Clash of the Titans! NBA 2K15 vs NBA Live 15 (and a look at Race in these games)

I have now played both major NBA games this year for significant lengths of time. I like them both. I hate them both. I love the NBA.

I want to use some football metaphors to describe these NBA games. NBA 2K15 is the New England Patriots. It is always good and winning titles but there is a lot to hate about the franchise. The VC system and servers issues break the game (see: Spy Gate) but the gameplay is so good you can’t help but enjoy it. NBA Live is the Cleveland Browns. Live left for a few years, came back last year and was awful. This year NBA Live 15 is 7-5 and offers a lot to love but it is still not quite a contender for the title.

Method– I played both games back to back. I would play a game/mode in NBA Live 15 then immediately switch to NBA 2K15. The mode I played on most were the games respective ultimate team modes. I used a similar camera angle in each game for graphical comparisons.

Gameplay- Live is super smooth. The games flows extremely well. It’s fast and rebounding feels natural. 2K feels very jerky. Live wants the fast break where 2K wants to slow you down to run a “2K smart play”. Player intelligence is much better offensively in 2K. Players in NBA 2K are always moving where there are times in Live where everyone stands still and waits for direction.

NBA Live uses the X button to shoot and put dribble moves on the right stick. The left trigger calls for screens. NBA 2K maps everything to the right stick both shooting and dribbling (it’s too much) but the X button can be used to shoot. Screens are called for in 2K via the B button. Both control schemes work well and feel intuitive. My issue with 2K is that sometimes I am trying to do a dribble move and accidentally shoot. In NBA live the shooting mechanic requires an unbelievably quick press of the button. Both games give feedback for how you shot the ball.

Both games handle balancing the game of basketball differently. NBA Live balances the ability to score easily by making shot blocking and stealing easy and having a crazy fast and punishing shooting mechanic.

NBA 2K utilizes missing shots as the balance. You will miss countless open shots in NBA 2K and when a ball falls off the rim everyone waits for a second before they move to rebound. Most rebounds in 2K seem to be players picking the ball up off the floor. It’s really weird. The worst thing about 2K is that you spend all of your time staring at a meter under your player on offense. When you shoot in 2K the players have a meter with a blue patch in it and a line. When the meter fills up to the line you make the shot. The blue patch gets bigger and smaller depending on where the defender is. I hope that made sense…. but the issue is that you end staring at the meter and not looking at the defense or anything. It turns offense and shooting into a weird mini-game. I don’t love it.

In Live steals on lower difficulty settings are way to easy to come by and you  have to press LB to make players go into motion on offense. It makes running plays less smooth than in 2K.

Graphics- The faces are incredible in Live. The jerseys look like trash. In 2K the jerseys are literal masterpieces of modern technology but hair and faces are real hit or miss. The courts look great on each. NBA 2K player models hold up better and look better up close than the Live player models. NBA Live players are super swole. Everyone in Live is muscular. 2K does a good job of having player body types differ realistically. My biggest issues with graphics in 2K is that  Kyrie Irving looks like a spot on clone to his real life counterpart but lesser players like Matt Bonner look like cobbled together aliens. NBA Live has good likenesses even for lesser-known players. But the jerseys look plastic in Live….

I love the ESPN presentation live brings to games. It looks awesome. The presentation on 2K is very clean and good looking as well. 2K is great about showing a lot of info on your players during the game.

Ultimate Team mode- NBA 2K wants you to spend money and lose. NBA Live rewards your money spent and wants you to keep playing. Ultimate team (Live) or MYteam (2K) is where I spend most of my time in these modes. You get packs of player cards and contracts and put together a fantasy team and pit them against computer challenges and other opponents. I spent around 25 dollars on each game for comparison sake. To illustrate my point, when you buy special packs in Live they guarantee a good player or item, where 2K says you have a higher percentage. The best player I have gotten from 2K is Kyrie Irving (rating 86). On Live I have opened Kevin Durant, Lenny Wilkins (rating 88), LaMarcus Aldridge (89), and Rajon Rondo (twice) (86). My team in Live is a fantasy team. My team in 2K is cobbled together monster.

