[GameRatty] tag: kid

NBA 2K9 patch - long list of tweaks and fixes revealed

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:38:41 +0000

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:

Interview: Inside Naruto's Video Game Timewarp

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:00:10 +0000

[Manga/anime license Naruto is a surprisingly popular game franchise in North America - but what can you do when the Japanese TV show is airing two years ahead of the West? Tomy decided to get creative with exclusive new Western-specific characters and stories, producer Nobi Matsuo explains to big sister site Gamasutra - an interesting solution.]

Tomy's titles based on the internationally popular anime series Naruto is a surprisingly popular game franchise in North America -- and notably, they're also known for solid quality.

But Tomy's latest fighting game title, Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 for Wii, was now faced with an interesting challenge: how to bring North American players the next adventure when the TV series in Japan is as much as two years ahead of what's airing in the West?

Clash of Ninja Revolution 2's Tomy producer Nobi Matsuo decided to leverage the gap by filling it in with original characters and storylines made specifically for the game.

But how does this work with a game licensed from a Japanese cartoon, developed for a U.S. audience, requiring permission from a Japanese IP-holder? It gets complicated, and Matsuo explains the process in an interview with Gamasutra.

How did this game come to be chosen and conceived?

Nobi Matsuo: It was a timing thing. Everything fell in place. We've been localizing [the Japanese titles] for the GameCube; as you know, the Japanese TV shows are as much as a year or a couple years ahead of the U.S. TV show. So a lot of the characters have grown up and everything, so we can't usually use any of the assets from the Japanese side and bring them over to the U.S. side.

Especially when we made the transition to the Wii -- by that time, all the Japanese games that, for Tomy, used all the characters, which were prohibited for us to use. So we basically used that opportunity to start from scratch and put in all our characters, because they didn't exist for the Wii.

We took advantage of that and said "Why don't we go ahead and put in original storyline?" A lot of fans already know the TV show and everything; they know how it's going to turn out: so, rehashing the TV show isn't something that I personally like. So I said "This is a perfect chance."

And then we also started exploring a lot of aspects of Naruto that, I think, would have worked for the U.S. audience. And one of them was the ANBU theme.

The ANBU are like the black-ops organization that belong to the same organization as Naruto. And they exist in the background, so they appear in the TV show; they're always masked; they're always mysterious.

So I wanted to take that angle, because that's more like the description of what we Americans understand as "ninja" -- not some blond-haired kid with an orange jumpsuit. So these are the masked guys with the katanas and everything -- let's bring them out in the front.

So what was the framework? Did you layer in your new material on top of an existing structure?

NM: It was like an iteration... this is basically the fourth rendition in the U.S. So we've been building on the same engines, same developer - obviously improving it. There was a big jump going from the GameCube from the Wii, we added a lot of additional systems.

We established that, and laid the groundwork for Revolution 1, and once we got that, we basically took that out and took a lot of user comments, ideas, things we wanted to put in but couldn't do; and we just started layering and adding it on.

Is this game actually going to come out in Japan as well?

NM: Exclusive for North America. I mean, if there are Naruto fans over in Japan, they're going to have to buy the U.S. version.

That's not exactly the usual situation.

NM: Absolutely. This is a really rare opportunity where we were able to do that. We went ahead and created original characters that never existed anywhere in the world, not in Japan or in the U.S. -- characters from scratch, characters I wanted to see in there from the TV show that never were created.

So we concepted those, sketched them out, and then we sent it to the publisher, the licensor, for Naruto and had them approve it, see if it's within the realm of possibility in that world or not.

Was it challenging to get that license and the liberty to add those new characters and storylines?

NM: Absolutely. Absolutely. It was always a challenge. But it was a fun concept. They weren't very like "Oh, you can't do this; you can't do that"; "Show us what you can do" was their attitude; "and then we'll guide you and we'll help you out." So that's the direction we had.

One of the main characters: she originally started out in a wetsuit type of bodysuit type like X-Men-like thing, and they said "It's kind of going away from Naruto." So we went for more of the Asian feel, the kimono type of thing. And they helped guide us, but not really block us from our creativity. So they were very cooperative with that.

So you're with Tomy. How does that how structure work? There's Tomy and D3 -- who owns the actual Naruto property?

NM: The Naruto property is actually owned in Japan by Shueisha. And then North American license-holder is VIZ Media; from VIZ Media, we pay royalties and stuff.

So, since our game is North American-related, we license through them. But, ultimately, they have to get approval for everything through Shueisha. Since we're running on such a short schedule, we basically CC to keep the VIZ Media guys in the loop while communicating with Shueisha. Normally, you go through it the other way.

We're the publisher for the game: Tomy. D3 helps with the distributing. So that's how it works.

That's a lot of links in the chain.

NM: Links in the chain, and we have a very limited schedule. And so it was a challenge just getting everything in place. But the fact that we were able to go in and put something original and add to the story, to the world of Naruto, is really, really great.

