NBA 2K10 360

To be frank, I wasn’t altogether thrilled to have 2K Sports' NBA 2K10 land in my lap.

Its been a few years since I last played a basketball game, but curiosity prevailed, and it's just as well. This is the tenth anniversary edition, and developers Visual Concepts wanted to make an impression. It is clear from outset that they haven't held back, and have given their absolute all to put out one hell of a basketball game, even if it does present some challenges for a newbie like myself.

2K10 is an officially licensed NBA title, with all the teams and players from the real NBA. This is a must for anyone who follows basketball as it just wouldn’t be fun with a bunch of randoms shooting hoops. The game borrows somewhat from other sports games in the current generation, featuring with largely seamless integration into the online and real worlds of basketball. NBA Today, which essentially is where you land when you start the game, gives you a run down on all real world match-ups taking place, along with news, stats and more, which is all pulled into the game.

 

The living rosters mean that you will always have up-to-date info for all players and teams in the game, as well as all trades, injuries and analysis. Unlike in FIFA 10, access to these updates is free of charge, which can only be a plus. NBA Today also allows you to recreate real life match-ups with updated real life commentary. You definitely can’t get any more realistic than that.

The players have all been created with Signature Play, which essentially makes them react as one would expect from real life. Their facials and their signature moves are all present, players have stats that reflect their real-life on-court presence. If that’s not enough for you you can also create your own player in "My Player" mode, which follows a character you create through a realistic career starting as an undrafted rookie and working up through the NBA training camp. It's clear that making your rookie into a star is going to require a lot of work, but it's a rewarding experience and has been well implemented.

The initial loading of the game is then followed somewhat by confusion, due to the hectic and cluttered menu system that makes things a bit difficult to find at times, though this could as well be an effect of being new to the series. What is nice though is that the presentation of the menus, GUI, loading screens and on-court action make it obvious that Visual Concepts went all out on realism. The game completely immerses you and convinces you that you may as well be watching a live basketball feed on TV. The game includes cheerleaders between quarters, as well as all the extras you would expect with full TV coverage. The commentators will bring up stats on the teams, as well as information around what the next scheduled games are. Every aspect of the game is done in real-time, meaning that the game won’t place players on any lines, they will move there and do whatever needs to be done.

 

This effect is supported by the astounding graphics that are on display. An entirely 3D crowd moves and reacts as you would expect, and the players on the court interact very realistically with one another. The player models look exceptionally real, even close up. Their skin glistens as their shirts hang realistically from their bodies, and the motions are very well implemented, which makes for smooth animation. It is amazing how much detail the developers have packed into the stadium and the court without suffering any significant slow down.

The gameplay is quite good, with the controls being relatively fluid, and movement responsive. The main criticism is that the game is so very complex in the range of moves you can make. On my Xbox 360 copy, you use the right stick to perform most of your actions, moving it in various ways to make different kinds of shots. Similarly, subtle shifts with the left movement stick does the same, making drastic changes to the kind of defence you are playing. The D-pad allows you to quickly switch tactics, however the problem being that without a decent tutorial system or help system the game simply overloads newcomers with information. The included help/tutorial system involves plopping you onto a court and allowing you to read through a range of moves without any real feedback on whether or not you executed them properly. It would have been much better to have a range of pre-set scenarios which you had to complete, with the game letting you know if you’d done it or not.

 

Some consolation to this is that the game allows you to customise a significant amount in the way of difficulty. An extensive range of sliders allow you to set the strength of the defence AI which will help you, the style the coach is going to play, the probability of making shots and more. This helps, but it doesn’t quite compensate for the very high difficulty curve. It may be that I have to work at it, and learn when to time my steals properly to be effective, but it feels as though the controller has simply been overloaded with commands. It may even be quicker for me to learn how to play basketball and fight my way to the NBA myself. So new players be warned, it will take considerable effort to get good at, but chances are fans of the series will feel right at home. For people new to the series the game also allows you to enable auto-management of the team which means the coach will cycle players as need be, according to criteria you set, including enacting plays.

 

NBA 2K10 is an excellent basketball game. It looks and feels as authentic as can be, and the immersion factor is enormous. Fans will no doubt love it as a solid addition to the series, but the learning curve will surely frighten off a number of new players. We’ve certainly seen the last of the days when all you needed was a grab, shoot and run button, and I am quite sure I’m going to miss them. The graphics in NBA 2k10 are some of the best we’ve seen, and my jaw definitely dropped at the ultra realistic crowds. The game feels somewhat overwhelming in its sheer level of detail and wealth of information which also doesn’t help the user-friendliness, but there is some serious meat for basketball fans. Newcomers will enjoy it too after putting in the initial effort of learning the game, because its just so damn well presented and comprehensive.

If you have been hankering for a new basketball game, this is probably the game for you, though it’ll be a hard choice between NBA 2K10 and EA Sports Live 10, so it will probably come down to the series which served you best in recent years.