NBA 2K12 Review
It is yet another season for basketball, and for fans out there this game went from a simulation of the real thing to a simulation of a fantasy. With the NBA lock out still going at the time of this review this game, in my mind, should be noted as strictly a fantasy. The selling point of this game was the different covers that could be found for it. You have Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and my favorite, Larry Bird. The unfortunate thing is that this is truly the highlight of the game.
Graphically this game isn't going to blow many away. I don't feel like they tried to push the graphics to what they could have been on the PlayStation 3. The other thing is that they did very strange things to NBA players' likenesses. Kevin Durant appears to be just entering the nursing home, and for another example Jason Collins, from the Atlanta Hawks, who in real life is always smiling, appears to have a permanent attitude problem. They have put a focus box around the court, so when they take shots of fans on the first row they look fine until the sit back in their chairs and then all of a sudden they are completely blurry.
The sounds of the game are going to grate on your nerves. The music selection is ok, though there are some fans out there that are going to find muting the TV during all the menus is the only course of action. There also seems to be a very limited amount of voices when it comes to the building your own player mode.
The controls are an issue. They don't feel right at all, there's no way that there should be so many shot fake buttons in the default setup. There's also the issue of the passing, it doesn't feel right. Finally the shooting mechanics with trying to time your release feels off.
This game has issues, and maybe just like the actual NBA, this game should have taken a season off. The graphics were sub-par to what I expect from a sports game, there were serious glitches in the load screens. There were too many load screens for a sports game. The menu layout didn't feel right. The quick game should ALWAYS have your favorite selected team as one of the opponents, and when it is, it should be the home team. To actually start playing the game you have to fill out this lengthy informational piece so that you can play online. Well I hate to break it to 2K Sports but not everyone is dying to play online, so that screen should have been optional, or introduced when someone actually tries to play online. The biggest thing that ticked me off though was the fact that when you get to create your own player. The camera angles felt wrong, the gameplay made it feel like a recreational league, not a game of All-Star talent, and if you're going to allow for selection of college schools that your player comes from, have all the school names recorded. Winthrop University is NOT nor will it ever be South Carolina. Yes, they are in the state of South Carolina, but that's just some lazy moves on 2K's part.
If you're looking for a game that you can display with a picture of one of the greats, get this game, and seal it in a box. If you want to play a professional basketball game, go find another game. I am really disappointed in the lack of awesomeness in this game, this is more mediocre then anything else, and I'm usually the one who will readily jump on the 2K band wagon. This game gets a 4.3 out of 10.
