
Last year it was a race, and the big guys always lost. You can't just spam the close defend button either - it's more about knowing what your opponent is trying to do and being there to prevent it. That element was unbalanced and tuned improperly, but thankfully it's been resolved with a smarter strength versus speed relationship that allows you to body these smaller players now should you have the more towering defender in place. Those who played 2K18 will recall the way defending quick and speedy players often ended in those defenders looking foolish. Pre-game intros and commentary are often hilarious, the in-game color commentary and play-by-play is the best in the overarching umbrella of sports games, and players move better than ever thanks to some detailed adjustments that tend to last year's trouble spots. While other series such as Madden seem to toy with finding a good way to present the game every year, NBA 2K mastered the at-home TV broadcast of the sport years ago and has just made it look prettier with each passing year. On its surface, that's probably worth buying into alone for anyone who likes the NBA.Īnnual players may be spoiled by now to see the remarkable level of detail that goes into making each player look exactly like his real-life counterpart, and the broadcast presentation is simply unrivaled in the sports gaming world. No one in the business, not EA's NBA Live, nor FIFA, nor even 2K Sports' own WWE series, rise to the level of actually simulating the sport at the forefront of the experience better than Visual Concepts does with basketball. In the case of NBA 2K19, both groups can really be spoken to at once.


Like all sports games of this type, a review really addresses two main crowds: those that tend to buy it annually anyway and want to know what's new, and those who maybe are on the fence about getting into (or back into) the series.
