LightForceJedi

The Postal Series has been around for awhile now. Starting off with the original Postal game in 1997, it was a gritty, intelligent and funny, which made it one of the most unique IP on the market. Eight years later after Postal 2, the postal series has finally returned to conclude the trilogy. What could have been a great game is instantly turned it into a cosmic mess with no clear direction, outdated controller and horrible game design. Postal III isn’t just the worst downloadable game I have ever played, it is by far the worst game I have ever played.

One of the first problems you’re going to spot is the overall story. The Story is focused around you as you play as The Postal Dude, your average muscular dude who got thrown into a situation he has to solve. The Story in Postal III has no clear direction and no goal on where it wants it take you. It is seemly just another comedic sketch over and over again.

Postal III puts you in a post apocalyptic world, but it never quit feels like it. You never get the sense that you are isolate, on the run and need to survive. Majority of your time you spend in small town called Catharsis. The streets are always filled with people and the city looks un-scratched from the post apocalyptic climate. All together, you never get the sense that they are in danger and you are never enriched in the setting. One of the many reasons the setting is toned down is because it is trying to provide the comedic attitude that the series is known for.

Through out the game, what would be missions or quests in similar games are replaced with comedic sketches that fail to be funny. Right off the bat, you are tossed into situation that for the most part are hit and miss. There are some sketches that will give you a laugh, but they are very far in between. Along the way, you will come across a few celebrities who lend their talents to the game, but the problem is that they are given little to work with and are poorly executed.

In one of the first missions of the game after you complete the prologue, you are forced to do the most absolutely insane jobs in order to re-fuel your car. From vacuuming up tissues off the floor in a sex shop and shooting them right back at the customers. To helping a local terrorist group battle Osama Bin Laden by rounding up diseased cats. To lastly killing off an angry mob of Mexican -Sushi restaurateurs. Many will enjoy it for it comedic attitude, but it quickly gets old due how linear the game is. What really diminishes the comedic aspect of the game is the dreadful presentation.

Postal III has been in development for eight years, which is one of the longest development cycles in recent memory. You would of thought that the franchise would make leaps and bounds, but the exact opposite happen. Previously, the engine driving the Postal franchise was Epic’s Unreal engine. In Postal III however, Running With Scissors developed the product under Valve’s Steam engine. The results in glitchy experience that looks outdated filled with inexcusable errors for a current gen product.

The graphics are by far the worst thing Postal III brings to the table. The graphics are in creditable out dated. Shadows and textures pop in and out. Facial textures look awful. These graphics are no shape or form acceptable for current gen hardware. What makes it worse are the annoying glitches in the game.

Far too often, your progress in the game will be stopped at a stand still. To entire area’s blacked out because of the extra time need to load part of the map. By far the worse glitch I experienced, was my entire save vanishing from my game. Making my experience more troublesome then it should have be. Another problem I had was the dialogue in the game. Far too often characters fail to lip - sync to the script, resulting in an ugly result. For the most part it will appear that characters are mumbling through the script, making actors performance look below par and highly unforgettable.

These things should have been ironed out with beta testing, but you can tell this was something they overlooked or skipped entirely. Post apocalyptic wastelands are a mess to go through, but Postal III graphical wasteland tops it all. In many ways, I wish Valve stopped this game from hitting store shelves and give them more time to clean up these mistakes. All this could have been forgiven if the gameplay was decent but it follows a very similar path.

Postal III has perhaps has the weirdest shooting set up I have had to deal with recently. For the PC, you can only shoot by right clicking on the mouse and you aren't given control to arc your grenade. Besides grenades, there are some truly bizarre guns that are fun to fool around with. You want variety with your gunplay, well here you go as every gun plays differently while providing a few laughs in the process.

The Gunplay is sufficient, but I wish I could tweak things around in the settings. If your looking for something groundbreaking and original. You’re simply not going to get it with it taking little or no chances. Postal III focuses squarely on its comedic attitude.

I don’t know who I should more mad at, Postal III for giving me everything I didn’t want out of a game or the developers themselves. I can’t believe that the people behind Running with Scissors would take eight years to put out one of the worst games I have ever played. Then to make things worse, every time you die a developer will flash onto the screen and give you the middle figure. I can understand and respect a developer who knows that their product isn’t great, but don’t you dare make fun of the people who support you day in and day out.

