Review by: William Abner

Let’s get this out of the way right now: I do not care that Michael Jordan is in NBA 2K11. As a kid of the 1980s when it was Bird, Magic, and Dr. J, I was never a Jordan fan despite recognizing his greatness as a player; I don’t care much about him, and could not care less that I can play as him in a videogame. If you want to play as #23, well, there you go. Enjoy. NBA 2K11 allows you to do so in several modes of play and even with some classic teams like Bird’s ’86 Celtics (well, the starting five anyway as the rest of the team is still on the bus). Seriously – the 1986 Celtics without Walton? The Pistons without the Microwave? What’s the point?

Anyway, as for the rest of the game, it is without question the most realistic game of basketball ever made. It’s not always fun – in fact it is at times the most infuriating game of 2010, and I would not recommend it to the average Joe basketball gamer without adding many caveats, but it’s head and shoulders above anything else we have ever seen in this particular sporting genre. It’s smart, ridiculously well animated, and simply plays a brand of basketball never before seen in a mere videogame.

NBA 2K11, especially on the harder “sim” settings, is unforgiving and demanding. There is a payoff to this—mostly in the form of realism, but to get to that realism you are going to have to learn how to play, and I mean learn how not just to play videogame basketball but to play actual basketball from the pre-game to the final buzzer. The game is not going to take it easy on you. You need to find open shots, limit the use of the “speed burst” trigger, notice how a defender is guarding you and what angle is he giving you, find the defensive mismatch, and run actual offensive sets in order to free up players for a good look at the basket. On the “sim” settings you simply cannot play breakneck speed burst driven basketball and hope to succeed. NBA 2K11 is having none of that.

You will need to know your personnel – as well as your opponent’s. You will need to know strengths and weaknesses of every player on the floor and plan accordingly. Simply hopping into a game and playing without giving the players involved any consideration is a quick way to get annihilated by the AI. You need to sag off some players while denying others the ball; the coach menu settings are there for a reason this year; it’s not window dressing. Some players will constantly demand a double team or they will eat you alive. Give the AI the slightest opening and it will jam a dagger into your heart. It will find the open man and destroy you. I have never in all my years of playing basketball games seen anything quite like it.

For you to experience the real NBA 2K11 you’re going to need to practice and you are going to need to devote time to learn how the game works. This means learning the plethora of offensive and defensive moves available. Sure you can play on an easier level and still get a decent experience but to really understand what this game is trying to do you are going to need to become a gamepad wizard. There are so many moves and combos of moves that it’s sort of like a poor man’s fighting game. And it’s because of that fact that if you are unprepared you are simply going to get frustrated. I cannot stress it enough. This is not an easy game. It is, in a sense, the hardcore flight sim of sports games.