[Wretchedness]

Originally I had intended to start this review for NBA 2K12 by talking about the delay of starting the NBA season. The problem is, I got a tiny bit distracted by the game and here we are at the start of February and the season is well under way.

There almost wasn't an NBA season at all this year and as it was, the start of the season got delayed until 25th December 2011, that's right, Christmas Day. As bad as this was for Basketball fans it could only be a good thing for this game. Think about it, what better time for a sport to come back into the spotlight than at Christmas, with spare cash and High Street vouchers kicking about people are more likely to think about buying this game. Couple that with the fact that EA won't be releasing their next serious game for a while and we could be on to a winner.

I've always had a passing interest in Basketball, but that's all it's been. NBA2K12 is the first Basketball game I have played properly, meaning I could approach it with a fresh mind as a noob. The first thing I notice when the game starts up is, for me, the most annoying song to ever appear in a video game. A minor gripe and, yes, I'm just moaning for the sake of it, but I really am fed up of hearing “they're playing Basketballlllll”.

Diving straight into a game makes me realise how guff I am and how little I know about the finer points and rules of Basketball. As it turns out you can't just steam around the court making perfect shots from all angles. Apparently, some kind of skill is involved, damn.

Playing a few more games easily enables me to learn some more of the rules and quirks of the game. In the first few games I had simply run around like a headless chicken trying to tackle whoever had the ball and earning a lot of fouls along the way. I soon learned that the key is to mark players, follow them wherever they go and try to intercept wayward passes without reaching in and fouling players. Learning this improved my game a great deal and made proceedings a lot more enjoyable.

Obviously this is a sports game so that can only mean one thing, analogue stick controls. Some people hate these, here's looking at you MechanicalR, however, here, they work great, especially as you can use a combination of the sticks and the face buttons. Obviously the left stick enables your oversized person to move around, I didn't need to tell you that, but I did anyway, anything to increase my word count huh. The right stick controls the shooting. Pulling it down, then up before releasing at the optimum time to unleash your awesome shot and when defending using this stick enables you to stick arms in the way in your quest to intercept the ball. Passing is a simple button press, although a quick press of the right bumper will bring up a button in front of each player. Press said button, pass to that player, simple. When defending the face buttons are used for things such as jumping or reaching for the ball. Easy controls that work perfectly for the game.

The game plays well and is very enjoyable. The presentation, and the package as a whole, is even better. There are more than enough game modes on offer. All the modes are things that you would come to expect from a sports game, from random games, playing whole seasons (alone or with a friend) or just playing through as one player, either as a rookie or pro. You can even jump online and test your skills against other players, shock horror. As I said, these are all standard in these kind of games and whilst it's nice to have a ton of game modes, with sports games you have to have an interest and enjoy actually playing the sport, or at least the virtual version of it. You could have 100,000 game modes in pro lawn bowls 2012, but I can't see many people buying that game.

I'll come to the my player mode in a second, first I must mention a great little mode, the NBA's greatest. If you have seen the game you may have noticed the classic player on the box. This was due to the pre season disputes, they had to use old stars instead of current players. This mode plays into this as you take charge of a classic player and the team they were in, for example pick Michael Jordan and you will be playing with the 1993 Chicago Bulls team. Different stars represent a different year and the game is brilliantly styled as such. Go back as far as the 70's and the game intentionally looks all blurry/fuzzy to replicate T.V. coverage from that year. It's a great touch and makes playing more basketball even more interesting.

Onto My Player. This sees you creating a rookie and taking him through a career. You will spend a lot of the early games on the bench watching the game and coming on the court to play a bit part. Thankfully you will be able to build your guy to a reasonable standard fairly quickly, until then you can always skip the bench time and get straight into the action. The player customisation on offer here is pretty poor and you are left with a pretty generic guy at the end of it, but the fun lies in creating a world beater, even if he does have a forgettable face. The only thing I will say for this, and all the modes, is take time to experiment and find a camera view that works best for you.

The game as a whole tries to present itself as you would expect a T.V. Show to do, especially during a season mode. Players will be introduced, the commentators will welcome people to the game. All the advertising you'd expect from American sports is here and adverts for other upcoming games in the season will appear in the corner as they would do on a television show. I really appreciate what they are trying to do here and a part of me does love it. The other, more grumpy, side of me sometimes wishes it would hurry up. After a few games I found myself skipping forward to game time. Finish the game and there's a nice wrap up to be found, giving you more T.V. Like options like highlights and MVP highlights.

I have to say that the commentary is excellent, probably the best I have ever heard on a game. Some things will get repeated, as they would in all games, but what is here is great and relevant. I especially liked it in season mode when the commentators chat to each other about previous games, performance and even how many points a particular player has scored. It's a simple, nice touch that really sucks you into the game.

At the end of the day, how much enjoyment you will get out of this game is down to you dear readers. I'd wholeheartedly recommend this to any one interested in both video games and basketball. The music is not for every one but the game play is smooth and fluid, everything looks nice and there is plenty on offer to keep players going for plenty of time either solo, online or with a friend. You may think I've taken ages to write this review, and you'd be right but that just shows you how much I've enjoyed playing this game and at least I know I won't be getting bored of it after 5 minutes. A sports game with some substance, what's not to like.

8.5

[HeY jOe]

Good review that
It's the best implemented sports game out there if only MGP had that attention to detail. As you say the commentary really is spot on, the rest is just as good, truly an outstanding example of how to do things.

[uncagedbigben]

nice review, I've never had a basketball game before might give this one a try Thanks for the review