Let's see....
I'll talk about some of the good I've seen in the game, then some of the bad...(so far)
Good
1. Player spacing - It's a lot better than last year, you'll still get players bunched up on one side of the court, but overall...it's better than last year.
2. Pro hop is not "Money" - No way can you abuse the pro hop this year baby!! It's off the chain. You can try it and get it stolen, get bumped and lose control, get whistled for a charge or blocking foul. Sometimes you can even pro hop your way into a double team and lose it that way. It's pretty sick.
3. Double Teaming the post - Thank god I don't see this happen much this year. I remember last year, it seemed as though EVERY time I went down low, I was doubled. Not this year!! If someone does start lighting it up down there, they'll send the double, but it's NOTHING like last year.
4. Glad to see the AI taking mid range shots. I'd like to see more midrange from the AI, but it's better than last year.
5. Players sliding is there, but it's not as bad as last year. It bothered me quite a bit last year. It seems to be toned down some in 05.
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Bad
1. Players are sometimes diving for balls and completely missing them, leading to easy fast break opportunities. If the AI would just run to the ball instead of diving and missing, it would be better. But instead, they seem to dive more often than not.
2. When leading the fast break, trying to lead the pass just doesn't work. Unless there is some sort of secret way of doing this, it's getting frustrating to throw a pass down court, only to have the person you are throwing to, have to stop to catch the ball. I wish they would lead the pass, that way they can continue down the court for the flush. Sometimes they do lead the pass, but I don't know if it's something I'm doing, or if it's just programmed that way.
3. Well, at first the one handed rebounds were killing me. Now that I've played my share of games, there aren't quite as many as I used to see.
4. I haven't seen too many "And 1" shots actually go in. If you get hacked in the act, I'm mostly seeing misses. I'd like to see more actually go in.
Without a doubt, I'm loving this game. It might not be the game of choice for some, but I'm really getting into it. I hope to start a franchise and play around w/ things over the weekend, we'll see.
