NBA 2K21 is a big leap in realism for next-gen consoles • Eurogamer.net

It’s been a long time since we’ve covered sports titles at Digital Foundry, but with NBA 2K21 coming to the next wave of consoles, we’re seeing something really fascinating here, with a proper generational leap in fidelity across the board. To illustrate that, we took a look at the game primarily on PlayStation 5 and PS4 Pro, but also spent time with both consoles in the Xbox series.

In my opinion, achieving such a huge improvement in quality is quite an achievement. While it might not seem like that on the surface, sports games are, from what I can tell, one of the most difficult genres to work with. Truncated development schedules require annual entries into each series, which means less time between each release, but more than that, these games must match a proper ‘real’ experience, often delivered with a presentation similar to that of television. A game like NBA 2K21 needs to deal with real people in real places who perform complex and interconnected actions. If you are wrong by a hair, you plunge straight into an eerie valley.

So what makes this so difficult? Well pinning down the arenas and the players’ similarities is a big part of the equation, but it’s the movement that makes this so difficult. The realistic animation, momentum and collision of each player on the court is a great challenge. Developer Visual Concepts, whose work on this franchise dates back to the Dreamcast era, is doing a great job here. While imperfections in images are fairly easy to spot, if you just let the game wash over you, it really starts to look surprisingly authentic in action. When shot with cylinders, it really looks like basketball.

NBA 2K21 includes an extensive roster of players, from current NBA athletes to legends of the past. In general, the quality of the performance of each player is of high quality. The models themselves are intricately detailed with shades of skin, sweat, and realistic facial expressions. Players look around the court and react to plays in real time. It’s not perfect as there is a hint of the ‘dead eyes’ effect, but it’s solid. As with the latest generation versions, 2K21 also uses a fabric simulation for the uniforms: as you move around the court, the fabric flows and reacts realistically.

But the next-generation difference is achieved in many ways, particularly in terms of materials, shading, and lighting. Mainly, based on side-by-side comparisons, the skin receives a significant boost in its specular layer, allowing the surrounding lights to play more realistically with its surface. Players just look more realistic this time around as a result of this change, to the point where perspiration builds up on characters the harder they work. All of this really brings the players to life.

The same is true for the courts, which receive new materials and produce more realistic results. The response of color and material is simply more natural in the next-gen version of the game. But really, the key draw for me is the crowd, which offers a huge boost over older consoles. The amount of detail present in each member of the crowd is remarkably impressive. They all move independently and are much more detailed, to the point where even individual fingers are rendered. Yes, if you look too closely you can see a lot of dead eyes, clipping issues, and more, but honestly, it works great during gameplay and replays.

Then there are reflections on the court itself and this is an area where proven technology wins the day. Based on what I’m seeing, I think the game uses flat reflections rather than ray traced reflections or SSR reflections. Flat reflections are still useful when applied to a single plane, such as the court, but are much less flexible in a more complex game world. In this case, the shaders used on wooden floors alter the reflection to correctly distort what you see. The quality and resolution of the reflection seems to improve in the next generation compared to the last. It is even more compelling and very realistic. The nature of flat reflections also means that objects can be perfectly duplicated and reflections can cross seamlessly. The backboard also receives mirror-like reflections showing both the rim and the ball, while the net receives nice physics as the ball is thrown in. Neither of these features is new to the next-gen version, but all are feels more refined overall.

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Speaking of refinement, the upgraded version of 2K21 also receives some major user experience improvements. First of all, the entire user interface has been completely overhauled – it is completely unique to the next-gen version. The speed of storage also allows for a more dynamic team selection screen, as new character models can be quickly loaded. It’s a huge update, made even better by huge loading improvements, which basically remove all loading screens.

While there is even more to discover about NBA 2K21, I think this is a good introduction to what you can expect from the new version of the game, but I guess the remaining question here comes down to how this title is delivered in all the next ones. -genetic systems. Well the good news is that they are virtually identical visually. Both the PS5 and X Series offer a full 4K native presentation – it looks super sharp on both systems and all images look the same between them. The PS4 Pro version I used for next-gen testing, by the way, seems to work in native 4K too, but obviously with reduced visual fidelity. The only difference here, unsurprisingly, lies in the S-Series version. This runs in native 1080p instead. You get the same next-gen images as its big brother, only at a lower resolution.

Performance is pretty much the same too – all versions use a mixed frame rate – the game runs at 60 fps, while repeats and interstitial scenes update at 30 frames per second. At these limits, the PlayStation 5 and Series S versions run essentially smoothly, while interestingly, the Xbox Series X occasionally has single-frame drops. Everything is pretty cut and dry except for one exception: the parametric camera option runs locked at 60fps on PlayStation 5, but drops frames on series consoles. Fortunately, this is easily avoided by using other camera angles (and the parametric point of view isn’t that great for gameplay). It’s really just an academic difference, but it’s there, and PS5 finally has the upper hand here.

I’d say NBA 2K21 is a really good release for all consoles and a lot more impressive than I expected. While the limitations in animation are still apparent at some points, it is the most fluid and realistic looking basketball game I have ever seen. Visual Concepts has set a very high bar here when it comes to visual quality and this is just the beginning, really. It’s also good to see that this version is completely separate from the next-gen iteration, suggesting that they are building from a new starting point. I hope we continue to see things improve over time and I will be fascinated to see how other companies like EA Sports handle the transition. FIFA 21 just got its own next-gen update (featuring Frostbite’s much-vaunted hair physics, no less) and we’ll see that soon.