Stats time!
1/51 PS4 Trophies
NBA 2K18 Stats and Records
Reply
NBA 2K18 Review
It’s time to jump back into the world of NBA 2K! This one’s actually pretty recent so I was almost surprised that it is only a few bucks to buy nowadays. Well, that definitely works for me and the game is consistently good as always. It’s a solid Basketball game that will help you through the fundamentals and allow you to really see what it’s like to be on the court. The tutorial is a little too long to be honest, but once you’re through that then you’re ready for the full experience.
As I mentioned there is a bit of a tutorial when you start up. Basically you have to play endless games against the computer as all of the modes install and the game finishes downloading. This took around an hour and a half in addition to the 30 minute install before you could actually start playing the game. Add this in and you should get prepared for a long wait. I suppose being forced to face off against the computer is much better than just waiting on an empty menu though. At least you are given something to do right? It works as well as a classic Play Now feature so I’m guessing my experience is pretty much the same as it would have been.
As always the goal of the game is to throw the ball into the opponent’s hoop. To do this you will pass among your teammates until one of you is in range to claim the points and nail the win. It’s definitely not as easy as it sounds though since your players will routinely miss every shot they can. You can’t really depend on these guys and likewise they won’t be depending on you much either. They’re all just going to get ready to do their own thing and you try to follow along with them as best you can. It’s just odd to see these prop players missing baskets when they’re so close to the hoop. I’m sure there are some methods on how to score baskets more reliably, but until you learn them get ready to miss a lot.
Still, I did keep the game real close for the first half. I’ve noticed this is a bit of a trend as I’m right with the other team, but as soon as the halftime break ends they come out swinging. Maybe the games actually incorporate a little pep talk into the A.I. now. If so, then that’s definitely pretty interesting. Regardless, they blew me out of the water by the end, but I’m just glad that I kept it respectable for a while. I even landed a few 3 point shots, but ultimately missed way more than I landed.
As expected the graphics are pretty good here. They definitely aren’t as good as the main NBA titles, but 2K is still holding their own right up there with the main guys and that’s pretty impressive in its own right. The soundtrack isn’t memorable enough to really mention but I’m sure it’s decent. Sport games don’t tend to have my favorite soundtracks but they use a lot of real songs so that’s something. I just want some fast paced instrumental tunes and then I’d be all set.
There’s definitely a ton of replay value here of course as you try to earn all of the trophies. Each game is unique and so playing around in franchise mode will also take you a long time. In theory there is no reason why you would need to spend less than 50 hours on this game. There’s just a lot of Basketball fun to be had. Usually I’ve been preferring these to the main NBA titles, but this time it did feel a little extra slow. 2K is more about realism than bringing the party to the gameplay, but with everyone constantly missing it definitely slowed down the tempo a lot. Still, not enough so to hurt the score.
On offense I still recommend doing a lot of charging the basket and quickly passing to the outside for either a quick 3 point shot or a better angle to run in. It’s pretty hard to get in close enough to dunk and the risk with taking a super close shot that isn’t a dunk is the character tends to hold the ball a little longer than he should. At that point it just ends up getting stolen or missed entirely. On offense you just want to keep moving at all times. Do this and you should definitely be fine.
On defense there’s less I can recommend since the computers tend to do whatever they want. There’s no full proof way to stop them so my recommendation is to constantly charge into them with L2 and force them to make a shot instead of going for the dunk. At least this way there is the chance that they will miss. Additionally you can go for steals, but don’t do it too often or they all start turning into flags instead. The tricky part is that a lot of the time they will end up picking the ball back up after you knock it away because your players tend to be a little slow. Defense is never as fun as offense in any game, but Basketball’s is still solid enough. Basketball and Football definitely have the best defensive gameplay, but offense will always be my favorite part regardless.
Overall, NBA 2K18 is definitely a solid Basketball game. There isn’t really a lot that has changed since the last installment, but that means it also hasn’t gotten any worse. If you like Basketball then this is a steal for only a few bucks. You’ve got a ton of content to absorb here and before long you’ll be taking these computers down for the count. Defense will likely always be tough but you can definitely nail the rhythm on the offense and start mounting your comeback there. The important thing is to remember that as long as you have the basketball you’ve always got a shot. You just can’t panic and start relying on the 3 point shots. That’s the quickest way to concede defeat. I don’t have 2K19 but there is a different Basketball game that I’ll be reviewing soon.
