Stephen Hawking thinks AI is going to spell the end of mankind in the far future, apparently, but rest assured ladies and gentlemen. Play 150+ hours of this game and you'll learn that if IN THE YEAR 2014-15, BASKETBALL SIMULATOR VIDEO GAME AI IS INCAPABLE OF REPLICATING NORMAL BLOODY FLOOR SPACING IN A BASKETBALL SIMULATOR VIDEO GAME, THEN WE HAVE A VERY LONG TIME BEFORE THE END OF HUMANITY IS UPON US, MR.HAWKING. MY CAT COULD UNDERSTAND FLOOR SPACING BETTER THAN THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THIS GAME.
Summary of the gameplay in NBA 2K15: Opening Tip - Win every time because the AI is incapable of timing its jump.
First possession - Try to pass to open 3 point shooter, 3 point shooter AI ignores common-sense, runs into middle of the key where there are 3 other players. Pass gets aimed into cluster of players. Turnover.
Opposition Possession - You play good defense, you don't allow any easy scores. The AI holds the ball until the shot clock runs down to 4 seconds, then isolates their best player. Despite having a hand in the AI's face and terrible shot selection, the opposition will somehow make a 3 pointer as the shot clock expires.
2nd Possession - You move the ball around, avoiding the cheese as much as possible. Open 3 point shot to tie the game off a good screen, Steph Curry shooting. Despite the open shot for an excellent shooter, your shot will clank off the back rim and fall directly into the hands of your center. You fake a shot, try to get the defender up, and your center, I.E. LaMarcus Aldridge, an all-star and one of the best players at his position, will miss a wide-open layup.
Opposition Possession - You'll play excellent on-ball defense, but your AI defender will stand in one position and allow their player to get an open layup/dunk. If your center rotates, it will be completely pointless, because every time your center contests a shot, there's either a foul or a ridiculous contested layup make.
3rd Possession - By this point you're fustrated that you're down 4-0 despite doing nothing wrong. You pass to your power forward who has a ridiculous bumped up post-fadeaway rating, and exploit the overpowered post-offense system in the game. Congrats, you just cheesed your way to your first bucket.
Opposition Possession - Opposition finally misses a shot! It's too bad your center doesn't know how to box out; offensive rebound for them, 6-2. By now you're so angry that you can't be bothering risking getting cheesed again, so for the rest of the game you just use your best post player and best 3 point shooter and throw up shots 5-6 seconds into the shot clock all game.
Now rinse and repeat for 150 hours, pay $50 for VC so you can buy some over-priced and usually useless packs for your MyTeam. If you're lucky, you'll get David Lee or maybe, just maybe, Anthony Davis, who despite being a current top 3 NBA player, is incapable of making an open layup in this game.
I wish I could say it gets better when you play online, and in many ways, it does get better; the AI becomes a lesser factor for starters. However, everyone you play will be a 2K cheeser. I'm not exaggerating, literally everyone I've played is a cheeser. They will exploit the zig-zag 3 pointers, they will abuse the post, they will try to take charges at every chance they get (especially when you're dribbling up the court), every shot will fall their way and every shot you take will clank off the rim, wide open or not. Especially with Kobe, apparently he shoots 25% on any jump shot in this game. You'll get about 70% of your points on the fast break; in this game, alley-oops are a higher percentage shot than open 3-pointers. You get given a choice around half-time; stick to your principals and keep playing a clean game on your half, and lose by 25 points or more. Or, you could stoop to their level, and cheese them back, exploiting their own techniques. and maybe have a small chance of winning.
MyGM is a brilliant game mode and is actually realistic; too bad you can buy your way to winning regardless. EDIT - Also in MyGM, terrible players will demand trades because they're coming off the bench. I had SHANE LARKIN demand I trade him because I wasn't starting him over 91 overall Dante Exum. WHEN WOULD THAT EVER HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE? Joel Embiid demanded a trade because he "wasn't happy with his usage rate" even though I was giving him 33 minutes a game and he was averaging 27ppg. Every starter was unhappy with their usage rate, every bench player is unhappy with their minutes and "organisational role". Extremely unrealistic in that regard.
AND MYCAREER. If you don't start yourself off with $20-$50 of VC, you are in for a hell of a grind my friend. I'm talking 3 minutes a game, 100 VC a match struggle here, and upgrades aren't cheap either; usually around 2000 VC for a single upgrade. They took away a lot of the customization this year and restricted player overalls extremely, allowing only 1 upgrade per 7 games played once you hit the upgrade cap. Which is somewhat good for MyPark; but it's not like that even matters anyway because everyone on mypark just uses 7 foot small forwards with maxed out athleticism, so they have massive height advantage and the same speed as a 6'1 point guard (seriously, what the hell 2K?). Your teammates won't take open shots. I once got benched for about 15 games for literally no reason while averaging 37ppg, 12asp and 7rpg (Because I brought my way there, like a complete knob jockey). For some reason your assistant coach follows you to any team you go to, as well. In my 7th season, I still get called "Rookie" and every contract season is the exact same. It's literally like they expect you to rage quit after 10 games.
But all above all, the gameplay is worth playing, and is why you put up with this dog poop. It's actually a fun game under all the glaringly obvious flaws and easily the most realistic basketball simulator I've ever played. Lot's of fun playing with friends (but I guarantee all your friends are on console, correct)?
Don't expect anything to get fixed either. 2K won't listen to a damn thing you say, because they know there isn't any realistic competition on the basketball game market. Despite this, customers actually consider buying NBA Live, a god-awful piece of utter f**k-sauce, because this game is so fustrating. Yes, 2K, you treat your customers so poorly that they would consider buying a game made by EA over your overpriced garbage. Hell, if NBA Live was on PC, I'd take it into consideration if they made a half decent game. The 2K producers are decent enough people. People like Ronnie 2K, LD2K, all interact with the community, release fairly generous locker codes, listen to what they have to say; thus why it fustrates me so much that they don't fix the frustrating bugs and cheesy animations. I'm certainly not one to whinge and moan about a game like this. I've played plenty of buggy, unplayable, sometimes just flat out terrible games, but when I pay $89 USD for a game (Roughly $110 Australian), I expect better; and this game has so much potential to be an enjoyable experience, it's just the little things that are holding it back from reviews like this one.
9/10, I'm probably going to buy 2K16 and go through the exact same ♥♥♥♥ again.
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