![]() ![]() NBA 2K18 even makes you go to some of these stores in order to complete some of your objectives. In the few blocks you can walk around - while avoiding all the other online players who are standing or running around - there’s an NBA Store (where you can spend money to buy new clothes), a Foot Locker (where you can spend money to buy new clothes), there’s a Swag shop (where you can - you guessed it - spend money to buy new clothes), there’s a tattoo parlor (where, in an example of things switching up a little, you can spend money to buy new tattoos), and a barbershop (money to buy new haircuts). In practice, however, the Neighborhood is just an excuse to try to drain more money out of players. It’s designed to make it feel like your player doesn’t just exist on the court, but also in a larger world. Here’s another one: the M圜areer Neighborhood.ĭesigned to be a hub world, I kind of understand the thinking behind it. Of course, that’s just one sign that NBA 2K18 is doing some things seriously wrong. Seeing as you’re limited to three on-court drills between games, that meant I spent a lot of time in the gym…and quite frankly, when a basketball game is designed in a way that means you spend more time doing ladder climbs and crunches than actually playing basketball, I feel like that’s a pretty clear sign the game is doing something seriously wrong. My player wasn’t anywhere close to being good enough to getting a lot of time on the court (regardless of what he was told in nonsensical cutscenes), which meant he generally rode the bench, which in turn meant the only way to get better was to earn VC through team practices, or going to the gym and trying out the different exercises. Because I wasn’t interested in shelling out real money to buy fake money, it meant I had to try and better my player through lots and lots and lots of practice. ![]() I speak about the hours in the gym and on the practice court in a very literal sense, by the way. It’s one thing for “pay to win” to infect freemium mobile games (after all, those games are, at least, free to download), but it becomes a bit much to stomach when we’re talking about a AAA console experience. Whereas last year’s game made it possible to grow from prospect to superstar without having to devote yourself too much to earning VC (it just sort of happened naturally), in NBA 2K18 VC is doled out for practice and exercise at the stingiest rate imaginable, which means you either need to spend hours in the gym and on the practice court, doing the same drills over and over and over again…or you can spend a bunch of money, and instantly buy your way into being better. But the amount of grinding you’d need to undertake to get there is more than I can fathom. The game’s focus, at least in the M圜areer mode, is around getting your player to a 99 rating, and 2K have made it so that, essentially, you need to pay to achieve that.ĭon’t get me wrong: with hard work, it’s something you can probably achieve on your own. Here, however, that balance goes flying out the window. Even if VC was present and pushed aggressively in past years, it was never at the expense of making a well-rounded game. In no small part, of course, this is because of the game’s well-documented reliance on Virtual Currency (VC) and microtransactions. And where it succeeded at that in past years ( sometimes spectacularly), this year, it’s those off-the-court components of the game that drag it down. Unfortunately, NBA 2K has, at least for the past few years, been committed to providing an experience that goes beyond the hardwood. That the game continues to run smoothly and competently means that 2K understood the value of sticking with what works, at least when it comes to the game of basketball itself. This should come as no surprise: after all, for the past several years running, the NBA 2K series has been held up as a gold standard for sports games. Also On: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, PS3, Switchįrom a purely technical point of view, NBA 2K18 delivers a solid on-court experience.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |