NBA 2K22 Review – Minor But Compelling Roster Additions

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Also on: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Visual Concepts
Rating: Everyone

Like every NBA team, Visual Concepts must get ready for another season and try to improve its roster and make the lineup stronger. Last year's entry was all about making the jump to new-gen hardware and truly taking advantage of the tech with impressive graphics and lightning-fast load times. You could say the developer found its core players when it made that move, but as with every roster, there's always room to grow into a title contender. Visual Concepts hasn't found its championship year, but it made some solid improvements and changes to get there eventually. NBA 2K22 may not feel significantly different from last year, but some bright spots make it more fun to play and set a promising foundation for the future.

The gameplay, which has always been top-notch, doesn't make any huge shifts from the formula. It took me a few games before I truly appreciated the enhancements. This year focuses on rewarding your basketball IQ and having more realistic features, like fatigue, factor into your performance. That doesn't mean your star players won't shine and easily be able to dominate the game, but you might miss a few more baskets or get blown past for being out of position more than in previous entries. It's a change I'm all for, as previously it felt like overpowered stars mattered more than playing good team basketball. 

The defensive game is where the tweaks are most noticeable, as positioning can make or break you. If you don't cut off your man appropriately or commit to the wrong play, you pay for it. Blocking and shot contests are reworked, so predictable plays are properly defended more realistically. I also really like the new shot meter, which takes into account shooting ability, distance, fatigue, and defensive coverage. Getting a basket is a good mix of skill and player talent that previous entries have struggled to perfect. You also can't take anything for granted and assume that since your player is elite, the shot will go in, and forcing a shot up often fails. Some new dribble moves provide more variety to ball handling, and this is another area where the differences in player skill are evident in how they look and feel when dribbling. 

As for modes, MyCareer probably saw the most significant changes, taking place entirely in The City. In this sprawling multiplayer hub, players can do everything from shopping for new clothing to playing in pick-up games and tournaments. That means you're no longer following a huge cinematic, authored storyline as in previous years; instead, you're living out your NBA career in this venue, visiting agents at their headquarters, meeting with reporters for exclusive interviews, and going to the practice facility for team practices. Visual Concepts has leaned into the RPG elements, with a huge quest system that ensures your player always have something to do, whether it's working on their NBA career, advancing their personal brand, or taking on online challenges for extra goodies.

MyCareer still has a story path, playing as "MP" an up-and-comer who turned heads with his YouTube channel and is carving out his own unique path in the NBA. This approach feels fresher than previous years, with Visual Concepts choosing to show the different ways players can make a name for themselves and how social media can play a huge role in a player's rise to fame. You can decide to focus solely on basketball or build your brand with ventures into music and fashion. During my time, I released a track with rapper The Game and started my own clothing line for comfortable but stylish athletic apparel. The story is silly at times, but I enjoyed it for that reason. This mode also adds some fun diversions from the NBA season, but be aware that if you do enter the fashion track, you're expected to use the virtual currency (VC), which you can earn in-game or buy using real-world money, on clothing to impress. That said, the mode is still a grind, and it doesn't help that most quests are repetitive, sometimes being a rehash of the same content (the music trivia is egregious) or require you to participate in boring fetch quests. The City is still a pain to get around until you open up better vehicles and additional fast travel options beyond your apartment. 

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You only enter The City as a male MyPlayer, which is disappointing. NBA 2K22 does bring back The W if you want to forge your own WNBA career. While this mode laid a great foundation last year, it's disheartening that Visual Concepts didn't build off it more for NBA 2K22. The only significant addition is the ability to practice with other WNBA stars to learn their skills alongside some gameplay improvements to better mirror the women's game, especially in the passing department. However, the mode feels vacant of meaningful interactions and rewarding content. I'd love to see scenes and press conferences to really showcase my player's personality and choices about her path in the league, as you see in MyCareer. 

