NBA 2K26

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

2k26 is a good game this year, the shooting is more efficient compared to 2k25. The main thing i love is that theres more opportunities to get extra vc instead of paying a lot of money for it. But unfortunately the graphics are mainly the same,and the main problem is the defense and 7’4 players. Contest doesn’t exist they make everything even if they gettin locked up. But it is one of the better 2ks in the last 5 years

I wish they had focused less on monetized features / game modes, and more on graphics for once. Getting pretty stale. Crowd still looks like funky plastic, keeping from realism reaching its potential. a new method for crowd rendering would go a long way - Gaussian Splatting rendering or film grain video overlay or something..

The issue I have with the NBA 2k franchise is that they remove key features that worked fine. Then add it back on a new release like its new. You cant play the game unless you have wifi, and some people in some regions literally can not play the game. But my issue is that I thought i was getting bored with MyCareer. Between teammates not passing the ball and not getting punished, but even playing with CPU on Hall of Fame difficulty is impossible now. They play 0 defense, you cant change any of the more nuanced features they used to have; like crash the defensive glass, play conservatively or aggressive, how to play the breaks on defense. The Big is constantly playing too high or playing front in the post. even real life good defenders leaving people wide open to guard the air, "Helping", or not jumping in situations where they should but jumping on back to back pump fakes. Passing up wide open shots. And I have on court coach, but i cant do anything to win beside score. Which is fine, but youve made the computer dumb just to make the game harder. I enjoyed learning the system but its impossible now. My player doesnt pass on time, you cant perform a shimmy hook, literally impossible. I can go on and on about the little things that make me not want to play but thats basically nitpicking. The game is more playable, the dribbling is easier but a lot of the time i will do the wrong move on absolute. You can not lead a player to the basket basically you hold circle and it passes no matter what and you dont have anywhere near as much time. so many little things that stopped the game from spiraling vs me just getting points to not lose. I understand that people just want their badges. But not everyone plays that way. I usually play MyGM but I found that MyCareer was close to playing that but position locked and got less stale. Maybe I have to go back, but I lose my season progress and the MyCareer story and rivalries, but also I have to worry about two rosters and staff and all that stuff. I dont desire that have this much control in getting a trophy. Its okay for what it is but they kind of went backward. Theres some features that should never leave. and thats the most frustrating part.

Game let’s the cpu on hall of fame turn turn into literally fūcking superheroes. Amen Thompson can jump above the backboard to block a lob after teleport-sliding from defending the corner, Alex sarr can jump to the left without stopping while running to the right and jump from outside the paint to dunk tallest player on my team, the cpu on my team can’t guard a pick and roll to save their fūcking lives, foul sensitivity has been bs since 2k18, my defender should not be forced to hug the offensive player by pushing the reach button one time, if the game is gonna calm a foul, the least y’all can do is make it look like a fūcking foul, why is it every time I review an offensive foul call, th defender controlled my the cpu is moving? The game actually give Shai foul calls for flopping, the replay shows my player touching the opposing team with one finger and the call doesn’t get overturned (one finger touching is not a foul by the way), the replay can also show my player not being out on an out of bounds call, yet the call doesn’t t get overturned, a random aşs wizards player can make a one handed layup over my best interior defender with the ball going through the defender’s hand, Alex sarr can also jump on top of my player with his knee touching my players forehead to get a block, they added a shot meter on dunks and love to shrink the green area in the middle of shots, the game’s animations force my center to randomly not be able to jump to catch a lob when there’s nothing within 5 feet of him preventing him from jumping as high as he can, the game makes my players hit the bottom of the rim on a simple open put back layup, the game lets Chris Middleton get a rebound over my tallest player and the man already guarding him, the game lets the cpu controlled player passes the ball back while moving his arm forward, my players somehow always set illegal screens on my team, but it almost never happens on the other, Cade Cunningham can make a contested full court shot, the word “Pipers” can’t be used as a team name, the game loves to make my center make simple inaccurate passes straight to the defense, the game also loves to switch defenders in the middle of moving to another defender, leaving a shooter open every time, they let jokic move like prime shaq, players on hall of fame all shoot like prime Reggie miller, a player with 99 speed with ball onth user’s team can’t get past a player with 63 perimeter defense, yet a 69 speed with ball on the cpu team can get past a player with 83 perimeter defense. Make this shït make sense Ronnie. Then the developers wanna keep adding shít and still haven’t fixed the issues in the game that’s been here since 2k-fūcking-18. Don’t even get me started on the offense d riding when playing against players online. Seems like the cpu players attributes go up by 20 when going against my team, while the attributes of the user team cpu controlled players decreese basketball iq by 30. This game is dogshït, full of unrealistic ass bullshít, and is not worth the money they charge for it. Every developer can get fired. Fūck y’all.