Point Blank
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For NBA 2K10, my fellow audio team and I decided that our audio presentation needed to be a major point of emphasis. We really wanted to take the broadcast feel of the audio integration to the next level.
To that end, we overhauled our commentary and crowd, which we believe makes NBA 2K10 one of the most realistic audio experiences in sports games. New dialogue for the NBA Today feature reflects the dynamics of the real-NBA season, providing a level of context never experienced before.
Commentary
While we always added to the commentary on a yearly basis, we needed a way to bring out more of the talent’s personality while delivering natural dialogue. It was time for a reboot.
One of the main complaints about previous versions of NBA2K was that Kevin and Clark didn’t have a connection and didn’t sound like they were in the booth together. The problem was simple—they weren’t. This year, we were able to get them in the booth at the same time, livening up the performances and providing a more natural cadence that comes through on broadcast.
To help with the side-by-side feel, we brought over a new conversational system from MLB 2K that is peppered throughout the game: Return to Topic. For example, Clark Kellogg might mention a team getting outhustled on the boards, and after a few play-by-play calls, Kevin and Clark will return to the topic, expanding upon the rebounding conversation. One of the Return to Topic segments weaved into the action is called game trend analysis: discussions of statistical trends throughout the game and making quarter-to-quarter comparisons. After an in-game conversation or breakdown, Kevin will also follow up with a play call that catches you up on the action: “So now it’s Orlando on offense, following the 3 pointer by Kobe. . .”
Next, we needed to make the season come alive with our new NBA Today feature, calling out the details that help put the particular game in context of the season. NBA Today is discussed in a previous Insight. You’ll hear a totally new approach to the introduction sequence, breaks in the action, and our in-game play-by-play and color analysis flow.
Our broadcast introduction has been completely overhauled, bringing a fresh vibe to the game, while debuting many of our new NBA Today elements. Kevin Harlan will set the stage, pointing out streaking or lagging teams and players, injuries, and trades, while Clark Kellogg provides the analysis of the teams and explains why they’re playing well or why they’re struggling.
During breaks in the action, Kevin and Clark will go Around the League and provide scoring updates from the NBA, discuss leaders for all the major stats, update you on conference standings, including playoff seeding and game implications, and deliver single game promotions of upcoming NBA games, including the All-Star game.
During the action, the play-by-play commentary is interspersed with real-life facts that touch on how the players and teams are doing during the season and how they played in their last outing. You’ll hear Kevin and Clark discuss a team’s previous win or loss, and what the determining factors were in that game. We also recap the last matchup between the two teams, for example mentioning Detroit won by 3 points last time they played the Knicks earlier in the year. When two teams meet up for the first time in the season, Kevin and Clark break down last year’s season series, and will also recap the outcome of a playoff encounter between the two teams. Other bits of information are included recognizing a player’s recent performance such as Lebron James coming off a 38 point game against Denver, or the fact that Dwight Howard had an off-night in Orlando’s loss to the Celtics in the previous game.
We’ve also included a “Keys to the Game” segment, which is built into our NBA Today feature. Clark Kellogg will discuss a team or player’s trends going into the game and point out streaks and slumps that are occurring in the real life NBA season or in your Association. Clark has a large amount of new dialogue this year, and is much more involved throughout the broadcast. I think you guys will like Clark’s input much more this year.
In all, we’ve added over twenty-thousand new lines of dialogue this year in support of our new commentary systems. Kevin and Clark were fantastic as always, providing valuable insight and helping to bring these new systems to life. The dialogue in NBA 2K10 is a major step toward delivering natural broadcast commentary.
Crowd and Arena
This year we wanted to provide a more dynamic and varied approach to the crowd systems. We wanted big moments to stand out more from the lower energy points in a game. We rewrote the logic and the crowd behaves much more realistically, thanks to this peaks and valleys concept.