MyGM is also very similar to last year, except with more staff members for various positions to hire, such as a sleep doctor or perimeter defense coach. This encourages you to think more about hires. Do they fit your coach's system? Do you put up with staff members who have a negative trait or two in favor of their other superior skills and perks? It's a small addition but gives you a bit to think about when assessing your team's needs. This mode is fun but is beginning to lose its allure due to not having any significant changes in recent years.

MyTeam, where you open card packs to create the roster of your dreams, got one of my favorite additions: drafting. Now you can build a roster by flipping over three cards in a pack of five to create your team at various positions. It adds some unpredictability and luck to the equation, but I enjoyed creating a team this way to play others online. Depending on your wins and losses, you get extra rewards and more attempts at drafting players to keep making your team better. 

For those who like getting goodies and seeing your work going toward something, seasons are now across all the game's main modes. Seasons run every six weeks and allow you to get free items like clothing, card packs, and more. All you need to do is complete objectives (mostly playing games) to reach certain reward tiers. Modes like MyTeam and MyCareer have daily rewards that give you small freebies just for logging in. This is a smart change; I always felt like I had something to look forward to, and it helped to have some rewards to chase as an incentive to keep playing. While this is an improvement, microtransactions still rear their ugly head in NBA 2K22; most players put down VC to up their player's stats faster or get lured by cosmetic items to improve their look. You earn VC by playing games, but it is a grind, which is why so many reach into their wallets. At the very least, clothing pricing seems more reasonable, but players only have slow-moving skateboards to navigate The City, which seems like a carrot to get them to upgrade. 

Instead of walking into the arena and making a grand statement, NBA 2K22 just plays decent basketball. You'll see a few highlight clips, but none that make you want to keep watching in awe. Still, NBA 2K22 is an improvement over last year, even if it's disappointing that it's not making more significant moves. Hopefully, next year we see more shakeups to the lineup to make the game a little more exciting and feel like Visual Concepts is gunning for that championship title. 
 

Score: 7.75

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Concept: Build on the innovations from last year's new-gen console debut while adding some new touches across all modes

Graphics: The ultra-realistic player models and their on-court moves wonderfully resemble the real world. The little details, from the crowd to sweat on the players, are a nice touch

Sound: Once again, the soundtrack provides energizing beats to get you in the zone, while the commentary still stands as some of the best in sports games

Playability: The new shot meter goes a long way in providing a smoother, more natural experience. Those with high basketball IQ on both sides of the court should often prevail

Entertainment: NBA 2K22 makes some smart and interesting changes and refinements. Unfortunately, they aren't a large enough leap to truly dazzle the audience

Replay: High

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MLB The Show 22 Review – A Reliable Contender

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Also on: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch
Publisher: PlayStation Studios
Developer: Sony Interactive Entertainment San Diego Studio
Rating: Everyone

MLB The Show 22 is a savvy veteran, a game that continues to perform well on the field, despite some modes feeling like they are falling behind the times. Developer Sony San Diego once again finds new ways to capture the realism of the sport and add even more excitement to the already fantastic batting and pitching battle. Given just how much content is here, not every mode received the attention we want, but Sony makes up for them with excellent new experiences.  

Down by a run in the bottom of the ninth, you are on the bench, unable to do anything other than chew on your nails and cheer on your teammate at the plate. In years past, in this moment, you'd be in the batter's box swinging for the fences, but it's now your friend's turn. Even without wood in your hand, sitting in the dugout as your friend tries to knock one out of the park is surprisingly intense. This experience unfolds in a wonderfully designed cooperative mode within Diamond Dynasty. Through this new avenue of play, MLB The Show nails the thrill of being on a team, giving you the chance to discuss strategies, execute hit and runs together, and hopefully scream in celebration when your buddy crushes a walk-off home run.

