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• Chalgyr's Game Room says:

  May 18, 2016 at 12:17 pm

  15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

  
  A great game, but the career mode gets off to a rocky start, November 5, 2015

  By 

  Chalgyr’s Game Room –

  This review is from: NBA 2K16 – PlayStation 4 (Video Game)

  Another season of NBA action has descended upon us, and NBA 2K16 does a commendable job of simulating the sport while taking a few chances and doing something new along the way. While not everything pans out perfectly, this latest iteration in the series is still a solid game.

  The 2K series has been ahead of NBA Live for some time, and this year that pattern remains the same. On the one hand, NBA Live fared far better this season, while NBA 2K16 remains very similar to the prior games. While the 2K series is still well ahead of its competition, it will be interesting to see if the NBA Live series can continue to improve its game next year.

  Probably the most notable change to the franchise is the new take on the MyPLAYER mode. This has always been my favorite mode, and that holds true again with this year’s release. You create a player and you are tasked with improving him game by game, year by year in the pursuit of the Hall of Fame. However, things get off to a very different start right off of the bat in this year’s release.

  Your character, Frequency Vibrations (yes, that is his name), is a high school phenom the likes of which the world has not seen since Lebron James. Everyone knows who Freq (pronounced Freak) is, as his family and friends are introduced off of the court. Meanwhile you guide him through a trio of games on his way to the state championships. You meet Freq’s fraternal twin sister, his doting parents, and trouble making best friend on the path to getting recruited by several different universities. Here you listen to their sales pitches and eventually choose which one you will attend.

  Next you are thrust into a handful of collegiate games that can culminate in a trip to the NCAA championship. During the loading screens between games, little infographics pop up on the screen, trying to tell you how people feel Freq is doing. He goes from surefire number one pick to mid twenties to late lottery based on… I am guessing performance? I really do not know what magical formula gets used on all of this portion as I only played through this opening story one time, but it did not make sense. For example, I went from being the consensus top pick to outside of the lottery based on… a thirty point, fifteen board and five blocks outing? So yeah, this part of things is a bit shaky.

  Meanwhile more interactions take place and your character picks up a girlfriend along the way. The story is written and directed by Spike Lee, which makes the similarities to this title and He Got Game all the more pronounced. There are a couple of Jesus Shuttlesworth references and you even acquire Dom Pagnotti as your character’s agent. Poor kid growing up in Brooklyn, raised by a pair of loving parents, trouble finding his best friend on a regular basis – these are the primary elements that serve as motivation. I will not spoil what happens when your character makes the big time, but let’s just say that my rookie season did not play out at all like I would have expected or hoped. Instead of playing through the season and fighting for Rookie of the Year or All-Rookie honors, you wind up only playing a select eight games as the story plays out around your character between games.

  My major complaint about this mode is not that they tried to tell a story, and I have no problem with Spike Lee and the overly familiar characters and narrative – it is that the mode is hashtagged with #BeTheStory. The problem is? It never feels like my story. The voice acting is all well and good, and there are some genuinely interesting moments to the tale but the only moment you have control over anything is when you pick your college. It leads to a very short but mostly cosmetic scene that turned into the high point for me, because it was the one time I did something that definitively mattered. The rest of the time, I felt like I was just along for the ride.

  Thankfully after that disastrous rookie season, your career mode goes back to being the solid experience that the series has always allowed it to be. While your rookie year has been effectively flushed down the toilet, you can now focus on improving your stats by earning credits and doing things like being a good teammate (setting screens, making good passes), performing well in the game (points and rebounds certainly help) and making your coach happy (during some games, your coach will ask you to do something vague like ‘protect the paint’ – so get blocks and rebounds). You can then spend your hard earned currency on character upgrades that let you mold your player to your liking.

  There are plenty of other notable modes in this game, and that has always been one of the series’ greatest strengths. From online play, to acting as the GM for a franchise, to a sort of fantasy basketball/card collection mode and more – NBA 2K16 does not lack for options. Thankfully the presentation is as slick as it has…

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• KP3 says:

  May 18, 2016 at 12:54 pm

  5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

  
  Amazing Game, December 29, 2015

  By 

  KP3 –

  This review is from: NBA 2K16 – PlayStation 4 (Video Game)

  I have been playing NBA Live and NBA 2K since 2005. NBA 2K16 is the best basketball simulator ever created, end of discussion! The level of detail in this game is absolutely outstanding; While playing you’ll notice small things that add to the realism. I lost count of how many times my friends or family thought I was watching a real basketball game. The physics in this game improved drastically, each player feels like they’re actually planting their foot and shifting their weight, instead of sliding across the floor. Also, the rim and net look and react realistically. The ball, coming in contact with the rim or net, take realistic hits and the ball hits the rim in ways I haven’t seen before in a video game. The controls in this game again, are outstanding. The learning curve for the new button scheme is certainly steep, but once you get the hang of it the game play is unreal!! The default settings for the game is the only thing 2K got wrong. I recommend changing the gameplay sliders to the “Simulation” setting. This is the most realistic slider setting in my opinion.

  In summation, this game is so realistic it’s scary. The game is currently on sale, and I highly recommend purchasing this game.

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• tha truth says:

  May 18, 2016 at 1:43 pm

  33 of 44 people found the following review helpful

  
  Gameplay is terrible. Worse ever, October 11, 2015

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  tha truth –

  This review is from: NBA 2K16 – PlayStation 4 (Video Game)

  The gameplay is awful and beyond inconsistent. You can be passed defender and it will morph the defense in front of you. Every dunk is blocked. The defense can be in the key trying to strip ball, which happens the entire game, then if youre lucky to pass ball out the defense can run from the key to the 3 point line and block the 3 in like one second of time. Meanwhile the shooter is stuck in animation slow motion. So he won’t shoot until defense recovers. You can also be on breakaway and defender catch up to block a dunk…your offensive player will move in slow motion. The ball is easily stolen on good drives, but your offensive player will not move on command it’s like he’s on some train track to get to the basket. If you’re lucky to make it through the kicked balls, and reach ins, you’ll get blocked or fouled(non-calls). Open shot great release will miss on the regular. Strategy means little in this game. And they complicated all the menus. It takes forever just to get the right person to pick for you. AWFUL GAME

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