The Digest: With the fate of the impending NBA season looking doubtful, NBA 2K12 provides a respite from the monotony of the disastrous and plagued labor negotiations. NBA 2K12 is graphically pleasing and it contains an easy learning curve to hold you over for missing a few, yet too many, games; however, it isn’t refined adequately enough to relieve the pain of the absent NBA. Plus, the lockout punishes this game by restraining the rosters to those of last year.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: October 4, 2011
PUBLISHER: 2K Sports
DEVELOPER: Visual Concepts
ESRB RATING: “E” for Everyone
GENRE: Sports

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:

With over 5 million copies sold worldwide and over 20 Sports Game of Year awards, last year NBA 2K11 allowed you to BECOME THE GREATEST with MJ & the Jordan Challenge mode. This year the NBA 2K franchise is back and bigger than ever, providing fans with the opportunity they’ve always dreamed of – to finally END THE DEBATE as to who are the best teams and players of all time with the ALL-NEW NBA’s Greatest mode. Featuring 15 legendary players such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Dr. J, NBA’s Greatest let you relive some of NBA’s most celebrated careers and rivalries, painstakingly recreated in historical detail. In addition, several innovative gameplay features have been added putting fans center court of an unprecedented basketball experience.

PRODUCT FEATURES:
• NBA’s Greatest – Experience 15 of the NBA’s most celebrated careers and rivalries, painstakingly recreated in historic detail. Featuring such legends as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Dr. J,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and more.
• Most Accurate NBA 2K Game Ever – Building o! NBA Today’s real-time stats, rosters, schedules and ratings, NBA 2K12 now delivers the most visually accurate NBA game as well. From shoes to player models and even court floors – every graphic detail of the game can now be dynamically updated. Broadcast style gets a boost as well with player interstitials promoting their upcoming games and dynamic pre-game highlight reels set to 2K Beats music.
• Enhanced Gameplay  – NBA 2K12 adds +1,000 new animations this year and delivers all-new control mechanics for post play and ball control to make the game more intuitive to play than ever before

Seeing as I haven’t played a basketball game since the original Xbox, I jumped at the opportunity to play the only basketball franchise available. Living in Chicago, the eclectic disappointment I’ve felt from other sports has led me toward the Bulls because my other favorite teams have failed to do anything notable, albeit the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. Whether the Cubs or the Bears, it has been the same story year after year. Now, Chicago stands behind Derrick Rose; we are thirsty for another championship (and to beat the Heat).

NBA 2K12 suggests that Chicago doesn’t have a chance because the Bulls are lacking an offense, which is a real problem in the game: it undervalues defense. Unless you are the defending World Champion Dallas Mavericks, whom can block nearly every shot because of their massive size, the defensive rating of your team doesn’t seem to matter. While the game does make it easy for one to play defense, by presenting an arrow towards the man you guard, the game is wholly based off of your corresponding player’s streak. Once they get hot, they’re unstoppable. Once they get cold, they can’t make a shot.

Since I haven’t played a Basketball game for years, I wasn’t expecting to do particularly well. The game contains a learning curve, but it is well executed. I was initially destroyed in my first game because I didn’t know what I was doing. However, I went into the Training Camp mode and became proficient in shooting and dribbling. Although I haven’t mastered shooting with the right stick, the game lets me use the X button in place which reduces the difficulty of the game immensely.

In NBA 2K12 it’s the little things that count. Obviously it looks beautiful as demonstrated by the pictures included in this review. From the reflections of the score monitors on the wood floor, to the tattoos on the players, NBA 2K12 is there to strive. The players also hold their own facial expressions. The game feels mostly like a television broadcast; however, it can, like any other sport’s game, contain repeated dialog.  Where NBA 2K12 excels in presentation, it fails technically. Throughout my numerous hours of play through, I encountered way too many glitches. Teams can be displayed twice in the league standings, players kick the ball before the inbound pass and waste 25 seconds, and I still haven’t played a lag-free multiplayer game. In terms of player ratings, they can  largely be unrealistic. Perhaps this will all be fixed from an upcoming roster update though. For example, Lebron has a 90 for 3 point shooting. Yeah right.

The game mode I spent the most time in is My Player. NBA 2K12 allows you to pick your position; then you are thrown into a game that will determine your future. For each game you play, you are given a grade that is continuously updated. Particularly frustrating are the penalties that affect your grade. Such actions as “calling for a bad pass”, or “allowing your man to score”, negate any positive progress that you might have made. And giving the ball to your teammates is anger-filled. They take bad shots. They don’t pass. They lose the ball.

In order to progress into the playoffs or into the next season, you must play “key” games. There are around 30 key games that you have to play each year. Nearly every game I played was against another masterful  point guard. But that didn’t stop me. In my Rookie season for the Golden State Warriors, I led the league in scoring. Luckily, I picked the Warriors in my pre-season interviews. You are interviewed by 3 teams, and depending on your answers, you will be drafted by one of them. Knowing that the Warriors suck, and that I had the best opportunity  to start with them, I poorly interviewed with the other 2 teams. When draft night came, I sat around for 5 minutes (because you cannot skip through the earlier rounds) while I waited for the Draft to reach the 12th pick. From there, my NBA career began.

After providing a glimpse of the greatest in NBA 2K11 through Michael Jordan, NBA 2K12 combines 15 different legends. After playing as Scotty Pippen, Patrick Ewing, or Larry Bird, and winning, you unlock their respective team and can use those teams to play against the normal NBA teams. I found a great amount of joy taking the ‘92 Bulls and beating the overpowered Heat by a large margin. Hopefully you will too.

From my brief online play, I was immensely dissatisfied. There are 2 different modes: you can play against one opponent, or with 5 teammates and against 5 opponents.  I can see the potential in both game modes, but the combination of the 2K servers being down near launch, the long time it takes to find a match, and the lag associated with the 5 v 5 games have led me away from the online play and into the other modes. Hopefully 2K will pick up the slack when the NBA season starts because the NBA Today mode has promise. It allows users to reenact the daily games with updated rosters, stats, and streaks.

Conclusion: NBA 2K12 is a great game. Although it contains glitches and seems to be just a minor improvement upon last year’s game, it is still the best (and only) NBA game on the Xbox 360.

Single Player: 9/10 | Multi-Player: 7/10

Special thanks to 2K Games for providing us with a copy of the game for review.