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The online modes "will eventually come", and that's a definite knock on the game because the times we've been able to play online and get a good game going you're really just sitting and watching the potential it has. So those of you who have cried for 4 months since it's release rather than play it's "MY Player" mode (can put 100's of hours into it) as well as the "Association Mode" (100's of hours), or haven't just messed around with the All-Star teams or just played simple, semi-short games of regular teams in real life to see how similar the players and teams look, run, shoot, score, individual styles, etc, well then, you've been wasting valuable time. By the time the online mode works, those of us who have played "My Player" or "Association" for hours on end will be the ones dominating when we can finally play... enough prologue, to the game:_______________________________________________
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--______JoshFarc's Official Review of______--
--______NBA 2k10 PC______--
--______NBA 2k10 PC______--
Overall: ( ?.? / 10 )
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ASPECTS OF THE GAME ANALYZED IN DEPTH:|______________________________________________|
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(_---_---__---__ My Rig Experience__---__---_---_)
The game overall pretty much deserves, flat-out, a minimum of an 8 on a scale of 10. Running it with my current setup (25" 1900 x 1200 monitor / 21.6" 1680 x 1050 dual monitor setup), you can see I have a nice monitor / video setup. But my actual PC, especially the video card, are not "new" by any means, but I still run 2k10 at 60fps consistently. Powered by the first quad-core: q6600 Intel Quad processor @ 2.7ghz(OC'd), an 8800gt 512mb video card(my next real upgrade comes here, but it does the job), and then my recently added 4.0gb of extra ram to make it a total of 8.0gb of memory; it never comes close to occupying 4.0gb of total memory when I am doing unheard of things on 2 monitors, so having all that extra memory for now is useful. I love being able to use Adobe Premiere on my left, smaller monitor while I play 2k10 on my main monitor and record video clips with Fraps(really is a great program worth the price). Simply put I can record live 60fps video from the 2k10 game, usually replay mode or reels, and then I can open that video file in Adobe Premiere on the other monitor without any real slowdown. Really love the memory.
This game came ready and ported to function with multiple OS's, including Windows 7 and 64bit processing, but works literally perfect on Windows XP 32 bit(tested by me) and appears fine on either Vista OS. Even with it "windowed" on my 1900 x 1200 monitor while I have other tasks going like this browser on the secondary monitor, the game still runs around 60fps for the most part (possibly more drops to 50 when in "windowed" mode, which is completely playable still. And that's because while my video card is solid, it's getting old and could be upgraded. So I am guessing you can run this game fine with a solid Dual Core processor, 2gb of ram /memory, and a video card that is in my range at the minimum to keep everything crisp.
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(_---_---__---__ GAME/GAMEPLAY__---__---_---_)
Game with and against similar level AI and a set of specialized sliders(manually changed or downloaded),downloaded aspects, and this game is damn solid and the AI are fine at All-Star level when you have the right sliders. It's all about sliders / difficulty with the game as far as having a great experience with this game in Association Mode; it's still got depth and should be played; but those who don't really like or watch the NBA then it's a lot different.
The detail to the players they have used (and rating system), and not just the improved graphics they tweaked, I mean each player is daily on the correct team if you want to just play a quick game and shit, I always just play a game real quick with short quarters and play the game(on the perfect settings for AI against me) and play the game. I swear, the first 10 games I basically tried it, 8 of the games were correct. Then I figured I would try some more tests, just 10 games at a time. The results was interesting, with one 7(and the actual game was a playoff game that went into OT and resulted by a 3 point spread/win), two 8's, one 9, and one 10. It's a solid game, and is extremely realistic simulation style. I don't even gamble even though I probably should of.
