UPDATE:

Lone holdout Scottie Pippen has agreed to terms with 2K Sports and will now be playable in the shipping version of NBA 2K13 , both on the 1992 Dream Team and on the game's classic Bulls teams. Here's a new screenshot with Pippen added back in.

Dream Weavers

Hands-On Impressions

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L.A. Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant made waves before the 2012 Summer Olympics began when he said that the 2012 edition of Team USA could beat the fabled 1992 Dream Team that featured no fewer than 11 Hall of Famers. “It’d be a tough one,” Kobe predicted. “But I think we could pull it out.”Unsurprisingly, the 1992 legends literally chuckled at the notion. “I absolutely laughed,” Michael Jordan said in response. “For him to compare those two teams is not one of the smarter things he ever could have done.” Original Dream Team forward Charles Barkley also got a kick out of Bryant’s prediction, retorting, “Other than Kobe, LeBron, and Kevin Durant, I don’t think anybody else on that team makes our team.”Since time machines haven’t been invented yet, how can we possibly settle this eternal debate? Enter NBA 2K13, which will feature a Dream Team mode that lets you pit the 1992 team against the 2012 squad. Perhaps the bigger news is the long-awaited video game return of Barkley, who lends his name and likeness to a hoops game for the first time since the Sega Genesis cult classic Barkley Shut Up and Jam! 2 in 1995. Why now, Sir Charles?“[NBA 2K13 executive producer] Jay-Z put in a call to Charles himself and helped us forge an agreement,” said 2K Sports marketing VP Jason Argent.Ultimately, only Scottie Pippen, whom 2K could not reach a licensing agreement with, is excluded from the roster. Still, Jordan commented to IGN about the Dream Team face-off, “I think it’s going to start debates. I don’t think it’s going to end any.”And so the gang is finally all back together. Why did it take so long for His Airness to sign on the dotted line with a video game company? “I just didn’t have a passion to do that, initially,” Jordan said. “[But now] I felt the need to connect to this different era, this different generation,” because “now, these kids don’t have an opportunity to see me play” on TV or in-person.But what of the game itself? We finally got to play it, and a few significant changes should keep hoops fans happy for another year. First is the Control Stick. Think of it as a merging of NBA 2K’s long-running Isomotion controls with NBA Live’s old Freestyle controls. Basically, you now hold the left trigger in order to go into the Shot Stick you already know. The default actions on the right thumbstick are now ball and body controls, allowing you to do a ridiculous array of moves. Even bounce passes are now at your control by holding LT and pressing A.“There were things in basketball we just couldn’t do with Isomotion as it was before,” said gameplay director Rob Jones.Second are Signature Skills, a new way of differentiating the unique talents of the league’s best players. Expect upwards of 30 of them total, with each player having up to five of the passive abilities. Clutch, Deadeye, Lockdown Defender, and others will make the stars just a little more accurate to their real-life counterparts, and in My Player you’ll be able to develop them with your custom avatar.The third is for Xbox fans, and it’s Kinect voice support. Don’t panic, though: there’s nary a gesture control to be found. Instead, you can simply call out plays with your voice rather than digging through the D-pad menu during possessions. For instance, you can say, “Run a screen for me,” or “Call a post play for Bosh.”I always loved NBA Live’s Freestyle controls, so mixing them with NBA 2K13’s more simulation-style gameplay is a huge win for me. Combine that with the return of my all-time favorite player Charles Barkley and (most of) the rest of the original Dream Team and NBA 2K13 might have somehow found a way to up its game yet again. Now if we could just get Jay-Z to give Scottie Pippen a call…

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He is a lifelong Phoenix Suns fan, so you should feel sorry for him. Follow him on Twitter , on IGN , catch him on Podcast Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.