Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Overrated"

NBA 2K13 is the exact same game as it has been for years. The controls are still ridiculously clunky. Simply holding left, trying to get from Point A to Point B which is about 3 feet away will generally have your guy during 8 combinations of moves. He'll shuffle, backpedal, dance with a defender, juke and still be in the same spot he started.

Whoever decided that spam mail was an awesome feature (started in Fight Night) should be shot. Every game, you are riddled with generic messages from generic people. "Hey man, I like how you scored points for our team!" This adds nothing to the game. And who criticizes Centers for having low assists?

The music. Dear God, the music. I've made fun of music in sports games before but this is a whole new level. The soundtrack includes a track with a lady singing one long opera note. Another "song" sounds like chainsaws cutting sheet metal. And the only songs they got that were "good" were from the 90's and were so edited that half the song was silent. It was like listening to 2pac's Hit Em Up on the radio.

One game, my player shot 1 for 11... 9% from directly under the basket, mostly uncontested. This game is god awful and I wish they'd stop pretending it was special. I spend most the game spamming the Skip button and wondering why I still have to watch the ref chase down the ball, run it all the way back, and slowly hand it over to be inbounded. One time, I blocked the other player from getting the ball to be inbounded and ran about 4 minutes off the clock.

My Player character apparently just awoke from major brain surgery, because he acts as those he's never walked before. He frequently drops passes and knocks uncontested rebounds out of his own hands. How did someone who has never handled a basketball before make it to the NBA? Just running back down court is like running through mud. He'll backpedal and shuffle for half the court unless you waste turbo to force him to turn around. And if he comes within five feet of anyone, he runs over and rubs his chest on theirs for a 3 second animation.

Double Dribble for NES had better physics than this. Yes, you improved the graphics, but does that mean that you had to sacrifice collision detection and basic movement ability?

I'm a 7'1'' 240 pound Center who has trouble drinking Gatorade without dropping the cup, let alone looking natural getting rebounds. And my coach prefers I play Small Forward, as my natural speed and grace are apparent by my 15 second full court sprint.

Your team doesn't/can't run plays if you're not PG, the instant replay option is only available about 10% of the time, sometimes the game score display will simply disappear, and if you want to make a new My Player, you have to use the same name and face. If you're on offense without the ball, prepare to get magnetically sucked from defender to defender, unable to even run the opposite direction.

And jumping for the rebound either: jumps straight up in the air, nowhere near the ball, jumps to get the ball but pulls your hands back like the ball is hot lava, jump randomly out to the side and hold your hand out like you're checking for rain, tip the ball straight up even though no one else was around you, or on rare occasion, actually rebound.

Moving screens are legal, the coach will take you out for no reason when you're on a hot streak with full stamina, full court press is like kryptonite (player will either run out of bounds or refuse to pass it and get violation), and you still have to use icon pass every time or risk throwing it to the popcorn vendor.

Finally, the sponsorship promotion is just blatant and offensive. It speaks volumes about the quality of a game that needs to plaster Sprint logos on every possible surface in order to fund its release.