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[nuclearaddict]

NBA 2K's now the same level of 2Kuality as WWE 2K.

NBA 2K has been on a steady fast decline for a decade. 2K11 was the last great game they produced and even that was riddled with bugs and glitches.

Oh and that netcode. Didn't they just stop using the Dreamcast netcode recently? Or am I mistakenly?

 

[StereoVsn]

NBA 2K 18 gameplay is the best its ever been, its just the other crap you have to deal with

This is correct and it's what makes things even more frustrating. Although even there the shot percentage of "Good" jump shots feels off.

 

[FallingEdge]

NBA 2K 18 gameplay is the best its ever been, its just the other crap you have to deal with

Pretty much. If you are a single player, game feels great. Outside of that tho =//////

 

[Hinedorf]

I'm still playing 2K17 with 126 hours of play time thus far. As both a diehard gamer and sports fan, I've come to find I buy a new sports game for any sports type every other year or 2 years.

If you constantly buy the new iteration, you're never really playing the one you got to the fullest. Glad I skipped 2K18 and still enjoy 2K17.

It sounds like this might be the last NBA game I buy, appreciate the honest reviews.

 

[Dipship31]

I've seen a handful of updates come across for the Switch, but has that been improved at all (or gotten worse) since launch? Playing My Career drove me nuts as the cutscenes and story stuff was glitchy as hell.

 

[Valkrai]

I've seen a handful of updates come across for the Switch, but has that been improved at all (or gotten worse) since launch? Playing My Career drove me nuts as the cutscenes and story stuff was glitchy as hell.

Kind of. It's better now but the game is definitely rough around the edges. I'm tempted myself to get a refund because of how janky the game is.

Edit: I do enjoy it but the grind for My career is insane. And local play is a blast

 

[Exploratory]

If this were like CoD or Destiny or Mario or Uncharted or whatever this thread would have like 50 pages. That's the special part of this situation. Core gamers aren't the primary audience of 2K, sports fans are. They don't have the same voice and so a lot of this stuff doesn't get fixed. The mainstream games media is the same way they don't spend much time covering this.

Now that big 2K YouTubers are blowing them up something might happen. For Chris Smoove to straight up say don't buy the game is insane. That's his livelihood! Crazy.

We'll see what happens.

 

[Harp]

Crazy thing is in teams of playing actual NBA basketball NBA 2k is the best it's ever been.

2k just need to take all the extra stuff out, because I the world of social media things like shoes and mountain dew become more important then NBA basketball in a NBA basketball game.

 

[Kabuki Waq]

Maybe it's better the don't have NFL any longer.

 

[Aj174]

I've been playing every 2k game since 2k7 and this may be the last 2k game I bought.

I only play 5 on 5. I don't care about My Career because I despise microtransactions and what they've done to the game mode compared to the 2k10-2k12 versions. Now it's just an endless grind and its only made to make you buy VC which is stupid.

MyTeam is just a gambling game disguised as a card game, its in all sports games now which shows how much of a money maker it is sadly...

My biggest gripe is with Play Now Online. I love playing online because of the competition. I only play with the Raptors and this year players can choose ALL TIME GREAT teams against anyone...so I'll choose the Raptors and someone will choose the ALL TIME GREAT LAKERS....sometimes I actually win because I do have some skill, but its really frustrating because not being able to filter out all time great teams from play now online really breaks it for me.

In terms of basketball mechanics, the gameplay is AWESOME. The presentation is phenomental. The player models are wonderful, even role players have accurate face scans it's pretty great. The GM mode is great, you can edit salary cap stuff etc lots of deep options.

But man, they should really let you filter out all time great teams when you play online because that's what I mainly play, and when someone can just cheese and choose a team with prime shaq, kobe, wilt chamberlain, kareem abdul jabbar and jerry west...against lowry/derozan...it's really frustrating.

If they don't fix that and add a really simple patch I'm done with the series. I might still play season mode because playing a full 82 game season and then finally playing the playoffs is a next level of intensity that no other game can provide...but this is really the last straw because I don't like using VC so I play game modes that don't try to nickel and dime me when I paid over 70 bucks for this...

Anywho, PC players who wanna play with me in a league or something hit me up

 

[RS4-]

Maybe it's better the don't have NFL any longer.

unlockable cheerleaders and smoke machines. Kneeling is DLC.

