Ben at Work: The best (flaming ball, mega-dunk free) NBA video game ever

Which NBA video game is the best?   6%  NBA 09     72%  NBA 2K9     22%  NBA Live 09     Total Votes: 369

Considering how little "video game time" I have these days, I didn't think it would be worth it to spend $60 on one of the newfangled NBA games in these troubled economic times. If I happened to get the urge to play fake basketball, I could just throw last year's version of NBA Live into my Playstation 3 and deal with that. Sure the load times were insufferable, the game play was choppy and on occasion making a layup was more difficult than finishing Grand Theft Auto IV, but hey, it's still basketball, right?

Then last weekend I noticed that my local Gamestop had an offer where if you traded in two old games, you could get one of a few new titles for just $19.99. Luckily for me, two rarely played games I owned qualified for the deal, and after a little research on the Internets, I decided to pick up a brand spanking new, discounted copy of NBA 2K9.

As a staunch supporter of EA Sports' long lasting NBA Live series, making the switch to a different brand was a tough decision. But after the lackluster '08 edition of Live, a game that had more bugs than Elizabeth Hasselbeck's diet on Survivor, I had no problem keeping EA on the bench and handing my $19.99 over to 2K Sports.

Things have come a long way in terms of graphics, but Double Dribble remains a classic. (Provided to CBSSports.com)

At this point in my life, all I really want is a fun game to play from time to time. I don't need the stats to be updated "fresh daily," I don't have time to play an entire season, and I sure as shinola don't need to create a character and follow his development from "the streets" to the NBA Hall of Fame. Seriously, who besides college kids and the real-life Turtle have time for that? I just want to have a game that's fun to play in small doses, and if it looks great, then hey, even better.

So imagine my surprise when I first saw what actual game play looks like in 2K9 and thought for a second there was live basketball game on my TV. True story. While the game was loading whatever up-to-the-second software onto my PS3, I changed the channel to watch some TV. And by the time I changed back, the game was in demo mode, and it looked so freaking realistic, I thought it was a real game.

The reason? The crowds. This is the first sports game I've ever played where the crowd wasn't just made up of the same four people wearing different colored "clothing" and randomly waving their stubby, pixelated arms. Nope, practically everyone in the entire crowd stood out. It resembled what a game would look like on TV, right down to the people in the first few rows wearing their home team's jersey over a dress shirt. Take that, Double Dribble.

But the attention to detail doesn't end with the crowd. The first time I played, I used the Celtics, and the players' resemblances to their real-life counterparts was simply staggering. The ad campaign for 2K9 shows how realistic the players' faces are, but it's their moves and reactions that make the game stand out.

Take for instance Paul Pierce. In real life, if Pierce hits a big shot, he calmly pumps his fist. He's been doing this for years. In 2K9, fake Paul Pierce does this too. Even better, if real Paul Pierce fouls another player and doesn't dig the call, he isn't shy about letting the referee know. Same goes for fake Pierce mouthing off to the fake refs. It's pretty amazing.

Then there's the on-court action. If you use the "shot stick" near the basket, Pierce barrels toward the hoop, just like in real life. Use the stick with diminutive Rajon Rondo, and he banks a layup off the glass. Use Kendrick Perkins and he either dunks, or tosses up a clumsy shot. It's one thing that the players look so lifelike. It's another that they act accordingly. And it's not just the players. The games themselves resemble the real thing like never before. Put Chris Paul on the bench for a quick breather, and the Hornets will blow their lead faster than you can say Mike James. Play against the new D'Antoni Knicks, and witness a barrage of "seven seconds or less" 3-pointers from Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson and Nate Robinson. Use the Nets and you'll get frustrated waiting for the heavy-footed Yi Jianlian and Brook Lopez to catch up to speedy Devin Harris.

As he is in real-life, Kobe's 2K9 counterpart is far from shy about shooting the ball. (Getty Images)

2K9 also corrects one of my major pet peeves from past editions of NBA Live -- that your opponents' stars rarely play like stars. EA Sports seemed to have remedied this in recent years, but there are a number of editions of Live where if you played against the Spurs, Tim Duncan barely scored a point, and Derek Fisher and Robert Horry were the focal points of the Shaq-Kobe Lakers. Uh, thanks but no thanks.

But 2K9 doesn't have that problem. Play against the Lakers and Kobe will score frequently, and with ease. Play against the Jazz, and Deron Williams will blow by you just about every time he has the ball. Play against Oklahoma City and you're guaranteed to win, and so on.

The realism of the game does have one drawback. Free-throw shooting is customized to every single player. So while this is incredibly cool, it causes two problems. First, each player has his signature pre-free-throw ritual. This is nice and all, but it takes forever, and I'm not playing the game to shoot free throws. I want action. And second, since each player has his own free-throw shooting motion, you're pretty much guaranteed to miss your first shot with each player. Granted, it'll be hard to miss once you've mastered the mimicry, but if you don't play much, it can be a pain in the rear.

And when perfect recreations of foul shots are a basketball video game's biggest flaw, you know you've got a winner on your hands. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a new favorite game to play.