You can also expect to hear more detailed crowd behavior that appropriately follows the action. Whether it’s thundering applause as the coach for the away team calls a timeout to stop a run, or deafening silence when Kobe nails a dagger into the hopes of the Orlando fans as he drains a three. Of course, if you’re playing especially poorly, the crowd will let you hear that as well. Anticipation is a big part of the crowd experience. If you’re lining up a three-point shot with Hedo Turkoglu, you can hear the electricity in the arena build up, and then explode into cheers if he knocks it down.
Every year we try to deepen the arena specific experience. For 2K10, we’ve expanded on our arena specific crowd chants and PA music selections so that every arena has a sound of its own, including stadium specifc organ sounds for common themes like the defense chants at Staples Center. Each arena has unique PA dialogue too which makes you feel like you’re there. For example, at the Palace of Auburn Hills you’ll hear the familiar call and response between the PA announcer and the crowd: “DEE-troit BASKETBALL!”. You’ll also hear the response “Mellow! Mellow!” after Carmello Anthony scores, and when the PA announcer calls out “Jose Calderon for 3!”, the crowd chimes in with “Unos!, Dos!, Tres!”- adding a touch of realism of being amidst the Raptors fans in Toronto.
We’ve also added intelligent crowd chatter with individual voices commenting on the action and the flow of the game. They’ll yell about players being open, what they thought about a shot or play, or just generally whoop it up.
Soundtrack
2K Sports holds to the long-standing reputation of bringing an eclectic mix of breaking and established artists to its gaming audience with NBA 2K10’s soundtrack. No doubt that this is the biggest soundtrack to ever grace a 2K Sports game- both in terms of the number of tracks, and the star power of the artists represented. The full list is below (* denotes tracks that are available to download for free here):
Ace Hood - Top of the World
Adam Tensta - My Cool
Akala - The Edge
Al Kapone - Rock This
Chali2na - Lock it Down (Instrumental)
Chali2na – International (feat. Beenie Man)
Donnie Bravo - Run Away *
Duo Live - Shootin
Flo Rida - ROOTS
Iglu & Hartly - In this City
Illinois - Hang On
Izza Kizza - They’re Everywhere *
K’naan - Wavin’ the Flag
Kanye West - Amazing
Kenan Bell - Like This
Matisyahu - One Day
Metric - Help I’m Alive
Metronomy - Radio Ladio
MGMT - Electric Feel
Mike Snow - Black & Blue
Naïve New Breeders - Can’t Choose
Ratatat - Falcon Jab
Ratatat - Mirando
Saul Williams - List of Demands (Reparations)
Sportsrushaz - Iron
The Game - Champion (Exclusive and original track)
The Moog - Joyclad Armies
Vincent Van Go Go - Do You Know
As you can clearly see from the above, the soundtrack offers more hits than ever before with some of the hip-hop highlights include “Amazing” by Kanye West, “R.O.O.T.S.” from Flo Rida, “One Day” by Matisyahu, and “Top of the World” by Ace Hood just to name a few. And we’ve also included a huge selection in the indie & rock categories, as Ratatat, MGMT, and Iglu and Hartly are also some of the emerging acts represented on the soundtrack. And of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our original track by The Game. The Game, who by the way was #1 on PS3 NBA 2K9 leaderboards last time I checked and a winner of Team 2K, created an awesome track called “Champion” for 2K10. He is pretty pumped to be on the soundtrack as he stated recently, “I've been a beast at NBA 2K for years, I was #1 on the PS3 leaderboards, and challenge anybody online to go up against me," said The Game. "When 2K Sports hit me to drop a new track for NBA 2K10, I knew I had to do it."
End of the Road
I know a lot of you have been asking us for this and NBA 2K10 delivers. For the first time, you can import your personal music and have it played through the PA system on your XBOX 360. I haven’t been able to touch on every new audio feature that we have in store for you. Hopefully, you’re as excited about the new features as we are here at 2K. We’re working hard to break some new ground in sports game audio, but I think we’re just starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible. Enjoy!
Thanks,
- Joel Simmons
I wish they made the crowd atmosphere in playoff games different. But it sounds like it's getting better. The soundtrack looks shitty like always, lol.
