Terry McGill

NEXT GEN MYCAREER REVIEW... MyPlayer Builder: This year's 2k22 MyCareer as a whole has exceeded expectations for most if not all users. All the 2k YouTubers that I watch (LakerFan, JackedBilled, JoeKnows, and others) have put in a ton of hours into the MyPlayer builder looking for exploits or inconsistencies, but it has held up air-tight to force you to make a balanced build. I myself have put in a ton of hours into the builder, and have several builds that I like, but you cannot make demigods due to attributes being tied together (Raising your 3 point shot forces your mid range to rise, raising your mid range forces your close shot to rise, raising your perimeter defense forces your speed/acceleration to rise, ect). RPG element/presentation/new additions: The RPG element is amazing with all the quest and missions to improve upon little things like being able to fast travel, mamba mentality, and to earn VC. The best addition was winning the college national championship adding 4 badges to your total badge count depending on what school you attend. This makes even more personalization to your build, and gives ALOT of incentive to really attempt to win the tournament. Gameplay: I have not played online at all due to grinding my player (hate playing online while I have no badges, low attributes, and no animations), but I have watched park and rec gameplay. The park/rec gameplay I have watched looks great imo. I think contact dunks may still be a bit overpowered, or they were going against builds that have yet to maximize their defensive potential. Nevertheless, it is not as bad as last year. Defense is supremely improved. No more sliding and the new badge "menace" (the offensive player's attributes drops as long as you are staying in front of them playing good defense) seems very rewarding. Shooting feels great as well, giving users a great boost shooting wide open, and the meter is altered and is difficult to hit a shot the more you are contested (as it should be). Offline playing against the CPU is way tougher which can be a double edge sword. Some players want to get though it decently easily so they can max out their builds to play online, where others would like a challenge. I am in the first group I listed, but it makes the CPU NBA grind more interesting since the AI is greatly improved. Negatives: I would give the MyCareer mode 5 stars, but your player's attributes start off so low, and attribute upgrades cost a ton more VC than previous years (to max out your dunk or 3 pointer cost like 75k VC by itself, and you need about 300k VC to max out your build to 84 overall) makes it so that you are basically forced to purchase VC if you want to have fun. I attempted to be "no money spent" but you cant do anything starting out vs the CPU in college or the NBA without being at least in the mid 70s overall.

I would give the game 1 star, but the constant Diamond Dynasty content gives it another star imo. The bad: - Online gameplay is completely different than offline. Pitch speeds and break is way different even if you are playing on the same difficulty online as offline. I'm guessing due to servers issues. - Server issues are terrible. many games end up being freeze offs, so that whomever turns off the game first gets the L, even if they are winning. Many players purchase expensive monitors to play on because it makes the bad servers more barrable. - Gameplay is awful. Hits/HRs with the ball being outside of the PCI constantly, hits/HRs with the ball being placed in the other batters box, rolling on the ground, and like 10 feet in the air. - PinPointPitching or PPP allows every pitch to be dotted on the black or perfectly in a corner, and allows pitchers to pitch 120-150 pitches without even going into the yellow. - In ranked games, 95% of the time an at bat results in a strikeout, popup, or HR. There is a legit combined 5% chance that the batter hits a single, double, or triple. I quit a game the other day where a guy had 4 hits and 4 HRs with 2 balls being well outside of the strike zone, with none being in the center of the PCI. - Bunt and speed cheese is back, so stealing is super easy and fielders are extremely lackadaisical when a batter bunts. - Speed fielders run down every line drive into the outfield. - Countless hours spent on moments where you have to throw multiple innings without allowing a hit, just to give up a hit to the last batter outside of the zone; and moments where you have to hit a HR or XBH with a batter with no power. - RTTS is completely broken. You have multiple missions to complete to gain better archetypes, but the tracking of those missions is broken, so you can complete an entire season and it not count towards your missions. Makes it impossible to make your player better. Some youtubers have found ways around it, but it doesnt work all the time and is very time consuming. - I'm on Xbox and this is the first year The Show has been available. They have crossplay set up so we can play PS people that have been playing the game for 15-20 years. I just recently turned off the crossplay which makes the game more playable. The good: - The DD content is great and a lot of fun to grind. Players can be obtained through offline grinding for no money spent which deserves credit. - The games presentation from batter HR animations to foul ball animation are great as well.

Broken gameplay. Worse part is that EA knows but just doesn't care. Boycott EA games so they don't release such a bad product.