Simply put, Postal III is an injustice to game design and most importantly an injustice to loyal fans of the franchise. If Running With Scissors was trying to develop a product that was so bad, it made Duke Nukem Forever look good. Then after eight long years, you can say that it's the only thing they accomplished.

Score: 1 Out Of 10

@Shirogane said:

Few questions.

Firstly, why is this in bombcast section, not the TOR section.

When I submitted It wouldn't allow me to post my review. Kind of new to the site.

As far as agent goes, it really depends on who your with and partially requires to have a party. Yeah I know I didn't cover it, but I loved just about everything (combat, story and etc) that I just felt it was a non factor. (played every class except for the trooper) .

@Subjugation said:

"Reviewing" an MMO is a difficult prospect. You are a brave individual.

Thanks

The last two Need for Speed tiles, Hot Pursuit and Shift, were considered more as spin-offs but have provided the best two racing games for the franchise. What The Run has going for it is that it returns to it’s old-school NFS roots. Black Box develops the game this time, making it the first time they have returned to the Need For Speed franchise since creating and finishing Underground and Undercover series. Once again players will return to nitrous-powered action that graced the last generation of NFS gamers. This is a welcome return for many veteran NFS fans, but unfortunately Black Box under-performs severely.

Growing up, the Need for Speed franchise was still rather new. Need for Speed Underground, developed by Black Box entertainment, featured an excellent career mode at the time. Even though it was a small portion of the game, it fulfilled its premise and brought a new dimension for the game. Fast-forwarding eight years to Need for Speed: The Run, it feels like jumping back in time and revisiting an old friend. The problem however, is that Black Box’s formula doesn’t hold up to arcade racing standards and fails to finish on the podium.

Diving right into the single player campaign, the main story line in The Run is your cheesy Hollywood setup. You play as Jack, a marked man who is being hunted down by the mob. The only way to pay his debt is to win a 3,000 mile race that spans from San Francisco to New York. The campaign gets straight to the point on what it wants you to accomplish. Driving from San Francisco to New York is often breath-taking because of the maps you race on through the long Nevada desert, down the cold and edgy Colorado Mountains and the packed Chicago Streets. Don't feel bad if you get distracted while you admire the scenery as you drive along. Even though it’s a beautiful treat, it doesn’t even come close to hiding all the problems with The Run's campaign mode.

The campaign has a good balance of racing types that you will eventually go through. Ranging from the time attack races, one-on-one battles, cop chases and your standard eight car races. These are all fun simply because of how the controls feel. Driving in The Run feels very loose, which is something to actually be glad about. It allows everyone to pick up the controls with ease and not have to learn how a car drives like some games. The only thing that requires learning on your part, is how certain car classes perform. There is a wide range of classes ranging from muscle cars to luxury cars which gives the game much needed variety and spice.

The biggest design flaw in the game is that progress from race to race never transfers over. Every time you race, it’s your mission to pass a certain amount of cars or finish a map with a certain time. If at any chance you fall below these standards, you are instructed to retry over and over again until you beat that stage. This the biggest design flaw because it stops people feeling like they are on the run. It makes the game feel very linear and out of place. If The Run could track progress from start to finish, then it would make players push the throttle more and have more excitement for the story.

Speaking of the story, the highly publicized story of Need for Speed The Run is probably the most disappointing things about the game. From the get go, it tries to be a Hollywood block buster but the problem is that it falters on nearly every level. Starting with Jack, who owes the mob money, but we don't know what he did or how he got in that position.

There are very few times that the game slows down to provide back-story for the main characters in the game but your going to get most information in the loading screens than in quick time events. The Run does provide some cool quick time events that take Jake out of the car but they're so few and far between each other that they are out of place and are not needed. It’s a real shame because The Run does have some good moments, it's just the package doesn't come together making the storyline easily forgettable while your racing towards New York. If it wasn’t so scripted and provided much needed story details, then Black Box might have had a good campaign to go along with its online features.

Online play is the biggest bright spot and will keep players playing for quite a long time. It’s nearly impossible to not early XP for racing. Even if you joined in a race late you can still climb the leaderboards and win. At the start of each race, depending on who you are playing with, you earn exclusive cars and gain ridiculously high XP if you come in first. Most of the modes are the same in story but tweaked a bit to balance the maps for online. It’s a very refreshing feature and you can see they developed the online first then worked on the single player experience.

