There's a lot of good things about NBA 2K10, the latest iteration in the annual string of acclaimed basketball simulators from 2K Sports.

The game's depth of control gives users a mind-boggling number of new button combinations invoking some stunning on-court moves. Strategies and team playbooks are all accessible and updated. Add that to the tight online integration with NBA player and team roster stats and you're about as close as you can get to hard court action without lacing up your Jordans.

Think shoulder-fakes, quick-pivots, jab-steps, pull-up jumpers and more alley-oops, passes and dunks than you can imagine, each tailored to your player's style.

Button-mashers who aren't predisposed to learning said button combos can still get by; rudimentary controls are easy, especially those critical free throws.

What isn't as intuitive, mind you, are the in-game coaching and playmaking controls, which often take up too much screen space and block your view of the actual game going on.

Graphics this year are better, as you'd expect of an annual sports game outing. The players have a healthy and more human glow to them - they no longer look as if they were dipped in Plasticine. Faces, fabrics, mannerisms and expressions, all more authentic than ever.

NBA 2K10's NBA Today feature, the integration of real-time player and game statistics as well as up-to-the-moment league news into the gaming experience, works really well.

For example, a game played as the Toronto Raptors a day after they lost to the Boston Celtics was followed by a surprisingly faithful in-game commentary providing a break down of statistics and player updates pertinent to that very preseason Boston game played less than a day before.

Speaking of which, the commentary is one of the game's strong points; announcers intelligently avoid the canned cliches that most sports games tend to spam in lieu of genuinely useful color.

There's a new My Player feature in NBA 2K10 that allows you to create your own player and guide his career through the training camps and hopefully up to pro hoops.

However, while amusing and mildly engaging at first, the My Player mode actually only provides a long road of heartbreak as your rookie player is cut from a team for the slightest mistake. He's even berated for all his errors by the in-game commentator. Worse, the other players in this mode aren't too bright, but it's your guy that gets the blame more often than not. Long story short: My Player mode is no fun.

What is fun is letting loose with your favorite all-star whose moves and strengths you already know, so you're easily knocking down shots from areas in which they excel. As a single player game or online with others, running fast breaks and lighting up the scoreboard as the home crowd cheer's get louder is what it's all about.

Continuing a lauded tradition, NBA 2K10 is still the basketball simulator to beat.

NBA 2K10 Cheat: Enter "ClassicThreads" as a code to unlock alternate/classic jerseys.