NBA 2K20: 10 Things We Already Know

3. Dribbling & Animation Improvements Are A Priority

Superior character models are only useful if they look good in full flight. That's why it's exciting to learn that 2K are dedicated to ensuring new dribbling improvements make animations run smoothly. 2K Gameplay Director Mike Wang told 2KTV (the team's official YouTube channel) that there'd be increased focus on ball handling this year.

That focus will be split between the carrier and the player chasing them.

These "inverse kinematics" mean the player with the ball will be more aware of what's going on around him/her, and animate accordingly. Sounds like fancy pants developer jargon, but it's something Wang is very excited about and he claims it will have an impact on how the action looks on-court.

One thing 2K are keen to do is remove clunky animations that look unrealistic. They want players to move fluidly like real people, rather than a robotic mesh of pixellated limbs and juddering movements. This is especially important when the camera gets closer to character models.