The NBA 2K series has been the dominant basketball game for years now, and 2K10 looks to extend the franchise for another year on the top. That's not to say it is without it's faults. The faults are plenty, but, the game is so good you forget most of them exist.

GAMEPLAY

If your a fan of the series, you remember the silky smooth animations and physics from the incredible NBA 2K9. Like most yearly sports games, changes to these are minimal and 2K10 is no different. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is a good motto to bring from 2K9 and 2K Sports used it well. Everything feels just a smooth as the previous entry with just a few improvements here and there to really finalize the gameplay. Whatever play you want to do, you can do. Whatever dunk you want to do and whatever juke and spin you want to pull, it's all there and very user friendly to pull off. If only the frame rate was as smooth. This big problem as of today (a patch is in the works) are these huge frame rate drops when you get into the paint or just randomly in the middle of the court. This takes away from the experience and disturbs the flow of the game. You can change your camera angle which will alleviate most of the fps drops but it is still noticeable at certain points.

New to this years game is the My Player mode in which you can take a rookie ball player through the draft and into the NBA where you can become a champion. It's a very ambitious addition for an NBA game. It's not like NHL 10 where it is more simple. You must go through the Summer Circuit and your teams training camp before you can even step onto an NBA court. And, if you suck, your going to get sent to the D-League and end up playing there for a bit before you can prove yourself out of it. It's a great new gameplay feature but I think next years version will be more polished. There are numerous bugs and problems in this mode. One of the bugs completely corrupts your file and forces you to restart. Progress is very slow and you must play all 82 games in a season. There are no simulations. This is great for the sim heads but for the casual player, you probably won't finish a season. It will take you hours and hours of play time. Not to mention it gets insanely easy at about your 10th game in. Also, if you want to change the sliders to make it more difficult, you must restart your file and change them before you start My Player mode. And it will only work if you have the Draft Combine game.

The other big game mode is of course The Association and it has never been better than in this years game. This is the best season mode in any sports game I have ever played. It's incredible how well it is done. Stats to keep you occupied for hours. Every manager and coach control you need. The commentary is very well done as it is created by you. If you scored 12 points in a previous game with Kobe Bryant then the commentator will say that you scored 12 points in the previous game. It literally looks like your watching a game of basketball. It's that good.

GRAPHICS

Not much changed from last year. Players models have been improved. Sweat reflects off of the heads and arms. The jerseys will get darker as the sweat pours in (eww..) The arenas floors look much nicer and the crowds look more animated and less robotic. A basic sports game graphical improvement. The developers don't worry about this aspect as much. Just keep it looking good with the times and people will buy it.

CONCLUSION

This is the best version of the NBA 2K series, but barely. I do miss 2K9 because there were no framerate issues but with the addition of My Player mode and the outstanding Association mode, you can't go wrong with this years game.

8.5/10