As a result, on the court I felt like I kept letting my team down. The AI improvements carry over to M圜areer, which made it extremely difficult to make any positive plays with a weak player. The cutscenes led me to believe that I was a special player, but my overall rating was 55, since I was unable to earn any virtual currency up until that point. Even looking past the lack of choices, the story became disjointed during my rookie season. The most jarring example happened when my friends and family were all giving me advice about whether I should stay in college: Each character ultimately told me that “only you can make the choice.” But then a second later, the NBA draft started. The catch phrase for the mode is “Be the Story,” but even if a heated conversation was all about a choice I needed to make, I was never allowed to make it myself. Some interesting moments were emotionally charged and kept my attention, but its movie-style plot made it a poor fit for a game that’s supposed to be about our players. “The story itself is mediocre and the dialogue is a little corny, despite being well acted. But being recruited by officially licensed colleges and universities is extremely well done. Those early high school games are a bit dull, without commentary or any real challenge, since my player was a 6’7” point guard and the tallest guy on the court. Once you create your character (whose unchangeable nickname is Frequency Vibrations, by the way) you’re dropped into the life of a high school phenom from Harlem with dreams of the NBA.
Spike Lee wrote and directed this mode as a documentary-style movie entitled Livin’ Da Dream. But the most notable and popular game mode is M圜areer, which has been taken in a completely different and unfortunately static direction. That same team editor can also be used in MyTeam, the card-collecting game, which has new challenges and ways to earn virtual currency. MyGM and MyLeague modes are now both fully featured management sims, allowing you to go so far as to relocate and completely rebrand your team with a mind-boggling amount of options. The new Play Now Online mode makes head-to-head matches matter a bit more, since it features a promotion and relegation system.
All the game modes I expect of the series make their triumphant return, some with interesting new wrinkles. “There are a staggering amount of ways you can play NBA 2K16. The only reliable way to score is to use real basketball concepts, so if you’re a student of the sport you'll find yourself being rewarded for your knowledge. Zig-zagging will result in steals and frustration, and attempts to drive the baseline will end up in terrible or blocked shots. In previous years, I always found it easy to score by cheezing my way past AI defenders, running in circles and forcing them to make unrealistic mistakes. The big reason to show up this year, though, is that NBA 2K’s gameplay has been completely upgraded in nearly every way, resulting in a more true-to-life simulation experience. The addition of stunning new in-studio interviews more than makes up for it, in the grand scheme of things. Player interviews have returned as well, but disappointingly some have been reused from previous years. The interactions between the commentators is fun, and there are far fewer misplaced reactions than in previous years – although it does still happen from time to time. In the studio, Kenny Smith joins Ernie Johnson and Shaq in entertaining, chemistry-led, semi-contextual pregame, halftime, and postgame shows, and Greg Anthony replaces Steve Kerr as the color commentator. 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. Faces, hair styles, body types, and even wingspans are true to life, but the wide variety of new signature animations bring it all together. The player models are upgraded with new, more detailed body scans, and that has a profound effect on the overall experience. “Not that it was suffering visually before, but NBA 2K16 looks better than ever.