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(_______---____My Player Mode____---_______)
My Actual Player: Kidd Magic
2k development obviously spent a ton of their time this year creating and
tweaking with the added My Player mode; Simply put, it's badass from the get go. You enter the mode, create a player (name, nick, position, size, quite detailed facial / body aspects), as well as choose his primary position: for example I chose "PG" and then there are like 5 sub-categories I believe to start out as (effects attributes basically). Pass First, Scoring Guard, Athletic, Pure Shooter, All-Around, and I think that's it, but don't quote me on that. Since I made my player a 6'6'' PG I figured he needed that boost of athleticism so I chose "Athletic"; right off the bat you better only take wide open jump-shots and know his release or you WILL miss. I've discovered most people go "Pass First" when they're guards and often go "All-Around" when it comes to any position; it can't really hurt. Then you go ahead and finish creating him/her up and Start the game. Instantly you find yourself in a Summer League on a team like the Minny Timberwolves. I could go on all day about the intricacies of the system that grades your player during the game, leaving you with an overall grade, and then later you can see your offense, defense, and rebounding grades. Let me keep this part breif, so you can enjoy your own "MY Player" if you are interested. You play 10 games in the Summer League, along with 10 Drills you can run to improve certain attributes and also earn Skill Points, which go towards "buying" more skill points. Either have a great Summer League and either get offered a contract or offered a chance to compete for a spot at a teams training camp, or play poorly in the Summer League and enter the NBA D-League; where you can get stuck, just like in real life. The key is to go to a team that is relatively weak or needs depth at your preferred position. You should end up playing 10 more games for that training camp, and by the end of it either the team's management boots you to the D-League or you end up making the last spot of the team. Don't feel bad either, I was the LAST spot on the team, and only got like 10 minutes per game in the rotation for the first 5-10 games of the season.
The KEY to the game is simple: just because it's "MY" Player doesn't mean you have to score 40+ points a game with your guy. The game will score you positively for doing so many things other than taking and making a good shot, like: "set off-ball screen", "box-out opponent successfully", "fill the lane correctly", "good pass", "assist", "steal", "block", "steal/block leading to a layup",
"good spacing", and many more other small things you can do as a player that will boost your overall "Grade"; one which you really need to average an A to an A+ to be successful. If you play the game of basketball correctly and let the AI do some damage and play as the actual player (which is why All-Star setting is key; it makes your own AI guys play better/smarter). Just continue playing the game, as the rotations might switch up depending on your coach and your performances and consistency; do well enough right away and they will trade a player to open up a starting gig for you. The key is to play each game, and try to achieve the little "Goals" for each game. If you do all that, get an A or A+ overall and win the game for your team, you will earn close to 2,000 Skill Points each game to add to your player, which definitely comes in handy. There are other milestones and such in which you get bonuses, but I'll leave it at that.
So that in itself is the all magnificent "My Player" mode summed up in a very long, drawn out paragraph or two.
Now quickly put, if you want your player to become a sick player, you need to play at least one full season; I've played basically 1 season + 1/4 a season, including an All-Star Game, Rookie-Sophomore Game, Rookie Of The Year Award, All NBA 3rd Team, All Rookie 1st Team, and 6th Man of the Year (the end of the season is like Christmas if you played extremely well with your player. So now "Kidd Magic" is in the 80's, which is pretty solid overall; high 80's and 90's are just on a different level and yet are not just unstoppable or whatever. I play on "All-Star" level, and obviously some play more simulation style than others, so in terms of time and hours you could reach the 80's much faster than myself.
Personal Note (Dynasty Mode):
The KEY to the game is simple: just because it's "MY" Player doesn't mean you have to score 40+ points a game with your guy. The game will score you positively for doing so many things other than taking and making a good shot, like: "set off-ball screen", "box-out opponent successfully", "fill the lane correctly", "good pass", "assist", "steal", "block", "steal/block leading to a layup",
"good spacing", and many more other small things you can do as a player that will boost your overall "Grade"; one which you really need to average an A to an A+ to be successful. If you play the game of basketball correctly and let the AI do some damage and play as the actual player (which is why All-Star setting is key; it makes your own AI guys play better/smarter). Just continue playing the game, as the rotations might switch up depending on your coach and your performances and consistency; do well enough right away and they will trade a player to open up a starting gig for you. The key is to play each game, and try to achieve the little "Goals" for each game. If you do all that, get an A or A+ overall and win the game for your team, you will earn close to 2,000 Skill Points each game to add to your player, which definitely comes in handy. There are other milestones and such in which you get bonuses, but I'll leave it at that. So that in itself is the all magnificent "My Player" mode summed up in a very long, drawn out paragraph or two.
