NBA 2K20

This year's installment of basketball is one of the biggest yet, but its old issues, some of which seem larger than ever, keep this from being a total slam dunk. There's plenty of new content added into NBA 2K20 this year across virtually every single mode. For example, for the first time in franchise history, players can choose one of the 12 WNBA squads and play a quick match or season with those teams. It's a nice addition that rounds out the professional simulation of basketball in North America, and could be expanded in future years. You'll also pick up on some adjusted elements to on-court play, such as a revamped dribble system to help ball carriers break ankles before driving the lane or kicking the ball out for a quick jump shot on the perimeter from an open teammate. MyTeam returns with a dynamic card evolution of players by completing goals in challenges, which gives an additional test to your on-court play. Finally, MyCareer has been updated with an original story, where players are cast as Che, a college athlete that endangers his draft stock when he protests the championship game for his school after an injured teammate is kicked off his team. While there's very little question that Che will get drafted, his impact on the league is up to the player and their skill. Fortunately, some tweaks have been made, such as improving the training sessions in your team facility and the Gatorade center to improve your on-court play in a more substantive way, with larger sessions and stat bonuses that last up to an actual week.

Even so, the career mode is somewhat thin – connections you make and people you talk to in the prologue rarely come back or impact the day to day action of your character. For instance, your roommate in the prologue gets no acknowledgement, apart from a quick line by the announcers when you play his team. In some ways, it highlights the consistent issue of My Career, which is spending money to improve your created character. While there are a lot of ways to earn bonus credits and items (some of which feel right at home in a Las Vegas casino), the truth of the matter is that unless you're willing to sink lots of time playing games to earn cash, you'll have to spend money to make your player even slightly competitive on the court. Worse, unless you're perfect with your shot meter every single time, you'll need to spend a lot of credits on improving your shot stats. Also, you'll have to select badges that boost your shooting chances, thereby weakening your characters in other areas if you want any chance of consistently making a shot outside of taking a layup. Finally, there are other technical issues that haven't been ironed out yet, like a surprising amount of network disconnection issues in the middle of online games. That's not to say that NBA 2K20 doesn't look great or play well, but the ball is a bit flatter and doesn't bounce as well as you'd hope, even with all of this expanded content.