nba
NBA 2K13 is being heralded across ‘net as the best basketball game ever, and it may well be so – on the consoles. On the PC, however, 2K Sports hasn’t given their usual 110%.
EA Sports has cancelled basketball. Again. For the second time in three years they have gotten within spitting distance of their release and pulled the plug on their NBA simulation title, first NBA Elite 11 in 2010 and now NBA Live 13 today.
I was a huge NBA Live fan back at the end of the 90s and was interested in seeing what EA could do with a coupe years of preparation. The answer? Not much. It seems that negative feedback from various sources internally and externally doomed the project. Will we see the brand again? Maybe, but if we do it will have some huge hurdles to overcome in public opinion.
One of my favorite (and most conflicted, as I will detail in an upcoming article) game series’ latest entry has it’s demo out of Xbox 360 now. It’s time to take NBA 2K13 for a spin and see how it holds up.
I hate overly praising a game. I don’t feel any game is perfect. However, every once in a while a game comes along that bests all those that have come before it. World of Warcraft, the original Half Life, and now, NBA 2K11. This is the best basketball game in at least 10 years, and a must buy for all those who enjoy digital roundball.
Last year at this time, 2K Sports released it’s first PC sports game with NBA 2K9. It was a huge improvement over EA Sports’ PC versions of NBA Live, but it still wasn’t on par with 2K Sports’ console versions. Online play was the biggest sacrifice. I still don’t see how 2K saw that as a viable feature to leave on the cutting room floor. In any case, they’re back this year with their latest build, and this time they left nothing out. This is the best NBA sim on PC since NBA Live 2000, but it’s not without it’s flaws.
This is my third year reviewing the NBA 2K series on the Xbox 360, tying NBA Live on the PC for the longest consecutive series of games I’ve reviewed. This allows me a view of how the series has evolved (or de-evolved, in some the NBA Live series’ case). What has changed this year? Allot. Is it for the better? Eh…. kinda.
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.
With NBA 2K9 due out for the PC this Tuesday, I figured I’d get my review of the Xbox 360 version out of the way. This will be the first time I’ll be able to compare two sports titles with each other, meaning this vs. NBA Live 09 to see which offers the better experience. However, that’s another article. Here, we’re just going to focus on what 2K9 offers gamers who pick it up.