I’ve spent hundreds of hours lifting nobodies to NBA stardom over the last half-decade. Tiny point guards who can jump like Spud Webb and bomb threes like Steph Curry; prototypical shooting guards, chiseled from marble and feted with endorsements; paint-bound monoliths who back their way into MVPs and championships; I’ve made them all, played them from the ends of benches to fake billboards around the world. The NBA 2K series’ create-a-player mode - it’s been called MyPlayer and MyCareer at various points in the series - is one of my favorite things about sports video games. Not that it was suffering visually before, but NBA 2K16 looks better than ever. The player models are upgraded with new, more detailed body scans, and that has a profound effect on the overall experience. Faces, hair styles, body types, and even wingspans are true to life, but the wide variety of new signature animations bring it all together.

 

In fact, the presentation in general has received a lot of love this year, and brand new game-opening sequences, from team introductions to the national anthem, did a good job of distracting me from the lengthy load times. The same logic is applied to free agency, where your status as a franchise matters. Established players are unlikely to sign with a team that is rebuilding. Teams that are "buyers" and "contenders" will likely catch their eye instead. And aside from some wonky restricted free agency (I signed Harrison Barnes to a cheap one-year deal in RFA and the Warriors didn't match) time to time, your franchise isn't getting top players if they're not a desirable location. Market can also play a factor into this. Where your team is located may not be favorable to someone you're pursuing as a staff member or free agent. So if you want to relocate your franchise, you can do that.

 

You need to design a stadium, design uniforms, pop in a logo, and have a good enough plan in place (downtown or suburbs, what kind of amenities, etc.) for the Board of Governors to approve it. NBA 2K16 implements a new ranking system for Play Now Online, which will be familiar for players of FIFA’s online seasons mode. If you win enough games against other players online in a given season, you’ll jump to a new “league,” from freshman to varsity to Hall of Fame. Teams are also broken into a tier system in 2K16, so if you pick a middling team like the Suns and pull off an upset against the Cavaliers, you’ll earn extra wins toward ranking up. The system has been done before in other games, but it’s a nice addition that makes your online matchups feel a little more meaningful.

 

But soon enough, you’ll realize that you control little. Don’t want to be one-and-done? Don’t like that sleazy agent? Don’t want to ditch your best friend? Lee’s narrative makes all those decisions for you. It’s possible, perhaps, that this was Lee’s aim, to wrest control away from the gamer because, in reality, there are many instances where pro and college athletes have only the illusion of control in their own lives and decisions. Lee’s narrative casts you as the son of black parents with a black sister; choose to be anything else, and the dialogue and other pieces of game don’t make much sense. In the past, that wouldn’t matter too much, since the staggering depth of MyCareer compensated, since you could lose yourself and the hokey story in the action of games and player development and putting yourself on a path to score 30,000 career points or whatever you chose.

 

NBA 2K16 is absolutely brimming with content; so much so that it’s virtually impossible to experience it all. Its core basketball experience is spectacular, and it takes big chances with an expansive story mode, a multitude of online options, and a presentation that is second to none in the sports game space. The only lingering doubt is its ability to keep its online infrastructure up and running from Day One, as many of the game’s features are tied to the 2K servers being operational. It’s the most ambitious sports game ever made, and a must-play for anyone who’s ever picked up a virtual basketball.