2K Sports has been providing us with great basketball games for the last ten years so NBA 2K10 marks the tenth anniversary of NBA 2K titles spanning from 1999 to 2009 and looks to improve on everything. Look to play a good basketball simulation style game that will punish you if you try to play it like NBA Jam but reward you if you play smart and listen to your coaches. 2K10 does a lot of things to move it into the buy category and not just another roster tweak of last year’s iteration.

Liked

Living Rosters that were developed by 2K Insider to provide the most up to date team and player information including lineup moves, roster changes, injuries and player ratings. This feature can be turned off as well if you do not want to incorporate all of the latest injuries on your rosters.

My Player Mode is the newest addition to the NBA2K series in which you create yourself as a player and try to earn a spot on an NBA team. You start as possibly the worst player possible and need to make your way through summer leagues in order to even be considered. While in this mode you can do different things in order to upgrade your player like running different drills like rebounding, scoring, dribbling, etc.

Shot stick shooting has also been incorporated which makes layups a lot more gratifying. The shot stick now allows you to pull off jumpshots, pump fakes, leaners, faders and even runners all with a different directional flick of the right stick. The stick also changes the types of dunks and layups which makes things very easy to mix up.

Real life signature plays give the game a great look and feel. Now you watch Kobe take patented leaping shots while enjoying other player’s signature styles like Shaq in the low post or Dr. Jay with his sweet finger rolls.

The game has a great look and feel to it, from the menus to the voice-overs all really embrace the NBA feel. Even the ability to crash into the guy with the mop that cleans up the sweat helps add to the realism.

Lockdown defensive comes back this year and works fairly well as you can cover your player easily by pressing the left trigger and block him from trying to go by for an easy layup or dunk. Don’t think that by just holding the left trigger though you will be able to close out the lane because the computer will juke you if you do not rotate or fight through picks.

Disliked

The very slow progression of the My Player mode became frustrating at times. Also the constant nagging of your manager after games got old pretty fast. My Player mode is good but takes far too long in order to get your player to not stink.

New use of turbo affects your stamina which is interesting and realistic but at times slowed down the pace of the game especially on fast break opportunities.

The learning curve in NBA 2K10 can be annoying at times, especially when you first begin playing. The computer will abuse you if you go for an ill timed steal or ill advised double team, typically leading to a wide open three-pointer or slam dunk in the paint. The computer will also penalize you heavily in the My Player mode if you do not stay on your defensive assignment causing you to get poor marks and not be able to upgrade your player.

Online connectivity issues plagued my experience when trying to play, especially when trying to use My Player in a pick-up game. I have yet to participate in one which is quite the shame.

One thing that was a bit disappointing was that I found it very difficult to make my created player look even remotely close to myself, apparently there were no defaults for my facial features.

Graphically the game is top notch with some stutter in certain spots especially during some fast break opportunities but the crowd and players are very well done. The stutter gets a bit more obtrusive during low post moves or passing to players in traffic which can lead to turnovers.

NBA 2K10 provides great simulation basketball with a plethora of different modes for you to play form the scrubby rookie to the classic 80’s All Star. Overall a great game that wrapped up the tenth anniversary quite nicely and is a must have for anyone looking to play as close to real life basketball as possible without having to twist your ankle.