I've been a loyal 2k sports customer since I got into the NBA video game in 2013. Unfortunately, I will continue to buy 2k every year no matter how many gripes I have. It's far and away the best basketball game on the market, but its lack of competition has allowed it to get lazy. There are four main game modes: Play Now, MyCareer/Park, MyTeam, and MyLeague/MyGM. Most of my complaints come from the MyLeague game play as that is what I play most often.
Here's how I rank the game modes in order of what I play most often:
1. MyLeague / MyGM -
These game modes allow the user to test their GM, coach, and commissioner skills. You can simulate (or play) through years and years of NBA seasons and control ALL of the background noise including trades, game plans, drafts, league rules, and many other NBA season factors. MyGM adds more of a story to this and makes the decision making a little more personal.
2. MyTeam -
This is 2k's version of ultimate team. The user builds a fantasy lineup by collecting various levels of past and present players' cards.
3. MyCareer / Park -
User creates their own player to start an NBA career with and also play with other created players at the 'park.'
4. Play Now -
This is the simplest form of the game. User vs. AI or user vs. user single game play with a plethora of current and classic NBA teams.
Now that you see how I play 2k, here are my eight biggest gripes that I have come across in the game:
1. Start Today Glitch:
One of the best features about MyLeague is that you can start your league off on the actual date. The 2k servers store all of the live statistics, so there's no reason to re-sim all of the games and events leading up to the point you want to play. This year, I went to 'Start Today' the day after the play-in games were finished. Once I got it all set up, it brought me to a blank playoff bracket with no options to move forward. That was two months ago!! There have been two game updates, and this glitch is still occurring. You're probably thinking, "okay well the season is over now." Exactly! In previous games, it would just start me in the current off season.
Worth noting: because I'm poor, I play on the PS4. It's possible that they gave up on the old generation. But Ronnie, I beg! Let me start today. I paid full price still.
2. 2021 Draft Class:
This gripe coincides with the previous. Because I haven't been able to 'start today,' I've accepted starting a MyLeague at the beginning of this season. 2k gives the option to start in the previous off season, so I wanted to see how a 2021 redraft would turn out! Shame on me for having expectations because after pick 4, I noticed a silly little trend. The ENTIRE CLASS had been duplicated and renamed. Cade Cunningham and his identical clone, Lee Carter, were drafted 1 & 2, followed by Evan Mobely and his clone, John Hampton. I simulated up to my pick and looked at the remaining board and every player had somehow been duplicated.
God bless PlayStation user ______ for creating a downloadable 2021 class.
3. Talent Inflation:
Somewhere around four years into the typical MyLeague simulation, the amount of 'good' players triples. Teams will have 10 players in their rotation above 84 overall, and the league will have 5-6 players with the same overall as Michael Jordan. While this does create league parity, it also completely ruins the realism of the future. The game mode offers player progression and regression sliders to combat this issue, but there is no perfect setting. The progression and regression needs more volatility. Not every lottery pick develops into a star, and not every 2nd round pick is out of the league after two years. This game mode needs to do a better job reflecting this.
4. The Pelicans:
Sticking with the MyLeague theme, the Pelicans are almost always the simulated 2023 or 2024 NBA champions. Do they have a good core? Yes. Could they win a championship soon? Maybe so. But because of Zion's career availability, I can't stand seeing New Orleans win without making any notable moves.
If I made better roster moves for the user team, I could easily avoid this. Note to self: Win so that the Pelicans can't.
5. Awards:
The simulated league awards have zero voting fatigue. Luka Doncic wins MVP for 10 consecutive years, Giannis Antetokounmpo wins 10 consecutive DPOYs, and only superteam coaches win COTY. The award winners always deserve their awards, but some parity would be nice.
6. MyCareer Stat Lines:
I get that this is a videogame and that it is supposed to be fun, but I hate how easy MyCareer games are. There is no reason that your MyPlayer should be scoring 80% of the teams' points in every game. 80+ ppg is not fun. Turn up the difficulty? Okay sure. Now he's averaging 25ppg and the team scores 32 points because none of the AI teammates can score. There is no realistic single player control game play options because the AI is too robotic to make the correct basketball play. I'm not just begging for a realistic difficulty setting here; I also need a more realistic story line. This whole MyCareer movie thing with cut-away scenes has been so ass. I don't need a made up, cookie cutter story about NBA scouts saw my player playing a pick up game at a park and gave me a G-league opportunity. I don't need to start my career in China and have a fictional college rival. Just give me a few college games and draft me based on my performance in those games. Base the career off of that draft position. Let me earn the superstar title!
7. AI Perimeter Defense:
I touched on how bad the AI teammates are on offense, but they are HOF perimeter defenders. It is not easy to get by AI defenders, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. My gripe here is that people take advantage of this when playing against another user. Basically, if you don't play on-ball defense, it makes it much more difficult for your opponent to get to the basket. People will camp with the center and use their big as a free safety while the AI does the hard work for them. It's cheap, but it's effective.
Easy fix: get better at offense.
8. MyTeam complexity:
MyTeam is a fun and creative game mode. Collecting rare players and building custom line ups is such a great idea. Add custom uniforms and arenas, it creates a whole fantasy style game mode. My gripe? It has gotten too cute. They have added too many different 'cards' to use. Attributes, badges, and shoes are all used to upgrade the player cards, but why do we need any of that? You need to add 3 attribute cards to a specific shoe card and apply it to a player for them to be better for a limited amount of games. It's weird. It's complex. It's tedious. The game only needs player cards.
I will continue to buy 2k every year regardless, but my gripes were starting to pile up. 2k is one of the most beloved video games, and many other players have their own list of gripes. Lucky for us, Ronnie will take all of our thoughts into consideration and give us an in game picture of Ja Morant's sweaty, animated face.
