2k Sports & the PS3 (my mixed up love affair) Part 1 of 2 - inkcil's Blog

inkcil's Blog

2k Sports & the PS3 (my mixed up love affair) Part 1 of 2

Posted on July 26, 2012 at 11:20 PM.

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After owning and enjoying the PSOne throughout my college years, I was late to the PS2 party. As a matter of fact, I don't even remember the PS2 launch that much, as that was a time I had just graduated college and had joined the Chargers' Public Relations Dpt. It was a very busy time in my life. I remember one of the players brought a Dreamcast into the player's lounge and from that moment it became my goal to have the Dreamcast to replace my PSOne.

Watching NFL 2k and NBA 2k on Dreamcast every afternoon was a blast, and when one my friends bought a Dreamcast and NFL 2k to my apt, I was hooked on 2k sports.

Still, an extremely busy schedule, VR Interplay Baseball 2000 on PSOne and High Heat Baseball on the PC delayed and eventually prevented me from ever buying the Dreamcast. (It's not that I wasn't a gamer, it's just that I was deep into baseball gaming and very satisfied with what I had at the time.) Suddenly I had looked up, it was the Spring of 2002, and one of my buddies was pitching me on replacing my PSOne and PC gaming with this thing called the Xbox.

At the time, ev'one I knew had a PS2, and since I've always enjoyed going against the grain, I picked up the Xbox and retired my PSOne and PC games.

One day while in EB games, I noticed the demo for this football game that totally floored me...2k4 on the Xbox. And if I recall, it was only $20 at a time when most other games were $50. Also that year, I had fallen head over heels for College Hoops 2k3 or 2k4(whichever one had TJ Ford on the cover).

When 2k5 came out on Xbox, with the graphics and the gameplay and presentation and ability to sinc NFL Films music to moments in the game (like sacks and the intro), little did I know at the time that I was experiencing my personal golden age of sports gaming. Even the problem-plagued MLB 2k5 had charm (although I personally felt that it never lived up to its potential).

Between 2k football and basketball, 2k had me. If only their baseball game...

Fast forward to the Spring of 06 and I was compelled to make the switch from Xbox to PS2 for the Show. While I loved Sony's baseball offering, I was extemely, extremely disappointed to see how 2k's beloved sports games translated on the PS2. Whether it was the graphics or the features, the 2k experince on PS2 was a hollow shell of what it was on the Xbox. However, despite having this knowledge, and despite the 2k Sports offerings being my favorite overall brand of gaming, when I finally took the next gen plunge it was the PS3 that won me over.

After all, PS3 had free online, the Show, a Blue Ray player, all kinds of "claims" about having superior processing power, and backwards compatability. And it was supposedly going to be a reliable peice of hardware, too. Plus, if the first few next gen Maddens weren't going to satisfy me, I could always play 2k5 until Madden got its act together...at least that was my thinking at the time.

So now its July of 2007 and I've taken the PS3 plunge. I had bought an 360 earlier in the spring of 07 to try out MLB2k7 (which was a beautiful looking game) but took it back within 30 days b/c I had already mentally committed to the PS3.

Would 2k Sports fare better on the PS3 than it had on the PS2?...