NBA 2K20 Review: Before You Buy

So IGN released their 2K20 review this year and as usual they always miss the important things when it comes to reviewing the yearly 2K release. They usually focus on things that don't really matter to the game nor do they acknowledge anything new in the games. They ended up giving the game 7.8/10 and at this point I don't know if they played the pre-released version or the version that the masses received. The best part about 2k is the gameplay. It gives players the best video game simulation of NBA basketball. However, this year, this game is completely broken. The shooting in the game doesn't work whatsoever. 2k decided it was a good idea to put all of the skill into badges, which are skills added to specific players to give them more real life likeness, rather than keeping the skill into the players hands. It was a terrible idea and players aren't able to make simple jumpshots no matter how much you "master" the game. It's honestly disgusting.

The worst part about 2k this year is they blatantly lied to the community. They promised us things that we could do in the game that we clearly cannot, then acted like they never said these things. Players were even told that the Neighborhood(Park) wasn't the exact same but when we got the game, it was literally the exact same. They did make the grind to 99 much easier while making the game much more impossible to play. 2k claims to be working on a patch that fixes the game but who knows if this will happen. The issues in 2k currently include: My Player names aren't popping up, players are receiving negative rep, sometimes when you update your player the game doesn't update, some players aren't receiving rep, stealing is way too easy for everyone with low steal ratings, nobody can shoot, badges don't work, MyTeam gameplay is broken as well. They also added the WNBA without even allowing us to play online with them. Play Now Online tier system is still terrible. MyGM doesn't have a difficulty. MyLeague hasn't added anything, even though the mode is very diverse, it could've added sign and trades. It's just honestly a very lazy release.

The good things in NBA 2K20 are:

2K20 is a game that was released upon false advertising. They promised us things that they didn't deliver on. The things they updated are good ideas but executed quite terribly. If you haven't bought this game then I wouldn't buy it. No other gaming community has to deal with the atrocity of a release like this. If they are sued due to false advertising I wouldn't be surprised.

Who are the Lawyers for Villains?

So I was listening to children talk about comic book heroes and two things came to my mind. Now they are totally unrelated but they both are very good questions if you ask me. I know these are fictional worlds so the thought of me thinking of these things are illogical in the first place but I think in the future storytellers in the comic book world can build upon at least one of these questions in film.

Question 1: Who are the lawyers of these super villains?

The original question that came to my mind was how long are their sentences, but then I question, well who’s fighting for them to get off? The entire concept of Villains having lawyers isn’t quite strange since when it comes to the profession of law, they’re pretty much in it for the money. I don’t blame them because people have to feed their families and who am I to judge ones means of feeding their family if they aren’t taking from me and mine.  I would assume that these Villains would pay very heftily due to the amount of money they usually have, so I’m pretty sure they would get some of the best lawyers. The interesting part about all of this is, Super Heroes don’t technically work for the law, which means all of the damage they’ve been doing against the villains wont really hold up in court. Neither will the evidence they’ve accumulated. Also what would these villains be charged with? How many counts of murder, attempted murder, assault, armed robbery, etc. I mean the list would go on. There’s an endless amount of charges that be could added but how many of them would hold in court? Would there be a trial by jury as well? I could really see how a lot of these villains could easily beat their cases. You would have witnesses and tons of evidence to bring someone like this down and I think its hard to even pin all of these charges on one person. Characters like Harvey Dent and Matt Murdoch were lawyers but they represented the innocent. Their job was to prosecute these villains and I don’t think they did the best job at that. In a lot of instances, I’ve seen these villains beat their cases. Lets say they don’t beat the case, how long is their sentence? It doesn’t seem like with these charges they would ever get out of the jail, but we often see them back in the streets doing crime again.  I will acknowledge that most of the time that these villains be breaking out of prison but wouldn’t you think that at some point they would up their security on these prisons. Like they should have special containment for each villain. Arkham Asylum does a terrible job at keeping prisoners seeing that they escape all the time. Another question who would do the funding to upgrade these prisons ? With so many villains on the regular you’d think that Arkham would be filled to maximum potential. Hey man I’m really just posing questions. I can really see why these villains really be out free all of the time.

Question 2: What does an insurance company cover in Comic Book cities?

