When EA Sports axed it’s fall sports lineup, allot of PC gamers had mixed emotions. There was a feeling of abandonment there, but we also felt that they really hadn’t been trying the last few years anyway, so who needed ’em? Riding to the rescue of PC sports gamers everywhere was 2K Sports, bringing their top-tier basketball game to the PC for the first time. It’s a little late, but PC gamers,  starved for a good hoops title, were ready to wait. Was it worth it? Let’s find out.

Graphics-wise, this is an Xbox 360/PS3 port, which right away puts allot of fans fears at ease. The 2K-HD graphics are here in full force, right down to the cloth physics (if you set player detail to Ultra-High). Of course, this requires allot of horsepower, and many gamers will be saddened to see that their rigs can’t handle the stress. My main ‘puter was struggling mightily with players on Ultra-High, but after some minor maintenance and a few tweaks, it’s running fine. The menus have some serious lag issues, though. The gameplay itself runs ok, but the team select menu runs very, very slowly. No other menu has this problem, which is weird. Why just that menu? It doesn’t make allot of sense.

Gameplay-wise, you will want a controller. I advise against even trying to use the keyboard for playing, as it’s just not up to the task. I use the wired Xbox 360 controller for Windows myself, and it works mostly like on the Xbox 360. I did have to tell it to swap the two sets of triggers to match the console, and it occasionally forgets and swaps them back, so that’s a hassle.

The sounds are the same as on the consoles, which is to say that I still don’t like it. I’ve finally turned the commentary off, it bothers me so much, which is something I almost never do. If you’re looking for online multiplayer, Living Rosters, or anything else online, do not buy this game. There is zero online support in NBA 2K9. How Take Two thought this was permissible is beyond me. PCs are superior to consoles in their online functionality, so this should have been a no-brainer. For shame, Take Two!

To wrap this up, this is the Xbox 360/PS3 version of a great game, just with everything online stripped out. If you’ve got the rig to run it, this game can look even better then the console versions (8x AA/16x AF make this game look amazing). However, if you’re doubtful at all, I’d recommend you buy it for one of the consoles instead. There’s nothing fun to be had about playing a game in slow motion, even one as good as this. Alphasim out.

     

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