Cup offers a fun alternative to the simulation hockey that you’re going to get throughout the rest of the game. It’s best played with 4 human players, but it still works well even if you’ve got only 1 or 2 other players there to join you. And if you’re on your own, don’t worry. Single players get to face-off against a Mii-styled Ryan Kesler. There are even special Mii-style appearances by Team 2K members Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, and Marty Turco too, so keep your eye out for them.
To break down the mode a little further and give you an idea of what the experience is like, here are the possible spaces you can land on when spinning the wheel during your turn:
Multiplayer – All 4 players compete at once in a fast-paced mini-game. Single Player – One player plays an All-Star Challenge mini-game based on the Skills Competition events at the NHL All-Star Game (similar to what you might remember from our Mii Superskills mode in NHL 2K10). Mini-Rink – The 4 players are randomly placed on teams and play a 2-on-2 game to 2 goals in our mini-rink environment. Trivia – Answer NHL trivia questions to earn fans, some text based, others using player headshots to identify the correct answer. +100 Fans – Get a free 100 fans. -100 Fans – Lose 100 fans.
The events take place in the various NHL arenas, with a map of North America acting as the backdrop. When you spin the wheel and land on Multiplayer, an NHL division is chosen at random, and you get to pick from one of the teams in that division, each having a different mini-game assigned to it. Single Player events take place in Carolina’s arena, where the All-Star Game will be held this year.
Here is a list of the Multiplayer events you can choose from:
Hot Streak – Skate around the ice with a colored tail trailing behind you, which is used to try and trip up opponents. Each player starts the round with 3 lives, and the last one standing wins. Barrels of Fun – Avoid barrels moving at different rates of speed all over the ice surface. Each player has 5 lives, and again, the last one standing wins. Capture Points – Hold the puck in various locations on the ice to try to “capture” that section while the other players attempt to get it away. Most points captured when time runs out wins. Graffiti Circles – Skate over colored icons scattered all over the ice that are worth up to 4 points each to turn them into your player’s color. Most points when time runs out wins. King of the Hill – Hold the puck in the circle at center ice for as long as possible while the other players try to get it away. Whoever has held the puck in the circle for the longest when time runs out wins.
And here is a list of the Single Player events:
Fastest Skater – Skate laps around the rink as quickly as possible. The better your time, the more fans you’ll earn. Be careful on the turns. Hardest Shot – Take a slap shot on an open net. The harder your shot, the more fans you’ll earn. Accuracy Shooting – Try to hit targets placed around the perimeter of an open net. The more targets hit, the more fans you’ll earn. Breakaway Challenge – You have 6 chances to go 1-on-1 against the goalie and try to score. The more goals you get, the more fans you’ll earn.
The final event is a ton of fun, and one of the best parts is that even if you didn’t do so well leading up to it, you’ll still have a chance to make a comeback and wind up winning the Cup. Overall, we’re really excited that we were able to find a more fun and in-depth way to integrate Mii characters into the game while still keeping that tie to the sport of hockey and the NHL. Whether you’re on your own or you’ve invited a few friends over, give it a shot when you feel like taking a little break from your regular action on the ice.
And finally, before wrapping this insight up, I also wanted to mention a couple other additions to the game that you might find interesting:
Winter Classic Mode We’ve continued our tradition of including the Winter Classic in our games this year, but now it’s significantly easier to get to, as now it’s a separate mode. Right off the main menu you’ll be able to select Winter Classic, and immediately be set up in Fenway Park with both Boston and Philadelphia wearing their Winter Classic uniforms. Fenway Park is also still an option during Quick Game if you’d like to play with two other teams there. And Wrigley Field is even available too if you want to go back one more year.
New Equipment We’ve done some updates to the equipment, with a specific focus on getting the goalies as accurate as possible. So you will be seeing new goalie pads from Reebok, Bauer, and Sherwood (Martin Brodeur model) in the game. We’ve also added Bauer’s popular new 9900 helmet worn by many of top NHL players, including Ryan Kesler.
In closing, we’re really looking forward to everyone getting a chance to play NHL 2K11. Even though we’re only on Wii this year, we really feel like we’ve delivered an authentic hockey experience, and with additional features like Road to the Cup, hopefully there’s a little something for everyone. Get your copy on Tuesday, August 24th!
My Player By: SimBaller | Tuesday August 25 2009 Hey NBA 2K fans, this is Erick Boenisch, and I’m back for another exclusive developer Insight. Today I’m going to talk about our all-new My Player career mode. Before we get into the meat and potatoes of the mode, let me take a few sentences to show you the design process we went through as a development team in creating this new mode.
