Visual Concepts and 2K Sports have a long history with the NBA and throughout the many years they have held the NBA license to make simulation basketball video games they have constantly innovated and pushed quality boundaries when it comes to sport video games, I would even go as far as saying the NBA2K series is one of the most popular and well-made sports video game series ever created.

With a game series spanning many console generations they have pushed out an NBA game year after year and managed to deliver new features in each iteration to avoid the common sports game pitfall where each game just feels like an expensive roster update. As the years went on though dreaded microtransactions started to rear their ugly head in the beloved NBA franchise I had played for many years, at first I understood why they were added, creating new content and keeping servers running costs money and this needs to be funded somehow, after all game studios have to make a profit or else the shareholders get angry and if that happens it is highly likely that the game series will be canned and we won’t get any future editions, eventually though a line will be crossed and in the case of NBA2k24 the line was not only crossed it was doused in gasoline, set fire to and wiped off the face of the Earth. Get your wallets ready because 2K wants your money and they aren’t going to let you play basketball without it, even if you did shell out money to buy the game.

For those who have never played the NBA2K series or who are returning from a long break from the series, MyCareer mode is one of the games most popular modes and sees you creating a player and usually going through a story mode and college in order to be eventually drafted into the NBA as a fresh-faced rookie. There have been many changes to the mode over the years and for the past few years 2K Sports have created “The City” a place where players can ride around on skateboards, go carts and other forms of transport (This year we get pogo sticks, who in the seven circles of hell asked for that?) in order to complete quests and to show off your ‘drip’ to other players, I mean why spend real life money on virtual clothing unless you get a chance to show it off to other players right?

In order upgrade your player you need to play through games with the NBA team that drafted you in order to earn VC which you can in-turn use to upgrade your players stats, it has always been a long and time consuming journey to upgrade your player so a lot of people have become accustomed to paying real life money in order to buy VC to upgrade your player to a reasonable overall rating to be able to compete, you can also earn VC by using your player to compete online (which is really the whole point of the game mode) at the park, theatre or the rec, but honestly you are not going to want to do this until you have upgraded your player to a certain overall rating as the online community can be fairly toxic and nobody wants to play with a 60 overall rated player, this was the way 2K used to force you to either grind or pay up in order to progress and to tell you the truth I was fine with this, at least you had a choice, this year though the insidious microtransaction fuckery has reached disgusting levels.

All created players have badges, these can range from making you better at dribbling, 3 point shooting, dunks through to playing better defense, the badges you can unlock depend on what type of build you have created for your player, for instance a 7 foot tall Center won’t have access to the same badges as a Point Guard or Power Forward, you used to be able to pick and choose which badges you upgrade by spending points that you earnt by playing the game which in turn meant you could shape your characters abilities as you wanted, if you were having trouble with shooting then you could put points into a shooting badge for example. This year the whole badge system has been given an overhaul and you only earn progress towards badges by actually using the skills that are associated with the badges you want to earn, at first I thought this actually might be a good change, I mean it makes sense right, you need to use a skill consistently to actually get better at a skill, this new system might actually be great.

That is until you realise that this new badge system has been designed to get you so frustrated that you either open your wallet and buy Virtual Currency or come to the stark realization that you have just purchased a full priced game that makes it become mandatory to swipe your credit card in order to be able to enjoy it to the fullest extent. Let me explain, you see badges not only increase when you use them (though at times it seems no matter how much you utilise a skill the badge meter will not move) but they ALSO decrease at a much larger rate when you don’t utilise a skill, you can have one bad game and essentially lose all of the progress towards a badge that you just accumulated in your last 3 games. The only way to effectively stop badge regression at higher levels is to reach level 40 in the games season pass as this provides you with a ‘gold floor setter’ badge that effectively stops your badges regressing below gold. Reaching level 40 is no easy feat given the fact that you only have 40 days to do so and that online games provide very minimal experience towards each level and playing career games with your NBA team provides no experience at all to levelling up.

Of course, you can pay real money to skip levels in the pass ($3.35 AUD per level) which works out to around $130 AUD to get to the floor setter badge, then once season 1 ends you can then look forward to the next season pass and how many times you will need to swipe your card to remain competitive. Offering non cosmetic upgrades in the season pass and allowing players to buy these rewards by paying money and skipping levels is effectively making the game pay to win, disgusting. It gets worse though, there is more than one season pass tier, there is a second one called the pro pass which will set you back $16.95 that provides you with another season reward path which also offers pay to win items such as the ‘limitless range’ badge at hall of fame level. What 2K have done to the game this year is a travesty, the money grabbing is so blatant that they don’t even try to hide it, it has made it impossible for casual players of the MyCareer mode to remain even remotely competitive without shoveling out large amounts of money to get essential upgrades for their player.

