This might sound insane but I am interested in picking this up despite knowing nearly nothing about basketball.

I'm just coming off a ton of MGSV and before that a ton of Dark Souls II and want to play a completely different kinda game before Fallout 4. I know that there are literally thousands of different-style games but NBA 2k16 has me interested. The series seems to have a good reputation and the presentation looks amazing.

Based on previous games, do you think I will be able to enjoy it from a gameplay perspective without prior understanding of the sport it's based on? And without knowing the players/teams. Obviously I won't be appreciating it as much as someone who follows closely but I imagine I will get more into the real life side of it the more I play.

Plus that soundtrack looks kinda great.

I don't follow the NBA all that much, but I have really enjoyed a lot of the NBA 2K games. The MyCareer mode in recent years has been particularly enjoyable without really requiring much context of what's currently happening in the NBA.

This is hard for me to answer because I am a huge fan of the NBA and 2K.

All I can say is if there's one sports game to play, I think this is the best one (although to be fair I am not a soccer guy and I hear good things about those games). I find 2K does a great job at tackling a sport which to me should be the most difficult sport to capture in a videogame. It's impressive. The controls are usually pretty complex and I think knowing basketball helps you. However they have done a better and better job of explaining things. And if you have any questions, you can always ask. Just knowing basic basketball concepts like a pick and roll. But learning that stuff can be fun for you if you get into the game.

I think actually the career mode could be a good way to get in for you because playing as just one player dials back the options and responsibilities in a way that helps you learn. Being one guy on the court helps you learn the basics more than always needing to be the guy with the ball or the guy defending the ball.

For me, I think 2K accurately depicts the sport to the level that I think my real life basketball play has bettered my 2K play and playing and looking at 2K seriously has made me a better basketball player too. Plus what you see in the NBA too. So I think if you do want to get into basketball it's a good way to.

I'm hoping the game this year is really good. They are talking up the offenses being more realistic and less robotic.

If you want to get into basketball it's a great way to get started.

Pretty much ditto.

I could imagine someone who knows nothing about basketball picking up the game and being completely baffled by the whole thing. But if you're willing to put the time in and learn, I'm not sure there's a sports game on the market that plays better and is more satisfying than 2K. I definitely agree that the My Player mode would probably be the best place to start. It simplifies things enough that it should be easier to pick up on the basics before you move on to the "real" game.

As an avid basketball player and fan who has enjoyed the previous installment (NBA 2K15) thoroughly despite some slight frustrations, I'm not able to give a fulfilling answer to your question because my viewpoint is heavily skewed from years of personal real life experience with the sport and with vast knowledge of historical and current NBA teams and players. But I'd be quite interested in hearing your thoughts from a wholly fresh point of view if or when you decide to buy and play the game.

Well i don't know, if you have a passing interest in the sport then yes, but no interest at all? I honestly don't know because even though it has gotten pretty arcadey(to it's determent IMO) it's still a sports sim with a lot of nuance. You could turn off the rules and just fuck around, but i'm not sure how fun the game would be like that?

I just say that because i don't like football at all and could never get into madden, granted basketball rules and strategy aren't near as complicated as football but since i never had interest i could never get past that hurdle. Now a game like fight night, if they ever make it again, that's a sports game i think anybody could get into.

I'd agree 100% with @artisanbreads and @milkman in regards playing the my career mode. I downloaded 2K14 for the ps3 when it was free on ps+ 18 months ago and even though my knowledge of basketball was extremely limited, I thought it was brilliant. It even got me mildly interested in the sport in real life. But I do still find playing as the entire team a little bewildering at times as tactically I have no idea what it is I need to be doing to create space and paths through to the basket. I'm a big football (soccer) fan so I can play FIFA with an instinctive knowledge of what to do and what works well (or not), but basketball is more densely packed and therefore you need to be constantly following runners and cycling the ball if you want to do well (sorry if that's completely inaccurate, it's just kinda what I picked up from playing My Career mode). But anyway yeah I'd defo give it a try because it's a really well made game.

I don't like watching or actually playing any sport.
I still buy and enjoy sports games though, the NBA 2k series included.
I've never had an issue getting into them.
I've never felt like my lack of actual sports knowledge really hindered me.

So I had an outside interest in basketball when I started playing NBA 2K15 (from the UK where basketball is catching on, but its slow) and quickly began to understand the rules even got me watching some NBA matches, sadly the NBA season is a little overwhelming when you watch other sports to so I lost track of it but it was still fun to watch. They're great games to help you introduce you to the sport even if it can feel a little overwhelming at first. The presentation is outstanding to with some of the best commentary I've heard in a sports game. Sadly I still have an hard time understanding the financial part of the management sim to 2K15 as it gets a little over complicated for me.

I spent a lot of the time in MyLeague which was a fun to mode last year, in fact I'm not sure I'll jump to NBA 2K16 unless there is something real substantial I like.

The thing about sports games is they don't really change much each year in meaningful ways. If you're interested in the game but know nothing about actual teams or players, the up to date rosters are meaningless to you. Find a cheap copy of last year's game, or even the game from the year before, and you'll get an idea what the series is all about.

I find they do, but only if you're really into them and understand the ins and outs of the systems. Like a lot of the things they're talking about gameplay wise this year (improved reactions on defense, better movement overall, speed attributes actually mattering, double team cheese out) matter alot if you play the game for hundreds of hours, as those small balance/gameplay tweaks really do fix annoyances and shit, but if you're coming into it casually then yeah the year to year upgrades don't matter as much, although the career aspect got redone and improved this year (already the best in a sports game imo) and ranked head 2 head matches and supposedly less online lag are also pretty big improvements.

@malibuprofen said:

Well, decided to order it and see what was up! Thanks for the responses here, seem like I should be able to have a good time with it without needing to be fully clued up beforehand.

Should have it the day after release if the delivery works out. I will post my thoughts on the whole thing after I've spent some time with it.