 

[Big Baybee]

Chris Smoove is a real one, it’s why I’ve been a fan of his for so long. Sad to see the state of the game.

 

[Nirolak]

With all the drama about lootboxes drawing controversy i wonder why this shit hasn’t blown up.

People only cared about loot boxes because they were in a traditional core oriented single player game and potentially hated progress. This is why it’s been over a decade since loot boxes existed, yet only now do people care.

The audience that traditional game sites service don’t care about sports games so no one is going to discuss it.

 

[Zvonimir Boban]

I've never seen a full price game with this kind of grind or a game that wasn't F2P built so heavily around making you buy virtual currency. It's not like this is an MMO that the devs hope will last 5 years or more, it's an annual sports game for fucks sake.

Then add the broken nature of much of the game, the way the devs patch out ways to earn VC right away but ignore the things that are broken, the career mode that makes you sit through multiple cutscenes advertising Reeses Puffs and Gatorade, the prelude to your career that means it literally takes you 45 minutes just to create a new character because of all the unskippable bullshit, the fact that they had the gall to reduce the amount of VC you earn from playing Pro-Am games because god forbid you max out your player in 22 weeks instead of 25...

Fuck NBA 2K, fuck Red Dead, fuck Civilization, 2K and Take-Two can kiss my arse. They're not getting any more of my money.

This has gone too goddamn far.

 

[ph33nix]

fuck Red Dead

I'm not willing to go that far yet

 

[Rmagnus]

I've never seen a full price game with this kind of grind or a game that wasn't F2P built so heavily around making you buy virtual currency. It's not like this is an MMO that the devs hope will last 5 years or more, it's an annual sports game for fucks sake.

Then add the broken nature of much of the game, the way the devs patch out ways to earn VC right away but ignore the things that are broken, the career mode that makes you sit through multiple cutscenes advertising Reeses Puffs and Gatorade, the prelude to your career that means it literally takes you 45 minutes just to create a new character because of all the unskippable bullshit, the fact that they had the gall to reduce the amount of VC you earn from playing Pro-Am games because god forbid you max out your player in 22 weeks instead of 25...

Fuck NBA 2K, fuck Red Dead, fuck Civilization, 2K and Take-Two can kiss my arse. They're not getting any more of my money.

This has gone too goddamn far.

Their core audience don't give a hoot. They will buy a new one every year so 2k need only to think of more ways to make more money.

 

[marc^o^]

I’m playing this game in story mode and seasons, and don’t need nor see micro transactions. Where does it happen in the game?

 

[StereoVsn]

I'm not willing to go that far yet

Well, we haven't seen VC/lootboxes in there yet. Don't count 2K out on going all in on that shit in RDR2.

 

[AstroNut325]

So if I just want to play some offline games with my son in 2-player matches, is NBA2K18 better or Live 18? Does either game even offer a offline multiplayer mode?

 

[KazenY2J]

So if I just want to play some offline games with my son in 2-player matches, is NBA2K18 better or Live 18? Does either game even offer a offline multiplayer mode?

2K18 definitely.

 

[Chrisdk]

So if I just want to play some offline games with my son in 2-player matches, is NBA2K18 better or Live 18? Does either game even offer a offline multiplayer mode?

Depends on how old your son is and how casual you are. Live is much more accesible in an arcade kinda way. 2K is much closer to real basketball and plays better if you know what you do. Pretty much everything is better in 2K gameplay wise, but it takes more time to learn/get good. Live is more arcade, can be fun to pick up and play, but frustrating if you want a deeper experience.

But i think there are some short demoes out that gives you a feel for the game.

 

[BravesCountry]

I'm so happy I didn't get sucked in to the MyCareer stuff...was so close to paying for some VC. But the progression was originally such shit that it felt almost too blatant so I decided not to and to give up on the mode. I probably won't buy another 2k, just happy to have it on the Switch for the occasional game here and there and for some multiplayer.

 

[Retrozocker]

They also halved potg rewards and win/loss salaries in pro am with the patch.

2k is the shadiest game developer ive ever witnessed in my gaming life...

 

[bbalde]

I've stopped the bleeding with NBA 2K16, and that was a free PS+ game...

 

[Yoshi]

People only cared about loot boxes because they were in a traditional core oriented single player game and potentially hated progress. This is why it’s been over a decade since loot boxes existed, yet only now do people care.

The audience that traditional game sites service don’t care about sports games so no one is going to discuss it.

