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

[Matty Aqua]

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

[atomant94]

With NBA 2K14 have better reviews than NBA 2K15, (which has a better gameplay experience) I hope this serves as a wake up call for the folks at 2K.

[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.

...

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...

[TheLetterZ]

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.

[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 ..Great Review

Sent from my Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator using Tapatalk

[Trackball]

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.

[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.

[TheLetterZ]

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.