![]() ![]() Williams (Omar from The Wire) is just shady enough as a streetwise mentor to make an endgame choice - one the game even forced me to reconsider! - both reasonable and personally regrettable.īut the shame is that even in its best and most distinctive offerings, NBA 2K21 is too similar to NBA 2K20 for me to give my recommendation much supporting material beyond a gut feeling, a kind of “yeah, it’s fun go play it” mood. ![]() Given every chance to be a preening overdog, newcomer Vince Washington turns the character Hendrixx Cobb into a warm, believable friend instead. That means some kind of personal journey or transformation for the star, and supporting characters with some depth and likability. My recommendation isn’t much more than a ‘go play it it’s fun’ gut feeling NBA 2K21, with The Long Shadow, gets what other sports games largely haven’t in their experiments with narrative modes: I don’t just need a backstory I can believe, but also one I’m proud to carry forward. The studio’s gifts for flair get a great showcase with The Long Shadow.Įarnest performances, from Jesse Williams ( Grey’s Anatomy) as the deceased dad casting said shadow, and the clean, show-don’t-tell writing and dialogue elevate a basic-as-bread story into a good popcorn movie. Let’s start with the virtue, which is that Visual Concepts’ production values and obvious commitment to each annual game as an artistic proposition can make the endless purgatory of sports video games - it’s really good, just like last year! - feel fresh and worth exploring. Real-life college teams are back in The Long Shadow, the story mode introducing players to “Junior,” an up-and-comer with a legacy to live up to. That’s the virtue and the shame of it all. Oh, don’t get me wrong: NBA 2K 21 will still gobble up hours of my time, just like last year’s game. ![]() NBA 2K21 doesn’t give me a better reason to spend my virtual paper there, either. Or maybe until I went over to MyTeam, the card-collection/fantasy sports mode tied into the currency system that also builds up a M圜areer run. Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James top the overall ratings for this year’s game at 97 overalls each, followed by a pair of 96’s in James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, with 14 total players earning a 90 or above.įor now, to start the game, here are the ratings for every player on every team.I re-created my NBA 2K20 player’s look in NBA 2K21 with ease, making this year’s story mode look like a direct sequel, albeit one where my guy has gone back to college to work his way up from nothing … again.įor some reason, this still worked for me - until I pulled back into M圜areer, the mode which The Long Shadow, part narrative, part onboarding, gets new players fired up to play. The game coming out while the playoffs are still plugging along makes for some interesting dilemmas, including there likely being some ratings updates that come out much sooner than is typical - unrelated to that is the shooting hotfix that went live on Sunday, mere days after release.Īs always, players will petition for better ratings and the magic of modern gaming is that they can update when players play better (or worse) in real time and adjust their stats. This weekend saw the release of NBA 2K21, a rare in-season release for 2K Sports’ ever-popular basketball title. ![]()
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