XBOX 360 Review: NBA 2K13 (2012)

If there were a CRN Award for most product placements, NBA 2K13 would be a top contender.

In order to keep costs low for you, the reader, Code Redd Net engages in one of the more economical means of providing game reviews: Redbox. Let me detail what I found from the newest edition of 2K Sports NBA franchise. Firstly, not a whole lot of things are different. This may just be a fact of life regarding the annual release of sports games: they are often little more than a roster update. Regardless, I was pleased to see some new things. When last year's game boasted a large collection of classic teams, I was wondering how far they would go. In order to gain the ability to play with a certain team the player would have to win an historic game involving said team. This was quite a charming feature, especially when unlocking a '60s team and playing on a simulation of a TV broadcast from that era. But for some reason, I remember hoping that they would have the Sacramento Kings team from the early 2000s, only to be disappointed. No longer is this the case for 2K13. And this is something I would like to see more of: the inclusion of good teams from yester-years, even if they didn't win a championship or were part of a dynasty. It is a part of our history and we want to play it! (Now send me my 2004 Timberwolves who were robbed of their championship!)

MyCareer
Another interesting returning feature is the "MyCareer" mode, where you create a player and can only control him. You are given a "teammate rating" which improves if you do things like make good passes, set picks, and play good defense, and decreases when you do bad things like turn the ball over or if the man you're guarding scores (this can sometimes be a frustrating feature, as it seems to much more easily go down than up. Part of it is an error on the programmer's part: if my assist pass was tipped by a defending player, the assist does not register and I get no credit; as well, it seemed strange that my teammate rating would go down when I intentionally fouled late in the game to stop the clock. Apparently the team or the coach thinks we are down by too much. You are going to penalize me for trying to win a game, even if it's a futile effort? Also problematic is the coach putting me in at power forward when my player is billed as the point guard. Your teammate rating goes down a lot if your man scores. I think the system could be improved as it unduly discourages risk taking). You start by playing a rookie game and then are drafted based on your performance in that game and how you answer post-game questions (with four multiple choice options) asked by GMs. Overall, I think this is a really cool game mode and provides a unique simulation for an individual playing a team sport. But it does require patience; I would advise to restart your game until you are drafted by a team you want. If you have a soft-spot for small market teams like I do, make sure you really want to play for them before you tell the GM of the Bucks that you can see yourself as a proud career franchise player. Being on a team you with which you fit in is also important for improving your player, as you get a win bonus that allows you to increase your attributes. It can be difficult to do this if you play on a struggling team and are having a hard time getting minutes. A new feature for this game mode is that you have fans, which didn't make much sense to me since I was a bench role player for the Bucks with 20,000 fans at the start of the season. Later, when we are 1-5 and I average 4 points, 2 assists, and less than 6 minutes a game (in 20 minute games) I had nearly 100,000 fans (as well as a shoe deal with Team Jordan). Maybe it gets harder to gain fans later in the game, but I'm not sure what the point is other than unlocking achievements. There is also a feature where you answer a post-game question from the media which affects three things: team chemistry, local fan base, and your number of fans. I didn't really understand this dynamic, as answering questions as humbly as possible usually led me to have less fans and not affect team chemistry, while being cocky nearly had the same effect. It was little things like this (interviews of role players who barely play, the coach putting in the rookie with 2 minutes left in crucial situations, etc.) that made the experience less believable but perhaps more interesting.There are also some cool mini-features, like skill training with legends (John Stockton will teach you how to dribble!) or playing a game of lightning.

MyTeam
One had to have to XBox Live to access this feature, so I can't tell you about it. Thank you, Microsoft.

Shoe Creator
This is actually pretty fun to mess around with. You can create shoes for different major basketball shoe brands with a variety of materials and colors. These will be available for your MyCareer player to wear once he has a sponsorship with the brand you designated. A lot of time can be spent tinkering with this.

Other Comments
You better really like Jay Z. The constant playing of his music gets annoying and it seems a bit narcissistic that his music videos are often mashed in with fake game highlights before tip-off. Last year's soundtrack was much better and varied. Also, I'm surprised regarding some of the rankings regarding certain teams and players. For example, the current Lakers (now with a record of 17-21) are ranked higher than the 97-98 Bulls (who had a 62-20 record). Over-hyped, anyone? As well, one of the nice things about video games is that players don't have to be injured, allowing me to have the fantastic Hinrich-D. Rose back court as reality should be. However, does an outstanding (when healthy) player like Brandon Roy deserve to be relegated to an overall rating of 80? It makes me question whether the programmers ever saw him play. If given more time with the game, I expect that more of these questionable rankings would be uncovered. There were also a couple of goofy things within the game, one of them being the functionality of the Kinect. Now, I'm not sure what it was supposed to do, because I could see "Command Not Recognized" repeatedly show up on the screen. But, when I blocked a shot and said, "Oh sick!" I got a technical foul for language! That resulted in my unplugging of the Kinect. And while 2K13 should be applauded for its large amount of commentary, it's not without its problems, such as certain comments being aired in inappropriate situations (one of them happened repeatedly after I got called for goal tending when rebounding the ball off of the rim: the commentator said he appreciated my effort in trying to get the block). And finally, one of the great things about modern sports games is how customizable they are. For example, I nearly tore my hair out playing 2K11 with a friend because of how easily he was able to steal the ball (how in the world is Pau Gasol stealing the ball in the back court from my point guard?). With the game sliders, one can lower the frequency of such things happening. This doesn't, however, completely excuse crappy default settings, as you have to find a happy custom setting (you sound like a real whiner if you make your opponent change these things) and remember to load it each time you play. But at least it's there.

Conclusion
There isn't a lot of choice for basketball gamers these days (how come the question of why there are correspondingly fewer choices in sports gaming than in previous decades is rarely asked?). But fortunately NBA 2K13 does not suck, though it is impossible to say how much better it would be if it had a little competition. Though perhaps a vacuous statement, it is the best current basketball game on the market.