For example, if you’ve ever seen Man of Steel, you see the damage that Superman and Zod cause to the city of Metropolis? It’s ridiculous. Honestly, if I was an insurance company that was providing coverage for those buildings I would have different clauses defining the specifics of supernatural destruction. Who knows how often Superman is going to fight someone from his home planet? Who knows how often Loki is going to come to New York and destroy the city? You see how often Spiderman is fighting crime in his own neighborhood. In the Marvel universe alone, there are tons of Heroes and Villains with a home base in New York, as an insurance company how would I ever make a profit if I’m consistently paying out claims for these buildings. Insurance is more so a gamble and the gamble is always supposed to work in the companies favor in the long run but with so many claims a month, hell even per day, I could see companies running out of business really quickly. Now we’re all thinking that yes, the companies could just charge more per monthly premium to the point where they would still make a profit but then it would be to the point where these owners of the buildings would rather go without insurance than pay it. I mean it would make sense to fix the damage yourself at a cheaper rate than regularly pay for insurance at such a cost that you could’ve fixed it yourself in the long run. What if there was like a clause that only covered the damage of the super villain? Lets say Zod knocked Superman into a wall, technically Superman caused that damage, or when he takes off, that’s damage as well Superman is causing. Would that be considered damage by the hero which means it wouldn’t be covered in the insurance? How would that work for the Hulk, because literally all the Hulk does is smash things. The world also knows the Hulk’s secret identity so would they like, force Bruce Banner to pay for all of the damages or does he just like go about his day. Humans have yet to create anything to contain the Hulk so like who or what would challenge him if he was to say otherwise ? Who would even enforce the Hulk paying for the destruction that he caused? Would there be Hulk insurance? Also the government also pays insurance premiums as well so would they open policies on the heroes? Like saying any destruction that these particular heroes cause, the government would pay for it through their insurance. If that was the case there would have to be a list of heroes that signed off to be about apart of this program making them non liable for their actions. At the same time this would make these heroes government assets. Basically I’m referring to the Sokovia Accords from Captain America: Civil War. Even in that movie they reference that the Avengers did $400 billion dollars of damages in the imaginary city of Sokovia. I wonder who was responsible to pay for that? Would it be the United Nations or what? I think that eventually insurance companies as a whole would just give up on the entire idea of things like this.

The Sinclair C5

I'm almost pretty sure that most of you hav never heard of this device. Hell, I only heard about it when I was watching a video of the top 10 biggest flops in tech. Now most of the things on this list were completely silly but the Sinclair C5 had huge potential in my opinion. I believe if this machine was updated and rereleased on the market they would sell like hotcakes. Now if you don't know what the Sinclair C5 was, it was built like something you'd see in one of those futuristic movies. The Sinclair C5 was an electric tricycle that was released in the UK in the 1980s. It's tiny and it has two forms of power, electricity and pedaling. Now the downsides to this vehicle were that when it rained, well, there was nothing to keep you dry. It was also a very slow vehicle and it didn't know if it was in the moped category or a mini car.

Now if I were to redesign this vehicle. I would put make it so it was completely electrical. It would also be a little bigger so that it could fit at least one passenger and a little trunk space. It would also be able to hit a max speed of 70 MPH. Not too fast but not too slow either, that would give it the ability to hit the expressway. It would also have a roof, like almost a door. It would have thicker tires as well. I think this is the device we need today to reduce emissions in the environment. With the entire world trying to shift into more fuel efficient vehicles and hopefully replacing all engines with electric cars, I think this is the perfect thing we need today. I know these would do well in places like LA and San Francisco. They aren't ugly, they look futuristic and they aren't very expensive. Such a small machine can be placed on the market honestly for as low as $8,000. Back then they only cost around $500. 

Now Sinclair has been working on a new form of the old electric tricycle but this time calling it the Iris eTrike, but I think it'll fail. Simply because its still a tricycle instead of an actual minicar. It still has pedals and its still part electric. I don't honestly understand why they'd release another version of the original without changing the power source but that just shows most of these companies don't really know what they're doing. The max speed is listed at 30 mph and the pricing is a little over $5k which is ridiculous for a bike. It does, however have a roof to prevent from rain but it doesn't have side mirrors or a rearview mirror which is silly if you ask me. I'm assuming their target consumer is more so the biking community but it defeats the purposing of biking. Bikers love the environment and air that you feel while biking. In this device you wouldn't feel air at all. I can only assume that this would be used during raining situations if you're a consistent biker. I mean it looks cool so I'm pretty sure if you'd want to just show off to your other friends, then it is something you should purchase but outside of that I'm really not seeing much into it.

