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NBA 2K15 Review: A Great Game on the Court Marred by Missteps Off Of It (PS4)

05:38 PM - October 13, 2014 by RaychelSnr

“How exactly does someone review a game like NBA 2K15?”

I spent almost a week wrestling with this question. I’m still not sure I know the answer, but I’m going to do my best to find it along the way.

NBA 2K15 plays the best basketball on the court of any video game I ever played.

This fact stands in a stark contrast to the experience of actually trying to play a game in many of the modes.

That part ranges from unplayable to — well, playable, but with a decent chance the game will freeze or drop or won’t count and you’ll have to replay it.

Let’s get into the meat of the review, or as I’ve been calling it in my head, “Treatise on Cognitive Dissonance on the Hardwood.”

Read More - NBA 2K15 Review: A Great Game on the Court Marred by Missteps Off Of It

Game: NBA 2K15Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: iOS / PC / PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 64 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 Cabish @ 10/13/14 05:45 PM

I was hard on visual concepts,I realize now all the games released this month have serious online problems,

# 2 Rockie_Fresh88 @ 10/13/14 05:47 PM

Great gameplay but this is on the money . Half of the game is unplayable . Get into a game get kicked eventually . It's a huge waste of time . You get no vc and even worse a lost at times

# 3 woodson312 @ 10/13/14 05:48 PM

input lag and billions of missed layups and overpowered offensive rebounds... this is the 1st time i have truly complained about 2k but dammit all i get is headaches from it. cant take it

# 4 MarkcusD @ 10/13/14 05:51 PM

Myplayer should not require online at all. I will never buy a game in this series as long as this is true.

# 5 "The Veal" @ 10/13/14 05:53 PM

I think the game can be summed up easily. Someone who plays offline, one-player-centric games (MyLEAGUE) and play the games versus the CPU (once finding a right balance) love it. People who play online hate it, and rightfully so. It's very divisive on the modes themselves, some are incredible, others are bad.

# 6 luda06 @ 10/13/14 05:56 PM

Awesome review.

# 7 Matty Aqua @ 10/13/14 05:56 PM

Fair score!.. Good to see reviews not getting suckered in by all the flash...if modes aren't working they should be called out on it

# 8 Trackball @ 10/13/14 06:11 PM

Big deal.

One of my favorite games of all time got a 7.5 from Game Informer (Star Ocean: The Second Story).

Just one man's opinion.

Which is why you should all go out and buy Kabuki Warriors, Drake of the 99 Dragons, and Dalmatians 3 right now.

Don't listen to reviewers. Make your own decisions on what's good.

...

I really, really hope you can tell I'm not serious there...but really, why is this game focused so darn much on online? The servers will be dead in two years.

Meanwhile, I can pop in Super Mario Bros. 3 right now, and it will work exactly as it did in 1990.

No connection needed then.

No connection needed now.

Why are some developers--heck, so many OS users--so obsessed with online play?

What, do you just want single-player gaming to die?

Not everything is about playing with others. Yes, humans are social creatures, but sometimes we just want to be ALONE.

The core gameplay is awesome.

Question: Would you rather have a game that's smooth as silk online but plays like butt, or a game that plays wonderfully but can't connect to the Internet?

Here's a hint: The servers will be shut off someday. It's inevitable. Then what are you left with?

Or how about another example: People rip on the NES version of Double Dragon because, as beautifully as it played, as fun as it was, and as much butt the music kicked, you couldn't play the main game with two players at once.

The Sega Master System version, meanwhile, had really bad graphics, terrible music, highly questionable hit detection (in a beat-em-up!), and loads of flicker.

But hey, you could play two-player! Surely that makes up for ALL of the above, right?

The point is, some things are more important than online.

NOTE: Please don't take this as a personal attack. It's just always bugged me why some people are so heavily fixated on online play, when this game isn't always going to be online-capable. Ever play City of Heroes lately? Oh wait...

# 9 TheLetterZ @ 10/13/14 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trackball


	Big deal. One of my favorite games of all time got a 7.5 from Game Informer (Star Ocean: The Second Story). Just one man's opinion. Which is why you should all go out and buy Kabuki Warriors, Drake of the 99 Dragons, and Dalmatians 3 right now. Don't listen to reviewers. Make your own decisions on what's good.

As I mentioned in the review, it was REALLY hard to write.

I — the reviewer — am mostly an offline gamer. I was probably never going to play The Park very much.

My goal with the review was to help inform people who are on the fence about buying the game. I hope such people can look beyond the score and read the entire review, because I intended for it to serve as a guide for their buying decision.

As for your comment, "Don't listen to reviewers. Make your own decisions on what's good." — I agree!

But I also understand that renting games isn't as easy as it used to be, and to a large extent you need to take the writing of people who have played the game a lot into consideration.

