![]() Speaking of neglect, let’s now turn our attention to M圜areer. The NBA, with its small rosters, big personalities and constant drama would be the perfect setting for a more comprehensive, theatrical management mode - basically bringing M圜areer’s cutscenes to the backroom - and it’s a pity that 2K keeps on neglecting it. That particularly sucks for MyGM, which I’ve quietly held out hope for years was going to become the next best thing about the 2K series. MyLeague and MyGM, though, are almost unchanged. It’s got a whole new coat of paint, swapping out the incredibly gross casino theme, and has had its progression system rebuilt, so if this is what you spend your time on - and a lot of people do, even when they know what they’re getting themselves into! - you might be more upbeat on 2K21 than I am, especially when we get to the part of the review when I talk about how this actually plays. It’s fitting then that the only real upgrades to be found in 2K21 outside of a redesigned Neighbourhood hub world is in MyTeam, 2K’s version of EA’s Ultimate Team, aka the game mode where you can spend real money on packs of cards that might contain good players, and more often than not…does not. This game is the barest of upgrades, in some cases a downgrade from what’s come before, and yet at every step you’re still being hustled to spend real money on trinkets and upgrades, even in singleplayer game modes, despite this already being a full-price retail game. It’s a sports game thought exercise, an experiment in a publisher seeing just how little they can offer players while still maximising their profits. NBA 2K21 is the contemporary 2K experience, as viewed through the eyes of an exhausted fanbase, taken to its logical conclusion. So when I spend this review saying NBA 2K21 is full of rehashed content, I say so with a slightly heavier heart than usual, because the fact we’re getting new games released at all in 2020 is a blessing considering the developmental, economic and logistical hassles involved.īut also, this is a full-priced game with the beating heart of a mobile free-to-play scam, so my sympathies only extend so far. And it’s far from normal! Imagine all that having to be accounted for, only now the developers have to also work from home in the middle of a global pandemic. That was going to be the case if 2020 turned out normal. In order to get both games out the door corners tend to be cut, shortcuts taken and everywhere a 3D model or a menu or even a game mode can simply be recycled, instead of created or even refined, you bet your arse it’s going to be recycled. Developers like 2K and EA Sports, normally stretched trying to develop one game a year, have suddenly had to release two, a last-gen version where all the money is, and a next-gen edition where all the headlines are. It was always going to be this way, because it’s the same story every time we make the jump to a new console generation. In case you couldn’t already tell from Madden 21’s lacklustre reviews or the fact PES 2021 isn’t even coming out as a standalone release, 2020 is going to be a very bad year for sports video games. I don’t mean that in a “hurh durh sports games are just roster updates” way, I mean it in the most literal sense. Which it turns out was pretty easy to do, since so little has changed since 2K20. But this year I blew through it so quickly that I was able to play the rest of the game as well, so surprise, we’re getting a review of all of NBA 2K21. When I sit down with 2K’s new basketball game every year, I normally only take the time to review its M圜areer mode, since that’s the part I’m most interested in.
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