The Sport Games That We Miss

Major League Baseball

In 2013, Xbox saw its last MLB title hit their system with MLB 2K13. It wasn't well received by the masses but I believe that it is because the controls were complex. Fans never liked the way the pitching and hitting mechanics but I loved them. It required true skill and I think skill is something drastically missing from sports titles today. The analog controls also added a form of realism when it came to pitching. In real life, every pitch type is thrown differently and 2k did an amazing job at displaying that in the game. Since the disappearance of the MLB 2K series, Sony has had a monopoly of the sport. MLB The Show is only available on Playstation consoles so if you want to play baseball you'd have to purchase their system. Xbox users are in desperation when it comes to a MLB title. It's been almost 6 years since we've had one and 2K Sports and EA Sports have no intention of making a new title. MVP Baseball (EA Sports) is looked at as one of the greatest baseball games ever. It was just so ahead of its time with the customization built into the game. I don't remember why EA stopped the series but we haven't seen baseball games from them since the PS2 and original Xbox days. Whichever company, EA Sports or 2k Sports, decides to capitalize on this opportunity to gift Xbox users with another MLB title will have an easy victory. The demand is there for one yet neither studio has any interest in making one.

National Football League

Every year football fans are saying that Madden is getting worse and worse. When Madden 19 was released, I played an online game with a friend and the entirety of the game all we could think about is how bad the game is. It's very dry and dull, the commentators aren't even real commentators on television, the presentation isn't that great, and the gameplay is horrendous. Every year it seems like they remove features instead of adding them. Over the past two years they've sold us on this Longshot mode but that only last you for about 4 hours of gameplay. Sadly, those 4 hours happen to be the best thing that Madden has been able to provide over the past two years. Outside of that, they haven't added anything new. All of the energy goes into Ultimate Team. It's their virtual card mode that literally drives more and more money into the game after players have already purchased the game. The franchise mode is very inconsistent and has very little to offer. The game is even missing the Pro-Bowl, which they said it's very difficult to add that into the game because it causes bugs. Meanwhile, Madden games on the Playstation 2 had the Pro-Bowl. Honestly, the developers who make Madden are just ultimately lazy when it comes to producing a solid title and are only interested in making a quick dollar. Features like , create-a-team, create-a-jersey, create-a-stadium, and even create-a-fan have been removed from the game for who knows why. The career mode use to have the NFL Draft Combine with position based skills. Now all those features have been removed with no intentions of bringing them back. They just give use new names for features that they claim to have added into the game but you'll never notice because you can't confirm if they're there or not. 

Many people are wishing that 2K would hop back into the NFL game, or hell even football. The last game that 2K gave us was All-Pro Football 2K12, which consisted of NFL legends placed onto random generated teams. We didn't know who most of the players no the teams were because if they weren't a star then they had a generic name, but the game was fun. That game in 2011/12 had more realism than the latest Madden game. The reason 2K stopped making NFL games is due to the licensing deal that EA made with the NFL to exclusively make video games for the league which monopolized the competition. Yeah over the years we've had games like Blitz the League and All-Pro Football, but that NFL licensing and playing with current players really means something. I believe this is the perfect year for 2K to make a football game with the growing popularity of the new AAF. They have former NFL players in that league and it has a fanbase. I think that's a place where 2k can capitalize and dominate. 

The Street Series

Fifa Street 3 and NFL Tour were the last two games we received from EA Sports BIG. If you aren't familiar with the BIG studios then you missed out on some of the best sports games ever. They were responsible for the Street franchise. The most famous game out of that series was NBA Street Vol. 2. At the peak of AND 1 Basketball, EA Sports BIG delivered us the perfect video game form of street basketball. It was arcade-y but we didn't care. It featured our favorite NBA players at the time and it even had Michael Jordan. If you don't think having MJ was a big deal then just play any basketball game from 2005-2010. The dribbling and the crazy dunks were what we loved immediately. Unfortunately, the entire series has disappeared and what the closest thing we have to that is the NBA 2K Park. Now park is cool but it's very hard for a game based upon simulation to give us the arcade feeling that we loved about NBA Street. When it comes the NFL, we haven't had anything close to it yet. I guess you can say we had NFL Blitz, which was a fun arcade experience but it was something about dodging a defender off of the wall or even catching passes off the wall that made you feel like you could really go outside and do the things that were in the game. We've been asking for these games back but I feel like even if we get them back, they won't be loved like they were when we were little. What really drove those games were the kid in us back then and most of those players have matured and don't have that same interest in those type of games. The kids nowadays won't even  understand what it means to get a Gamebreaker. They won't even understand what it meant to break the rim for a game winner.  We desperately need those games remastered or returned in someway shape or form.

