Jesse Bloom

2k has gone another year throwing more glitter and polish on top of the pile of burning trash that is their game. Every year they try to get people hype by showing their new sweat graphics like anyone cares. In terms of the gameplay, it’s incredibly far off from real world basketball. your defenders will run to get out of the way if your opponent drives to the rim on a fastbreak. You’re forced into awkward animations when you try and do simple moves. The career mode forces you to run around their open world to complete tasks, and if you don’t grind (pay) for some kind of bike or skateboard running around the map can take 5 torturous empty minutes you could spend actually playing the game. Instead of fixing the rampant bugs and inconsistencies within the actual gameplay, the developers added the option to start a rap career on top of the nba. Ronald is a sellout and probably the least likable spokesperson 2k could’ve picked. Anybody with anything good to say about the state of this franchise is likely getting paid to do so, likely with all of the money players are forced to spend in order to actually make the game playable. It blows my mind that NBA players agree to partnerships with this horribly greedy and deteriorating franchise. Every year I’m blown away by how little they’ve listened to their community and how much energy they put into features that nobody asked for. Luckily they don’t need to worry about ratings like these at all and they can just focus on sales and profits because they hold a monopoly over basketball games and probably will for a while. Loading this game up honestly fills me with a deep profound sadness that quickly turns into rage when I’m forced to watch a disturbing cg version of Kendrick Perkins speak nonsense just so I can play my next career game and be incredibly disappointed at the abysmal gameplay. Good job with the soundtrack this year I guess but who even cares when the mute button exists. I hate this game. I’m embarrassed I still buy it every year hoping for change. Don’t make my mistake. One hour of “playing” 2k will make you wish for death.