NBA 2K11: Playing as Jordan would be enough

Buy NBA 2K11. You can play as Michael Jordan.

That should be enough of a review to get you to go out and pick up a copy of the latest installment in the 2K franchise. After all, Jordan's appearance in video games throughout the past two decades has been almost non-existent. Although gamers have occasionally been able to play as Jordan in games like NBA Street, Vol. 2 and early NBA Live games, NBA 2K11 is the first game to utilize Jordan in such an all-encompassing way.

In case you are curious about the other improvements and drawbacks of NBA 2K11, here they are.

The Good: NBA 2K is by far the best NBA video game franchise on the market today, easily beating out NBA Live. They upped the amount of realism in the game, making dunks and layups much more fluid than they've been in previous games. As always, the graphics are better than last years. The Association mode, which is where I spent the bulk of my time in the game, is updated with all of the most recent trades and draft picks. The menus for the 2K series have always been a little confusing, but this year's is perhaps their most functional yet.

2K expanded their pregame by showing players walking into the arenas and they continue the quarter and halftime highlights and statistics from previous games. One of the most impressive additions to the game is the expansion of the "Jordan Player of the Game" highlights (although it is kind of strange when Michael Jordan is awarded this). This post-game highlight reel is much more organized and dynamic than in previous games.

The Bad: It is practically impossible to make any kind of interior pass after half-court. The amount of turnovers in this game is almost laughable. I can understand why the developers did this: they're attempting to make the game more realistic (in the previous 2K games you could just kind of waltz to the top of the key and pound the ball inside, regardless of the opposing D). But it simply frustrates players and makes backdoor passes extremely difficult to complete.

During some in-game highlights the camera pans to the crowd, which is a good concept, but since the crowd is so poorly animated it detracts from the intense realism of the actual game play.

Overall: NBA 2K11 is a seamless transition from 2K10 and represents the most impressive NBA video game to date. The improvements far outweigh the occasional drawbacks. This is a must buy/rent for any NBA video game fan.

Rating: 4 ½ stars.