Early in the production cycle, we identified three key concepts that we wanted to mold My Player around:
1) Authenticity. We don’t believe that starting you off at the end of the bench on an NBA team is a realistic, fun, OR rewarding experience. Where is the sense of progression if your career starts off in the NBA? You deserve more than that.
2) NBA is a Team Sport. Piggybacking off of the Authenticity point, we felt that emphasizing team play over ‘me first’ play was very important in our design. Players who try to overly-dominate the ball and/or otherwise play in a fashion that is detrimental to the overall success of their team will not reap the rewards this mode has to offer. On the other hand, those who respect their teammates, set picks on offense, box out for rebounds, double team when called for, will earn a much larger amount of Skill Points in addition to better grabbing the attention of the NBA scouts who are looking to fill their teams.
3) Pace/Dynamism. With all of the depth that we have added to this mode, we didn’t want you languishing in any one aspect of it for an unnecessarily long period of time. A key element to this is targeting what you want to do when you play the mode, and making sure that’s what you’re doing. From the time you create your player, every single game you play means something; every game can make or break where your career takes you next. When you talk to your friends about their career, it likely will have taken a completely different path from yours. We love that!
Starting My Player
Many of you who plan on purchasing NBA 2K10: Draft Combine have been asking what happens when you have created your character and finished running him through the Combine. Well, when you boot up NBA 2K10, the very first thing you’re going to notice is your created player bumping Kobe Bryant off the screen as the Cover Athlete for NBA 2K10. Sorry Kobe. It’s a small thing, but there is something pretty satisfying about seeing yourself on the title page for NBA 2K10!
When you select ‘My Player’ from the menu, you will instantly notice that your created player is already there waiting for you. Selecting to ‘Continue’ your career will instantly jump you to Madison Square Garden for the 2009 NBA Draft. David Stern is on hand to welcome you to the NBA -- if you get drafted that is. It’s here where we find out if you have what it takes to slip into the first round. Let’s be honest, you’re no Blake Griffin (yet), so going #1 overall might be a bit of a stretch.
Once the draft concludes, it’s time to head out to the Summer Circuit…every rookie's first stop on their journey towards becoming an NBA player. If you didn’t purchase NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, this is where your experience begins. As you didn’t participate in the NBA Draft Combine, you aren’t even on the radar of the NBA teams. Fortunately for you, the NBA 2K Insider has connections, and he’s gotten you an invite to play on an NBA team’s Summer Circuit squad as an undrafted free agent. Your road is going to be much tougher, and will almost certainly result in a stint in the NBA D-League (yes, of course we have it!)
Summer Circuit
Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here; first you’re going to have to face the challenges of the Summer Circuit. During the Summer Circuit, your teammates are going to consist of young players from the NBA team, other drafted players, and a number of other players who are trying to make the team. The Summer Circuit consists of a 6-game schedule. Unlike the Draft Combine, you’re going to have to share the court with your teammates here. This means you’ll find yourself riding the pine a fair amount of the time.
What is life like on the pine? Well, when your player is on the bench, you’ll be able to watch the game play out in real-time with our new ‘bench-cam’. This is a great way to keep up with the flow of the game and strategize on what you are going to do when you get back on the court. If sitting around watching your teammates play isn’t your cup of tea, no problem. With a single press of the button, you can jump right into our ‘Courtside Sim’, which will show you the action from a ‘Gamecast’ point of view. Possessions happen quickly in the ‘Courtside Sim’, which makes this the ideal way to quickly simulate to the next time you are substituted into the game.
Your coaches aren’t interested in you wasting their time. If you stumble out of the gate and never recover, you have to expect that they are going to cut you before the Summer Circuit is even over. In the event that this happens, the NBA 2K Insider will be working the phones trying to get you a spot with an NBA D-League team. Nothing is for certain in this business. Hopefully you played well enough for one of those teams to give you a chance. On the other hand, if you did perform well enough in the Summer Circuit, your team (or other teams in the league) will be interested in extending you an invite to their Training Camp.
Training Camp
This is where things start to get, well, a little rough! You are no longer playing against the likes of Adam Morrison, you’re now playing against guys like Kobe, Pau, and Ron-Ron. Training Camp is no joke.
Every team invites 20 players to their custom Training Camp facility with the intention of taking a 15-man roster into the NBA season. Training Camp consists of 5 games, with a player getting cut at the end of every single game. By the end of the 5th game, the team will be down to 15 players, and those are the players the team is going to move forward with. Obviously, this doesn’t leave you a lot of room for error. It’s not easy for a young, struggling 48-rated rookie to hold his own against a superstar like Kobe Bryant, but, welcome to the league. Nothing comes for free in the NBA.