Is this true? Because sports games seem to have a sizable audience around here and are among the most popular console games everywhere outside of Japan. Of course, the very fact this game is not discussed much in terms of predatory practices, is a good indicator this is true - in fact if this was in the singleplayer of a game of any other genre, I'd be fuming...

 

[King Tubby]

If you're not worried about taking your player online, the best way to play NBA 2k18 MyCareer is to get the PC version, make an offline character, and use trainers to give yourself extra skill points every once in a while and edit your player's animations manually. The grind otherwise is completely ridiculous.

 

[RS4-]

I'm not willing to go that far yet

Unlockable horses, dlc cowboy hats and chaps.

VC for extended mags for your 6 shooter so you can be like Idris Elba in Dark Tower.

 

[ViciousDS]

I’m playing this game in story mode and seasons, and don’t need nor see micro transactions. Where does it happen in the game?

If the career is offline you completely remove the story and the open world of the most part.

All you get is a calendar and the ability to select a game.

The career this year is actually locked to the online version of it

 

[Yoshi]

If you're not worried about taking your player online, the best way to play NBA 2k18 MyCareer is to get the PC version, make an offline character, and use trainers to give yourself extra skill points every once in a while and edit your player's animations manually. The grind otherwise is completely ridiculous.

I think it is an interesting question if such a circumvention of rip-off techniques should be considered a form of piracy.

 

[King Tubby]

I think it is an interesting question if such a circumvention of rip-off techniques should be considered a form of piracy.

If you're subverting the online economy, maybe you can consider it cheating, but if you're playing your single player game offline, you should be able to play it however you want. It's nonsense.

 

[Zvonimir Boban]

I'm not willing to go that far yet

They also halved potg rewards and win/loss salaries in pro am with the patch.

2k is the shadiest game developer ive ever witnessed in my gaming life...

That was the last straw for me, shafting the players over a measly 300 VC. Even if you saved up all of that VC to put towards another player, you'd have to win something like 700-800 Pro-Am games in order to have enough to max out a new player. That's how insignificant it was, yet they did it anyway.

 

[old manatee]

"NBA 2k18 becomes more broken as more patches get introduced"


They must have had the Rainbow Six Siege devs working on this one.

 

[Audioboxer]

I've never seen a full price game with this kind of grind or a game that wasn't F2P built so heavily around making you buy virtual currency. It's not like this is an MMO that the devs hope will last 5 years or more, it's an annual sports game for fucks sake.

Then add the broken nature of much of the game, the way the devs patch out ways to earn VC right away but ignore the things that are broken, the career mode that makes you sit through multiple cutscenes advertising Reeses Puffs and Gatorade, the prelude to your career that means it literally takes you 45 minutes just to create a new character because of all the unskippable bullshit, the fact that they had the gall to reduce the amount of VC you earn from playing Pro-Am games because god forbid you max out your player in 22 weeks instead of 25...

Fuck NBA 2K, fuck Red Dead, fuck Civilization, 2K and Take-Two can kiss my arse. They're not getting any more of my money.

This has gone too goddamn far.

But they won't be able to release their annual $60+ game if they don't do this? Pls be excited.

Yeah, releasing a patch which actually nerfs the amount of currency you can earn without paying. What the fuck? Have they not been reading the response to the game online? And some people have the nerve to say these pubs/devs won't hurt the balance of their games to try and push people to spending money. It's "just optional" shortcuts for the single dad with 8 kids and 3 jobs.

Which can then translate into you're engaging in piracy if you cheat in the SP PC version to avoid this madness.

 

[NoHeDidn't]

I don't buy sports games but man what happened to Fight Night? I remember demoing at GS and bought it right after.I know UFC is whats "in" and easier to license fighters since they're all under UFC but I'll take a Fight Night even with made up fighters.


FFS people stop buying 2k18 imagine how much money,sanity and time you'd save by not playing.Hell not playing 2k18 will also lower your blood pressure better than any prescribed pill can with the added benefit of sending a message that matters instead of empty threats and rants.

 

[PhantomThief]

2k is garbage

Xcom also runs like shit on consoles. Yet they gladly take our 60 bucks and say nothing about performance patches. 2k is total garbage and personally im not buying anything they put out

 

[Jeronimo Jones]

The way VC is balanced is pure greed and I refuse to buy any.

