Best Xbox 360 basketball game! Blows NBA live away! A must play for NBA fans, or basketball fans in general.
High Points: First off, the graphics are outstanding! Most of the players look either exactly like or very similar to their real life counterparts. Visual Concepts even took the time to make sure that the bench players all look very similar to their real likenesses, and that is impressive. Also, the sweat effects, replays, and overall presentation simple add to the overall beauty of this game. Kudos. Next, the gameplay is very innovative. The right analog stick is used to control shot types in this new edition (as opposed to isomotion moves, which have been remapped to the right trigger), and this allows you to decide what kind of shot or dunk your player attempts. Will you simple put in in with heavy traffic around the hoop, or will you try the riskier move to posterize your opponent? The choice is yours. Also, the amount of modes for this game is impressive, with an in depth franchise mode, and street ball modes to add more depth
Low Points: Like many basketball games, stealing is more of a roll of the dice than it is a test of skill. I like how the right analog stick controls the pass intercept attempts, but some of those are questionably executed. On the ball stealing is a complete game of chance. Also, so of the free form athleticism of the sport is lost in the translation, but that is to be expected, and this game comes closer to realism than any other released to date.
Conclusion: An outstanding basketball game. A gem to any fan of the series, or sporting games in general. Though it is not without flaw, this game shows that we can expect great things in the future from 2K Sports.