Cooperative play is great fun but surprisingly sparse in matchmaking options, allowing for just 2v2 and 3v3 matchups within the desired pitching and fielding difficulty groups – that's it. Given baseball is a nine-person game, it's disappointing that higher player counts aren’t supported, but the lower number creates more gameplay opportunities for each player. I applaud Sony's decision to alternate at bats from player to player, meaning you can't send your best-hitting friend to the plate in critical situations – it's always who's next in the order. I also like how cooperative play encourages spending time in other Diamond Dynasty modes to unlock better cards through card collecting, as the players featured on them are who you can send to the field.

Chasing elite diamond-ranked players is still a grind in Diamond Dynasty, but I didn't feel as strong of a pull to spend real money to buy packs of cards as much as I have in years past. Most of the modes offer excellent rewards that help build out the roster quickly. Most of the early recruits will be of the silver and gold variety, but you will get a few diamond-ranked stars early on.

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Conquest remains a satisfying avenue of play for card collecting and leveling. This mode's abridged three-inning format is better than ever thanks to A.I. rebalancing. Conquest's computer opponents now put on a strategic clinic, diving into the bullpen, using pinch runners, bunting runners over, and pitching to double plays. The balancing also affects your game, as pitchers begin to tire much faster – sometimes comically so after just a pitch or two. These are welcome changes that removes some of the repetition in gameplay motions.

If you love the three-inning format, Sony added another excellent mode for quick play: The aptly named Mini Season delivers three-inning games and a short 40-game season that you can get through in a weekend. It's an excellent addition that provides a nice selection of rotating missions but can be a bit frustrating early in your Show playing, as the A.I. teams you face replicate squads assembled by real Show players, meaning you could meet an all-Diamond team while you are still sending out gold and silver players. I developed a fun routine of bouncing between Mini Season and Conquest, a path that rewarded me with packs of cards and quick experience boosts for my rank and players.

As for the action on the field, MLB The Show 22 is once again a showpiece of iteration. Building upon an already great foundation, Sony continues to find ways to tighten up the play, add more realism, and reduce repeated moments. Variety is showcased within the the new fielding animations for all types of hits, the ways players charge balls, and new home run animations. It's also easier to read pitch release points, and the ball has a bit more weight to it, meaning you'll see more realistic ground ball hops and flight trajectories right off of the bat.

The feel of the play remains remarkably fluid, but don't be surprised if you walk more batters than you have in past iterations. There's a more pronounced penalty for missing Pinpoint precision, leading to the ball sailing out of the strike zone. As a pitcher runs out of gas, Sony makes you work in later innings, and you'll likely rely on bullpen arms more, a nice little way to keep you on your toes and change things up.

While making many strides forward, The Show 22 comes up a bit short in several areas. Repetition is a common theme in the commentary booth, consisting of two new voices: Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton. They deliver great insight into the sport and play well off each other but don't have nearly enough lines. If a switch hitter comes up, don't be surprised if he's called a unicorn because you don't see many of them anymore. I believe I've heard this dialogue 50 times already.

Some modes also didn't receive much refinement. Franchise mode is largely unchanged, offering slightly tweaked trade block logic, payrolls based on 40-man rosters, and budget and contract improvements. Road to the Show is a repeat performer from last year but still delivers plenty of fun and the deep connected player experience to Diamond Dynasty.

Players looking for new meaty season-based experiences will find them in the vastly improved March to October mode. With the focus shifting away from "win now," you can take your team through multiple seasons, enjoy nicely streamlined drafting and team building, and focus on individual player efforts. I was surprised how much it scratched my Franchise mode itch.

A week after launch, MLB The Show 22's online performance is shaky, delivering periodic latency and hard crashes (sometimes without XP rewards). Online stability continues to be a huge hole in MLB The Show's yearly swing. While the new Switch iteration offers all the content of the PlayStation and Xbox versions, it suffers from framerate stuttering and significant graphical flickering. It's still playable and fun but doesn't carry the big lumber of its console brethren and feels like it's barely holding on.