There are three possible career outcomes for you in the Training Camp chapter of your career. 1) You can get cut at any point during the team’s Training Camp. 2) You can survive the final day of Training Camp, but immediately be sent down to the team’s NBA D-League affiliate. 3) You can survive the final day of Training Camp and make the NBA squad. We’ve made sure that the coaches are very picky about who they choose for their teams; don’t expect this to be a walk in the park.
NBA D-League
As you can see by now, a lot of roads lead to a good amount of your early career being spent in the NBA D-League. When you first arrive with your NBA D-League team (unless of course you were lucky enough to bypass the NBA D-League entirely), you’re going to be receiving minimal time off the bench. Your goal at this point in your career is to play to the best of your ability, get good teammate grades, accomplish your objectives (which are scaled for your reduced minute allocation), and ultimately, impress your coaches. If you can do these things, the coaching staff will start to give you more minutes and a bigger role on the team.
Once you arrive at the NBA D-League, you will have 10 drills available at your disposal. Every 10 or so days during the season, a new drill will be added to your allocation. It’s important to use these drills at your earliest convenience in order to have a greater chance at getting that NBA call-up.
If you arrived in the NBA D-League by being cut in either the Summer Circuit or Training Camp, you will need to bide your time by doing everything that is asked of you. This doesn’t mean dominate the ball and score all of your team’s points. When NBA teams are scouring the D-League, they are looking for players who can fill a role on their team, not someone who will come in and disrupt their team chemistry. That’s something to think about as you play through your NBA D-League games.
In the event that a team in the NBA is suffering through injuries or decides to waive a player that isn’t working out for them, there is a chance they may start looking your way. If they decide they are interested in you, a 10-day contract will be extended your way. Now, you only have 10 days to prove to the team that you belong with them. At the end of the 10 days, the team will either release you (which sends you back to the NBA D-League) or they may offer you a second 10-day contract to evaluate you further. At the end of this second 10-day contract, they must either send you back to the NBA D-League or sign you for the rest of the season.
Don’t let the NBA D-League define your career. Keep in mind, it is a means to an end.
NBA
So, you’ve made it to the NBA! Now what? Just because you’ve made it to the NBA doesn’t mean you are here to stay. If you don’t play well enough to hold down your spot on the team and/or aren’t getting enough minutes, your team will either send you down to their NBA D-League affiliate or they will cut you outright. As always, you can avoid this by being the ultimate team player and doing everything that your coach asks of you.
Similar to when you first arrived in the NBA D-League, your minute allocation will be very small from the outset. You’ll need to perform well to earn the trust of your coach. The NBA is a different beast than what you’ve see thus far. Everyone’s faster, bigger, and better than you in almost every way. Fortunately, you are given 10 drills upon arriving in the NBA, so use those wisely to increase your player’s attributes as soon as they are available.
My Player features a ‘Milestones’ menu that contains a number of goals for you to accomplish over the course of your career. The majority of the goals are NBA-based, so now that you’ve made it to the NBA, it’s time to start taking aim at these. They range from very simple (“Play in an NBA game”), to difficult (“Win the MVP”), to legendary (“Score 38388 points in your career”). Completing these Milestones will result in you earning a large number of Skill Points, which you can immediately use to improve your player’s overall rating.
Once you’ve played through a full 82-game season (which doesn’t take nearly as long as it sounds as you can use ‘Courtside Sim’ to get through periods of time when you’re on the bench), you will get to choose what you want to do with your career next. Depending on how you played, your team may want to re-sign you. Other teams may be interested in your services as well. The better you play, the better the teams are that are interested in signing you. At this point, the question becomes, are you interested in showing loyalty to the team that gave you a chance, or are you ready to jump ship to the best team offering you a contract?
What you do with your career is completely up to you. That’s the beauty of My Player.
Pick-Up Games
Let’s shift gears here and talk about another exciting way to progress your player in My Player mode. It was important to us to allow our users to be able to play online games within this experience. Pick-Up Games afforded us this opportunity. Allow me to explain. Pick-Up Games are online ‘Team-Up’ style 5-on-5 games where you are playing with your user created player. When I say ‘Team-Up’ style 5-on-5, I’m of course referencing 10 human controlled players playing 5-on-5 in a single game simultaneously.
