As is always the case with a sports game, the first week of NBA 2K21‘s release was an opportunity for developers to gather feedback on the game from a much wider audience and then seek to address bugs and gameplay issues. The results of that arrived in the form of the first full patch for the game on Monday — there was already a shooting hotfix put in place on release weekend — that hopes to address some of the more significant issues people have had with the game thus far.
The biggest changes in the new patch are in regards to the Pro Stick shooting mechanics, starting with offering the ability to choose between the new aiming mechanic and the traditional shot timing mechanic.
New Pro Stick Aiming/Shot Timing selector. On your first boot, you will now have the option to choose between using the new Pro Stick Aiming mechanic or the traditional Shot Timing mechanic. Your settings file will be updated with the appropriate selection. As always, you can visit your settings at any time to update your shooting preference.
Enabled the ability to use Pro Stick Shot Aiming with the Shot Meter setting turned off.
Ideal Shot Aiming point now determined by how slowly or quickly the Pro Stick is initially deflected when starting a shot. A slow flick will move the ideal aim point to the left, while a fast flick will move the ideal point to the right, giving players more consistency with Pro Stick shooting.
There are a number of other gameplay tweaks in the new patch, which is available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 today, including some animation changes (like getting rid of the double team indicator) and also allowing for floaters from further away and eliminating forced fadeaways after certain dribble moves. They also looked to fix weird hangs that were reported in various modes when entering and exiting areas in an effort to make gameplay smoother.
My personal favorite update listed (and you can check all the updates here) is this one: Andrew Wiggins now appears with updated facial hair to more accurately represent his appearance.
There will surely be more patches to come, but for now this will hopefully improve gameplay, particularly for those who have been frustrated with the new Pro Stick mechanics — and whoever was upset with Andrew Wiggins not looking enough like Andrew Wiggins.
