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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

# 61 Walt Frazier @ 10/14/14 06:08 AM

So far...

The official roster won't load most times for me.

My Player has "swapped" face / name / etc and the one I created is gone.

I can't access The Park at all...

And there's some major AI flaws that everyone will work out once they play more than a few games...

7 is fair.

Patch the AI and it's an 8.5.

Fix online and it's a 9.5.

2K seems incapable of NOT releasing a bugged product though, so it is doubtful things will be fixed. First time in ages I am genuinely about to switch games. I hope it's sorted out soon.

# 62 DBMcGee3 @ 10/14/14 08:45 AM

Does anyone actually watch the shot meter when they are shooting? I like seeing it afterwards, as a definitive source of feedback, but I can't imagine trying to use it when actually pulling up for a shot.

# 63 Pirate @ 10/14/14 09:23 AM

I'm a member of the offline crowd. And while the modes and features I love the most work fine once sliders and tweaks are implemented, I do believe a game should be judged by its entire package.

This game is a failure for those who singularly enjoy online experiences. So many of the promoted features also are online. I do not like false advertisement.

That being said, the game of basketball represented in this game is quite excellent with tweaks to the sliders. And the remote play feature with the Vita and PS4 is spectacular. No lag and great controls.

# 64 tariqmma @ 10/14/14 09:27 AM

This is pure BS the great gameplay alone should make it a 8.

# 65 GisherJohn24 @ 10/14/14 09:29 AM

For me, the score is of and I think peole that review the game should separate the online functionality from the game itself with separate scoresf, for the reason I don't do much of the onilne stuff. I do my GM, and play offline exhibitions with friends and CPU. I'm sure there are guys out there who don't go onilne and never want to go onilne. I'm easy like that though. That said, this is the best sports game I have ever played in my life. But I do feel sorry for hte people who want to do the online stuff and have it work.

For me, 9.7 Gameplay on the court and Offline.
Online obviously: No comment

# 66 reptilexcq @ 10/14/14 10:02 AM

I think the score justified the game experience. I am a huge online player...in fact, it's all I play. It's a HUGE reason why i bought the game. Every single time i try a ranked online...i get either ridiculous input lag render unplayable or disconnection. I get so many disconnection that my overall online records are distorted. Every time you get disconnected, you get a loss. The funny thing is that on Sunday, i was able to get in multiple consecutive games without much lag at all. Those are fun games and that gives me hope that the server can be like this forever. But the next day guess what? It was absolutely laggy and unplayable again (in EVERY SINGLE game). Not only that, the settings online were screwed up like automatic sub and things that I never intended to be.

Oh and about the Sunday lag free game...it's weird, even though it was pretty much lag free, i was never able to finish the entire game...at some point, it disconnected you. And if you get the absolutely laggy games, the game never disconnect you and let you play the entire game. That was lame. 2K need to seriously invest in or rethink over their online infrastructure. It's getting horrible review due to online. They said they put two of their top engineers to handle the online problems...but it doesn't seem to work. The prloblem might not even be the server, but the client side. They design the game to have everything connected online such as things popping up telling you the next game Oct 31...ect....and that probably cause a lot of slow down ...and maybe that's why they're trying to disable the overlay stats to see it that help. But they should have tested this internally before releasing the game. Last year, they released an unfinished buggy product and I KNOW IT by playing it. This year, it's almost the same.

# 67 tsbmolina @ 10/14/14 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheLetterZ


	I completely understand your perspective and I want to point out that no score on its own — either good, bad, or somewhere in between — can possibly describe the game accurately to everyone. It's why the review is written. Of people who look at the score and don't read the review, roughly half were destined to be unhappy. With the 7 score, some people will assume I'm suggesting the game plays a bad game of basketball, when the actual review clearly suggests nothing could be farther from the truth. Had I scored the game a 9, a different group of people would have seen the score, assumed the game is excellent all-around, and bought the game only to discover large portions of the game they want to play simply don't work. Again, people need to read the review to actually understand what's going on. I'm aware some people won't. It's their loss. In writing the review, I understood and accepted this scenario would be the case.

But a 7, really?! A 7? Not even a 7.5 but a 7, Really? In my book this game is a 9.5. The most fun I have ever had playing a NBA game.

# 68 VDusen04 @ 10/14/14 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedream2k13


	Man this forum has a lot of "I only play offline "people..there is no need to type his to respond to a game review. All games are graded on the total product so NO there shouldnt be 2 separate grades Lol. If half the game is in shambles then the scored should be lowered bottom line. Its like eveyone here don't subscribe to Xbox live or psn. But if offline modes need a major patch you would quickly be dependent on 2k servers like the majority of people that play the game and be in a uproar like the millions of people that enjoy human online interaction

I do not believe offline gamers are attempting to suggest online does not matter - they just seem to be saying their playing tendencies haven't been as negatively affected as those who play online, thus the game is likely playing much higher than a 7 to them at this point.

