Living rosters go beyond player moves from one team to another. For the first time in a sports game, player ratings will change with roster updates. That means, for example, rookies that turned out better than expected, or worse, will get different ratings during the year. Most veterans have ratings for a reason and they are what they are, but every year someone steps up (or down) and acts like a different player for a while, and 2K9's roster updates will reflect this. As a concept this is huge, and by the end of the season we'll know how often 2K made use of it. There's no doubt everyone else will be copying it soon.

Last year's few play issues have been improved a bit. There are less missed layups, which happened far too often. And free throws have gotten a little easier (or we've gotten better at them). They're still way too hard, however. Each player has a slightly different motion and the timing is simply brutal..

So far, the late game AI is a little erratic. It doesn't happen every time, but you will see the CPU team do stupid things, like take a quick shot when they're winning instead of running the clock out. They'll also do the reverse and dribble around indecisively for too many seconds when they need a bucket. But those examples are in the minority, thankfully.

The game still does the great things you remember, like offering different gameplans from different teams. The Celtics don't play the same game as the Cavs, they use their star players in different ways. And those star players seem to have even more signature animations, which makes the game feel even more real than before.

And the rest of the presentation mostly follows suit. The only time you'll be reminded this isn't a real game is when menus, like for play-calling, get in the way. Advertisements sometimes do the same thing when they pop up, and there's no excusing it. When it comes to excuses, there are also no more left when it comes to the menus. They're different this year, but still horribly organized.

Franchise (the 'Association') and online modes still offer more than enough ways to spend your time. The biggest addition here is mirrored in 2K's NHL 2K9 hockey game, and that's playing online with a live player for everyone on the court - 10 on 10. Not everyone will be interested, but if you can get a game going it's a fascinating experience (and not a bad idea for a social experiment) to see how people act when they all have duties away from the ball.

2K seems very comfortable with their winning formula - they've got a game that plays and looks great that improves a little each year. They've succeeded in adding wrinkles that do what should be the #1 goal of anyone who makes sports games: They stay out of the way.