When I thought the NBA 2K series couldn’t be any better I was proven wrong, and boy I’m glad I was. NBA 2K13 don’t have more than one new game mode, but they’ve done some changes and improvements within some of the already existing modes.

Features and Changes

-          Control Stick

-          My Team

-          My Career

-          Social Media

-          Meeting with the GM

-          Coach feedback during the matches

-          TV pause commercials

-          VC earnings

-          Signature Skill

-          My Player changed

-          Legends training camp

-          Improved commentary

These changes and features improve the game for the better and it don’t leave much room for improvement for future games in the franchise, or at least that’s what I think now that I’m writing this review.

Control Stick and shooting

With the new and improved control stick can you now more easily make dribble moves, and not just take a shot when you’re not supposed to. That was a problem they had in 2K12, as you didn’t have the same control over the shooting as you do now. Instead of be able to take a shot as soon as you moved the stick with our without the triggers pulled in, you could take a shot anyway. Now with the improvement do you have to pull the left trigger to take the shot, this ensures that you don’t just throw the ball away accidentally when you’re supposed to make your move. It also enhance the dribble moves and makes it easier to do them without having to remember to pull one of the triggers to do your moves, now it’s just enough with the stick alone and move it right for the dribble.

My Player

My Player has been changed from a career mode to more of a profile editor for your player, they’ve kept the mode from the previous version but it’s now called My Career. So what does My Player contain now? Well this is where you can buy clothing and accessories for your player, with or without player improvement. You can also check your total stats for your player and keep track of your performance as well as edit the player.

It’s a shame that you can’t upload your player from 2K12 and continues his progress from there, I just hope that they will consider that for the next game.

My Career

My Career is an upgraded version of the earlier My Player, and it’s a lot that have changed for the better. First of all the player upgrades have been changed so you will have to develop your player in a little different way than you might be used to, but these changes is just making the experience better. You still have the attributes and animations upgrades, but now you also have the signature skills which you can have up to five peaces equipped at the time. These signature skills can be everything from boosting you for the first quarter so you don’t get fatigued or don’t get cold streaks, to improve you physics and abilities even further. This is an interesting development in regards to how you can give your player the little extra notch that you might have missed.

Social media is also a new feature in my career, this is where you keep track of your fans and get feedback from them after each match. It’s kind of like twitter, but you can’t post anything your self or answer the fans in any way. Still it’s a great feature which can help you improve your head and your play style to make the fans happy.

They had a form of Legends Camp in 2K12 as well, but this time it’s easier to find and it cost a lot less than what it did before. Besides that it’s not much more I can tell you about the camp section.

During the breaks between the quarters will there be played a commercial of the latest big happening of your player, everything from NBA commercials to player of the month and magazine cover adds. Which in my opinion make the career come even more to life than before and it’s getting better, trust me.

The commentaries in this version have been improved just a little, not that there was so extremely much room for improvement anyway but enough. The improvement I’m talking about is that now they will use your chosen nickname instead of just using your number when they talk about you. You will also be mentioned in the next game about your performance of the last game, and even the half time commentator will talk about you if you have a great game. They also talk about your last press conference if you made an impression with your attitude and answers.

Meet with GM is also a whole new feature in 2K13, this is where you can sit down with your current GM and talk about everything. If something is bothering you or if you think that everything is going great, or maybe you want a transfer to another team this is where you can do these things. The trading part is an upgraded version of My Trades from 2K12, but you don’t get to see which teams that are interested in you so you’re gambling when if you choose to ask or demand a trade.

If you turn out to be the teams key player will the gm come to you and ask you to pick out up to five players you think that can be a part of the developing and improving the team for the better. Of course within reasonable players that is, but you can always pick whomever you want and the gm will do their best to make it happen. Being included like this also improves the gameplay experience, and makes it more interesting as you now have a voice that will be heard and you can make a difference.

Coach feedback is a new tool to see how your progress on the field is and if he’s happy with your performance. The happier you keep your coach, the longer play time you’ll get. It’s a also great to get this feedback as you will see how you must play to be a part of a great team and maybe even be the one that take your team to total victory.

My Team

My Team is a whole new game mode introduced to the NBA 2K franchise this year. In this mode will you be given a sett of random players coach jerseys and a stadium, and it’s you job to improve you team and get it to the playoffs. The whole mode is basically meant to be played online against other players, kind of like in the association mode, but with a lot less games and pressure. You have all the players, staff and arenas at your disposal to buy as long as you have enough VC earnings, and if you need more VC earnings can you always play an exhibition match.

I only miss a feature where you can edit the arenas, set ticket prices and so on. I’m sure that would have improved this mode even more.

VC earnings and currency

VC earnings are the only currency you have at your disposal for upgrading either your team or player. This is a little different than the previous version where you earned money as a salary from the club you played in with my player, and earned skill points that you could use to upgrade your player. It opens the possibility to actually purchase VC points with ms points so you can faster upgrade whatever you want, or maybe buy the most expensive player to your team. Either way, it can be a good thing as you now can get better faster if you don’t want to use unbelievable many hours to get those upgrades, but on the other hand it’s a part of the game doing it the hard way.

Conclusion: This is by far the best game in the NBA 2k-series and I think that it will be hard to create an even better game next time.

Rating: 10/10