I do not play online, but I like online availability for such things as 2KShare and patch updates. Moreover, even if the offline aspect were perfect, I maintain that it would only make sense that a game be judged in its entirety during a broad review (online and offline), as opposed to offering separate scores. The rating makes sense to me, particularly if one reads the actual written review.

I believe you were mistaking offline folks saying, "The offline product is good" for them saying "Who cares about online?"

# 69 BMDinTDOT @ 10/14/14 11:49 AM

Good review...But I don't like the game play that much I would give this game a 5/10

# 70 GisherJohn24 @ 10/14/14 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMDinTDOT


	Good review...But I don't like the game play that much I would give this game a 5/10

No way. Game on the court is nearly perfect

# 71 onyx030 @ 10/14/14 01:05 PM

#breaktheinternet

# 72 GisherJohn24 @ 10/14/14 01:29 PM

So did 2k lie about getting experts to fix the server issues?

# 73 onyx030 @ 10/14/14 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GisherJohn24


	So did 2k lie about getting experts to fix the server issues?

No, Companies always look out for your best and never put the truth in a deceiving manner

Especially if it's only a matter of a couple dozen millions of profit.

# 74 Pizarro24 @ 10/14/14 01:51 PM

I´m one of those who thinks 7.0 is way too low.
I never play online, so I don´t care for servers (except of downloading rosters, which works fine). But I do understand that others are dissapointed.

But 7.0 is still too law.
In the end, this is a basketball game and the most important thing is on-court. And 2K15 is by far the best basketball ever made and it´s not even close.
And beside that, we have one of the best modes ever in a sports game with MyLeague and one of the best features ever with Injury 2.0.
So even with the online problems I give this game a 8.0 at the lowest.

But that´s just my opinion.

# 75 RipCityAndy @ 10/14/14 02:29 PM

"When I was in college, I had a friend with whom I had a lot of fun, memorable times. But he had a terrible flaw — he did a notoriously awful job answering and returning text messages and phone calls. When we hung out, it was great. But I often felt a lot of disappointment and frustration when we were apart because he made it so hard to get together. In the end, I could either just enjoy it when we did hang out, or drop the friendship."

Wow... you hit the nail right on the head. That was a perfect metaphor.

The only thing that bugs me about this review is that I feel like reviewers have just accepted as fact that NBA 2k15 has great gameplay. The plays and freelance offense notwithstanding, It really doesn't. I wish there would be some honest, objective critiques of things like floaty and slow passing, awkward player movement, broken screens, shallow post play, lame pick and roll minigame, unrealistic animations, etc. I feel like there are some serious flaws in these areas that aren't being addressed OR EVEN MENTIONED. Other than saying the offensive rebounding is a little favored (severe understatement - I'm averaging 8 per game in MyCareer with a level 2 rebounding skill) there was no critique of flawed gameplay.

Also, please enlighten me as I didn't play 2k14 - how exactly is the VC different this year? It sure feels like 2k13 to me...

# 76 jeebs9 @ 10/14/14 02:37 PM

I think this is a great review! Too many times I've seen reviews that go the other way. And say they won't rate the online use because it's not working. That's should never be the case. Could you imagine having a restaurant and telling a food reviewer that "we actually don't have that and that and this" on the menu for tonight haha...

# 77 labelmeoriginal @ 10/14/14 03:06 PM

Spot on.

I'm mainly an online gamer and this game has been absolutely abysmal during the first week of release. You CAN play online right now, but the input lag is so bad it makes the game flat out frustrating. Even the announcers are delayed a few seconds. 2K14's server issues were never this horrendous. I don't get it. How did they take a step back from last year? It's like they decided online play wasn't going to be a priority this year. The lack of a decent online league option was one thing... but now MyTeam, Quick Match Online, Online Team Up and MyPark are all unplayable due to server stability and, as mentioned before, input lag.

I'm a sucker for 2K's basketball game, but if Live shows any signs of promise, I'm jumping ship.

# 78 xman2k @ 10/15/14 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finepanther


	If only 2K was half as good at making a solid online experience as they are at promoting their game they'd be getting 10's all over the place. The game literally has the same problems two years in a row with no solution in sight. Wish I could say I'm not falling for it next year but I probably will. There's an opportunity her for EA, hopefully they won't screw it up. Again.

All this EA nonsense. They have football/hockey to themselves and can't even get that right. Why would anyone anticipate anything revolutionary from them, just dont get it.

# 79 Bowinkle08 @ 10/16/14 12:24 AM

im experiencing that input button lag and with all the animations it feels like i have no control of my player

# 80 GisherJohn24 @ 10/16/14 10:15 AM

Some tvs will let you choose settings like GAME, movie and standard. Sometimes if you change those that can affect your lag too. FOR sure it did mine. Some tvs depending on your screen display settings have more lag than other tvs. For months I noticed this on other games and I went deep into picture settings and it fixed my problem of lag. Had to do with something call motion. It makes movies in motion look better and looked like recordings from a cam corder. Samsung tv fyi

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