Overall 8/10
Why Shadow’s introduction is still the greatest cutscene of all time
I’ve played over 900 games in my lifetime and I’ve cleared over 750 of them. There are a ton of great titles with amazing cutscenes so how can you ever go about picking the best one? Well, this actually wasn’t as tough as you might have expected it to be. Some true highlights over the years have been cutscenes like Sonic saving Nintendo from Tabuu, Custom Robo’s legendary opening cutscene, Sonic Riders had an awesome intro, etc. There have been a lot of amazing cutscenes, but none have quite hit home the way that Shadow’s intro did. I’ve seen this cutscene countless times over the years and it only gets better and better with each additional watch. Here’s 5 reasons why made such an impact. I’ve also linked the cutscene below.
Click here to see the cutscene on Youtube.
1. This moment changed the Sonic series forever.
Adventure 2 Battle is widely known as the greatest Sonic game of all time and it’s hard to dispute that. I would even consider it to be a top 5 game although it does depend on if we roll the Super Smash Bros titles into one. Sonic DX started what is now known as the golden era of Sonic which basically ended with Sonic 2006 leading the series to a bright conclusion. Then we got the reboot era where the plots took 100 steps back and the series has never really gone back to the heights it used to be in. Sonic Forces was an admirable attempt and one of the best Sonic games in a very long time, but we need a proper all star like this game.
Shadow’s mere appearance brought in a lot of drama and excitement. Finally Sonic would need to fight someone who was just as fast, if not faster than himself. Shadow had a lot of amazing abilities at his disposal like Chaos Control and also had a lot of mystery in his origin. The characters even mistook him for Sonic so it’s even possible that he’s the same color and the cutscenes just made him black so we could distinguish the characters when they met up. The stakes had never been this real before.
2. The Music
Shadow’s theme “Throw It All Away” perfectly fits the tone here and makes the cutscene 100x more epic. Seeing Sonic piece together what just happened while Shadow makes a grand speech about the chaos emeralds is excellent. The music also feels like something out of DBZ or a futuristic type game and that worked well due to Adventure 2 Battle still being the fanciest Sonic game to date. I still say that this game has the best look and feel to it in the whole franchise. I could go on and on about how great the game is, but I suppose we should focus on the cutscene.
3. Shadow outspeeds Sonic here
This is a big one because Sonic is used to being the fastest guy alive. Unlike the Flash who gets outsped in every season of his own show, Sonic never really has that issue. If you count toon force and gameplay mechanics Eggman gets away at times but there’s never been a character who was truly faster than him until now with the exception of Metal Sonic who effectively is a robotic version of the character. This cemented Shadow as quite the threat and this also took Sonic out of the driver’s seat. For the first time he was facing an enemy that he possibly couldn’t defeat on his own.
4. The return of the Chaos Emeralds
After Sonic DX I’m sure that people weren’t expecting these emeralds to appear so soon. They were really a big deal back in the day as you can tell from Sonic’s reaction. These things have a lot of destructive power and in the hands of a villain like Shadow it could spell doom for the entire city and even the world. It’s Sonic’s version of the Dragon Balls and they have always helped escalate the game to new heights. Their mere appearance also hinted that we would see Super Sonic again which is always a treat.
5. Sonic rushes in
This one is very important because it’s one of the reasons why I’m a huge Sonic fan. He is shocked at first, but quickly gathers his bearings and approaches Shadow. At this point a lot of main characters would have just been too shocked to do anything or they would have wasted a lot of time talking. Sonic knows that Shadow is a criminal who is basically holding a nuke and runs in. He’s also able to react to Shadow’s Chaos Control which is super impressive since such a teleport is basically instant. I dare say that this scene already shows that Sonic was FTL by this point. Then of course the army shows up and while Sonic could escape he basically just lets them take him by this point so as not to cause further damage. Sonic’s just one of the ultimate heroes and still one of the best video game characters of all time. His character is really shown quite well throughout this era as well as in the Wii storybook games.
There you have it, this cutscene is just amazing. It may only be around 1 minute, but it manages to fit in so much content here. This was the breakout moment for the Sonic series. As I mentioned, DX did start this path but this exact moment is when Sonic jumped from being a great franchise to being one of the all time best. If you don’t count crossover series like Super Smash, then I definitely do put it as my favorite video game franchise of all time. Of course I may still prefer some individual games from other series like DBZ and Madden, but for the whole package Sonic definitely wins here. It manages to keep a great line of hype and excitement along with great gameplay and a solid story. It started out as a title like Mario, Crash, or Kirby, or Spyro but then it took a more serious turn here and became a title that you could talk about in the same breath as something like Street Fighter or Final Fantasy. Adventure 2 Battle’s overall plot still holds up to this day with spectacular writing and a lot of twists. The entire gaming industry would not be the same without this game and that’s why when they finally announce the real Adventure 3 (So not Unleashed) then I’ll be ready!
Tournament 4: Purple Hair Fighters
It’s been around 8 months since the last tournament so it’s time for the next round! I’m going to try and keep this tournaments short for the most part so it will only have 16 fighters this time. This tournament was inspired by a tweet from Yuu Hyakuya which I have linked below.
The tournament is simple, I grabbed the first 16 fighters that were mentioned in the tweet/replies that I knew about. I didn’t do any deep digging so if there was a character who I did not know and nobody mentioned the name then I had to keep going. Additionally I did cut Trunks out since throwing in a DBZ fighter would basically end the tournament. In general I’ll be avoiding omniversal level fighters like that unless the theme is such where you tend to have a bunch of them. The bracket link is below, prepare for some hype battles! As the next Blog Fighter standings is close this tournament won’t end for a little while, but it’ll definitely be a blast when it does.
https://challonge.com/tournaments/bracket_generator?ref=pssISM6cdY
Ridley vs Fox
Suggested by Sonic This is a tricky one and it really comes down to whether or not you think Ridley would be able to keep up with the Arwing. I think he could though since Ridley is a space fighter and he is used to moving at crazy speeds. Fox would be able to land hits of his own, but Ridley is super durable and his energy attacks cover a wide area. I’m inclined to believe that he would be able to take Fox down for the count. Ridley wins.
Richter Belmont vs Simon
Suggested by Sonic This is a pretty tricky fight. Simon is a little stronger than Richter, but loses out in speed. Then you’ve got the fact that supposedly each Belmont grows more powerful than the last one. Richter came after Simon so in theory he has the edge. The problem is that he has had less time to show off his abilities compared to Simon. It’s very possible that this match would be overturned some day, but at this point in time I’m inclined to say that Simon takes the victory here. Simon wins.
Inkling vs Luigi
Suggested by Sonic It’s time for the Inkling to return, but she won’t have any better luck here. Luigi has mastered the powers of electricity and throughout the years he has obtained some decent power ups like his trusty fireballs or even the hammer. He’s got enough abilities up his sleeve to ultimately claim a victory here while Inkling’s tech just won’t be enough. Luigi wins.
Inkling vs Squirtle
Suggested by Sonic Squirtle is one of the cooler Pokemon out there and he’s definitely a nostalgic figure. He’s been with Ash through thick and thin and has even taken down opponents far larger than him. He can shoot away any ink that Inkling tries to throw at him and can easily counter with a flurry of offensive moves. Inkling doesn’t stand a chance. Squirtle wins.
Mr Saturn vs Bayonetta
Suggested by Sonic Mr Saturn is definitely a nice little guy to hang out with, but his abilities aren’t in the same league as Bayo’s. Bayonetta can slow down time and has enough power to take on whole armies. She can fight for hours at a time and a single hit would end this match. Mr Saturn may have skills of his own, but they will not be enough to win here. Bayonetta wins.
Battra vs King Caesar
Suggested by Destroyer It’s time for a true Kaiju fight and this will be a tricky one. I’d argue that Battra has the edge in a straight fight, but what’s going to hurt him here is the fact that his energy attacks will be rendered null and void against King Caesar. Caesar can reflect the blasts and additionally thanks to the games he has lasers of his own. Physical strength won’t really come into play here since King Caesar can just keep Battra at a distance and chip away at his health. Battra can fly around to dodge for a while, but it will only delay the inevitable. King Caesar wins.
DReager1.com 