Now quickly put, if you want your player to become a sick player, you need to play at least one full season; I've played basically 1 season + 1/4 a season, including an All-Star Game, Rookie-Sophomore Game, Rookie Of The Year Award, All NBA 3rd Team, All Rookie 1st Team, and 6th Man of the Year (the end of the season is like Christmas if you played extremely well with your player. So now "Kidd Magic" is in the 80's, which is pretty solid overall; high 80's and 90's are just on a different level and yet are not just unstoppable or whatever. I play on "All-Star" level, and obviously some play more simulation style than others, so in terms of time and hours you could reach the 80's much faster than myself.
Personal Note (Dynasty Mode):
Personally I've only put in a couple hundred hours to My Player single player and then of course started the Dynasty mode to start up a franchise and build their future as like GM and playing as as good as possible for the game(mostly the 1st year). I haven't gotten far(time), but I took a team with a solid team while having plenty of 2010 cap space for the summer and free agency; as well as get a solid lottery pick. You can have a solid team and still have 30-40$ million in cap-space for the FA. This is always a good time to do this and simulate the draft(with a solid, even personalized Draft Class that you've imported from the 2k servers(or Alby's, that 3.1 version(sorry, can't think of the name), are both GREAT draft class models as well as abilities. The simulation aspect of the game is pretty goddamn slick, even if you do a quick sim once in awhile...... or more after rookie season. But don't let my short summary of the Dynasty Mode fool you. It's deeper than ever and the AI is smarter than ever. They put together strong teams if you do fantasy drafts and they have strong rotations put together; the teams are coached well. Combine that with the right set of sliders on All-Star level and you have yourself a game against all these different AI teams that almost feel like playing against a fellow simulation style gamer. I really think the AI has stepped up in this game overall; not just the court awareness on both ends but the fact that very few unrealistic things happen during a game with the CPU. That's not easy to do, and 2k Sports accomplished that.
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__________[_____Online Mode_____]__________
When online has worked(has in the past and it WILL quite soon) make sure you have a microphone of some sorts if not an actual headset like a console so you can chat at the same time; especially in 5 on 5 or 4 on 4 CREW matches. Now the -0.5 is from that: while I don't mind the online part of 1 vs 1 regular team style ball missing for now(key words "for now"), I do want to see how this CREW mode works and if I can maybe get some 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 games where my ping / latency are near or under 100ms. It's quite possible, and once they figure it out over time, those of us other guys just played the regular parts of the game and are quite satisfied. I hope the people that basically "quit on this game" or whatever end up picking it up to play online once it's up. The main key to have a great online experience is to have a bigger volume of players like 95% of the time, and having to "Benchmark Video" at random times can be annoying, but you have to do it to log into the servers and use "Share" mode to get better Draft Classes, Updated Rosters w/progression, special player models from the 60's to current college players; edit and upload your own game reel from a replay; and just so many other things to experiment with.