I'll need to watch these videos to see what the other major complaints are that I've been missing/avoiding by sticking to the myplayer and play now modes.

 

[Elephant]

At least 2K has allowed me to narrow down my list of credible reviewers in recent years. You gave it a high score did you? Cute...

 

[xrnzaaas]

That's why you wait until black friday to buy this game
It's always half off

$30 is perfect for this game since it has a shit load of micro transactions

Just don't be too late to the party or they'll turn off the servers.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

2K Games. Not even once.

 

[potatohead]

Conversely live 18 is the biggest upgrade of that series in over a decade

Graphically also very superior to 2k18

I do like mafia 3 though

 

[GamePlay Johnny]

But they won't be able to release their annual $60+ game if they don't do this? Pls be excited.

I'm finishing up an article about the story of MT's in NBA2K as its told through their financial reports over the years. I think one billion $ per year from MT's across their AAA full-price catalog is a realistic goal for them, if not this year then the next one. That's enough to cover several AAA projects every year.

 

[Kill3r7]

2K18 is pretty much a combination of the worst fears people have for modern AAA games. Too bad it's not getting the media attention it deserves because it's a sports game.

It is selling really well. Hard to point the finger and say shame on you when the public keeps buying more and more of these games.

 

[marc^o^]

If the career is offline you completely remove the story and the open world of the most part.

All you get is a calendar and the ability to select a game.

The career this year is actually locked to the online version of it

Sure but so far I’m 2 hours into my career, and I didn’t need any micro transaction to progress. Does it change later on?

 

[spanna]

Sure but so far I’m 2 hours into my career, and I didn’t need any micro transaction to progress. Does it change later on?

Im about 6 hours into my career and havent seen any microtransactions. :-\
Where are they supposed to be ?

 

[Audioboxer]

I'm finishing up an article about the story of MT's in NBA2K as its told through their financial reports over the years. I think one billion $ per year from MT's across their AAA full-price catalog is a realistic goal for them, if not this year then the next one. That's enough to cover several AAA projects every year.

I don't doubt the financial reports being incredibly successful. Nor that kind of revenue being able to be used to fund other projects. There just has to be a better balance than what 2K have released within NBA 2K18 for monetary gain vs brand enjoyment/loyalty.

I'm not quite sure how far Live has fallen with basketball, as I'm not a follower of basketball itself. It seems if Live hadn't fallen down as badly as it seems it has maybe it would be able to take more of NBA 2K18s player base. I doubt Live's MTs are anywhere near as bad as 2K18 but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[ElNino]

If the career is offline you completely remove the story and the open world of the most part.

All you get is a calendar and the ability to select a game.

The career this year is actually locked to the online version of it

So if my son (who is locked out of the 2K servers because he isn't 13) plays on his main account then his career mode won't even have the new stuff for this year's game?

I was going to get the game for him as a reward for some school activities, but paying ~$90 to only get a shell of the game is really stretching it.

 

[GamePlay Johnny]

I don't doubt the financial reports being incredibly successful. Nor that kind of revenue being able to be used to fund other projects. There just has to be a better balance than what 2K have released within NBA 2K18 for monetary gain vs brand enjoyment/loyalty.

I agree.

The sad truth is, this revenue is unlikely to go towards new projects and especially not new IP's. They seem set on their strategy to have a couple of big franchises that are heavily monetized. They say this loud and clear to their investors.

So far brand loyalty for NBA2K has not suffered. I'm very curious to read their next financial statement because 2K18 has really raised the bar on MT's. If they break another record on VC revenue we can expect 2K19 to be even crazier.

 

[Sarcastic Poster]

I'm a huge 2K fan but the new game is an utter piece of shit due to microtransactions for everything. Unskippable cutscenes, botched Switch port etc. I'm not buying another game by 2K unless they fix a lot of things.

 

[MCee]

Worst installment since I started playing the series on Dreamcast. Got the Switch version and spend most of my time doing sim in mygm until the face scan update goes out and less errors and glitches are present. When I feel like playing games in mygm to get VC and progress through the mode, it freezes during games 40-50% of the time. After patch 4, it freezes whenever I hit exit after games without fail.

Not touching it again until these issues are gone. The jank is enough but the bugs and freezes are overkill. Haha.

 

[shpankey]

atrocious game from a company w/ unacceptable practices that is unapologetic, anyone who buys from them is condoning this future in all videogames.

review sites (save one) are just as guilty