Even though it has a great online experience, Need for Speed The Run will be a quick finish for most. It only takes three hours to finish the campaign. After the single player experience, you can still complete all the single and multiplayer challenges that await you. There is really nothing besides the multiplayer that will keep you coming back to The Run. To make things worse, the game has only 36 achievements and trophys to get, with most of them on the single player side. With a lack of long term content, people are simply going to be turned off by NFS and be busy playing something else during the holiday season.

Need for Speed The Run looks good on the outside as it provides beautiful visuals and is easily playable. The more you start digging, the more you will see that it’s just an average racing game that crashes in every possible way. Horrible story, dumb AI and the lack of freedom kills The Run's chances of being the best racer on the market. Black Box's under-performs severely, making it clear to EA that the Need for Speed franchise was better in other people’s hands.

Score: 6 out 10

One of the first purchases I ever made when I got the original Xbox along with a couple duke controllers, was a little game developed by Bioware called Knights of the Old Republic. I was only ten years old at the time and it came out during the prequel Star Wars era. That was my first Bioware game and was immediately blown away with how great it was. It had an amazingly crafted storyline, great gameplay and had one of the greatest twists in video gaming history. It set up so many personal milestones for me as it made me into the Star Wars fan I am today.

Eight years later, Bioware has returned to it’s roots since they moved on to make Jade Empire, Dragon Age and Mass Effect series. This time however, Bioware is imprinting what they’re well known for and putting it into an MMO. Before playing SWTOR, I would have told you that creating story driven MMO would have been impossible, but after five years in development and more than 100 hours of gameplay. Bioware Austin, has created something that MMO’s have never seen before and making it one of the best MMO’s on the market with great story telling, great gameplay and a remarkable amount of content that is perfect for any Star Wars fan.

In The Old Republic, there are eight classes you can choose from. On the Republic side, you can choose from Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler and Trooper on the Republic side and the Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter for the Empire. Most of the class’s balance out and all of the classes feel equally powerful. Never did I feel one class was overpowering and was stronger than the rest. What separates each class is that all have different story arks.

After playing the Jedi Consular in the Beta, I chose to play as the Imperial Agent when I got early access to mix things up. What I like so much about it is this feels like entirely new story material that I have never come across before. Sure it’s fun to be a Jedi or Sith, but we have already seen their back story in various games. Most of the classes in The Old Republic take lit bits from the movies, but The Imperial Agent is a different story and deals with Imperial politics and deals with covert missions. It’s what got me coming back to the Agent because of the new take on the Star Wars Universe.

One of many reasons the Imperial Agent is so appealing is because it never feels like your playing an MMO. The Old Republic is the first MMO that is truly a story driven and barrows many story elements used in Bioware games. One of the first things your going to notice right away, is that The Old Republic is the first fully voiced MMO. Nearly every NPC character in the game is fully voiced and highly compelling. Over 300 hundred actors were hired to portrayed more than 4,000 characters. It would have been acceptable for Bioware to take a shortcut and the voice acting be average, but all of it’s high quality. If you’re planning on playing the Jedi Consular, fan favorite and frequently used actor Nolan North, was hired to voice your class character. This all would have been lost if the cutscenes in the game weren’t spectacular. Thankfully, lessoned learned from previous Bioware help make it one of the best parts of the game.

Any time you need to say something, a Mass Effect pop up wheel and will guide to either the Dark or Light side. This is very reminiscent of Knights of the Old Republic, as choosing one side will change your appearance and how people perceive you. These features aren't just for those who want to go solo. Anytime your working in a group in a quest and you start a conversation. By random the game rolls for who speaks out in your group, making the story more engaging.

The quest structure in The Old Republic is broken up into two, Main and side quests. Main quests are where are going to fine story quests built into your class. Side quests mostly revolve around doing fetch quests, which for the most are fun but can be boring for some. The Personal class storylines are a lot more involving and you can tell that a lot more went into developing the main quests rather than the side quests.

From the get go, you can tell more time was emphasis on developing the class quests in the game. Far too often, there are many great side quests that become very unforgettable because there is no follow up. A good example of this is a Revan quests on Dromund Kaas that is great for those who played the KOTOR saga. The quest is really satisfying and makes you keep on playing to find out more. After however, it simply just ends and you didn’t earn another quest to continue the progress you made. It's a real lost of opportunity and would have continued to give the game more content. Before I move on from the story component of the game. There are few problems with the presentation that restrict players considerably.

One of the first problems you’re going to notice right way is the character creator. Normally a character creator doesn’t have a big role in an MMO, but with SWTOR being the first story driven this is an exception. There is simply a lack of options to customize your character to your own personal liking. Now there are plenty options to customize, from eyes, scars, color and etc. But the most important characteristic like height and muscle tone were completely forgotten. There are only four body classes in the game. You can only choose between short and thin, normal, Tall and muscular or fat chubby person. This is it hurts the presentation for in-game cutscenes since your character is going to look the same as everyone else.

I have been following The Old Republic for five years and believed they could deliver on what they were promising. It’s in creditable that they managed to deliverer on what they promised. Even though it took Bioware Austin forever to develop the game, thankfully all the time spent made The Old Republic so great. Unlike recent Star Wars games, The Old Republic is by far the most complete game featuring an in-creditable story, in-creditable replayability and in-creditable gameplay.

Score: 9 Out of 10

2011 has been one of the best years in video games. The year was stacked with high quality AAA games from start and end of the year. Every genre had it's highs and lows, but for the most part every genre had a great set of games for it's respected fan base. So with the year coming to an end, it's time to look back on the top five games of the year and give out my game of the year.

5. Catherine

Catherine strong points is presenting mature theme that aren't often in found games. Themes of marriage and being single are rarely touched in video games and make this one of the mature games on the market. But when you get into how the game plays and into the story, you'll realize that there's a lot more to this game than just plot. Every time Vincent completes a stage during his nightmare, he is subjected to questioning about that decided Vincent stays with. This is one of the few games that makes gamers ask about their love life. Those who are honest, will find Catherine to be a more immersive experience than some weren't expecting. From the difficult puzzle, to the conversation to partake in and choices to make which is why Catherine packs a lot.

4. L.A Noire

In an industry dominated with sequels, L.A noire is a fresh inventive IP that once again starts the discussion for whether or not games are art. Gameplay takes the back seat as the story and the performances take center stage. It Transcends narrative in video games as it raises the bar for the next generation of story telling. Hats off to Rockstar to take a big risk and make a game that could of easily flopped if done wrong. If there isn’t another L.A noire, I could see their not being another game like this for a long time to come.

3. Portal 2

Are you Still Alive? Valve, the creator of Half Life, Team Fortress, Counter Strike and now the infamous Portal series, which made it’s debut in the Orange Box. Even though Portal was short, it was fresh and featured one of the best songs in gaming.Now fast forwarding to 2011, Portal 2 was released and now everything you loved about the original portal was fully expanded and delivered an in-creditably memorable story. The writing and voice acting combination, helped created some of the most memorable characters in gaming. Stephen Merchant, the voice of Wheatley, really did steal the show in Portal. His performance made Portal worth playing. One of the main reasons Portal isn’t higher on this list is because it still makes many of the same mistakes.

Portal 2 doesn’t take long to beat and revolved around you doing the same thing. It was still great fun, but it got boring overtime. Even though it had co-op, there wasn’t a lot to do after you beat the story, making the game a rather quick experience. Overall It was great short game, but I was too short for my taste.

2. Uncharted 3

Nate, Elena and Sully return in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Naughty Dog returns to helm the project, but this time returned with higher expectations as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was the 2009 game of the year. So did it return to meet expectations? You bet it did. Drake’s Deception improved on what made Among Thieves so good by adding much needed online features while featuring one of the best storylines in gaming.

I love everything about Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. The action is great and provides one of the richest movie like experience in video games. It’s a really good game, but has some major flaws in it that hold it back from being a great game. The story doesn’t grab your attention like Uncharted 2: Among thieves. With the story taking little or no chances with key characters. Many of the key story elements feel repetitive and watered down than previous Uncharted games. However, It's still one of the best games of the year and was just shy of toping our game of the year.

1. Infamous 2

I had very high expectations going into infamous 2, but right away they were all blown away from the first opening minutes. The jump from Infamous to Infamous 2 is astounding and in my book one of the biggest jump, from game to game. The graphics are top notch, the story is excellent and the gameplay trully makes you feel like a badass. Infamous 2 is still one of the most memorable games of the year for one reason alone, the ending

I was hooked until the very end of Infamous 2. I was captivated in the story and how I would stop the Beast but I was completly caught off guard. Both good and evil endings leave much room for a potential sequal. I didn't expect I would have to kill Zeke and become the beast or choose to sacrifice myself for the greater good.

Could their be potential Infamous 3?, yes indeed. As long as Sony keeps putting Cole in various other IP's, Then you never rule out the chance, but do we need one?. I really wish their isn't a sequal and Sucker Punch would move onto something else. If their is one, I would gladly jump back into Cole's life and continue to live out his insane life.

Before I start off, thank you to everyone who has commented on my blog and have started mini discussions on articles I have written. You are the reason, I strive everyday to pursue my dream job. So I thought I would give you taste or tease of sorts of what is to come for my blog. I have five games per ordered and all ready paid off for 2012. So im probably settled for 2012, but you never what is in store with the industry. So here is the load down on what im going to reviewing in 2012.

Max Payne 3

When Remedy Entertainment released the original Max Payne, I was insteatly hooked on what it was bring to the table. A dark film-noir tale about a cop who lost his whole family in this Sin City tale. Telling the story through comic book cutscenes, was interesting, suspenseful and more interesting that most cutscenes today. Bullet time was a rather new thing in the entertainment business and was my part of Max Payne. I loved summoning my inner Neo and being a total badass. It was the darkest game I played growing up and nothing has come close since.

Skipping to Max Payne 3, my interest for next installment is pure nostalgia. With Max Payne 3 returning to form, who else to bring it back then Rockstar Entertainment. Sure the story is going to be more like L.A Noire, but is that a bad thing. Many key Max Payne staples are still in place, but now brought into the next generation. Instead of comic cutscenes, we will know get a full fledged story line that be gripping like previous installments. I can't wait but I wonder if this game is going to delayed because of how packed March is for gaming.

Mass Effect 3

Are you ready to "finish the Fight"? oh wait that's a different game. Mass Effect 3 will officially be done and will be looked back on being the most influential games in the last ten years. I have looked RPG, well frankly all games different since Mass Effect released. Caring over your progress from game to game was something un-heard of. Rather than starting restarting every single time you re-enter into a franchise, it was refreshing to continue your progress while making new choices along the way.

From those who have stuck with the franchise from the beginning like I did, Mass Effect 3 will be one of the personal games on the market because of the decisions you made leading up to ME3. I don't want to see anyway footage, trailers and previews leading up to the launch. This is my early game of the year and don't want to see anything to ruin my experience when I finally get my hands on the game.

BioShock Infinite

Anybody see that 20 minute demo last E3? The footage just looked to good to be real. You see why Kevin Levin didn't develop Bioshock 2 and focused all of their time and effort on Bioshock Infinite. It shows from the get-go and hopefully all of the little titbits we have see from the game so far. Got to admit, im not the biggest Bioshock fan, but have enjoyed the games. Unlike most sequels today, Bioshock infinite looks to set a new bar that we haven't seen in video games.

Halo 4

Again another game that I purely in love with because of nostalgia. Halo was one of the first games I bought for the original Xbox. Dam the story was surprisingly good and the multiplayer was where the real magic happened. I know Halo stole many elements Goldeneye, but the effect that Halo has had on this console generation is undeniable. So yes, i'm glad Halo is coming back in 2012 but I have a feeling that Halo is just not going to be ready in 2012. I and like most are expecting the game to hit 2013, being one of the last good years on the Xbox 360.

The Holiday Season is coming to an end. It has been a great year for video games with console sales up from a year before. The industry has seen many games like Uncharted 3, Skyrim and Gears of War 3 succeed in the market. Even though it was a big year for both Microsoft and Sony, the biggest debate in the industry is which one is better. 2011 was suppose to be the year of Playstation 3, but did it finally top the Xbox 360 and become top console on the market? From console exclusives, to online play, to the rise in motion gaming, who won?

Online Play

First things first, I need to talk about online play for both respected consoles. Last year, one of the biggest strengths for the Xbox 360 was Xbox Live. Microsoft Summer Arcade was again huge during the summer. Games like Bastion, From Dust and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet were available for a low price and were all editor choices here at Player Affinity. Along with that, it managed to improve on its online experience with the most recent dashboard update. Soon Xbox Live will be an entertainment complex that isn’t just known for playing games. In the coming months Hbo GO, Youtube, Xfinity TV (Comcast) and UFC will all be available, unlike the Playstation network.

