This is worse than FIFA, at least EA tries to change that shit a bit every year. 2k has been the EXACT SAME since 2018 and they only made it worse year by year. But this one is the cherry on top. Scoring is impossible, you have to green every single shot or it's not going in and everyone feels sluggish and clunky. Mycareer is just filler cringe stuff that it's forced down your throat, and my team is way too grindy for anyone who has a life. I don't know what to say, I didn't think it could get even worse. Waste of money.

This is about as listless as 2k has felt in years.

I picked it up for pretty cheap, $13, on some sort of All-Star weekend sale. It's 2k the same as ever. They added this new 'Eras' mode to the Association mode to celebrate this being, another, Jordan edition but it's pretty thin and dull. It's super cool to see the league evolve year over year, don't get me wrong. But the draft classes are incomplete and you can't really alter too much about how it all plays out (like you can't change anything about the teams that are entering the league in case you wanted to keep the Grizzlies in Vancouver or change the Toronto relocation bid to something else).

Don't get me wrong, it's neat. And it's a step ahead of most other AAA sports releases. But that's an extraordinarily low bar. The historic draft classes are also basically useless in other association modes as they're largely incomplete (draft classes will contain only two real players sometimes). It's a neat thing but games like BBGM do it far better.

There are some neat additions to playing with the WNBA such as the ability to expand the league. But it's still weirdly handicapped. For whatever reason playing as a woman in the game is still a half-assed copy of the male career mode. The WNBA expansion is neat but it's only two franchises that can be added and you can't share your creations or save your own. So they always have to be made entirely from scratch. The limitation seems artificial and I'm not sure why the WNBA can't be expanded further or why their created pieces can't be shared like the NBA version.

Gameplay is the same as ever and the myTeam mode is just as predatory and gacha filled as ever.

All-in-all there's very, very little different from the 2k22 version of the game and in some ways a few things feels like minor steps back or just new frustrations. It's still the most competent AAA sports release on the market, but that's not something we need to sing their praises for.

The main reason I got this year's iteration is because it came with a year's worth of league pass, and I've definitely got my money's worth in that case.

I only really play this is my career mode. The last few years have all been absurd story's about rising stardom, dealing with off court distractions and improving your game. And while that's not changed too much, the approach in this one seems a little different. Almost abstract at times. There were parts outside of playing actual basketball where I couldn't tell if the voice acting was badly edited, or if there were pause for effect moments. The amount of bad puns, street slang and general awkward delivery made it seem like it was taking the piss half the time, and being genuinely sincere the other half. I'm gonna assume that they were all self aware things going on, because outside of getting good at basketball, this is a really stupid career mode. From rapping, skateboarding and fashion quests, to various other side bits, I felt second hand embarrassment playing this sometimes, but if you wanna get that delicious in game currency without paying real life money, those are the hoops you've gotta jump through.

Laborious story mode quirks aside, the game has never been better in terms of the actual basketball. And this season you could draft to any team you want to, which was great because 2k22 sent me to the spurs and they sucked shit. One man does not a brilliant basketball team make.

I managed to throw a few more alley oops and get some 3 pointers in, as well as the usual acrobatic dunks etc. The recent 2k games have been the best basketball video games I have played in terms of the actual game. Unfortunately, everything surrounding that seems to drag it down.

I know they need to keep things fresh and exciting for each annual installment, but the pay to win aspect is bullshit when it comes to playing online. I probably won 2 games in total, because I simply refuse to pay anymore money than what I bought the game for. Plus I like the grind. Playing a your rookie season and seeing those improvements is great. Although if you want to pad your stats, your gonna need to increase the game length as there's no way you're getting more than 25 points a game or a few assists if you don't put the quarter length up to at least 6 mins.

I spent a surprising amount of time racing go karts in the basketball game.

Hey bro, basketball.

Picked this up as part of PS+ and gave it a shot, since I don't think I've played a basketball game for probably 20 years. Apparently basketball games are now Monster Hunter level of detail MMO's? At least the career mode is. I started with that mode and quickly drowned in trying to decipher stats for the gangly, balding baller with the too-long arms that I created (and named Butts McGiggity at the prompting of my very adult partner). There were a thousand cut scenes that I started skipping almost immediately and then I was dropped in my home base. Do newly-drafted NBA stars get an entourage of assistants and a flashy condo downtown as part of the deal? Interesting.

Looking at the names of my crew, I noticed that my girlfriend was my manager and thought that was strange. So, I tried to go back and make a female player to start a WNBA career... not an option. Weird for 2023, guys. Anyhow, went back into my long-armed dude career and apparently there's a story of some beef between another guy and me? And my fans don't like me or something? What is happening with this basketball game? Why does it take an hour to get to the first game? And when you do get to the first game, there's no tutorial on what all the buttons do? I guess you've gotta be a long-time player to just jump into career mode. Anyways, I helped my team win the summer whatever, walked across town to the VP of plot advancement to do some thing about the artificial drama with who cares and then played my first NBA game. Felt good about scoring a point or two and earning a solid C and then hit up that main Playstation menu to pick a different game and never return to this one.

I guess I'll try again in another couple decades.

Review from thedonproject.com