How long did you have?

NM: I think we had about eight months to start. We had to get the contract set up for aiding; we had to get through service, 'cause it's an original story, so we had to hire a writer and then write the entire scenario and then get that approved by the licensor.

And the licensor actually has to go through, step by step, and make sure the names are correct and everything; and that takes a lot of time. So there was a lot of bottlenecks that we had to overcome.

As far as the writing and the characters and the scenario and all that: did you guys generate it yourselves, and then pass it on to the licensor and so on?

NM: Yeah. It passed a lot of hands. You have the artists; we had alternate, separate artists that did it. We had a separate writer. We'd go and pass information back and forth. Obviously, we'd give them direction; they'd start forming something together: "Here's a rough draft. What do you think?" It goes back and forth.

And, once it solidifies, we give it to the licensor. The licensor comes back with all their information, feedback, and we make the adjustments necessary. It goes back to the writer; the writer rewrites it. And we have to resubmit it again. So it's a fairly time-consuming process.

It's actually a committee. It's a line of people sitting up on the table, and it's like "Please, give us approval. Are these models OK?" So all the animation, special attacks, and everything: we all have to put it on DVD, show them the images and stuff; and they'll say "We don't like the color", or, "Speed this up."

It sounds like a more international effort than would often happen with a game like this; is that typical?

NM: It is; it's normal. Even domestically, with domestic Tomy over in Japan, there's a lot of back and forth going on with that.

Actually, the fact that we're international, they've given us a little more leniency, because they're further along, so they know what's going on... in terms of how we could have certain characters interact with each other without it affecting the main story arc of the story.

How does it feel to have it done?

It's an enormous relief, first of all. The fact that we had such a limited amount of time, the fact that we were able to put in so much of that.

Another thing I didn't mention was we even talked to the animation studio that does the TV show, and we basically presented them sketches of all our original characters.

They created an original animated intro; so we actually had the guys who narrate Naruto all the time go in and animate our original characters that we concepted. So I mean it was a very big and challenging effort, but it was definitely good.

[This piece originally appeared on big sister game business site Gamasutra - don't forget to visit, check out the jobs, and subscribe to the RSS.]

The Daily Hotnesses: Double the fun

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:06:32 +0000

Not much was posted on Thursday so I combined yesterday and today's Hotness to form the Hotnesses. Yes, it's a really horrible title. Anyway, a number of us took the last couple of days off to enjoy this holiday weekend. Don't be mad, we need a break. Bloggin' ain't easy you know!

Here's everything that happened the last couple of days, but more importantly, how was your Thanksgiving?

Thursday & Friday Regulars:
HAWP wishes you a happy Thanksgiving with a new episode
The Week in Rock Band DLC: Naked Brothers Band, Children of Bodom, Squeeze, etc.
Friday Night Fights: Thanksgiving aftermath edition

Originals:
Dtoiders: What are you thankful for this year?
Black Friday at SplitReason - 20% off all Destructoid swag, today only

Contests:
Q&A Contest: Why haven't you bought a gaming notebook yet?
Last Call: Three random winners win $500 tonight in Cyberpower PC contest
Win a copy of Mirror's Edge plus the Still Alive Remix EP!
Reminder: only 2 days left to win this Sacred 2 guitar!

News:
Xbox Live deals 'not possible' in Europe
EA does not like being called a pig, demands apology
Come up with a PSN idea, get 10,000 quid
Gears of War 2 patch out, multiplayer issues addressed
GameStop isn't afraid of digital distribution
Nintendo pollutes more than other console manufacturers
Destroy All Humans PS3 canceled in America, not canceled in Europe
Crash Commando, Savage Moon likely coming to PSN by year's end
Multiplatform Final Fantasy XIII not a 'betrayal'
C&C Red Alert 3 demo hits Xbox Live, hot chicks confirmed
WiiWare not big enough for Super Street Fighter II or Bionic Commando: Rearmed
The Wii drought is officially over at your local GameStop
6-year-old girl designs GameStop gift card, purchase one to help charity
Microsoft Gift Influencer: where was this stuff when I was a kid?
Resident Evil creator won't be playing Resi 5
Excite Truck developer working on a secret game

Rumortoid:
GTA IV episode to be released as boxed product for $20?

Offbeat:
Chad Johnson likes Black Friday deals, buys Rock Band 2 for coach
Porn game publisher hates on videogame ratings

Galleries:
Familiar faces grace cover of THQ's WWE Legends of WrestleMania
Street Fighter costumes coming to LittleBigPlanet?

Videos:
New Mushroom Men video shows off the most evil fungus you will see today
The goggles do nothing: MLB Superstars trailer is full of eye-searing fail
Ape-centered shenanigans coming to iPhone from Seaman creator

Community:
A Time to Build: Of Ninjas and Demons

The Daily Hotnesses: Double the fun

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:06:32 +0000

Here's everything that happened the last couple of days, but more importantly, how was your Thanksgiving?

