NBA 2K12: Your Final Verdict

[Andrew]

Now that NBA 2K12 has been out for over six months, received a few updates, been patched by the community and played fairly extensively...what's your final verdict? Do you agree with the high metacritic scores, the 9.5 and 10 out of 10s, and other very positive reviews and impressions?

If I had to give the game a score today, I'd still say it's a solid 8.5-9 out of 10. It's deep in terms of modes and features, it plays a good game of NBA basketball, a lot of attention was paid to replicating TV style presentation...it's a very good basketball game. However, too many bugs and issues were carried over from NBA 2K11 (some of which were addressed by the patch, but really shouldn't have been there in the first place), new features had bugs that shouldn't have made it through QA, gameplay and AI isn't absolutely perfect and the online features leave much to be desired. It remains a quality release with a lot of positives, but perfect and near-perfect scores are a bit too much.

[The_Pharoah]

I'd give it a 9.5 - I've been hooked on MyPlayer since it came out. Esp love the mods you get from here which give it increased playability (including updated players, etc).

[MJALLDAY]

It took a while but I slowly warmed up to it, now I like it better than 2k11(which I loved) It's not perfect but it's close.

[JaoSming]

I'm giving it a 7/10, cause the player speed glitch ruins my crappy player mods and usefulness of Rondo, the association issues are a pain even if they are minor, the online is for PC, and My Player is too easy compared to the D-League of 2k10 and 2k11.

That said, it is the most customizable 2K game we've had on PC (even though the customization parts for 2k12 now also work on 2K11 as well).

I'm just having issues having fun with the game, having more fun researching and modding than playing, so like Live 07....

[JWL3]

They've been covered ad nauseum, I'm sure - broken online play, ridiculous coverage (recovering on D) speed of players, but the biggest problem for me is the ridiculous amount of steals in this game. Seriously, they had it about right in 2k10.

Try running a 2 on 1 fast break in the drills. Go ahead, I'll wait. Do it 10x. How many times was the ball stolen? It is absurd. In the NBA, a 2 on 1 fast break is almost a 90% play. They either get fouled or get a layup/dunk. In 2k12, you'll be lucky if you score 2x out of 10, and even then, on a nasty collision animation move. Part of the fun of an nba video game is the fast break. You don't want this to turn into NBA Jam, but to remove it from the game is nuts.

There's really no point in passing if every time it gets stolen. In 2k11, I was able to rotate the ball from corner to corner while the D looked foolish recovering. Here, the CPU steals the ball. What's the point of passing if players move as fast as the ball? (but that's another topic). Guys hands in the NBA are normal sized. You can pass a ball close to a player's body and chances are, it'll still go through. In 2k12, the body has an impenetrable wall (at least 3 ft radius all around him) where, if you pass the ball, it is guaranteed to get stolen.

Ok, I'm going to end my rage post now and return to my game.

[Lamrock]

9/10. Obviously the game isn't great out of the box due to the lockout but with the vast amount of customization we've gotten over the years (editing rosters, draft classes, etc), the game is pretty impressive.

[vevima]

I hated it up until March or so. Got use to it, which proceeded into me becoming good at it. I hate the My Player, and Association needs an update pretty badly. I found the online much better too.

Meh, not as good as 2K11, but good enough. 7/10.

[chicagoRAW]

Many little gameplay issues, one is when a player has a clear path to the hoop and he ends up doing some up and under or some unnecessary move and sometimes gets blocked, player movement needs to be more fluid, sometimes especially on fast breaks the man in front of the break catches the ball and stops for a split second. In the paint is frustrating at times with weird layup misses and frequent blocks.

Only being able to send down 2 players in association is kinda of annoying, wish you could send down 3 or more.
Created/Generic players are ugly, have terrible textures and are just plain outdated. Nothing worse than seeing the CPU generated rookies that look and weird, makes me not even want to go beyond year 1 of association.

They have TNT broadcasters but no TNT integration, instead have that crappy 2k scoreboard. How hard is it to complete the TNT integration? Add Reggie Miller, get rid of Clark Kelog already.

Improve Updates even more. Ok, it was a great start with having updates to courts/stadiums/commentary/shoes,etc, and now how about update players too. Tired of guys like Courtney Fortson or Alan Anderson or others that weren't on the Original roster/group of players that get called up to the NBA then all you get is some stupid 2k generated face guy. I bet it would take no longer than an hour to make a guys cf especially since the default 2k cf's look like amateur work in the first place.

Fix Pc colors. How much does 2k hate the pc version of this game when they release teams with pink colors instead of red like the bulls.

Would be nice if DLC was available for PC version as well. Along with more than 1 update that is released 4 months after the game comes out. If they are sooo busy with the game thinking of stupid announcements like all-star weekend game modes, It would literally take 1 guy devoted to the PC version that could implement and address all the PC issues. We have tons of people that spend a lot of time with this game on this forum, I'm sure 2k could find someone too.

AND FIX FK'N ONLINE ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overall 7.9/10. Game is still great and it's the best BBall game to date, and now 2k is at the top. But the honey moon period is over, now it's time to go next level with GAME ISSUES not game modes/extra crap like all star weekend or jordan challenge (Jordan challenge is great but it just deflects from the bigger issues).

[kevin02]

7/10

Good:

-Deep game modes and features
-Great Presentation
-Realistic Basketball

Bad:

-Many bugs and glitches
-Online has much room for improvement
-Gameplay issues (too many steals, player speed, ect)

[Jack Bauer GB]

Finally got around to buying my copy a couple of weeks ago. Love it. I don't play it online, mostly my player and association.

The my player is better. More varied and i like the fact you only play key games , I don't have the time to play 82 games a season like I did last year for 3 and a bit seasons! I like the fact you can do more things to boost your attributes. I also like the abilities addition, the chance to make your player more proficient in specialised areas is a good thing.

I'm finding it harder to dunk and suss out the new controls, I think they make more sense but wurst take some getting used to.

Luckily I got mine cheap as its been out a while too. Despite its bugs (which tbh I'm yet to notice) I think it's well worth it's full value. And better than NBA live 12.... Oh... Wait....

[Taekmkm]

Absolutely hate the AI trading for MyPlayer, I almost never have the same starting roster by the end of the season.

The free agent bug where they disappear if you sign them during the regular season was annoying as hell.

Making Shoot Off Dribble a hidden stat is dumb. Making Shot Post non-changable in association is also dumb.

The crashes, especially after the 1st and 3rd quarter, are unforgivable.

I feel the AI is far more stupid, especially when it's your teammates defending perimeter players and you don't have Pressure Shooter as an option for MyPlayer.

Some stats were worthless (Speed).

I wish Association simulation would actually take Height into account. A 5'3 Tyrus Thomas should not average near 10 rebounds and 16 points on over 50% shooting. Neither should every single other teammate that's also 5'3.

My rating would basically be 2k11>2k12. I feel they stepped backwards a lot overall to make the product more of a hassle than fun.