NBA 2K9 (Xbox 360)
NBA 2K9 takes a few steps forward and a few steps back. In the end ... try the demo.
10/16/2008 6:42 PM | 1 Comments | Page 3 of 3
What's Hot: Gorgeous visuals and signature animations; Lock on D is great; Living Rosters might provide long-term appeal; Deep franchise mode
What's Not: Control complexity is officially out of control; Postgame is too overpowering; Way too much scoring; 10-player online is extremely laggy
William Abner
Status: Most likely playing a sports game of some sort
It's easy to pick apart
NBA 2K9's problems, but despite its frustrating controls and AI issues, the core foundation is still in place. It takes time and a lot of tweaking, but you can get this game to play a moderately realistic brand of basketball by fixing some (although not all) of the AI's issues via in-game sliders. When it clicks, it's as fun as it has ever been. But sports gamers are getting sick and tired of being forced to do that. If 2K Sports truly wants to make an "authentic" game of basketball, then the default player settings should reflect that. If gamers want to play a 2K Sports version of
NBA Jam -- let
them tweak the settings day after day instead of punishing the core fan base.
This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.
