adrian dominguez

With 2Ks third iteration on current gen. It remains the best in many categories while exceeding the stellar play the series has been known for.

 

GAMEPLAY

This is the most detailed sports game. But that also makes it the hardest to perfect. Dribbling has always been something only achieved by the most hardcore of players. Changing your camera angle from horizontal to vertical might help u gain a better perspective of your body orientation and ball hand.

It is more important than ever to run plays. Great for fans of simulation but creates a bigger barrier of entry for newcomers. AI has been greatly improved so cheese maneuvers of the past won't work. You truly have to coach up your team

The pick & roll game has changed and needs to be what your offense is built around. Hold L1 for as long as you want the pick to last & you can also choose to roll or fade & the side of the pick

Sports games succeed when they implement mechanics that create mini games within the game. 2K succeeds in this with its passing mechanics and its pick system. Holding circle and tapping circle. Holding triangle tapping or double tapping. All create different passes that you need to choose when to best use.

Determining when and how to use your offensive tactics against an improved defense and the shot clock is not for the NBA Jam crowd.

 

PRESENTATION

Presentation is still top of the class. Team introductions have sleek animations. Intros are arena specific.  Kenny Earl & Shaq are entertaining. 2K keeps building their lead in presentation. No other sports game gets this close. Even the cheerleaders have cool routines. Player models looked amazing at the start of this generation but are now starting to show their age.

The best crowd noise in sports games is represented. They sense the home team making a comeback and erupt when you get the go ahead basket or can fall deftly silent when the road team drops a dagger 3. However they drown out the post game interviews.

 

ONLINE

Online has been the nagging issue for the series for many years. It has been greatly improved and for the most part stable. In the past while playing online games taking perimeter shots was usually miss do to unstable timing. That timing has been fixed, so your only online strategy doesn’t have to be bowling into the paint. The worse part of online play is allowing same color uniforms. Best part is that ratings for players have decreased. Attributes only reach 99 for some legendary players. This is a major factor in decreasing exploitive cheese players.

 

STORY

You’ll play as Freq, a prodigy of Harlem and have a surrounding cast of characters that fill out the tropes of an urban rags to riches story. You’ll confront good arguments for going pro or stay in college. I thought I’d be given the choice but i wasn’t. I would’ve liked to play some more college games. But the story wouldn’t let me even though it was giving the illusion that I will. That is just an example of the main problem of what is generally B-film entertaining story. It doesn’t respect the time I put into Freq when everything is already predetermined. Just watch “He Got Game”

 

CONCLUSION

Anyone can jump into the career mode and get some entertainment from the story, but the majority of the game leaves casual players out and caters to establishing an even playing field for longtime 2K devotees.