It can be hard to see when things are working for something the positive in it all, it’s much easier to see what’s wrong. It’s a distinction that was first put into philosophical terms by Martin Heidegger as the difference between the ready-at-hand and the present-at-hand and, weirdly, it’s really really easy to see in video games. When the mechanics of a game are ready-at-hand, we perform an action with the controller and what we expect to happen happens; when things don’t happen the way we expect or want, we call them “broken” and they are merely present-at-hand. In other words, lying there in front of us and useless.

You can feel free to ignore that whole paragraph, though. Here’s what you need to know: having already dipped into what NBA 2K14 should look to fix, it’s time to turn a kinder eye on the series and look at what it already does well. Some of these things really stand out when you compare 2K13 to older versions of the game, even as recently as 2K10.

Now, there are certainly things that 2K10 did really well and even some things that are probably better than 2K13, but have you tried to navigate the menus in that game recently? Although 2K13 still sometimes staggers under the weight of nested menus, it’s worlds better than the weirdo UI that the game relied on for years where you had to hold the stick in a direction and click to select options.

On another presentation note, Jay-Z’s participation in the game seems to divide fans, but I for one welcome a distinct direction to the music and visual of the game. Too often in past years the soundtrack felt like a slapdash mix of whatever bands were on labels that were tangentially connected via media conglomerate to 2K Sports. You can quibble with individual aspects of this example of artist/game “synergy” (and especially with the Brooklyn Nets suspiciously efficient offensive rebounding), but the sense of unity it provides is a welcome one on the presentation front.

When it comes to the feel of the game, one of 2K13’s greatest successes is the feel of shooting the ball. There’s real joy to be had in either designing a jumpshot that fits your sense of timing perfectly for your My Player or learning some of the odder releases. Take Thaddeus Young’s super-late release, which takes some getting used to, but becomes a lesson in patience and spacing over time.

Another joybringer in the game (and one that should really be worthy of its own Achievement or Trophy) is the first time you dunk with a MyPlayer who began with his Dunk rating in the cellar. It’s obviously not very realistic for a player to gradually develop the ability to dunk at the NBA level, but it’s a fun evolution to watch. The first time your player leaks out on the break and gets far enough ahead of the defense to throw it down (which means VERY far—the fast break mechanics are still broken, after all), it’s a jump-off-your-couch fist pump moment.

And while the passing is still often problematic (passes are too often soft and uncannily anticipated by the CPU) the ability to manually throw a bounce pass has brought a level of flair to the game that I really appreciate. The first time I threw a bounce pass on the break from Rubio to Love waiting along the baseline for a sweet J, it was beautiful. Those moments are what I personally play NBA 2K13 for: to make beautiful basketball.

But another part of what NBA 2K13 does right is allow for a lot of customization in how the game plays. It’s a testament to its customizability that OS has so many posts in the forum with different slider sets that represent many different players’ visions of what a basketball game should play like. I know people have issues with the game out of the box, and I doubt that’s ever going to be fixed to everyone’s satisfaction, but in the days before sliders, you were stuck with that. At least now you can tweak things to better suit your style of play.

And speaking of tweaking, the inclusion of historical teams and the ability to involve them in Association Mode is an awful lot of fun. As someone who got on board the series with NBA 2K, the chance to play with Allen Iverson again is a treat and putting him on a team with Shawn Kemp, Ricky Rubio, Scottie Pippen and Anthony Davis is such a guilty yet enjoyable pleasure.

The new Signature Skills are another element that seems to divide the game’s fanbase, but like many things that the series has added over the years, I see it as a fledgling development that has space to grow. For the very best players, the skills can seem redundant, but they did perform as advertised when it comes to role-players, making guys like Steve Novak way more valuable than they would be otherwise. As with many things, they need to be refined going forward, but the idea is a fantastic one for providing more depth and replay value going forward.

And finally, in assessing what NBA 2K13 does right, the most important thing at this point in the series’ life is that it’s setting itself up very well for the next generation of consoles. Consider that the previous generation spanned only five games from NBA 2K to 2K5, whereas this generation has gone from NBA 2K6 to 2K13. With the PS4 likely dropping sometime in October, we’re almost certainly looking at one more year of 2K on this generation as it transitions to the next for a total of nine current-gen games. Although the graphics might not have changed drastically from 2K10 to this year’s game, this has given the game a chance to grow in its presentation and gameplay. This year’s controls—with the addition of the Control Stick—are the most flexible and refined they’ve ever been.

Are they perfect? No. But as part of an evolving series, they’re excellent, and overall, NBA 2K13 presents a solid platform on which to build a new generation of basketball games.

So how about a little positive energy for NBA 2K13? What are the things you love about it? Moments, specific plays, specific moves, players you love to use: what have you got?