Players are rewarded at the end of these games strictly based off of their teammate grades rather than their individual stats. Scoring 50 points doesn’t mean anything if you got all of those points off of bad shots. Setting picks, making smart passes, calling for the ball only when you’re open, boxing out on rebounds, these are the types of things that will earn you a good Teammate Grade, and thus, a good number of Skill Points. This is all about team play folks.
Pick-Up Games are available for you to play at any point during your career regardless of whether you’re in the Summer Circuit, Training Camp, the NBA D-League, or the NBA. I urge you to spend some time developing your player in this fashion; it’s been a ton of fun for us doing so. Plus, you get to see all of the cool and creative created players that people have made. There are more details here, but I don’t want to steal the thunder from the upcoming Insight regarding what we have done in the online department this year!
Final Notes
Now that you know that online play is a piece of the puzzle, I want to be clear on a few questions that you may be asking yourself. This won’t be a mode with a bunch of 99-rated players running around. It will take players most of their career to get this plateau, if they can at all. We’ve designed this game in such a way that you need to strategize on how you will develop your player. Being a complete jack of all trades will result in your player simply being average in each skill (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).
Also, everyone will be playing on a level playing field. For those of you who have thoughts of increasing all of the shot sliders and lowering the CPU sliders to your benefit, sorry, that’s a no go. We’re very serious about delivering a fun and balanced experience to our fans with this experience. We think this is a big feature, with a lot of potential moving forward.
Well, that about wraps it up for me with My Player. As you can see, there is a lot going on here. It will definitely be exciting to see all the players you guys and gals come up with. I’ll be back in a couple weeks with another Insight to talk to you about what we’ve done with the Association this year. Here’s a hint about what’s going on there; my philosophy with Association this year has been, “The Year of the Fan”. We’ll see what that means soon…
As for your My Player career, I have just one question for you. How will you take over?
Erick Boenisch aka SimBaller
NEXT NBA 2K10 DEVELOPER INSIGHT: “Audio,” by Joel Simmons – Thursday, September 3rd
Hey NBA Developers, can you implement this into the NHL game next year for us or at least convince the NHL team to do so and with this kind of depth. Sounds fantastic!
you guys have really outdone yourselves. ive been playing the 2k series since it first came out on dreamcast and have made it a point to buy the games every year. me and my brother were wondering when would a basketball franchise make a career mode such as that exhibited in ea's football franchises and you all have met our wishes. You guys have just brought alot more money in by creating this mode and have also managed to top ea once again. congratulations.
Audio By: 2K Admin Ron | Wednesday February 24 2010 Hey guys, My name is Joel Simmons, Audio Director for Major League Baseball® 2K10. We've had a really exciting year for audio and broadcast in this year’s game. From Spring Training to the World Series, MLB Today (read a previous Insight about it here if you haven’t already) presents Major League Baseball within the context of what really makes a difference in a baseball season: the stories, the statistics, the trends and analysis. From player and team leaderboards, last game and series analysis, to detailed stat splits and upcoming series promos, refreshing broadcast segments are peppered throughout the presentation and gameplay. When Evan Longoria faces Justin Verlander in a Rays-Tigers series, you'll hear he's gone 3 for 9 lifetime against Verlander, or that last year Longoria hit .294 against the Tigers at Comerica Park. In the first meeting of the year between the Giants and the Dodgers, you might hear that Los Angeles is coming off a 3-game set in which they won 2 games against the Diamondbacks in Arizona, and that last year between SF and LA, the season series was 11-7 in favor of the Dodgers.
One of the first things you’ll notice in 2K10 is the addition of John Kruk to the broadcast booth. John brings a wealth of knowledge and passion about the game of baseball and his commentary on how players and teams have been performing adds a whole new dimension to the game's presentation. Throughout the season, Gary Thorne, Steve Phillips, and John Kruk will keep you up-to-date in MLB Today with what's going on in the real baseball season. The best part is that you'll also get these same breakdowns and analysis in your season or franchise. When teams in your league or division are off to a slow start in April, or have come on hot in May, you won't have to dig through menus to find that out. If you've got a tough upcoming road trip against the Braves and the Marlins, you'll hear about it in-game. What teams have the best pitching staffs over the last 30 days as you approach the All-Star Break? We'll show you. What players have been red hot with runners in scoring position, or have been the biggest threats on the base-paths? You'll hear about that too. The new broadcast keeps you updated with team rankings over the course of the entire season, displaying rankings not only in league standings, but in all of the top stat categories too. As the season winds down, we'll show you a breakdown of the Wild Card race in each league and what teams lead or trail in that race, and by how much. You'll hear about the trends of streaking or slumping players, how Kendry Morales went 2 for 4 in his last game against the Mariners, or how Justin Morneau is coming into the game following a walk-off home run last night against the White Sox. As a whole, the new broadcast features and analysis convey a wealth of information giving you that edge of knowing what really matters as the season progresses. Like the best Major League scouts, you'll be backed with real-world knowledge as you approach each matchup and situation. With these stats and analysis at your disposal, it can give you the edge to help you to become a better player and, ultimately, take YOUR team to the World Series.
