Bottom line: NBA 2K8 isn’t perfect. It has its share of weird glitches, AI loopholes, and other chinks in its armor. That said, it’s still, by far, the best NBA game on the market and is clearly a better game than last year’s model which is about all you can ask for in the yearly release cycle of today’s big budget sports games.

Several ingredients go into making NBA 2K8 what it is, but it starts with player and team roles. The teams in the game behave remarkably similar to how they play in real life; team specific game sliders ensure that the Suns don’t slow down the pace too often and the Spurs don’t look to run and gun at first glance. The players also look, and behave, as you’d expect. The AI looks to its best players – don’t expect Kobe to give up the ball too often and if Duncan gets the ball on the block…it’s money.

All of this authenticity is compounded by the fact that the game looks incredible—this is the best the game has ever looked and is a significant upgrade from 2K7, which wasn’t a bad looking game in its own right. The courts, animations, player models, shooting styles, it all looks tremendous. When you see Kevin Garnett pull up from range, it looks…just like Kevin Garnett. It’s uncanny. With this graphical flare you might expect a slow frame rate but the game glides along at a brisk pace with little to no slowdowns whatsoever. This engine hums along like a sports car.

The gameplay, for the most part, is very tight. There is a real sense of satisfaction when you call a play (and there are a ton in the game) and swing around off a pick on the wing, grab a pass from the point guard, and pull up and drill a 16 foot jumper. NBA 2K8 reflects the NBA, and its plays, better than any hoop game ever made – bar none. One key gameplay element worth mentioning is the Off the Ball commands; you can now issue a specific player to set a screen, work to get open, etc. This is a fantastic way to make sure that a star player does all he can to get off his defender.

The game also nails down some of the little things, the things that separate the solid games from the special ones. There are hustle players – players that may not have the best ratings but dive for loose balls, come up with key steals, and generally are hard to keep off the floor. The rebounding model, the absolute bane of a game like NBA Live, is done to perfection here. Players battle over boards, tip the ball around, and snatch it out of the air in fluid motion.

While the graphics are fantastic the sound deserves special mention. Not so much the play by play, which is pretty flat, but the crowd noise is remarkably done. In a late game in the 4th quarter the home crowd buzzes like few games before it. You actually feel like the people inside the game are desperate for the home team to pull off the win. But if you nail a dagger-like three-pointer, they immediately sit back down on their hands. Satisfaction doesn’t begin to describe nailing a game winner and shutting the crowd up. It is sports gaming at its finest.

It all sounds like the pinnacles of NBA sports games, and in a way it is, but there are some holes, as well. One of the long standing issues with the in-game AI revolves around substitution logic and NBA 2K8 isn’t any different. Players stay on the floor too long when in foul trouble, some star players sit way too late into the 4th quarter when their team needs them and some players will even check into the game laughably out of position. Asking a shooting guard to check a power forward just doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense.

Perhaps the most glaring issue is that the post game is just too effective. Against the AI, on any level of difficulty, you can take a talented big man (Shaq Yao, Garnett, Brand) and totally dominate a game. The AI is way too slow to double team in the post and very few defenders have the ability to stop a player from backing them down. If you are playing as the Celtics it’s possible to score 50 a game with Garnett by just getting the ball and backing down the opposing center or power forward and flipping the ball in using the up and under move. It’s just too easy. Of course you don’t have to abuse this loophole but once you know it’s there it’s hard not to go to that well when you really need a basket. This is perhaps the most serious gameplay issue left in the NBA 2K series but it’s a real doozie. You simply need better post defense that doesn’t allow players to back down at will.