So, is MyCareer all bad? No, there have been several improvements made this year, one of the best of them being that you don’t have to spend hours playing through a story and multiple cut scenes before getting to the NBA, you can simply pick a team and start there. The size of the city has also been reduced which is also a win as it takes less time to get where you need to go, one of the biggest improvements though is that most of the important areas of the game such as the practice facility and Gatorade gym can now be accessed straight from the stadium either before or after a game, this cuts down on so much time that used to be spent running around the city trying to complete daily and weekly tasks. There is a lot to do in the city and it feels a lot more active and busy due to the reduced size.

MyTeam is probably the second most popular mode in the NBA2K series, for those who have never played this mode it is similar to MUT mode in Madden, you collect cards by grinding challenges for them, obtaining them through packs or buying them from the games online marketplace. MyTeam has always been miles ahead of Madden though simply because of the sheer amount of game modes and challenges that are included. One of the best changes this year is the fact that playing any type of game in MyTeam mode will give you experience towards the games season pass, where 2K giveth though they also taketh away and they have done in a big way where the player market is concerned, the market used to be a place where players could sell and buy cards from each other, setting whatever price they want, 2K claims that due to community feedback they received that players were claiming the old market was unfair (I read a lot of feedback and watch a lot of videos on NBA2K and have never seen this mentioned once) so they have decided that the market is now going to move from the previous auction style format to a new format where most player cards will be available on the market but 2K will set the pricing for them, wow I wonder what could be the motivation behind that…

This year also introduces ‘Mamba Moments’ a single-player challenge-based mode similar to the excellent Jordan Challenge mode introduced in last year’s game. This time around you play through a series of moments from Kobe Bryant’s career trying to win games and recreate the stat lines from the real-life games that Kobe played in. Each of the games are graced with the same real life broadcast presentation packages that you would expect from the different years the games take place in which really adds a lot to the authenticity of each moment. This is a great game mode when you have minimal time and just want to pick up the game and play some quick hoops, there are some nice rewards to win for completing all the challenges such as an armband, necklace and jersey for your MyCareer player and jerseys and cards for the MyTeam mode.

The excellent MyNBA mode also returns this year and in my opinion, this is one of the most comprehensive franchise modes in any sports game I have ever played. The amount of tweaking you can do in MyNBA is absolutely mind blowing and you can truly tailor your franchise experience to the way you want to play. The eras mode also returns and now you can start your own franchise taking control of LeBron James and The Miami Heat from 2003 in an attempt to build your own dynasty, this expands the eras mode to now include 5 different eras from NBA history, the Jordan era, the Magic vs Bird era, the Kobe Era, the LeBron era and the current day era. A new feature this year is you will see well known players visually age as they go through their career, for example Kobe will start off his young career with a mini fro and progress through to the bald headed Kobe that we are all used to from later on in his career, this is a really nice touch and shows that 2K are still kings when it comes to the presentation component of sports games. Player appearance is not the only thing that will change as your franchise goes on, after game reports will gradually switch from newspaper style visuals through to a more social media styled approach that is appropriate to the era your franchise is currently in. There is honestly so much packed into this mode that it really is a basketball fans dream.

The W also returns this year for those interested in playing basketball WNBA style, and I honestly urge you to give this mode a go if you haven’t before. While not as comprehensive as the MyNBA mode, the W has a charm all of its own and plays differently enough to the main franchise mode that it can provide a nice break from that mode. This year you have 2 options for your created players entry point into the NBA you can start as a college basketball star or as an undrafted player that went overseas to improve your skills in the hopes of finally being picked up by an NBA team, both of these options give you different advantages and disadvantages in your career. Badge perks have changed this year and you will now have the option to earn these by playing against a veteran from your team, historic legends and other star players that you are in a position battle with. You can also earn skins, jerseys and shoes to equip your player with by completing challenges and winning online games.

There is no doubt that NBA 2K24 is the most comprehensive experience ever created when it comes to sports games, from the graphics, sounds, mechanics, multiple game modes through to the absolutely fantastic presentation this games shines. If you are a basketball fan mainly interested in the MyEra and MyTeam aspects of the game then I have absolutely no hesitation recommending this game to you, the whole insidious and greedy monetisation of the MyCareer mode leaves a dark cloud hanging over the game. That being said if you are mainly a MyCareer player then I think you will be highly disappointed with the changes that have been made to the mode this year to the point that I really can’t recommend the game if that is your main focus, unless of course you have lots of disposable income and don’t really care if you throw piles of it away on a video game, in that case go right ahead, who am I to judge.

I can only hope that 2K really listen to players complaints this year about badge regression and the money grabbing season pass exploitation amongst other things that infest the MyCareer mode and go back to the drawing board in an effort to make this mode fun for both whales and casual players who are not prepared to play the game 24 hours a day or throw hundreds of dollars away in order to be able to progress their players and enjoy the game, balls in your court 2K.