NBA 2K16
Publisher:
2K Sports
Developer:
Visual Concepts
Platforms:
PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
Genre:Sports
Release Date:September 29, 2015
NBA 2K16 is a professional basketball sim that is produced by Visual Concepts and 2K Sports. The game is the 17th edition in the long running series and will be available for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and PC. The series features an attempt to reproduce the actual teams and players that perform in the NBA in order to put together a franchise of your own, just a season, or an entire career as a brand new player who isn’t in the actual league.
The game has MyCareer, MyTeam, and standard games. Players may play regular season NBA games, playoff games, Summer League games, and other modes. NBA 2K16 has changed things up when it comes to its MyCareer mode by bringing in a well-known Hollywood director in Spike Lee to bring a little more realism to the mode. The game will be available to everyone on September 29, 2015 though 2K Sports is allowing anyone who pre-orders the game digitally to play the game on September 25, a full four days before the official release date.
Development
The first trailers for NBA 2K16 were shown off as a kind of official reveal during the 2015 NBA Finals. While the game was expected to be in the works, because of its long running series status, there was no official confirmation the development team was working on the next iteration until those videos were aired. The videos were titled “Story is Everything” and featured director Spike Lee talking about what he was working on in order to make MyCareer better than it had been during any other part of the series.
The first official gameplay pictures were revealed in August of 2015 and another trailer, which features Lee speaking over footage of Steph Curry’s career was released around the same time. Another video was released on August 25, 2015 that showed a large amount of gameplay and also teased playable college basketball teams as part of the MyCareer mode. Yet another video was released on September 14, 2015 that extensively details the MyCareer mode.
Story
The stories that unfold in NBA 2K16 tend to be ones that aren’t narrative but rather stat driven when it comes to how a game or season unfolds for the player. There is one story driven mode, called MyCareer and this is the mode that Spike Lee was brought in to revamp and make more narrative based as opposed to just a game where NPCs would say a few words and then the player would start playing an NBA game. The MyCareer mode follows a young, up and coming player as he progresses through his basketball career. The story picks up with the player in high school and follows him as he progresses through college and then into the NBA.
Players play basketball games in the NBA, interact with other players, which can result in a friendship or a bitter rivalry as well as coaches, members of the media, and fans. At some point during the MyCareer story, users will negotiate contracts, appear in endorsement deals, practice in gyms, upgrade their player’s abilities, customize their player’s skill set and physical appearance, and more.
Gameplay
There are several different gameplay modes in NBA 2K16. The first is a regular play now mode that allows players to pick up a controller and play against the computer in a single game. The length of the quarters and the teams can both be changed to fit what the player wants.
There is also a mode called MyTeam which has players putting together a dream team of sorts by collecting digital cards of certain players. These cards are earned by completing various acts inside the game. Once you have collected enough cards you can put the team together and compete either offline or against online opponents. Another single game play mode is called 2K Pro-Am which is similar to MyTeam except that players can put together any team they want and play 5-on-5 contests against the computer or against other humans online.
MyCareer mode allows users to create their own basketball players and customize their appearance including their hair and eye color, as well as what kind of clothes they wear, their height and their weight. Throughout the mode, as the player progresses, users can change the appearance as he gains more money and can also customize his home and his own personal basketball court. Not only do users play basketball games in this mode, but they must also decide what contracts to choose and what endorsement deals to sign. If users have the Playstation Camera they can even scan their own face and put them into the game that much more.
MyGM mode returns to NBA 2K16 and this mode allows players to take on the role of an NBA general manager and try and build the team of their choice into perennial champions. Players are able to negotiate contracts as well as carry out trades. They can also hire and fire coaches and even move the team from their home city to another North American location. This is a feature that is new to the NBA 2K series. Users must also tweak things in order to maintain a good relationship with the team owner, the players, the media and the fans. All of these relationships are measured with certain graphs that will go up or down based on various decisions throughout the game.
MyLeague is said to be a “sandbox” version of MyGM that has more online aspects for NBA 2K16. You can join or create a league and invite other online players to join and then play games against them that count in the standings, playing all the way to your league’s own NBA championship.
Teams
NBA 2K16 has all of the current teams that are in the real National Basketball League. There are also summer league and developmental league teams as well as some foreign squads that can be used in various game modes. There are also a number of classic teams that will be playable in the game. As of September 18, 2015 the classic teams that were revealed were the 2007-08 Boston Celtics, 2012-13 Miami Heat, 2000-01 Lakers, 2003-04 Pistons, 2000-01 Raptors, 2008-09 Rockets, 2002-03 Mavericks, 1999-2000 Trail Blazers, 2004-05 Phoenix Suns, 2005-06 Miami Heat, 2006-07 Cavaliers & 2003-04 Timberwolves.
Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game