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______-------FlNALE-------______
It's Primed for Windows 7 and instantly during one quick play it made 2K9 look like a completely different engine, very unique though you could still feel 2k9. The new My Player mode might almost as addicting the Association single player stylee. Similar feel, better organization (I am glad they keep doing the same type of menu). The true only gripe about the "game" is that it can not be played online? So it was released with an online system/mode "promised" or written on the box and on the website, so the actual online matchups part has been useless except for a 2 week span (I just hope 2k doesn't read this thread because they are making the best basketball simulation PC game EVER if they continue with 2k11. Otherwise, if honestly analyzing objectively and rating this game I'd have to give a score that was relatively close to or near 10 overall. I'll tell anyone I know, even the people who could care less about sports PC games, that "this is the best basketball game ever made" for PC or a console game, and even better if you do certain aspects detailed during for each mode. Right now all I have done is ranted and raved about the 2k10 game on PC, so let me get ONE thing clear: I wanted to get this into the blog now before some hater comes on here and posts "you must work for 2k you douche" or some random, unnecessary, illogical, statement like that. Personally, shit, I wish I did, but my top one or two hobby is PC gaming, and I appreciate and enjoy many different types of games. But to narrow it down, I mostly play: first-person shooters (COD Modern Warfare 2, etc), the new style open world action-RPG's (GTAIV, Mass Effect 2; Assassins Creed 2 soon!), and then of course the couple of sports games I always love each year: NBA(2k), a game that has more lasting appeal for me than COD does, even without online features, then Tiger Woods Golf(EA), NHL(EA), Fifa(EA), and I will of course try any game out there. Tomb Raider's are enjoyable for a bit, and I'm always checking out those third party games like Psychonauts (just got it for $2 off steam!). I'm not the biggest Real-Time-Strategy (RTS) gamer... I think I was just born to suck at them, but I did love Warcraft 2 and 3.
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|To be simply honest, it's all about three (3) things: ||______________________________________________|
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-1- Gameplay: includes the graphics, the game engine and physics, and the combination of things that convert to how the game plays from your gamepad to the screen. With 2k10 you instantly notice the beautiful flow of the game and the realistic touch added, while the "video game" aspect stays in tact, but has become a bit more complex depending on where and when you are on the court.
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-2- Depth of Modes: I call this the "underrated rating criteria". I love online games like COD-MW2 and Gears of War and whatever, you name it. But the actual "depth" of the single player game is something that really draws instant attention to us, the consumers, and when a games announces a "new mode" you hope to God that it's not just some scrapped in, last second add in. Rather, you hope it's something like the "MY Player" mode on 2k10, a genius, new way to play a 2k series basketball game, and not only did they implement it perfectly, but it's accuracy and consistency are very solid; very solid.
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-3- Replayability: Usually comes down to some type of online mode for the most part. Games like COD Modern Warfare 2 sell millions because of their ability to have tons of depth added with the online modes: ranking up, upgrades, etc; all which combine entirely for "replayability". I mean look at Counter-Strike 1.6, a game that I grew up playing basically 10 years ago. Download it through steam and there are still thousands who play it; much more that play Counter-Strike: Source (basically the sequel).
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Now while I play the other sports games moderately, when it comes to the new 2K Sports NBA games every year on PC now, I'd have to admit it's my "Favorite Overall Game Of The Year - 2009". Yup... I'm likely to play this game over CODMW2 as well as the newer Mass Effect 2 because I'm still hooked... and the online mode is just about to start working consistently... 10/10 if the online mode wasn't such a tease, but because doing all the new training modes, My Player mode, and testing out Association should prime your game to really play well online.
100's of hours will be focused on this game in many possibly ways, but you'll end up hooked on getting all the real sliders / simulation gameplay / sim rosters and applying them with the improved Association mode or My Player mode. Or both. Enjoy!
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- Gameplay: 9.5 / 10.0
- Depth Of Modes: 9.0 / 10.0
- Replayability: 8.0 / 10.0
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OVERALL SCORE: 8.5 / 10.0
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This has been a review by JoshFarc. While the final score will remain an 8.5 (unless the online mode turns back on full time and action soon), I will be using some more detailed writing, photos, and uploaded video's I've made to really let those people who have never played NBA 2k10 on PC or even console know what it's all about.
It's that damn good.
