NBA 2K11

It's all about Michael Jordan. At 11:50pm, Oct 4th, I went to Wal-Mart for the midnight release of NBA 2K11. I thought I was the only one this excited about the game. I intended to park, run in and grab a copy and head home.  Instead I was greeted by a line of 50-60 grown men who also had the same idea. After a 45 minute wait, multiple scares that they weren't going to have enough copies (when they start counting the number of people in line, you know you're in trouble). Normally I'm not so lucky, but at check out I had the fortune of receiving the last limited offer Michael Jordan poster along with my copy of NBA 2K11. I have to admit, it was fun, exciting and worth the wait. I also got the chance to meet people that shared a common interest. It's good thing I went too, when I checked a couple of stores over the weekend NBA 2K11 was completely sold out!  

No, this isn't the unemployment line. Wal-Mart just after midnight. Just as many grown men in front as there were behind me.

Derek Rose is so hyped about NBA 2K11 he baked a cake for MJ and let 2K Sports film the commercials in his apt.

"The fact that 2K Sports did so much more with this game and improved it so greatly over last year's title is stunning. This isn't just the best basketball game ever; it's the best sports game of this generation". --IGN 9.5/10

I'm in complete agreement.  This game has seen an almost total overhaul in AI, graphical color-palette, presentation and game play since the previous version. I bring attention to the color-palette because before NBA 2K11 the colors of the jerseys were often dull and washed out.  Black jerseys looked gray, white accessories such as arm-bands and calf-sleeves looked gray and on some teams, red looked like pink. With this version of the game, the color of the uniforms and the stadiums is now deep, rich and incredibly vivid. Black is black. White is white and red is red.  I don't think any sports video game has ever seen this much innovation and improvement in a one-year development cycle.

The game has a brain. Gone are the days of running coast-to-coast and dunking the ball on your opponent and throwing passes from one end of the court to the other. Try that in this game, and your pass is sure to picked off or deflected. Run straight to the hole for a dunk and you'll be cut off. The CPU defenders don't meander around on the court anymore barely aware of your presence. The game forces you to think and play real basketball. No more button mashing and running around the court like a chicken with it's head cut off. Your movements must now be deliberate. To be successful in NBA 2K11 you must be proficient in play calling, using dribble moves to break down your defender and master the timing and release of the shot stick.

For those of us who came from the dunk-fest era of basketball video games, this is quite an adjustment. This game gives you an unprecedented about amount of control over the movement of your player. In the past you were subject to the whims and unpredictability of unbreakable canned animations and incomprehensible button presses and analog stick moves (although there are many gamers out there who were able to master these techniques.  I unfortunately, wasn't one of them).

Many of you may not like these changes because it forces you to learn if you want to win. There have been posts on various forums about how hard the game is. Passing is too difficult. Too many passes get deflected or stolen. Too many turn-overs. They even go so far as to suggest that the CPU players possess clairvoyance and know when you're going to throw a pass before you do. Well, I'm here to tell you there are no psychics in this game. Intercepted passes are bad passes, plain and simple.  When I throw a pass and it gets picked or deflected, I can feel it in my "gut" that the pass was bad. Visually I can tell it was thrown at a bad angle, in traffic or too close to a defender. Seldom am I surprised when a "bad" pass gets picked off. Yes, it does get frustrating, but this is the game of basketball.  Finally, the CPU can punish you for making a bad pass.

Fortunately for the frustrated, there are difficulty settings. This game is completely customizable. If you find it hard to adjust to this new style of play you can set the play style from Default or Simulation to Casual. Casual play style takes the game back to yesteryear where you can abuse the CPU defenders and pretty much score at will. There is also a middle-ground: Custom play style where through sliders, you can tweak any of the three play styles to your liking.

I only play Association Mode which allows me to take a struggling team and build it into a contender over the course of years.  This mode was given a huge overhaul this year, visually as well as improvements to drafting and trade logic. New is the ability to scrimmage with your teammates in practice uniforms.

This year my team of choice is the Indiana Pacers who haven't had a winning season in over 10 years. As an Indiana University alumni, its probably a fitting choice since the Pacers are only an hour up the road from the Bloomington campus. Especially since one of my favorite parts of  the NBA 2K series is creating myself in the game. The create-a-player feature in this game is deep. You can give yourself all sorts of signature moves (layups, dunks, fade-aways) from Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan. Don't worry though, I start myself off as an average rookie looking to get a break in the NBA just like everybody else and hopefully rise to stardom. 

Sometimes I just like to throw down.

Are those stars in my eyes?

Yeah, that's me. Rookie shooting guard for the Indiana Pacers.

Pass me the ball, I'm open!

I'm not sure I'm the answer to the Pacers championship aspirations though.  With the new game play, I'm already off to a losing season and I'm playing on Pro-Default settings out of the box.  This is far cry from previous versions of the game where I could dominate on even the highest levels. I'm glad I've finally found a game that gives me an incredible challenge. I actually have to take my players into the practice gym to run plays and learn the fundamentals of the game. Is this the NBA or what?

My main man Chris Smoove makes some of the most entertaining 2K videos

I haven't tried any of the other modes yet, such as the Jordan Challenge, Online, Blacktop or My Player, but hopefully I'll at least get around to the Jordan Challenge. I want to get better at playing the game before I take on trying to re-live Micheal's greatest moments. Another cool feature about NBA 2K11 is that the more you play, the more Jordan shoes you unlock. There are 40 in all. The unlockable shoes all have attribute boosts, such as +2 speed, +2 off hand dribble, and +4 offensive awareness to name a few.

NBA 2K11 is by no means perfect, but it comes close. There are a few bugs I've encountered that could be addressed in a patch but aren't critical. When time-outs are set to AUTO, the CPU will only call 20 second time outs for both teams for the entire game instead of the normal 60 second ones.

There are a few issues with the custom arena music (this is where you can add your own music to play during tipoff, halftime, time outs, etc.) where the songs aren't given enough time to play. Certain songs repeat instead of shuffling randomly through the entire playlist. Some songs don't play at all during events such as when you're taking the ball up court. Where the custom arena music is implemented beautifully is during halftime and at the end of the game when the Jordan Player Of The Game is introduced. I use the theme from the NBA on NBC at halftime to give the game an authentic broadcast feel. My Jordan Player Of The Game playlist is comprised of my favorites from different genres of music from hip hop to rock and roll. I like the type of music that makes you say "ooh" and "ahh" as you're treated to some incredible visual highlights complete with all manner of extraordinary special effects.

NBA 2K11 is one of the most incredible games I've ever played. For the past few years many sports games, including NBA 2K needed patching to fix glaring issues out of the box.  I'm happy to say that this game doesn't really need one. Unquestionably I rate this game 5 out of 5 fingers.