Anybody who knows me knows that I never miss an opportunity to rant about how far this franchise has fallen, besotted by an addiction to MyTeam card pack sales and MyPlayer Virtual Currency sales that has left the MyGM mode in shambles and the core competency of the game - the simulation of the game of basketball - in many ways stuck in the halcyon days of its single player efforts, which inarguably crested a decade ago with the introduction of Michael Jordan and the Jordan Challenge in NBA 2K11 - though the mode's follow-up, 2K12's NBA's Greatest, was arguably more comprehensive and feature complete.

NBA 2K22 is still all of that - it's gross, it's opportunistic, it's most interesting mode for older basketball fans - MyTeam - is still more casino than card collecting video game and still more "Christ we have to figure out how to make Shaq relevant in the modern NBA" rather than "hehe let's see these scrawny modern centers deal with the size of speed of the man who once played Steel on the big screen!" MyGM hasn't seen a significant investment of resources since, I mean, since 2K12 if we're being honest, though they'll always pay their lip service. And the game ultimately still slips into a bit of a scripting trap too often, a legacy issue dating back to the Dreamcast days that stands out all the more after two decades of basketball gaming and the competition completely snuffed out. It's online performance is also still fucking trash - I really don't understand how anyone could enjoy playing this game competitively with the state of the input lag, but I suppose that's been going on for long enough who has time to care anymore?

That said, the number's right there: 34 hours, honest as can be. For all its faults, NBA 2K22 is a great showcase for the newest consoles, MyTeam's abusive attitude towards players can't obscure that baseline dopamine hit of collecting even your least favorite favorite players from your childhood, and in the parlance of Deadspin (R.I.P.) Remembering Some Guys, while the on-court product might not look or feel exactly like basketball looks or feels these days but thanks to a new locomotion and animation branching system at least doesn't feel like giants stomping through a mud field anymore.

In other words, NBA 2K22 is still kind of terrible - but if you're a basketball fan, it's alright? Ugh.

This game is so fucking cool, man. The more I look back on it the more I appreciate so much of what it does. It refined the controls to something a bit more comfortable and pushed further into the concepts they dabbled with in Sly 2, ditching the level by level format they started with and doing something much more open and unique.

Basically, this is an explorative platformer now, having you go around larger maps doing multiple missions to work towards a bigger job at the end, usually being a heist. It works in many different scenarios and mission types which allows for a similar feel to the original while making everything you do feel like a stepping stone towards your ultimate goal.

It helps that the story is really good and keeps you invested in what happens throughout, having the same strong characters but fleshed out more and given more time to do fun stuff and charm its audience. This series most definitely has one of my favourite casts of any game in this genre, and even in general.

It’s obviously not perfect, some missions can be annoying at times, and while playing as other characters is cool…I did find it harder to really do much as Bentley and Murray cause they lack the mobility Sly has and have to find specific paths to get to where you want them. Not to mention Bentley just cannot get away from enemies if they see him.

Still, a true highlight in my look at PS2 games. Will definitely be in my top 30 and may get higher with time!