Poll: Which NBA game for someone who's never played an NBA game before?

[ReservoirAngel]

Randomly I have the urge to play more sports games. And in regards to that I find myself oddly intent on making basketball the one to go for, given it's probably the real sport I could claim to be the more interested in (go Raptors!). But this naturally leads to the issue of their being, you know, two different NBA games to pick from. At least NFL only has Madden so I don't have to make decisions like this.

This is a question for anyone who plays NBA games: Out of NBA Live 18 or NBA 2K18, which would be more recommended for someone who has essentially zero experience with NBA games before this point?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Screw those! Play NBA hangtime! Have giant Bill Clinton team up with a werewolf against Michael Jordan a a wizard with a fire crotch!

 

[mysecondlife]

The general consensus is that 2k > Live series. I tend to agree with it.

But I hear terrible things about 2k18. Something about microtransactions. If that doesn't affect you at all, then go with 2k18.

Now for me I really enjoyed My Player Mode when it first came out in 2010 or 2011.

I did a quick google search: https://www.reddit.com/r/NBA2k/comments/44nndr/what_nba_2k_has_the_best_my_player_career_mode/?st=jcyg0nlz&sh=b3b61bee

Most upvoted answer seems to be 2k14, 2k15. If I were to jump in, I'd go with 2k15.

 

[Ender910_v1legacy]

NBA Jam would be my one and only answer. Although I can only recommend the SNES ones, never played any later titles.

 

[sXeth]

Rocket League... I mean, thats the only basketball game I have presently. Though I had some random one from a thrift store on PS2 and the big SNES one.

2k18 has been fairly prominently (for being a sports game, a genre which rarely intersects seriously with gaming critics and journalistz) pointed out for having some pretty awful microtransaction hooks in it though. In the "You can't even play single-player career mode reliably" type vein.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

What if I were to specify that at this point I don't really care about single-player career modes or the like and will primarily just be playing random matches?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

NBA 2k12 is the best one.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

What if I were to specify that at this point I don't really care about single-player career modes or the like and will primarily just be playing random matches?

Live is inferior. All the stuff about mycareer mode in 2k18 is 100% true, but the gameplay in the other modes is still good. Though... The bigs have been nerfed.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

NBA 2k12 is the best one.

The one where they added Michael Jorden?