NBA 2K3

"Better Than Before!!!"

I am going to tell you this straight up, I have never EVER anticipated a game as much as NBA 2K3. Maybe it's my love for the sport, or that the series just overall owns. But 2K3 is what you call, a let down.

Gameplay: 7/10

The gameplay for this game is way better than before. We have the ability to customize the basketball players attributes to whatever we want. I don't know who would do that, but we can! The Franchise mode is probably the best I have ever seen in a video game. The Franchise is very graphical and resembles a lot like NFL 2K3. We have the option to hire and fire coaches to our liking. Each coach has a rating in three different categories that will affect the gameplay of your rookies. The better the coach, the more expensive they will be. The Franchise not only includes an excellent drafting system, but it includes the Lottery. Nothing special, but it's nice to have. Scouting college players is probably the most challenging thing in Franchise. You have to invite players to workouts, and that costs money. Once NCAA Basketball 2K3 is released, NBA 2K3 games will have the ability to IMPORT the college players from NCAA!! The game even includes Training Camp to help boost up your players, and the Pre-Season. Street ball has taken a big jump. All of the original courts are back and reworked. The courts look excellent with much more details. However, no new courts were added. We now have the option to create our own unique street team! There were two major things that really hurt the game. The first is that the Create a Player mode was a huge disappointment. It is exactly the same as 2K2 except we now have the ability to choose the player's college. The second is that the game sometimes ''freezes'' in Franchise. This was a huge bug in 2K2, and unfortunately, its in 2K3. The rosters are pretty accurate, all of the rookies are there except for Yao Ming and Melvin Ely. But Melvin Ely is already in the first Downloadable Update Roster. Yeah, that's right, we can download new rosters.

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics are definitely the best of all the 2K series games. The players now even have the ability to SWEAT as the game progresses. The players will start to look ''shiny'' once the game develops. This year, VC has also included ''player shoes''. Yeah, you heard me. Iverson will be wearing his Reeboks and McGrady will be wearing the ''T-Mac's''. VC has done a great job with the players faces. Shawn Marion now, actually looks like Shawn Marion. The hairstyle even changes. Iveron will sometimes have corn rows, and then he'll have zizzags the next game. Ben Wallace will have corn rows in one game, and he'll let is hair fro out in another. The game also includes the Lakers new white colored home jersey. I was quite disappointed that classic jerseys were not included. And the thing that really upset me, were the facial emotions during dunks. EA Sports and Live are definitely the winners in facial emotions. I have also noticed that the tattoos are off. Most of the players tattoos are faded. I can barely see Marbury's. Kenyon Martin is missing all of his tattoos. Shaq doesn't have his Superman emblem, and Bibby his missing the huge crucifix. What happened VC? The animations are extremely smooth this year. They players don't slow down when they do the ''under the leg'' dunk. The goaltending glitch has also been fixed. Shoot the ball and make it. Watch the replay and watch the ball go through the net. It is one of the most amazing thing's I have ever seen. The players hands actually touch the rim this year! VC has also include shoe. :)

Sound: 8/10

The play-by-play announcing is done by the same two guys from last year. With the new license with ESPN, the ESPN guy is here to give you the Daily Wrap Up, Half time report, and the Post game show. There are still some old lines from the original, but there are plenty of new lines. The fans seem to be more in to the game this year, and the music over the PA is great too. The greatest thing is that when you create a player, as long as their last name matches a real life current star in the game, their name will be said. The only problem is that the PA will call them by their jersey number.

Controls: 9/10

The controls are a little bit different this year. The game now has fake passing, and the pivot moves. They have also included icon switching for defence. Pressing the R3 will result in the fake pass, and move it in a direction will make your player throw the ball towards there. Shooting has never ever been tougher. We can now dive for loose balls when the roll out of bounds. Very useful if u ask me. The problem last year was high shot percentage, my shot percentage has decreased by about 10 percent. Making a good three pointer will take perfect timing and lots of practice. I make about 3/10 from the three point line a game. The players also seem to miss dunks a lot more. Some people will miss wide open dunk by themselves. The good dunkers like McGrady, Carter, Richardson, and Marion will miss because of the difficulty and if someone is in the way. That is why they have added the option to change your shot!! Let's say your off on a fast break with Carter. Shaq is standing right in the lane. You got up for the jam. Shaq jumps up to attempt the block, which he will probably get. Press square again and Carter will switch hands embarrassing Shaq. :p The cross over button is the same except with MANY more dribble moves. Here's a new addition to 2K3. Marbury is dribbling down the court. He does a quick cross over on Fisher getting by him with ease. Kobe jumps up to pick up Marbury. Press the circle button again and watch Marbury spin around Kobe breaking his poor little ankles. :p

Challenge: 10/10

The game has the same three different difficulty levels: Rookie, Pro, and All-Star. Those who played 2K2 should be able to play at the Pro level. I started playing All-Star after about 3 games. Guess what, the game now has ''Game Sliders''. We can now customize the game however we want. Let's say Ray Allen won't stop making those 3's. Just go to Game Sliders and lower the ''3 Point %''. Let's say Kobe Bryant keeps on bricking his 3's. Just higher the slide. So the possibilities are endless.

Replay: 10/10

Not much I can say, Franchise will keep you busy for a long time. The Franchise will last for 30 seasons. Have fun!

Overall: 9/10

The game is overall good. I said above it was a disappointment. I guess I just expected way too much.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/02, Updated 01/07/03