NBA 2K9 Team-Up Mode Not Fixed By Patch

One of the supposed fixes in the patch for NBA 2K9 was to make the 5 on 5 Team-Up mode playable. The mode has never worked properly having been inflicted with crippling lag (the worst I’ve ever experienced), disconnects, and frustration. I was concerned with the wording in the patch details and wanted to see how much it improved the performance. Two months after release would Team-Up mode actually function properly and deliver what was advertised?

The short answer to that is no. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to play it with very little success. The only games I was able to load into and play involved only a couple other users. There was no success with 7 or more users involved. Here are a couple of the instances I experienced and a few thoughts on it.

• Clippers-Rockets: Things were going pretty well in my first attempt and I was encouraged. Controlling Yao with a full 10 player game and no lag. After the first possession the game ended. I was returned to the main loading screen.

• Bucks-Bobcats: Game filled up and was ready to go. Got a “Waiting for opponent” message and after a few seconds the users were dispersed back to the main loading screen. “Network conditions too poor to continue” was the reasoning given.

• TimberWolves-Bobcats: Same situations as the previous one only I was returned to the online menu of the game.

• Was able to get into games with 2 other users and 3 other users involved and it played smoothly. That is pretty much how it was before. Regardless that isn’t what the mode is supposed to be limited to.

• I made multiple other attempts. Most either disconnected with the poor network conditions message or left me sitting in the shoot-around area with no other users being filtered in.

• No change was made to how the game selects the team and player for the user, and while new match-ups have been added they are pre-determined. Essentially the user has no control over the teams used, what team they play on, and what player they control. Needless to say it is pretty obvious that there needs to be a clan type system in place for 2K10.

• On a positive note the default Team-Up camera (which was addressed in the patch) is much better. It is more along the lines of the broadcast camera. Much easier to keep up with the action and there are no blind spots or confusion with the camera flipping around.

• I still really like the shoot-around while the game is filling up. In the future it would be great to have the whole team there and be able to practice together.

I spent way too much time just attempting to play the mode. That is incredibly frustrating and very disappointing that an advertised mode is not functioning and now looks likely that it won’t this year. Granted I didn’t experience the lag that I did prior to the patch, but it appears that the fix for that was to just not have the game run. For those who don’t mind playing 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3 type arrangements Team-Up can provide enjoyment from that. It just doesn’t deliver on the 5 vs 5 as promised.