| 05 August 2009
But with writing for three blogs while trying to juggle a full-time job, a girlfriend (take THAT rumors!), and whatever social life I can piece together, my time for vegetating in front of pixels and animations as dwindled considerably over the past two years. I've had to make the decision to boot the Madden series (it's gotten to the point where I feel like a rookie trying to learn an NFL playbook while not being able to properly adjust to the speed of the game. It was one thing in '98 when I could waltz Barry Sanders all over the field until I hit pay dirt but now I have to try not to piss myself as Jared Allen hits me like a freight train because I couldn't decide whether Arnaz Battle was open or not.). I've also decided that until the baseball games become more fun than frustrating, I just can't spend the time. But there's always the NBA 2K series. And that's where my money is still guaranteed to go every year.
With basketball video games, NBA 2K has trumped EA Sports in quality every year since they burst onto the Sega Dreamcast stage. And that's not necessarily a knock against the NBA Live series that EA Sports puts out every year. Some have been awful and some have been valiant efforts. But comparing NBA 2K with NBA Live is like comparing Michael Jordan to Isaiah Rider. Live is going to occasionally give you some flash and flare but Jordan is going to bring it every time and be the best every time. The NBA 2K series is a staple at the Talkhoops.net Head Quarters after every podcast and has sparked some epic battles and trash talking. You'd be hard-pressed to find two more aggressive and effective players on the virtual hardwood than myself and Andy Eisner (our soon-to-be resident cynic).
So in preparing for the NBA 2K game every year, you essentially hope that you're not getting just a roster update. You hope to be getting a new wrinkle to the overall basketball gaming experience to take your enjoyment to the next level. And for the tenth straight year, that's exactly what 2K Sports seems to be giving their consumers.
The NBA 2K10 Draft Combine downloadable feature is one of the newest additions to the 2K series and it looks to be right up everybody's alley. It allows you to create a player before NBA 2K10 comes out, take that player through the draft combine process and then upload them to NBA 2K10. In the game, you'll be able to do what MLB: The Show and NCAA Football have done with career modes.
Some of the features include:
- Building custom players by working with a mentor, the 2K Insider, and increasing their NBA stock through a variety of challenging basketball drills and 5-on-5 games.
- Over 300 different signature customizations, including player-specific shooting animations, dunk and dribble packages and more to allow each created player to have his own unique personal style.
- Ability to strengthen all parts of the created player's game with a variety of drills, such as shooting, post offense and defense, attacking the basket, dribbling, challenging shots, boxing out for rebounds and more to progress through the NBA Draft Combine.
- Organized games that will allow players to gain valuable skill points and offer a variety of specific in-game objectives that will need to be accomplished in order to gain them. At the end of each game, a full analysis will be available for gamers to review their player's performance and strategize their further improvement.
- All players created in NBA 2K10: Draft Combine will wear a special patch on their uniform throughout the rest of that player's career to denote that they have completed the NBA Draft Combine.
- Online leaderboards to track the highest ranking custom built players, and where a player stacks up against the competition.
- Opportunity to unlock special achievements on Xbox 360 and trophies for PLAYSTATION 3 system.
- Fans can take their custom built players from NBA 2K10: Draft Combine and use them in the all-new My Player career mode in NBA 2K10 launching this fall, allowing them to continue their journey of becoming an NBA legend.
NBA 2K's big edition last season seemed to be new footing
and movement systems with new animations to go along with the best NBA
franchise mode on the consoles. It gave you more realism with contract
negotiations while adhering to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Now,
they're taking it to the next level by adding more elements to the draft
process to make everything much more realistic.
Personally, I can't wait to get my hands on this new feature and dive into the
game when it comes out next month. We'll be reviewing the game with a couple of feature articles on the site. And you'll be able to challenge those of us
from the Talkhoops HQ on Xbox Live. Just find zharper0 on the network and be
prepared for chaos.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
