NBA 2K10

Like fishermen, golfers, and politicians, basketball players are liars. And the biggest lie basketball players will tell you: that you will quickly “learn” how to fall.

Perhaps that works for snowboarders and gymnasts, but for basketball it’s utter BS. In a quarter century of on-and-off again play – I’ve racked up broken wrists, ankles and countless sprains proving it. Whether it was that ill-advised attempt to dunk over Darren Pierce at a work basketball game (result: a forearm shaped like a banana) to landing on top of the brother of an ex-girlfriend post rebound (snapped ankle) – some of us never learn how to touch down with feline grace.

Lessons written in blood tend to endure, as does the love of basketball. My dunking days are long gone, my shooting touch atrocious, and even my flashy ball handling is also suspect. Yet you can find me on the court several times a week, guys half my age running circles around me.

And so evaluating 2K Sports’ NBA2K10 is a conflicted task for me. The player in me wants the impossible: fluid ball-handling and an AI that can be fooled by the sport’s split second creativity. The NBA fan in me wants anally-retentive levels detail in the player’s appearances and realistic performance. And the gamer in me wants it all to be cobbled together in an experience which lasts more than the length of a season – preferably attained via nigh-telepathic connection with a controller.

2K Sports has spent the last decade striving to get closer to these three ideals with their NBA series. The result has been games which are critically acclaimed as the best NBA 5-on-5 titles available, virtually year-on-year. Purists have loved the stat overload, the rosters, and hey- the game hasn’t played badly either.

NBA2K10 continues the progression in some ways, but remains static in others.

Starting the game means you don’t have go far to find the first point of seduction. The thing looks amazing – the level of presentation is insane. The menu transitions, the way the information is presented – top notch. The user interface takes some time to get used to, relying on using the right stick to open up menus and the left to select options, but it’s not something which would put you off buying the game. But the real slap to the head occurs when you fire up a game with NBA teams. It’s a stunning facsimile of a broadcaster’s intro and presentation – the brassy theme music, the intricate swirling logos and graphics. For NBA fans looking to get pumped up on pre-match eye candy, look no further.

As we noted in our preview of the game, player-specific vignettes and pre-game routines also are included in the game. It’s about now you notice the big picture. The court, its surrounds and the players all are exquisitely animated and depicted. The crowd as well is a living breathing thing – about the only criticism I could level is it’s relatively easy to find duplicate people in the throng. It’s a hell of a long way from the days where your courtside audience was a smeared texture with white noise.

Tipoff
Once the light show has subsided and it’s time to start playing, further details stand out. The sweat on the player’s bodies, the reflection of the billboards on the court, even the referees and cheerleaders in the background.

One other thing will quickly become apparent too – not so welcome. The game will occasionally stutter – or on occasion halt for a fraction of a second. If I’m pushing the fast break through five or more flailing bodies the last thing I need is for the game to mini-freeze, but it happens. It’s not a show stopper but it’s enough to be the game’s biggest issue, hands-down.

I figured out a fix for the game (we reviewed the Xbox 360 version) – by installing the game to the hard drive, the problem went away completely. However that’s six gigabytes on your hard drive chewed up right there. Perfectly okay if you’ve got a newer model, larger HDD console, but those with 20GB models will likely have to do some culling to squeeze it in amongst the demos, Xbox Live Arcade games and any other full installed titles you have.

If you can juggle the contents of your hard drive to do this, it’s highly recommended you do so. The pause issue (likely the side effect of pulling information from the DVD drive) makes the game less enjoyable. Obviously. Suck it up and put it on your HDD – your career and save options are stored elsewhere so you won’t lose it all if you need to clear space later.

Driving the lane

Once you have got the game running smoothly at all times, you’re going to start noticing player behaviour. My first NBA-level game I opted to match up Denver’s Nuggets against Orlando Magic. NBA fans will tell you the Magic’s key defining player is Dwight Howard. Howard, nicknamed “Superman” is a young superstar – an infeasibly ripped 7 footer who can leap tall buildings in a single bound. His modus operandi is to hover near the basket, get the ball and then stuff it through the hoop with a great deal of force. It matters not if someone is underneath him at the time he does it – the guy is a beast.

Past NBA games have taught us just because a NBA player plays a certain way in real life does not mean they will do it in videogame format. So I was happy to ‘defend’ the CPU Dwight with a lesser player. Big mistake. Howard backed my hapless 6’8 guy down, then proceeded to viciously dunk two handed on him. Just like real life.

