Review Of NBA 2K11

It's fitting that NBA 2K11 prominently features Michael Jordan. After all, His Airness is the greatest basketball player of all time and NBA 2K11 is the greatest basketball game ever made. 

2K Sports has delivered the most finely polished and fully featured sports game I've ever played -- and I've played a lot of sports games. The amount of work put into 2K11 is staggering -- perfect recreations of Jordan's historic games, streamlined controls, NBA teams that play and feel like their real-life counterparts, a franchise mode that includes sensible GM logic and intelligent team building. 

This is one of the most incredible year-over-year improvements of a game imaginable. Madden, EA's NHL series, MLB 2K, and just about everyone else has been served notice. There are no more excuses for half-assed annual updates. Bring it every year or you will get booed out of the building. 

NBA 2K11 is where amazing happens. When you first start the game, you get a slick visual treat hyping the greatness of Michael Jordan. And then the game transports you into the tunnel of Chicago Stadium for Game 1 of the 1991 NBA Championship. Jordan turns to look into the camera, right at you, and asks, "Are you ready?" Then he turns, runs out onto the court and the magic of NBA 2K11 begins. Before you ever see a menu, ever create a franchise, ever even get a whiff of all that 2K11 has to offer, you're playing in the finals with the Bulls, battling Magic Johnson and ushering in a new era in NBA history.