A game that has no rival and is executive produced by Jay-Z

Nov 16, 2012 15:35 GMT  ·  By

I haven’t played a game of basketball since I was in my first year of high school and, at the time, my lack of fitness and my inability to jump made me a rather limited player, although I could sometimes play enforcer on the court because of my size.

But I sometimes watch late night (for Europe) big matches from the NBA and I am growing fascinated by the culture, the music, the looks and the organization of the American professional league and I have turned to NBA 2K13 to see how a virtual experience can teach me more about the sport and the lifestyle.

My first disastrous game, after the rather lengthy player creation process, showed me that I know even less about basketball on the court movement and plays than I thought and that all the smooth movement and intricate moves I see on television are the result of a lot of hard work and intelligence.

The new control scheme is no help at all, as the game does not offer more instruction than simply telling me that I can use it to move my character around and perform special moves.

I got a failing F grade from my teammates and spent most of the game on the bench rather than playing, but I plan to train and maybe perform better in the coming challenges.

The presentation section of NBA 2K13 is much changed from last year and Jay-Z’s touch is clearly visible, from the intro of the game to the actual songs selected for the soundtrack.

My only trouble so far, apart from the fact that I need to work on my game, is that some of the character models seem a little disjointed and that some player collisions seem to be above the laws of physics.

Worth a full Softpedia review? Yes.