NBA 2K11 NBA Today Impressions

It may have taken a full month but the NBA Today feature in NBA 2K11 is fully functioning. NBA Today delivers dynamic commentary that calls upon real life events and graphics that display updated records and stats from around the league. This is delivered primarily through the quick games and online games however also comes into play in Association mode.

The first notable thing is now NBA Today automatically loads up and with the correct date and slate of games. The stats shown on the screen for particular players are accurate as are the team’s records and starting lineups.

The most interesting and valuable aspect of NBA Today is the fresh commentary which brings in some variety and relevance. In the Hawks vs Magic game a few things were mentioned that I went to check on for accuracy and only one of the statements stood out as being wrong. Noted a few different ones below.

“The Magic have not dropped a game yet. Four straight wins to kick off the season”. This is not correct. They are 4-1 with the one loss coming to the Heat on October 29th.

“This is the first game between the division rivals this season”. This is true.

“The Magic are coming off a victory over Charlotte where they held off a fourth quarter comeback”. This is true. The Magic won 91-88. Charlotte had cut the lead to one late and outscored Orlando by eight points in the 4th quarter.

I was surprised there was no mention of this being a first place vs second place team in the division, even though it is early in the season. I also felt that MLB Today in MLB 2K10 made more player specific references but maybe that is just natural given the sports.

As seen in the image above there are on-screen graphics that normally would show last season’s standings or statistics but due to NBA Today it will show the updated numbers for the current season. Still there were times during the game where they would be showing last season’s stats such as for the highest scoring teams in the league.

Previews of upcoming games have returned between quarters. The first one advertised Thursday’s Warriors vs Bulls game which is in fact on the slate of games for that day.

The halftime show now includes scores from around the league, however it talks about the games for the current day which for most of the day will not have been played yet. It shows 0-0 scores but then goes on to mention teams (the road teams) winning the match-ups which is odd.

NBA Today has less impact in Association mode. That carries the previews of upcoming games in between quarters, which talks about the Association games coming up with correct stats. The scores from around the league for the halftime show however are still completely missing and that is a big disappointment.

The NBA Today feature remains great in how it produces dynamic commentary and presents current events through the commentary and statistics being displayed. The freezing in exiting modes (which may be related to NBA Today) remains very troublesome, and it is disappointing that the “around the league” scores are basically irrelevant for regular games and missing from Association mode. Still NBA Today represents a fantastic addition when functioning properly.