The pretty new shine wears fast in this game.
This game interested me when it came out, but like most games not in my central core interest genre-wise, I waited for Steam to put it on sale before taking a chance on it.
You can immediately see a pretty appreciable upgrade in the graphics, which was very nice.
All of the modes that I enjoyed in NBA 2k10 were back, and that too was a good sign.
However, as you start playing that game, you start noticing that the things that were REALLY wrong with NBA 2k10 are still there, and some of them, unfortunately, have gotten a LOT worse.
In My Player mode, you still are pitted as an underdog, though they try to cover this up by throwing in the Draft Combine as sort of a consolation prize to your predicament. They even give you 10,000 starting points to customize yourself with, a big improvement over the previous game, but it is still a fallacy on sooooooo many levels. No matter how you spend your points, no matter what drills you do, and no matter how well you perform in the draft combine games, there are two inescapable certainties coming your way:
1. ALL of the other players will have higher ratings than you; something that is hard to compete with. After all, they will be faster, better shots, and better defenders than you.
2. No matter how well you perform in the games, you cannot break into the top ~20 of the draft.
I downright embarrassed my matchup as a shooting guard in EVERY SINGLE game. We're talking 30+ points a game, 10+ rebounds, steals, assists, the works. Ended up EVERY game with the You/Them meter COMPLETELY in my favor, and he was still taken first in the draft. I experienced this awful programming several times.
The bottom line: You are NOT expected, or helped to succeed. You are not meant to be as good as them, you are meant to struggle. In other words, it's unfair, and it's all against you.
Other glaring problems come with the game horribly bad programming in terms of stats.
Stats often seem to mean absolutely nothing.
I've seen my character, with maxed shooting in that range, maxed shoot in traffic, maxed shoot off dribble, etc. miss repeated shots with perfect releases. I've also seen substandard computer players make the same shots over and over again. Total B S.
One of the more awful things is the speed stat horribleness. My character has 99 speed. I did that on purpose, because in NBA 2k10, high speed was a great way to blow past your opponents and score easily on breaks, etc. This is simply not ALLOWED in this game.
I have, no kidding, seen Centers match pace with me down the court. You have got to be kidding me. That is just AWFUL programming.
The problems with rebounding and blocking out still persist. In other words, you are basically incapable of blocking out your matchup, but when it comes time for them to get a defensive rebound your character will literally move towards them, instead of around them, completely out of your control, thus automatically blocking yourself out for them.
The unrealistic passing is WAAAAAYYYY worse in this game.
It is so stupid to see a rebound that immediately results in a bullet-speed, hyper-accurate pass all the way down the court that results in a basket. I know that this happens in real basketball at times but uh... when your guys try this, the enemy team ALWAYS intercepts that. But ti doesn't happen that way in reverse, seemingly ever.
Once again, no matter how good they are, the computer players on your team are seemingly inferior in every way to the opponent's team. World famous defenders suddenly become incapable of blocking or stopping anything, while their substandard matchups make 95% of their turn around post shots from 20 feet away.
I just don't understand how they could have kept so much of this bad programming from one game to the next.
That's bad enough, but what's worse is that some of it got even worse than before.
To top it all off, my character was injured and sat half the season.
HALF THE SEASON.
THIS IS NOT A REALITY CHECK, AND SHOULD NOT PRETEND TO BE.
My Nba 2k10 character NEVER got injured.
I don't CARE AT ALL if that's not realistic. This is supposed to be a fun, sim game, not a "school of hard knocks" game.
Check yourself 2k sports. You bring this trash again, and you'll not be seeing any more money from me.