What should have been a non-story turned into the story of the year. In April, the PlayStation Network went offline with Sony to undergo maintenance. Several days later the real story surfaced. The hacker group known as Anonymous had infiltrated the PlayStation Network without Sony knowing and stole the personal information of 77 million registered users. What made it worse is that Sony didn’t tell the public the problems for days and the network remained offline for a month. Today, even though the Playstation Network is back, it changed the public opinion of Playstation and Sony, but this affected Sony’s first party lineup the most.

First Party Exclusives

One of the many things the PS3 had going for it was the first party exclusives that it had leading up to 2011. The Playstation 3 had an unbelievable first party line up for the first half of the year. Starting off with LittleBigPlanet 2, Killzone 3, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, SOCOM 4 and Infamous 2. All together with Resistance 3 and Uncharted 3, Sony had eight exclusives hitting store shelves, but most of them struggled to sell over 500,000 copies in their opening weeks. These were all big Sony franchises and were probably expected to sell more than one million units. You would have thought it would be the blockbuster year for Sony to dominate the competition, but it never turned out that way.

Under most circumstances, I would never blame marketing, but they dropped the ball this year for Sony. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with Kevin Butler appearing on my television set and endorsing a Sony product, but the majority of these ad segments had nothing to do with Sony’s first party lineup and focused more on the Move. Resistance 3 was affected severely by this, as it sold franchise lows to conclude the trilogy.

Another marketing failure was simply stuffing the consumer base with too many first party exclusives too quickly. It might have been better to space out its first party lineup or delay some for next year. Resistance 3 and Uncharted 3 are great games, but they overshadow Sony’s entire first party lineup. Great games like Infamous 2, which is my game of the year, were easily forgotten. It might have been better to have a limited set of exclusives like Microsoft had this year. Games like Gears of War 3, Halo Combat EvolvedAnniversary and Forza 4 sold well right out of the gate.

For Microsoft, they didn’t depend on first party games to support their console. They depended squarely on the success of third party games as the rise of third party developers continues to become a bigger part of the industry. For the fifth year in a row, an entry in Activision’s Call of Duty series was the highest selling video game with Microsoft being the favored platform. Continuing this pattern, Battlefield 3, Assassin Creed: Revelations and Skyrim went on to be big sellers for the 360. This year alone proves that console exclusivity is a thing of the past.

Motion Gaming

2011 was the first year in motion gaming for both Sony and Microsoft and it wasn’t good, a lack of support for both platforms diminishing their appeal. The main selling point for the Move was how it was supposed to bridge the gap between the casual and hardcore audience. Games like Killzone 3, Resistance 3 and SOCOM used the move, but with mix results. Yes they were good bridges, but they could never take away or replace the controller. The same goes for the Kinect, which had some good games like Gunstringer, Dance Central 2 and Child of Eden, but still features a very limited experience.

What separates Move and Kinect is the technology behind them. The Kinect is really built for enhancing your home entertainment experience and has helped extended the 360’s life. During Black Friday, one million Xbox 360 consoles were sold, along with 500,000 Kinect units. Overall, the Kinect has preformed better than the Move, but both have failed to attract the Hardcore audience, with both devices yet to live up to their potential.

End Game

I am really looking forward to 2012. Oddly enough, Microsoft and Sony don’t have a lot of AAA exclusives coming out. The few and most notable exclusives are Halo 4 for the Xbox 360 and (hopefully) Last Guardian for the Playstation 3. It’s been one of the strongest years for video games, but if I am going to pick, Xbox 360 wins hands down in my book for focusing on what gamers wanted, when they wanted it, while establishing a promising future. The Playstation did have a great year, but it was far short of what was expected.

WINNER: Xbox 360

Let me get this out of the way so you won't dismiss this review as ignorant gushing. NBA 2K11 was the best sports game of all time. Period. End of story. With the classic teams ranging from the Seattle Sonics to the rugged Detroit Pistons, it was a real treat for both new and old NBA fans a like. Then they threw in the improved graphics engine and the few core gameplay tweaks that helped refine the experience. I honestly thought NBA 2K12 had no chance to match what NBA 2K11 accomplished, but I was wrong. Once again, 2K Sports puts out another solid addition that is better than its predecessor.