# 10 swac07 @ 10/13/14 06:18 PM

Ouch............Do I feel online shouldve took that much off the top of the score...Nope...but when you are touting online modes as your main selling point and the servers are poo...its warranted ..Great Review

Sent from my Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator using Tapatalk

# 11 Trackball @ 10/13/14 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheLetterZ


	As I mentioned in the review, it was REALLY hard to write. I — the reviewer — am mostly an offline gamer. I was probably never going to play The Park very much. My goal with the review was to help inform people who are on the fence about buying the game. I hope such people can look beyond the score and read the entire review, because I intended for it to serve as a guide for their buying decision.

Fair enough.

Thing is, a ton of people are going to see the score and nothing else. (I myself have fallen into this trap before.)

I'm starting to see why people like Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw refuse to give a numerical score to games. It's really, really hard to express a complex personal opinion through something as simple as a single number--which is one reason why sabermetric stats like Player Efficiency Rating still have their detractors.

I think it would've been best, in this case, to go the route others here have suggested: One score for offline, the other for online. But then again, I realize that's not how Operation Sports rolls.

# 12 TheLetterZ @ 10/13/14 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trackball


	Fair enough. Thing is, a ton of people are going to see the score and nothing else. (I myself have fallen into this trap before.) I'm starting to see why people like Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw refuse to give a numerical score to games. It's really, really hard to express a complex personal opinion through something as simple as a single number--which is one reason why sabermetric stats like Player Efficiency Rating still have their detractors. I think it would've been best, in this case, to go the route others here have suggested: One score for offline, the other for online. But then again, I realize that's not how Operation Sports rolls.

If people won't read it, there's nothing I can do. As you pointed out, you can't express something with a single number. People have to read.

(I completely agree about PER by the way.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeGSW


	I don't get why reviewers rag on the servers so much... like they're never going to be sorted? LOL, about a month from now you're all going to have to go back and re-write your reviews. Enjoy the extra work.

I fully intend to revisit the review in the future when the servers are hopefully good. But it's my job to write about the game as it is now — not to write about an imaginary future version of the game that may or may not happen.

# 13 TheLetterZ @ 10/13/14 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swac07


	Ouch............Do I feel online shouldve took that much off the top of the score...Nope...but when you are touting online modes as your main selling point and the servers are poo...its warranted .. Sent from my Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator using Tapatalk

I can understand why it seems like my thought process was, "This game would be a 9 but the servers are bad so I'm going to dock 2 points," but that wasn't actually how I went about it.

I considered how my overall experience of the game was right now and compared it to Operation Sports's scoring scale.

When I did, I found that a 7 nailed it. "A game that is pretty good because it plays well, but that has notable flaws that keep it from being great."

It felt like the perfect summary of the game.

# 14 zrtelford @ 10/13/14 06:34 PM

agree completely. Maybe after a patch or two It would raise (if reviews did that) to an 8-8.5. the presentation glitches are an egregious oversight. How missing overlays and player of the game highlights show up 1 out of three times got through testing baffles me.

# 15 amedawg00 @ 10/13/14 06:36 PM

Thank you for acknowledging the gimped online leagues in 2k15. This review is spot on. For years, reviewers swept 2k's abysmal servers under the rug. This is the price you pay when you want to make your game modes online dependent without the proper infrastructure.

# 16 TheLetterZ @ 10/13/14 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amedawg00


	Thank you for acknowledging the gimped online leagues in 2k15. This review is spot on. For years, reviewers swept 2k's abysmal servers under the rug. This is the price you pay when you want to make your game modes online dependent without the proper infrastructure.

Thanks.

By the way, I find it enjoyably ironic that your avatar is of NBA League Pass Broadband, another service notorious for shoddy network infrastructure.

# 17 Bornindamecca @ 10/13/14 06:41 PM

Great write up. The developers and designers earned an 8.5 or a 9, but the technical staff and the executives who pay for them deserve a 1 for launch week.

# 18 JohnDoe8865 @ 10/13/14 06:42 PM

Excellent review of the game as it currently stands.

# 19 swac07 @ 10/13/14 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheLetterZ


	I can understand why it seems like my thought process was, "This game would be a 9 but the servers are bad so I'm going to dock 2 points," but that wasn't actually how I went about it. I considered how my overall experience of the game was right now and compared it to Operation Sports's scoring scale. When I did, I found that a 7 nailed it. "A game that is pretty good because it plays well, but that has notable flaws that keep it from being great." It felt like the perfect summary of the game.

Oh yeah I understand...im. not mad at the review at all ...hopefully 2k will use this as a wakeup call

Sent from my Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator using Tapatalk

# 20 The 24th Letter @ 10/13/14 06:43 PM

Respect this review....I'm not a online player but it's unacceptable that online is in the condition its in....

Stop connecting modes to servers if the servers aren't up to par...this has been a horrible experience two years in a row for online guys...

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