2K Games’ NBA series has proven to be the basketball game of choice over the last few years, much more popular than EA’s Live brand. One of the main reasons behind this is the constant drive to evolve and provide memorable experiences. Some have entries have been excellent, like last year’s NBA 2K15, while others, such as 2K14 left a bit of bad taste behind due to various constraints. NBA 2K16 does play well, with team movement seeming to be more fluid, and the way the ball is passed about a lot more. The AI is challenging but not to the point where it is frustrating, with each team having their advantages and disadvantages. Neither opposition AI nor team AI is infallible and occasionally mistakes will be made, like a pass being thrown too early or the ball being stolen leading to a turnover.

 

With the Play Now online mode, 2K Sports has taken a page out of EA Sports' playbook and added a new Head to Head Seasons-like mode. With 10 new leagues to move up through, you start off in the lowest league and have to win games to move up the ladder. While it's still your standard "get a win, move up" format, 2K Sports has added a twist. The 30 NBA teams are now broken into three tiers with Tier 1 being the best teams (Warriors, Cavaliers) and Tier 3 being the worst (Knicks,). Beating another player with a Tier 1 team will only grant you one win, but beat a Tier 1 team with a Tier 3 team, and you'll get an addition two wins per win. It's a great way for 2K to stop gamers from always using the best teams in the game.

 

Livin’ Da Dream wraps up after the first NBA season for Frequency Vibrations, and then plays like the mode from that point on. That means you’ll have to watch how you play on the court to get good grades from your coach, do appearances, and improve your player over time. MyCAREER is still an excellent mode, and Livin’ Da Dream is a great entry into it. The NBA 2K16 builds upon the strong foundation the series’ core gameplay. There aren’t really any new concepts to learn when playing, but the physics engine has been totally redone from last year. This makes for a more realistic game on the court, and makes ball and rim movement look natural.

 

The story also kills your progress until it’s finished. Starting out, your begin with a player skill level of 55. This remains unchanged throughout the 3 High School games, 4 College Games, and 9 or so NBA games you have to play to finish the story. When you get drafted out of College, pretty much every other player picked has a stat rank of 75 or more, which really impacts your ability to perform in that rookie season. You don’t start earning the virtual currency required to upgrade your stats until your second year, so you can’t really improve your player for a number of hours. Granted, you can skip through the cutscenes, but it can still take a while before the training wheels come completely off.

 

Without going into too much detail: it's now confusing, slower, and much harder to use. I haven't played the game a ton yet, but I'm already not sure how I'm going to deal with it. It's one of the most important management aspects of the game and it's almost unusable now. Changes like this, we could do without. The announcers are a little different now. Steve Kerr decided to become an NBA coach and win an NBA Championship. So as he left the real broadcast booth he had to leave the 2K booth as well. In his place is Greg Anthony who I actually like a lot. His commentary is useful and fun. He makes a great addition to the broadcast team which is also the best in all of sports games. Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg are back again this year and as excellent as always (2K goes the extra mile in this aspect, always making sure the guys have tons of fun stories and commentary without excessive repetition).

 

Each annual edition usually reflects a superficial upgrade on the last, with better graphics, up-to-date team info, and a few new features, but there are enough new features every year to justify the purchase for any basketball fan. 2K16’s major addition is Spike Lee’s involvement; though the MyCareer mode has existed for years, it always felt rudimentary, a canned take on the average career path of an average NBA player. Lee (who is credited on the game’s cover) made one of the most famous basketball movies, He Got Game, and has been brought in to spice things up.