Here's a quarter of basketball from Path to Greatness, in which LeBron faces a resurgent Allen Iverson. Like I said, I'm pretty bad. But AI just seems super-powered in this mode, which is kind of hard to choke down.

Advertisement

Online, I did not yet see much of what the game will offer (the game releases Oct. 1, and servers came on only over the weekend) but for those who enjoyed running ball virtually, Crews—teams of individually controlled MyCareer players—will return this year. They'd gone missing after NBA 2K11 as the series overhauled its servers and got the mode to play nice with them. MyTeam, the ultimate-team mode introduced last year, has tournaments added to the menu of play-now options.

I realize that some of the things I've said about NBA 2K14 here were said about Madden NFL 25 a month ago, earning that game a No in my review. The difference is NBA 2K14 doesn't have issues that I'm hoping will be corrected with a next-generation release. It also doesn't fail to deliver on promises made year-in and year-out. A next-gen NBA 2K14 should be a better game, and should definitely be distinct from the series, but the game that is available now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC doesn't grate you with underdeveloped commentary, unpolished presentation or teammate AI that frequently thwarts your intentions. If NBA 2K14 didn't extend itself much from the past year, well, the past year's game was still very enjoyable, with an attentive, responsive broadcast presentation that just puts everything else in the field to shame.

Advertisement

Still, it is fair to say that something feels held back even if the overall enterprise is sound and well executed. It's dispiriting that jewel-box modes like the Jordan Challenge and NBA's Greatest remain shackled to NBA 2K11 and 2K12, respectively, where they would be even more enjoyable with streamlined controls and the gameplay refinements described above. I'm not sure why those features are held out when their teams remain on the play-now roster, with a few exceptions (Julius Erving is not on the 76ers, alas. The 1992 Olympic Dream Team also does not return). It's also aggravating that the entertaining mini-games of the All-Star Weekend can be accessed only when you get to the all-star weekend of an Association campaign. You can set up a throwaway association savefile and sim up to the weekend if you want to fool around in the dunk or three-point contest, but why couldn't these be broken out?

We've been told for some time that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 version of this game is going to be a distinct experience from the current generation version. It had better do more than just restore old modes and dazzle us with sharp looks, though. I don't mean to judge this game, even partially, against the promise of one that does not yet exist. But strangely, I think NBA 2K14 on the Xbox 360 and PS3 places more pressure on its sibling releasing in November than vice versa. This is still an elegant sports product that, if it earns few new laurels, at least did not rest on its old ones.

Advertisement

To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.