GOOD GAME GONE BAD Luis breaks down where 2K went wrong
WHOLE LOT OF SANDLOTS Betty got so into The Sandlot franchise she painted this picture of some original characters playing ball. While I’ve been quoting Sandlot at my kids their whole lives, I had never seen the sequels. The second one obviously tries to recreate the best moments of the original movie while introducing girls to the team. The third installment includes time travel and out of body experiences. I highly recommend the original. —MV
PIECING IT TOGETHER After school ended and I needed to keep kids occupied, I broke up Boom’s Christmas present. Everyone helped get it started, but then it started to become more and more of Kal’s thing. I put it on a black board so I could move it out of the way as it was coming together—but then banged the board into a doorway and lost one piece. For what felt like a month, the puzzle was one piece away from being complete. Luckily I did find the piece on a book shelf and glued it all together. Now we have Mandalorian wall art. —MV
16
Art Department Weekly • Summer 2021
As much as I hate 5-out and playing against people who use 5-out in NBA 2K, I enjoy the grind and all the benefits of beating those people online. Then the developers made everything worse: they made shooting difficult and stopped rewarding the grind. I had played NBA 2K almost every year since its release, but never played the “MyTeam” mode until 2K16 became the free game of the month for Playstation Plus. Having the game at the end of the season allowed me to explore modes I’d never tried before. “MyTeam” fuses card collecting and game simulation to make a perfect blend of nostalgic gameplay. If you are a child of the ’80s, you can find a version of Magic Johnson and pair him with LeBron James or any of your current faves. It was an amazing game mode and I was completely hooked. Over the next four years, I played “MyTeam” more and more until it was my absolute go-to game. It seemed to reach its pinnacle in 2K20. As the world locked down, 2K released phenomenal content in a fun, attainable grind for some of the best cards available: GOAT Kobe, Larry Bird and Steph Curry. On Sept. 4, 2020, NBA 2K21 debuted. 2K had completely revamped the shooting modes and defensive AI. Using buttons (as in every previous version) was no long the way to shoot. You had to use the right stick in an exaggerated motion to simply shoot the ball. From the launch the game was impossible and not fun to play. 2K patched shooting four times in the first month. They kept noodling, but never seemed to get it right. Between the poor shooting and nonsensical rotations of defense (controlled by AI) to the mind numbing grind of earning so little xp while having to win upwards of 90 games to advance, the game seems to have been created with an eye towards only the most hard core of 2Kers. The casual gamer was left out in the cold. Things only got worse when the PS5 launched in November, the dawn of “The City,” a fully immersive Park player gaming mode exclusive to the PS5. 2K basically turned their back on the PS4 users as well as the “MyTeam” users. It was a slap in the face. The developers seemed to care about “MyTeam” in one way: releasing more and more packs available only with real money. New cards were released in smaller quantities multiple times a week, but hidden behind pay walls. It was down right disrespectful. It was almost impossible to create a team no money spent. All in all, 2K21 was a huge step backward for the franchise. I haven’t pre-ordered 2K22, and have no intention to until I get a first look at gameplay and hear about any improvements made to the AI and content releases in general. This game should be accessible to all players regardless of how much you want to spend. Until 2K reprioritizes gameplay over making money in micro transactions, the game will continue to suffer.
