NBA 2K16 Player Models' Skin-Color Mismatch - renome's Blog

renome's Blog

NBA 2K16 Player Models' Skin-Color Mismatch

Posted on October 12, 2015 at 07:31 AM.

What's up OS Fam?! Been an avid NBA 2K enthusiast since 2K2, and I'm definitely stoked about this year's edition of the game (I'm on PS4). I truly believe it is worth all the acclaim, even of being hailed as one of the best sports titles ever (even if, admittedly, people are still in the "honeymoon" phase with this game). Everything has made a leap --- gameplay-, presentation-, graphics-wise, etc. and is no doubt the standard-bearer for basketball (and sports) games, moving forward...

I am, however, like most people in this thread, a stickler for details. Most points of contention, with gameplay (i.e. fastbreak defense, Pro-Am problems, etc.) or other more cosmetic issues (editing availability of shoes, headband editing, etc.) have been discussed and on the way to being remedied in one way or another, but i have noticed what to me is a glaring issue: Player Models skin-color mismatch. What i mean is, the player's head skin color does not match the skin-color of his entire body.

Notable players that have this issue: Jimmy Butler, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Mario Chalmers, MWP, even Kevin Durant and Melo, to name a few... the color mismatch seems to be worse for darker-skin-colored players, as the contrast is very evident (and more distracting) with much darker faces than arms/torso/legs. It's a cosmetic issue, maybe even shallow to the eyes of others given how great the game is, but, i feel it's problematic nevertheless. I can live with players not being properly equipped with headbands, correct accessories, etc. but it's a more serious issue, especially with how they've sold us to the fact that they've thoroughly used body scanning for 2K16, that there'd be this color-mismatch issue for a number of players (some, even recognizable superstars).

I most definitely salute the whole 2K team for the huge leaps in improvement they've made/make every year, and, with regard to player models/body types, i think 2k16>2K15 and 2K14. I was just friggin' distracted by this specific art/graphical blunder. 2K16 is the new standard-bearer for sports-sim immersion --- and, at least from a visual POV, this color-mismatch issue takes away some from said immersion, at least for me.

Peace, OS