Best basketball simulation to date

I have never been much of an NCAA basketball kind of guy, so with all of this talk of March Madness lately, I have instead found myself playing a different brand of basketball lately - NBA 2k8. I have long been a fan of this series, and feel that it has been better than its direct competition - NBA Live - since 2005. Like all sports games it seems, this one releases a new iteration every year. Since it was recently dropped in price from sixty dollars to forty dollars, the question then becomes: is this year's version work purchasing?

Graphics: One of the things that people look for from year to year in sports games are improved graphics. When you compare the graphics of a game like Gears of War to say, Folklore, it can sometimes be difficult to do because the games vary so much in nature. However, when the same sports series releases year after year, you have only to look back at the prior year's model to make a good comparison. Overall, I do believe NBA 2k8 has improved in this area. More and more the facial models are becoming convincingly expressive and more easily recognized for their real world counterparts. That said, there are still some players who look like mish mashed zombies, with facial proportions that are completely wrong. The animations look better this year as well, with more convincing dibbling moves and some great shooting techniques that often look like the real person. The arenas look fairly good as well, with reflections and lighting on the shiny hardwood floors looking particularly appealing. There are some animations though, that are just borderline silly. The dunks, while overall appearing fluid and impressive, are sometimes a little bit over the top. Also, some of the collisions seem a bit off at times.

Sounds and music: There is very little music to speak of - mostly during the menu screens. The whistles and bouncing ball sound fine, but the commentary is what you will be exposed to most of the time - and for the most part it is quite good. However, I am a stickler for several things, and lacking a player's name or hearing a glitch (I was using the Pistons, and playing against the Blazers - and the announcer was talking about the great season that the Blazers were having, due in large part to Chauncy Billups' rebounding efforts. Clearly the wrong character name got plugged in for whatever reason) does irritate me from time to time.

Game play: Mostly better than prior years. I admit I sometimes miss having a manual dribble 'moves' button, but the way it is handled now with context sensitive animations is a bit smoother overall. I also find myself using the shot stick in the paint quite a bit. Post play could be better - it seems like characters wind up doing that whole staggering in the pivot thing a little bit too much. Menus are easy to navigate as well. However, sometimes the context dribbling gets a little carried away too. I'll have the ball on the three-point line, hold down turbo, try to crossover the guy in front of me, and for some reason Richard Hamilton will just veer off into a totally different move, and dribble right out of bounds. The new lockdown defender option bugged me early on, but has grown on me over play - though it is a little bit too easy to abuse at times - like when I have Rasheed Wallace playing lockdown perimeter defense on Steve Nash, it does feel a bit cheap.

Intangibles: The franchise mode is actually pretty deep, with a good scouting system, a lottery draft, ways to develop players and control over things like coaching and game plans. The online mode is pretty robust as well - offering a lot of options for people who want to participate in online leagues or just play a quick pickup game. The highlight reel maker is pretty cool too - where you can save segments of game place, and then edit and splice it together with various visual effects, transitions, sound effects and background music. These can then be uploaded to the 2k8 server for others to download, view and rate. The addition of the dunk contest is good as well, though it takes time to perfect.

Overall the game is a lot of fun - but I do not know if there were enough positive changes to buy it if you own last year's. I do not own it (though I played it extensively when borrowing it from a friend last year), and am a huge fan of the NBA and have already taken a couple of teams several season in. Is it perfect? Hardly - but it is better than its competition in my opinion. There are a whole slew of things I would like to see added in the future - an expanded All-Star weekend (including skills competition, the dunk contest, 3 point shootout, rookie/sophomore game, etc). There are some things in-game I would like to see more of too - really rare highlight plays that are incredibly special, like a pass dunk off of the backboard like once every two or three seasons for a true superstar, more collision animations where a player goes hitting the floor and sliding, more tip-ins and tip dunks (in at least 300 games I've seen those happen maybe twice each) - things like that. Still, for NBA fans, I think the price is hard to beat and I would score the game 4 out of 5 stars