NBA 2K also uses an injury system in their MyTeam mode. Players get hurt and have to buy and use cards to heal them. I shot a 3 with Chris Bosh. He broke his leg. Out 16 games. I will have to buy injury cards that cure 5 games at a time at most. Fuck that. Worst still, if you get disconnected from a game you will lose contracts. It happens often in 2K, almost never in Live.

My biggest problem with both games is the games in the ultimate team modes are too long. 6 minute quarters in 2K, and 5 minute quarters in Live. Why? In Madden you play 3 minutes quarters mostly and then 4 or 5 minute in special segments. Basketball games should not take longer than football games. There is no need for it.

Both modes are great at staying current and giving new challenges and legendary player cards. Kobe has a triple double, the next day 2K had a competition to beat the Lakers with mega-Kobe. NBA Live has a Penny Hardawar card, play him and see how good he is. They are awesome and they keep adding gameplay and value as the season goes on. EA has done a better job on this mode. They have a lot of practice though as Madden Ultimate Team is amazing too.

My player mode- 2K has a story in their Myplayer and it feels good. The similar mode in NBA Live is very bare bones. I did not spend a lot of time in these modes this year. They are fun but I like controlling the entire team and not just one player on the court.

Fun factor- NBA Live is more fun. NBA 2K is broken. Every mode in 2K requires server connectivity and the servers in 2K are barely up. I have been pulled out of 10 games mid-session in 2k. They have challenges in their “Myteam” mode where you need to win 3 games in a row to complete the challenge. I have lost the challenges multiple times because during the third game the servers sever and I get the loss. It forces me to play all 3 games again and it wastes contracts for players. It literally cost me money when the servers disconnect. 2K uses the VC system to monetize the game in a shitty way and they don’t have the infrastructure to handle it. I can’t play single player in 2K because of server issues. That’s shit. NBA Live works. The online is great, the ultimate team mode never disconnects from the servers. While the game in 2K is better, I at least know I can finish the games in Live.

Which one to buy? Buy NBA Live or neither. Supporting 2K when their servers don’t work reinforces a bad system and reaffirms 2K’s consumer-unfriendly business model.

How is race handled in these games? Why do you care?

Race is a touchy issue in term of the NBA because the league has a predominance of black players. The NBA has always a lot of flavor for this reason. I have a lot of black friends who don’t game but they NBA 2K because we take a lot of ownership. No games have more black people than NBA games (maybe Resident Evil 5 but….that didn’t end well). This really shows up in the MyPlayer modes in the game because the avatars personality is more than skin deep in these modes. In my opinion, the MyPlayer voice always feel black. He’s kind of arrogant and black regardless of what color you make your player. I wish they had more options for this. The music choices, the visuals and create a player mode all have racial implications.

2K and Live are the only games I have played with current black hair cuts. You can have a high top fade! and a frohawk thing. It’s great to have more options than bald or corn rows. NBA Live has rap music top to bottom. They went all in with Rap music and then at certain times they have Jalen Rose talk about current events.

The presentation is very stylish and they are constantly focusing on throwbacks and using player nicknames in spots where they can. It feels very black to me. NBA 2K plays a much wider range of music, from rap to rock. It’s an eclectic mix. The background defaults to a white woman showing PR stories about NBA players and charity. It’s very “professional” and less in your face than Live 15. 2K also tries to replicate the playground experience where you wait for next to play in pick up games. Going for that Rucker Park authentic feel is really cool. Both games do a great job of appealing to the black community while not alienating others and I love it.

In conclusion, both games are a lot of fun this year. 2K is the better game of basketball of the Ultimate team mode in Live is far superior. If 2K gets it’s servers right, buy it. Live is worth a try too.

If you want to hear me wax poetic about gaming and more list to the EBONY AND IVORYCAST (THE podcast I talk on).