MLB The Show 22 doesn't put up an all-star performance this year, but continues to be consistent in all avenues of play and finds new ways to make you want to spend time at the ballpark. Playing with friends in cooperative play is the standout feature if you can use it, but the on-the-field play and March to October also impress.

Score: 8.5

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Norco Review – Soul Food

Reviewed on: PC
Publisher: Raw Fury
Developer: Geography of Robots
Rating: Mature

Point-and-click games cemented the vast potential of interactive narrative at the turn of the century, employing innovative environmental/dialogue puzzles with evocative pixel art and chiptune music. Nowadays, we lose ourselves in impossibly large sandboxes with equally extensive choice-driven plotlines. It’s fitting, then, that Norco feels like a precious relic from the Sierra-led Golden Age of digital adventures. Geography of Robots’ debut title ponders unchecked capitalism and classism at the heart of America’s oft-neglected Deep South. Moreover, Norco’s retrofuturistic and net.art aesthetic is propped up by some of the best surrealist storytelling I’ve witnessed since Kentucky Route Zero.

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Norco reimagines the bayou as a series of interconnected nodes on a map. I bounced around numerous venues, parsing historical manuscripts in rundown shops, buying dog food at the convenience store, fetching hallucinogens from grimy bathroom stalls, and speaking with the citizens. Each vignette pops with psychedelic hues – rivers sparkle beneath the tree line, half-light casts long shadows across grassy knolls, watercolor-clouds form above the empty freeway. Norco’s writing might indicate that the city is distorted and diseased, but it’s gorgeous to behold, nonetheless.

Protagonist Kay returns just as her titular Louisianan community is on the brink of erasure. Kay’s younger brother Blake is nowhere to be found, and her estranged mother, Catherine, recently succumbed to cancer. In the months before her death, Catherine was conducting research on a floating anomaly at a nearby lake, earning the suspicion of evil oil conglomerate Shield. As Kay, I wandered through a weird, modernized Norco, hoping to find Blake and complete Catherine’s lifework. Norco teems with delightful twists and frightening realizations that brought me face-to-face with washed-up detectives and grotesque machines, among many other eccentrics. There’s a lot of dialogue and world-building, but the prose’s dreamlike and philosophical quality makes every block of text a joy to read.   

On the rare occasion that I had trouble keeping up with the lines, I accessed Kay’s “MindMap,” a smart subversion of the conventional quest log where important objects, NPCs, and locations are linked. Here, I could reminisce about significant events and relationships for additional details, progress the plot, or recall secondary objectives. Norco primarily touts puzzle-based gameplay, but don’t be fooled; the loop is chock-full of its fair share of nuance. At one point, a multi-part task required me to hover over backdrops with a cellphone camera to reveal invisible solutions, giving revisited areas an added level of depth and wonder. There are even peripheral puzzles that I could’ve missed if I hadn’t meticulously explored environments with my cursor, masterfully paralleling the enigmatic and illusory nature of the story.  

My one gripe with Norco is its tacked-on combat system. From time to time, Kay and her ever-growing band of party members – e.g., a stuffed monkey, a fugitive security droid, etc. – cross paths with aggressors. Attacks are minigames that range from replicating on-screen patterns to clicking enemy weak spots in timed intervals. I quickly grew weary of these redundant encounters. In a game packed with unique design choices, fighting paled in comparison, and I’m relieved there are only a handful of these sequences.

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I’ve never played a game like Norco, which elegantly celebrates and admonishes its cultural roots while simultaneously chronicling a strange doomsday scenario. Kay and Catherine’s shattered America is not so dissimilar from our own – burgeoning industrial complexes threaten to displace low-income families, automated systems supersede human workers, and the filthy rich work around the clock to deter upward mobility. The game isn’t always gloomy. One cool night, I sat atop City Hall and gazed at the constellations with a stranger. Hours earlier, I flipped through treasured memories on a faulty flatscreen TV. Norco is an unforgettable reminder that there’s an inherent beauty behind the madness.

Score: 9.25

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