NBA 2K19 The Prelude: 5 Ups & 3 Downs

2. Still Some Graphical Hitches

Graphical glitches appear less frequent in 2K19 than they were in last year's game. That's a positive, but the negative part is that they still occur when viewing replays.

There's a serious issue with arms going through skulls, or players legs tangling up into a nightmarish-looking mess of limbs. These are all things 2K will (hopefully) iron out before the full release, and maybe they're part and parcel of testing out demo code. That's what The Prelude is presented as, in fairness.

Other annoying hitches show up during free throws (in the form of stuttering frame rates), when the game moves in and out of cut scenes and when players sprint back onto the court following a time out call. It causes an otherwise brilliantly-presented game to look amateurish and unfinished.

Again, there's a chance this will be patched out pre-release. Fingers crossed on that one, because nobody needs reminding just how much glitching ruined 2K18's gameplay. There's no point in looking back over instant replays when they expose the system's setbacks.