We have listened to feedback from our fans and concentrated on greatly expanding and improving the level of detail of our in-game stadium sound. This year, we've started fresh with dozens of new bat hit sound effects that are much more realistic and accurate to broadcast, revealing the location and quality of contact. How you swing the bat, whether for contact, power, or a defensive approach - this year's hitting experience sounds and feels deeper and more satisfying. Each stadium has its own unique sonic signature too. We've added over a thousand new stadium specific beats, chants, charge calls, and music clips. Our fans asked for true-to-life stadium beats and organ representation, so we modeled each stadium's organ sound to match its real-life counterpart to put you right in the stands. And for all of you Philly fans, since there is no organist in Citizen's Bank Park, there isn't one in Major League Baseball® 2K10 either. As you travel around the league throughout a season, the variety and unique character of each stadium's sound treatment provides a much more immersive experience.
We hope that everyone enjoys the new broadcast and audio presentation and are as excited about it as we are here at 2K Sports. We can't wait to hear from our fans as we find out just what the upcoming baseball season brings.
- Joel Simmons Audio Director
NEXT MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K10 DEVELOPER INSIGHT: TBD
so i am not surprised to see you have an annoying web site being that you make a sports game with the worst physics i have ever had the displeasure of trying to control. as a ball player and a gamer i have never been more frustrated playing a game, i have decent stats and yet my fielder is incapable of chasing balls down in the same time the AI take and they managed to grab it and i have better stats than said fielder. also how are you going to have a center fielder have to track a fly into left field right where the left fielder is.. come on? i can go on and on about the problems with your game but you don't pay me for that, the only reason i signed up for this was so i could tell you that i will not be playing ANY 2k games until you guys start taking the time to make sure that it's worth the already bloated prices you are asking for... never again. tayntidfate
Why does the server disconnect durring the game? I continuly have an issue with the 2k servers on baseball. It doesnt allow us to finish the game or stay conntected. If I chose tampaba and play against NY yankees it locks up. I am getting really frustrated. I dont have this problem with tiger. Only baseball
Wonder what the fatigue will be set at in that flu game? Should never get above like 60. Also, I think people playing on the highest difficulty Hall of Fame should get more than others
I wonder if this is too late to add.... and I dont know if any one thought of this....but what about a jordan challenge that requires you to duplicate the success of the 1995-1996 season (72-10 regular season record, NBA champions). Im not asking for those teams to be present from that season but to take either the 1995-96 Bulls or perhaps any team in the game currently, and have the user try and duplicate this feat or if they can, better it. I like the idea of trying to do that. I've tried several times over the years to better 72 wins and the closest I have gotten is 68 wins with LA in 2K9 (no simulations either). 72 wins is really hard especially when you play on superstar level or higher. So I'm asking is this at all possible to add as a challenge? If not as a challenge, can it become trophy or recognition of some sort. I think the community would be able to really appreciate this task and challenge. Anyone who plays thru an entire 82 game season + playoffs knows it's tough to do especially without simulating. To me theres a sort of honor by playing thru every game of a season and dealing with whatever comes up. Let me know what you think.
I wonder if this is too late to add.... and I dont know if any one thought of this....but what about a jordan challenge that requires you to duplicate the success of the 1995-1996 season (72-10 regular season record, NBA champions). Im not asking for those teams to be present from that season but to take either the 1995-96 Bulls or perhaps any team in the game currently, and have the user try and duplicate this feat or if they can, better it. I like the idea of trying to do that. I've tried several times over the years to better 72 wins and the closest I have gotten is 68 wins with LA in 2K9 (no simulations either). 72 wins is really hard especially when you play on superstar level or higher. So I'm asking is this at all possible to add as a challenge? If not as a challenge, can it become trophy or recognition of some sort. I think the community would be able to really appreciate this task and challenge. Anyone who plays thru an entire 82 game season + playoffs knows it's tough to do especially without simulating. To me theres a sort of honor by playing thru every game of a season and dealing with whatever comes up. Let me know what you think.
