NBA 2K7

9.0
Excellent

Gameplay	9.0	"The best basketball game ever made. That simple."
Graphics	8.0
Sound	9.0
Value	10

By Alan Bell

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When EA tied up a bunch of sports licenses a few years back, there was a bit of a ruckus. The lack of a 2K Sports version of football was a gap in the market that was sorely felt by people who liked their football served up in a way that differed from EA's 20+ year old franchise. Skip forward a couple of years - 2K Sports have turned the tide on EA a little bit, locking down the licenses for several key sporting franchises in the USA - amongst them, the NBA (basketball) license.

While that may seem a blow for the little guy, one up for the other team, it amounts to basically the same thing - basketball fans don't have any choice. If they want the latest basketball game, this is it. There is no alternative. That doesn't mean the game is bad, it just means that you'll either like it or you'll have to lump it. Let's take a look so we can figure out which of those options 2K Sports are serving up this year...

Sports games are a funny breed - unlike other genres, say first person shooters or platform games, their goal is the same as it's always been: to deliver the most realistic videogame version of a real life sport that the current technology can allow. For this reason, most developers approach this task by taking a long view of their development; sure, they'll release a version of the game this year but they'll also keep working on it, knowing they'll release it again next year. And the next.

The net effect of this kind of development is that each year the game is iteratively improved with evolutionary changes, rarely changing in any significant way. The longer the title has been around (like, say, Madden), the harder it is to spot the changes between versions each year. Sure, there's a nice graphics boost when the new console generations come around, but in general the rosters are the most significant difference. That's... pretty much the case here. But don't stop reading!

This is the first version of 2K Sports NBA franchise for the PlayStation 3 (it was actually a launch title in the US, back in November '06!); so, as a result, you should definitely expect an overhaul of the visuals. NBA 2K7 doesn't disappoint…mostly. If you check out a screenshot of this baby in action, you'll be impressed. It's when they move that things fall down a little bit. Don't get me wrong, this is impressive stuff. However, NBA 2K7 suffers from what's known as the uncanny valley (check out that Wikipedia link for the full explanation).

In brief, what that means is that, as computer simulations of people become more and more lifelike, the brain stops saying "wow those computer people look great!" and starts thinking "oh my god, what the hell is wrong with that real person!". Your brain starts noticing little inaccuracies that have always been there, you've just not spotted them behind the obviously fake representations that were there before. So yeah, it looks so good that it looks kinda fake. How's that for a catch-22?

The basketball stuff is what the real sports gamer is interested in - not the shiny, flashy stuff that's between you and it. Well there's no uncanny valley here - 2K7 delivers the goods. This is a seriously solid game. In addition to playing a well balanced, free flowing game, the addition of the SIXAXIS motion controls is inspired. Taking a free throw, for example, is done by pulling the controller towards you and then thrusting it forward (appropriately for the player) - the way this feels is hard to describe in words, but man oh man does it feel sweet!

There's also every mode you could ever imagine, including multiple "street" modes (1-on-1, half-court and loads more), tournament modes (recreate the NBL and take the Waikato Pistons to the top!) and even multiple season modes. There are so many modes, in fact, that I doubt you'll ever play more than HALF of them. You can even tweak the gameplay engine (adjusting every nuance of gameplay) to play exactly the way you want it to.

So okay, we have awesome graphics (with some caveats), craploads of modes and killer gameplay (including brand new motion controls). Should you buy it? If you like basketball and you've got a PS3, it's a resounding YES from the crew at NZG. This is, quite simply, the very best basketball game of all time (yep, we know it's a bold claim). Sure it's not perfect, but it's the closest thing to that lofty goal yet. When you play this you won't care that it's the only basketball game available. Why would you want any other?

We can't wait to see what 2K Sports shoots us next year as we're expecting a slam dunk! (Hey, you didn't think you were getting out of this without at least one bad joke did ya?)

NZGamer.com - NBA 2K7 Facebook