One of the things that fans of the series are going to notice right away is that the gameplay is now at a fluid, organic pace. In previous versions, player movements were often seamless, but were sometimes buckled by awkward animations. It could ruin the experience and make you realize that you were playing a game. Now, the player movements are seamless and the animations have never been better. All the animations in NBA 2K12have all been tuned to look identical to the person on court.

A big focus for this year's game is the re-design of the post game. All you have to do is press ‘Y’ to get into post. Hop step is now a part of the shot stick, which gives the player more options to easily dominate the court. It felt weird at first, but as time went on, I enjoyed this year's controller set-up more than last year's setting. Much like the post game, the overall defense has been improved. No longer will AI run out of position, giving up an easy bucket. Now players will deflect and steal passes if you're not paying attention who you're passing it to.

Michael Jordan returns to be the cover athlete for NBA 2K12, but the story is really about who’s playing with him this year. Sure, the Jordan Challenge feature was fun and the highlight for many Chicago Bulls fans, but NBA’s Greatest mode is the best sports mode ever. One of the few problems I had with Jordan Challenge was the stat-tracking milestones you had to achieve. It really took away from reliving and experiencing the Chicago Bulls as a unit or the teams they played against. In NBA Greatest mode, they have done away with the side objectives, creating an unforgettable experience.

There is a 15 total legends you can play with, ranging from favorites like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Shaq and Michael Jordan, to old superstars like Jerry West and Bill Russell. After you win a match, you are awarded with the ability to let NBA’s Greatest players face off against today’s superstars.

The Highlight and main attraction for me in NBA 2K12 is the presentation. It’s simply staggering how they captured and recreated the best sports broadcasts in a game. In the commentators' booth, for the first time we have three play-by-play commentators, with Steve Kerr joining an already stellar cast alongside Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg. Steve Kerr gives real incite about your favorite player with a dose of humor and brief Basketball trivia. 2K Sports has gone to great lengths to present basketball games as they were presented during their era. I found it odd to play Bill Russel's Celtics in the mid ‘60’s and have it presented in black and white, but it grew on me and I found myself having a better appreciation for the NBA (please no lockout) and how it has changed over time.

My Player, one of the most popular modes in NBA 2K11, has received the most changes this year. If you thought My Player was impressive before, then you're going to be blown away by how much has changed. The gameplay has been vastly improved, more accurately reflecting real-world gameplay. I was drafted as a point guard for the Phoenix Suns. This time I was not automatically given an important role like last year. I had to work my way into the starting role, but because it’s more streamlined, the mode is incredibly rewarding.

New to the mode is player contracts. You can know, bargain and control where you want to take your talents during the off-season. Besides rookie contacts, you automatically have the power to change a team into playoff contenders or be the missing piece to the triangle offense. This plays into post-game interviews, something that has been greatly expanded. Before, what you said to the press didn’t make a difference on the court. Now, players won’t pass the ball to you if you call them out in the press. It brings a little of an RPG aspect to the game. One of the few problems that still remains with My Player Mode is the cheesy AI. Far too often, the AI would storm back while my teammates acted like Lebron James in the 4th quarter. Overall, My Player is a sweet gateway for fans who can spend endless hours playing in this rich, deep mode.

Association Mode returns, but it’s mostly the same, which is a good thing. Association Mode puts you in control of your favorite team. Thanks to a bump in presentation values, Association Mode truly jumps off the screen. Trade AI is smarter than ever and “it won’t be fooled again" (YEAAA). Commentating makes playoff games seem important, as you eventually win an NBA championship. The newest addition to Association Mode is the new online feature. Time will tell if online mode will be a success, but I'm glad that 2K Sports have finally fleshed out online leagues. If the servers hold up, this could keep players interested for a long time and turn it into a basketball version of Madden’s Online Franchise mode.

NBA 2K12 is a great game. By far the best basketball game I have ever played. What I fear could hurt 2k Sports is the impending NBA lockout. With a lack of roster updates arriving, many will soon be turned off, muting how great NBA 2K12 is. That would be sad to see, because many would be missing out on one of the most complete games on the market. I would recommend this to anyone, sports fans and non-sports fans alike. The sheer amount of high quality content on here is exceptional. NBA 2K12 is a must have for basketball fans this holiday season.

Score: 9.5 out of 10