NBA 2K9 suffers from an identity crisis. While 2K Sports continues to claim to strive for authenticity with its flagship basketball title, the game itself doesn't necessarily reflect that. It's massively geared towards the offense, yet has a control scheme that requires a degree in gamepad-ology in order to master. What you are left with is a game that is at times brilliant, at times frustrating and ultimately not as much fun as it should be.

Yao slams over Duncan.

On its default settings, the game is tilted towards the offense more than any NBA 2K title before it. This is largely due to the offensive artificial intelligence's ability to thread the needle on passes into the paint, dropping dimes that would make Steve Nash green with envy. Problem is, you don't need to be Steve Nash to make these passes, as even the more pedestrian point guards will throw no-look precision passes to cutting centers for power dunks on a regular basis. Your AI teammates don't help the cause, either. At times you are left feeling completely helpless on defense, and it doesn't matter if you are playing with a defensive-minded team like the Celtics or an offense-first team like the Suns.

The other problem is the player ratings themselves. 2K rated nearly every player in the game too high on offense in both their passing and shooting numbers. Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo is a 79-rated 3-point shooter? Derek Fisher is an 84 passer? In what universe? There is a built-in player editor that can technically fix this -- but who wants to take the time to edit all of these bloated numbers? One hope is that the new Living Roster system set up by 2K Sports will fix the numbers via updated rosters with ratings that make more sense.

The offensive ease continues with the postgame. While better than in NBA 2K8, scoring down low remains far too easy for both you and the CPU. The issue is with positioning -- getting the ball on the low block is simply too easy. There is a reason why teams in the NBA don't merely throw it down the floor to the center or power forward every time for an easy five-foot shot. The defenses in the NBA won't allow it; they deny the entry pass, quickly double-team prolific low-post scorers, and try their best to not allow a big man to back them down mercilessly until they can shoot an easy soft hook.

In NBA 2K9, this is not the case, despite the claims of "adaptive AI" that is supposed to change and adjust to your style of game. If you take a team like Boston and throw it low down the floor to Garnett every single time, you'll score a lot of points. It shouldn't be that easy. This is a crucial flaw in offline games.

The controls in NBA 2K have always been a bit on the taxing side, and pulling off certain moves has never been easy, but this year's game takes it to a new level. The basics are easy enough: Use the right stick (or a button) to shoot; certain buttons perform simple tasks like passing and jumping -- but the advanced controls are starting to get out of hand.

For example, on the Xbox 360 version, in order to perform a relatively fundamental move like a spin, you need to "Hold the right trigger and move the left stick from the ball hand to the opposite hand in a half-circle motion." Taken alone, the control setup for each special move isn't too hard -- but in a fast-paced sport like basketball, your mind tends to lock up, thinking about what trigger/button combo you need to use in order to do a double crossover instead of a hesitation move. Surely there is a better way to do this?

Online mode on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 introduces full five-on-five play, allowing you to join up with friends across the globe and take the AI completely out of the equation. It's something that hoop fans have dreamed about for a long time. Sadly, they're still dreaming, because the lag in these 10-player games is unbearable at the moment, both via Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. In the 20-some games I tried to play, only four worked from start to finish.

The games that did work featured people playing a hybrid brand of basketball. Players cherry-pick, refuse to play defense, hog the ball like sixth-graders on the schoolyard, and generally have no idea what they're doing. This isn't necessarily the game's fault -- you can "rate" online players all you want -- but people are still going to act like fools when given the chance. Playing with friends remains the best option, and if you can get just a few buddies together the lag isn't a problem -- but the full five-on-five feature is currently a total bust.

What's not a bust is the new presentation and overall atmosphere. The player models and animation are second to none -- much better than EA's NBA Live 09, for instance. Not only is everything silky smooth, but players move and shoot just like their real-life counterparts. When Kobe takes his patented jumper, the resemblance is uncanny. The graphics on the Xbox 360 look slightly better -- they're a bit shiny on the PS3 -- but both versions look incredible. If you're stuck deciding which game to get, keep in mind that the PS3 version lacks Trophies, whereas the Xbox 360 version is loaded with Achievements for Gamerscore addicts.

The crowd gets into the game this year like never before, booing when the home team gets down big and going certifiably crazy during a tight game in the fourth quarter. A new wrinkle is the "Intermission" cut scene, which gives a true-to-life television presentation feel to the game. During timeouts, you are greeted with specific highlights from the previous few minutes of action -- not just the dunks, but also the plays that mattered -- like a key 3-pointer or a timely steal or blocked shot.

The game certainly looks and sounds picture-perfect; the only major issue is collision detection. It's way too common a sight to see the ball "phase" through a defender, or an arm go through another player's chest.

Franchise mode, dubbed Associated 2.0, remains a strong point. The stat model and player progression are much better this year (although players are still too slow to retire), and the player roles and personalities (a feature carried over from NBA 2K8) keep you on your toes. A new Ambition model is added to the mix this year, showing whether a player worries about money or playing for a winning team, or is loyal to his current club. The Association mode is deep, littered with stats, and allows more than one person to play so that roomies can battle it out against one another. It would be even better if the core game weren't as schizophrenic.

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.