The AI improvements increase the realism of the NBA 2K series

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The AI improvements increase the realism of the NBA 2K series

2016-04-13 09:55:58

Every once in a while in NBA 2K video game reviewing industry, you can get a little disheartened. Sure, the money’s great and the adulation from leagues of adoring fans can be swell, but you play so many games that just get things wrong to you. You start to feel like you’re playing games for other people and not for yourself, you know? What out there has been made just for you, personally?

The overall difficulty has also gone up a notch - you can’t just pass the rock to your star player and spend the game sinking threes from downtown, nor can you breeze through hours of MyGM on autopilot. Plus, as already alluded to, Visual Concepts provides no hand holding - players learn ‘on the job’. In summary, the AI improvements only increase the realism of the NBA 2K series. One must learn to judge situations in an unreal recreation of real life sport, making it necessary to execute moves at a high tempo - not only with your hands but with your mind.

Joining my first game as UConn's latest high-profile shooting guard recruit, the experience was fun, but I couldn't help but be disappointed when the arena loaded to see it looked nothing like Gampel Pavilion or the XL Center. If you squint, you can kind of see a slight resemblance to the latter, but 2K's best attempt at recreating UConn's arena looks like XL and PAWSARF had a baby. On pure presentation, you can drink in enough of the game's college experience to overlook the flaws. At least the Husky logos everywhere are eye-pleasing.

A new positive addition to the career mode this year is the Off Day feature. players have to choose how to spend their off days throughout the NBA season. They can build connections with other players off the court to earn unlockable items and new badges. They can also spend time working with sponsors to earn Virtual Currency. Perhaps the biggest draw is the Live Practice mode, where players join a shoot around with their team and perform in drills to earn upgrades and VC. Live practice has a lot of potential, but there are some bugs they need to work out first.

Besides players being more lively, the crowd in the stadium seem to have more life as well. One of the things that we’re seeing more and more in this generation of sports games is a more realistic crowd and NBA 2K17 does a great job at breathing life into the arenas. It was hard to see fan models be repeated and there was enough variation in their actions to make it seem like a real live crowd watching the game. Every now and then, in 2K17, I’d get a vote of confidence from Steph Curry, James Harden or Anthony Davis before the matches, because they are the faces of this edition.

The problem is, I wanted a Matthew Dellavedova or Jimmy Butler to raise my expectations, come to my home and convince me to join their team, because they are my immediate icons, before I reach the stage. There is also a flaw within the audio presentation of the career matches, as the announcer sometimes winds up whether to call me ‘Freq’ or by my real name ‘Ray’, and that puts me in a real Tyler Durden situation. It seems the very word ‘Freq’ should have been an incentive and no more, I do not want to live his story, especially when the focus is on ‘Be the Story’ in this otherwise self-rewarding franchise.

Thankfully, once season one is over, the Spike Lee storyline is mercifully put to rest and you finally have a chance to create your own experience. The addition of off-days make a compelling experience and not just days you skip on a calendar: Do you want to do endorsements to earn money, go into training to improve your skills, or hang out with teammates to improve team chemistry? Each day matters, whether you are scheduled to play a game or not.