Originals:
Dtoiders: What are you thankful for this year?
Black Friday at SplitReason - 20% off all Destructoid swag, today only

Rumortoid:
GTA IV episode to be released as boxed product for $20?

Offbeat:
Chad Johnson likes Black Friday deals, buys Rock Band 2 for coach
Porn game publisher hates on videogame ratings

Galleries:
Familiar faces grace cover of THQ's WWE Legends of WrestleMania
Street Fighter costumes coming to LittleBigPlanet?

Community:
A Time to Build: Of Ninjas and Demons

The Daily Hotnesses: Double the fun

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:06:32 +0000

Here's everything that happened the last couple of days, but more importantly, how was your Thanksgiving?

Originals:
Dtoiders: What are you thankful for this year?
Black Friday at SplitReason - 20% off all Destructoid swag, today only

Rumortoid:
GTA IV episode to be released as boxed product for $20?

Offbeat:
Chad Johnson likes Black Friday deals, buys Rock Band 2 for coach
Porn game publisher hates on videogame ratings

Galleries:
Familiar faces grace cover of THQ's WWE Legends of WrestleMania
Street Fighter costumes coming to LittleBigPlanet?

Community:
A Time to Build: Of Ninjas and Demons

The Daily Hotnesses: Double the fun

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:06:32 +0000

Here's everything that happened the last couple of days, but more importantly, how was your Thanksgiving?

Originals:
Dtoiders: What are you thankful for this year?
Black Friday at SplitReason - 20% off all Destructoid swag, today only

Rumortoid:
GTA IV episode to be released as boxed product for $20?

Offbeat:
Chad Johnson likes Black Friday deals, buys Rock Band 2 for coach
Porn game publisher hates on videogame ratings

Galleries:
Familiar faces grace cover of THQ's WWE Legends of WrestleMania
Street Fighter costumes coming to LittleBigPlanet?

Community:
A Time to Build: Of Ninjas and Demons

The Daily Hotnesses: Double the fun

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:06:32 +0000

Here's everything that happened the last couple of days, but more importantly, how was your Thanksgiving?

Originals:
Dtoiders: What are you thankful for this year?
Black Friday at SplitReason - 20% off all Destructoid swag, today only

Rumortoid:
GTA IV episode to be released as boxed product for $20?

Offbeat:
Chad Johnson likes Black Friday deals, buys Rock Band 2 for coach
Porn game publisher hates on videogame ratings

Galleries:
Familiar faces grace cover of THQ's WWE Legends of WrestleMania
Street Fighter costumes coming to LittleBigPlanet?

Community:
A Time to Build: Of Ninjas and Demons

Microsoft Gift Influencer: where was this stuff when I was a kid?

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:11:57 +0000

I'll never forget the way Christmas inevitably worked when I was growing up: my mom would ask me to tell her what I wanted, I would make her a list, and somehow I'd open my presents under the tree and they would not be what I asked for. "But I thought you might like this better!" my mom would say merrily, and I'd take a deep breath and drag her to the store the next day to return it and get the game I had actually asked for.

I guess Microsoft has already considered that this problem happens, which may be behind the reasoning for the Holiday Gift Influencer, which is a handy little list you can use to generate a letter to Mom and Dad to tell them what games you want for Christmas. I don't know if it works, but it's worth a try. And if it fails, you can always go to sugarbushsquirrel.com and discover one of the strangest websites ever to soothe your woes.

[Via Kotaku]

Microsoft Gift Influencer: where was this stuff when I was a kid?

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:11:57 +0000

[Via Kotaku]

Icarian: Kindred Spirits is the wind beneath your WiiWare

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:58:20 +0000

Hopefully you didn’t read the title of the post real fast and think, “Holy crap! Kid Icarus 2: The Quickening is coming!” If you did, I’m sorry your day is ruined, so I’ll take this opportunity to tell you there isn’t an Easter Bunny and your dad killed Santa Claus just to watch him die. Hey, look on the bright side: there’s a new game coming to WiiWare and it looks kinda cool. You might even be able to buy it with the money your dad stole from Santa’s corpse.

Icarian: Kindred Spirits is a 2.5D platformer from Spanish developer Over The Top, which follows the main character, Nyx, on a quest through ancient Greece to find her friend Icarus. Promising to take full advantage of the Wii remote’s abilities and a co-op mode, you’ll not only be able to rock it out with the powers of the gods, but also experience the joy of flight (emphasis theirs) which hopefully doesn’t involve wildly flapping arms to the point of exhaustion and embarrassment. I said, “flapping,” with a “l”.

While there’s not much to see in the screenshots, nor much in the way of actual gameplay info, the title gives me a bit of a LostWinds vibe which is enough to make my nipples explode with delight. I’m also holding out hope for a God of War crossover featuring Kratos and some Wii remote-based sex mini-game. Currently, no publisher or release date has been announced, but when word drops, we’ll be sure to keep you updated.