What followed was a NBA gaming embarrassment. The more I tried to stop Dwight and lure the CPU into making him do un-Dwight things, the more he kept exploiting it as he would in the real deal. I tried throwing my biggest, lunk headed personnel at him: Dwight used his superior speed to get around them. Double team? Dwight did the textbook correct move and passed to the open man. Finally, I was reduced to doing what real teams do vs him: fouling him at least yielded a better chance to slow down the scoring rate.

In the games I’ve played so far this level of behavioural modelling has been distinctly noticeable. And it’s not just the stars – also plenty of the supporting cast will kill you if you play to their strengths. Rashard Lewis lit it up in last season’s play-offs series, and continued his fine form against me when I decided to leave him alone at the three point line. The Cavaliers’ Mo Williams found his touch against me when I tried to smother him on D, beating me off the dribble or feeding Shaq and LeBron constantly until I got the message. The Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony had no qualms about killing me inside or out – an accurate reflection of his upscale game.

The way the AI plays offence is beyond reproach in NBA2K10. It’s common sense enough that people unfamiliar with NBA individuals can still play the game, but knowing the tendencies of these players takes it to another level. You start actually sweating on the ball going to the “wrong” guy - high praise for a sporting subgenre which has been less than outstanding in this regard in the past.

However the game’s interpretation of defence is a little less solid. For starters, there’s the pass interception skills, which seem to be highly developed in all teams. Second, the notion of “help defence” – where additional defenders swoop in on a player – seems a little overdone. One second you’ll be man-on-man, the next you’ve got a mini army blocking your progress.

Part of the reason why defence seems less authentic is it’s harder to model defender’s tendencies in a league that is as offensively-minded as the NBA. Defence is often a collaboration of subtleties – the game does a good job of depicting those subtleties via the graphic engine – the sly pokes at the ball, the varying foot speed of defenders – but coding in those intangibles which make a physically inferior player able to keep up with a more gifted one – that’s a little harder to do.

In practice, only serious NBA fans will notice the difference, as it is a subtle one. The average player wanting a basketball/NBA experience will be blissfully unaware.

But ‘ow does she ride?

Authentic AI behaviour aside, the crux of a sports game lies in the control. NBA2K10’s control scheme is detailed and rewards return play, but it’s debatable whether it matches the spectacular visuals in terms of quality. Partially, this has something to do with the nature of basketball and animation. Even the staggering level of moves motion captured by 2K Sports pales in comparison to the variables on offer in the real game.

It’s a devilish choice for a b-ball game maker: completely free up control so players can do anything they want *instantly* - and have it look like an unrealistic,jerky, crappy animation-free spazfest or seek a compromise and give players realistic moves which cannot be easily cancelled out of.



We believe 2K Sports did the right thing in throwing a pile of animations at the game – unlike games of yesteryear, at least there’s a good chance the twisting off-balance layup you’re attempting will look like the real thing rather than turning the game into NBA Jam, where players constantly blast to the basket, pass the ball mid dunk animation, blast the basket, pass the ball mid-dunk, repeat.

The animation heavy route does mean you may incur some frustration in getting to grips with the control. You will be pushing the controller in a given direction but the fluid motion means the “tweening” steps give the defence a split second window to react and foil your moves. In this way the game is very much like real life: players reacting to subtle cues to make their next move. It’s a very authenticity driven solution, which for arcade-oriented fans and pure gamers will take a little getting used to.

Also collision with other players is not something to gloss over here. Defenders can effectively cut off lanes of travel by thinking ahead, and delightfully for fans of proactive defence, you can position your player in ways to increase the chance of slapping the ball loose or ripping off a pass. You really get the feeling you are making an active difference on D rather than spamming a button and hoping not to get a foul called against you. It also means you need to plan your routes in advance – just like in the real game, you can't hope to barge your way through other players like they were papier mache.

Shooting in NBA2K10 is probably the hardest thing to get used to. Players in-game typically have a very rapid “release” – your window to make a successful jump shot is quite tight. Whether this is 2K Sports' player research or an effort to prevent players easily racking up unrealistic scores is anybody’s guess. It’s fair to say leaping into the air and lazily releasing the ball as you start to drop down will see your shot percentage plummet. We found the best results in releasing a beat longer than a tap. Rather than hitting a button, you can also use the right analog to shoot, and this method is far superior – it conveys a lot more “feel” – much like Fight Night Round 4’s analog vs button argument only this time you start out with the option.

Your brilliant career

NBA2K10 excels in ushering you into the game’s inner workings in a relatively painless manner. As we outlined in our preview, by taking on the game’s career challenge, you don’t just pump up all manner of stats for your player and insert him into an NBA lineup. You start out at the summer league, playing amongst other hopefuls and need to earn your slot.

