50 Best Xbox One Games Right Now

Best Xbox One Games #44 – NBA 2K16

Developer: Visual Concepts

Synopsis: It’s hard to knock Visual Concepts for anything involved in an NBA video game of theirs. That is, if you remove the “Living ‘Da Dream” story of a Create-A-Player in NBA 2K16, nicknamed “Frequency Vibrations.” The Spike Lee-directed look into the first year of an NBA rookie’s ultimate career paved way for many laughs, but it shows a noble attempt at building the player into more than just customized sliders and a unique appearance.

The bread and butter of what NBA 2K16 does to improve gameplay comes down to the basics. The AI has been improved to the point where Steph Curry being able to outperform his video game partner was due to the fact that so many online players cheese the 3-point line. A 1:1 recreation of NBA players may never be fully realized, but this game takes it right up to that line of believability.

Why it’s one of the 50 best Xbox One games: 2K Sports is unparalleled when it comes to basketball games, and NBA 2K16 is no exception. Yes, they’ve taken some weird liberties with Spike Lee’s involvement, but it goes to show their commitment to pushing the standards of what sports games offer. Fadeaways and other cheese maneuvers players abuse online have been nerfed. You can’t throw players out of position to manipulate the speed of play in an unfair advantage. Passes now look as flashy as they do by the elite passers in real life.

Next: #43 - Jackbox Party Pack 3