For series stalwarts, shooting sixty to seventy percent from the field isn’t uncommon, since defenders put up a marginal effort. While comprehensive Control Stick lessons are a boon to newcomers, the game’s lowered difficulty levels means the title isn’t as frustrating as past iterations. While purists can revert to the old Isomotion input method, unless players lack perseverance (look in the Training Cam to learn the game’s multiplicity of dribbling moves) they’ll want to transition over to the new control system. To accommodate the addition of the Control Stick, shooting now involves holding down the left trigger, which also serves as a modifier- allowing players to initiate bounce passes and lay ups. From performing a crossover by tapping the stick away from the ball handler’s dominant hand to executing a stutter step by pressing toward the hoop, the new input method becomes gratifyingly intuitive after a few practice games. While players still determine the direction of their selected athlete with the left thumbstick, dribbling moves have been mapped to the right stick. Hitting the hardwood, 2K13’s control method has received a radical revision with the inclusion of the Control Stick. Mercifully, Visual Concepts’ latest iteration offers a competent balance, delivering additional indulgences while providing the requisite evolutionary enhancements. From the addition of a celebrity team driven by the abnormally proportioned likenesses of Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston to the signing of Jay Z as the title’s executive producer, I was worried that fame-driven superfluities were going to take precedence over fundamental gameplay improvements. Although feature creep is a frequent phenomenon for long-running sport franchises, the preseason prognosis for NBA 2k13 seemed slightly distressing.