Your key stat determinant when you begin is what type of player you have selected to be. It’s not as simple as picking their position, you also specify the playing style. You even get to choose the animation types for key moves at your position. The facial detail controls aren’t the most flexible in the world, but in the end I had a serviceable version of Barack Obama playing, who I envisioned as a 6’7 slashing off guard.

Of course you aren’t going anywhere fast when you begin – just riding the pine at your summer league games, waiting for the coach to put you in the game (something you can thankfully fast forward to). The way you skill your player up is through points which are unlocked for good performances in matches as well as in training drills. You can’t just go nuts and grind out max stats by repeated games and drills either – there’s a set limit of times you can repeat them.

When it comes to spending those skill points, you have to exercise some common sense. If you’re a 6’7 shooting guard, just how much do you need to build up your dunk-from-a-standing-start skill? The game will warn you against spending points in inappropriate categories, but the option is there if you insist. The other discouraging thing is the point cost for skills NOT in your area of expertise is very high. The cost for skills you are proficient in also increases, to prevent you playing three seasons and having a superhuman stat monster of a player.

It’s these early games in the summer league – when your player’s skill level isn’t the best – which will test players with low attention spans. Sometimes you will do everything right and still get pinged for screwing up. The game tracks how well you’re playing as a team member by marking you up or down cumulatively as a game plays, depending on doing your job. Leave your defensive assignment alone for long enough, and you’ll get marked down for playing out of position. Let him score, and you’ll get penalised more. Force up dumb shots, turn the ball over or foul a player and you guessed it: more penalties.

Balancing that is the rewards for doing things right – as a “slashing” shooting guard, my role is defined by shaking off my defender and cutting to the basket. I found when I did this – as opposed to jacking up shots from the outside – my marks started improving rapidly. There's a healthy level of behaviours the game tracks – positioning, free throw shooting, rebounding and sound passing are all rewarded – or docked.

A couple of comments about the career mode: first, your coach is on a hair trigger. When you’re first proving yourself, it takes all of one screw-up for you to be back on the bench. Sometimes it’s nigh unavoidable: you’ll be subbed into the game and your defensive assignment scores – bang you’re out. It doesn’t happen every single time, but initially when your marks are on the lower end of the scale expect to be yo-yoed in and out.

Another oddity we noticed was in your mentor(a Stephen A Smith type character)'s - post-game assessment. Shot selection and the number of points my defensive assignment scored on me normally figured highly in my games as I was a scoring guard. A couple of times I was sternly admonished for the number of points my guy had racked up against me – except he hadn’t scored them on me. He’d scored those points when I was subbed out, I *swear*!

Also, getting docked skill points from your game's total reward pool for a loss seems a little harsh – especially seeing as you’re not playing all the game nor have the skill level to really take it over. You really are reliant on your teammates.

At least you get a chance to get angry and blame your CPU teammates when you lose – in that respect career mode is exactly like playing down the park.

Career mode works best when a deep investment of time is made– but makes a massive difference to how tethered to the game you become. It’s very much action sports, RPG-style. Not for everyone – but some will gravitate to it when they need a more grassroots thrill.

Final scoreline

NBA2K10 displays a lot of devotion and time – from the superior audio treatment, to the superb visual output and the unstinting dedication to authenticity. The integration with real life feeds from the NBA is a class move, and the way the commentary backs it up is spookily “real”.

There are still areas we’d like to see looked at. While the super smooth animations make the game look every bit as realistic as the real thing, we’d like the 2K Sports team to figure out a way to convey the game’s split second decision-making into a viable control method. What’s on offer at present does a great job, but probably sacrifices a little too much street for the textbook, a bit too cerebral at the expense of the instinctual.

While the career section will make some big fans, our personal key draw has been the dedication to imbuing the AI players with appropriate behavior. This is the first NBA videogame I would happily put on spectate and just watch, knowing I would see things much the same as I would in a real game.

In NBA2K10 I’ve seen crazy passes and flashy showboating unfold in-game that would send the average NBA coach into a meltdown. But you know what – this stuff actually happens all the time. It's just our NBA games usually present them as canned “look at me” sequences or have shied away from trying to model spontenaity.

A huge part of the NBA's appeal is the individuality of its players – 2K Sports has grasped this and more importantly – conveyed it. As a result, we’re damned if we haven’t noticed the maverick souls of Williams, Allen Iverson and Dawkins stirring within the 0s and 1s here - and the game is more "real" for it.