Boxing

The sport of Boxing is back. Almost every other month we have a big Pay-Per-View where everybody is tuned in ready to watch. From Canelo Alvarez to Manny Pacquiao , Deontay Wilder to Anthony Joshua,  Tyson Fury to Adrien Broner, boxing is at a high once again and we don't have a video game to even play with these new young fighters. The last game we got was Fight Night Champion and for some strange reason EA has yet to deliver us with another one. Fight Night was a boxing series that featured legendary boxers such as Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson, and current fighters and you could create fantasies. According to EA, there is no demand for a new Boxing game which isn't true since people are still playing Fight Night Champion. It wasn't the best fight night but it got the job done. Instead they've taken the studio that made Fight Night and strictly focused them on UFC games, which have been subpar if you ask me. UFC is a growing sport and I can understand why they'd make UFC games but it doesn't make sense to replace the Fight Night series with a completely different sport. They should have the games alternate just like they have DICE make Battlefield and Battlefront games. It's completely possible and I don't think it would be a loss on the hands of EA. I actually think it would make them more money. Older gamers and younger gamers would love a boxing game since the sport is growing again but I doubt we'll ever see another one due to the fact that I'm sure EA doesn't know what they're doing. Especially since they keep giving us Need for Speed games that nobody is asking for. 

Skateboarding 

Now I know it seems like I've been blaming EA for most of the sport's gaming genre issues but its only fair. They were responsible for giving us some of the best games ever and then turning them into complete garbage. It was either that or just canceling the games we loved without any explanation why. The biggest example of that is the Skate series. Skate 3 was the last game in the series that we got from them and we've been wanting another one since. The demand for this game is clear. If you don't believe me, go to EA's instagram page and read the comments on any post over the past 5 years. No matter what EA post, the comments are going to say "Skate 4". The fan base is dying for another skate game. Ever since the first Skate was released we threw Tony Hawk games in the trash. Tony Hawk games were too arcady and Skate gave us the first realistic skating experience. It also featured real skaters and great customization. You could create your own Skate parks and all. In Skate 2, they even gave us the Fantasy Factory. Theres a new skateboarding game in development now but it isn't Skate 4 so I'm not too excited for it. It is, however, another simulation skateboarding game so hopefully it gives me the same feeling that Skate did when I first played it.

The Problem With The Lakers

The Lakers are the most important team in basketball. With or without Lebron, the Lakers are always going to be nationally televised. The old heads have been fans since Showtime, and the younger fans are fans because of Kobe so the fanbase of LA is huge. It only makes sense for the NBA to always make sure that the Lakers are on television because it gets them the most money. The Lakers have not been good over the past few years. They've been clearly rebuilding with a young strong core of players with huge potential. Fans have just been watching them develop right in front of their eyes. The difference in this season is, Lebron is in town. When Lebron comes to any team, the narrative is NBA Finals. He's made it the past 8 years straight but this year he's in the East and he's aging. Fans came into the season with expectations of the Western Conference Finals, but at this point they may not even make the playoffs and people are pointing fingers why.

I believe the problem with the Lakers is Luke Walton. His coaching is the most confusing thing in the world. I have no clue how he's managing minutes, and I don't even know if he's running plays. I've literally watched the Lakers play the Rockets who didn't have a center, and refused to play a center. They had Zubac in the game, who's 7'1, who was being guarded by James Harden and they never gave him the ball. Other times, players could be playing well all night and then when the game is on the line they are benched. Lance Stephenson was playing good all in the first half of the season and just for some reason he doesn't really get minutes anymore. Javale was leading the league in blocks the first few months of the season but his minutes were reduced once they got Tyson Chandler. It honestly just doesn't make sense. Lonzo has been out the past few weeks and yet Rondo isn't even starting. Luke Walton has also been playing Lebron about 40 minutes a night just for them to lose games. His minute managing is horrible when it comes to players and at this point I'm almost sure he has no idea what he's doing. 

Luke will be out the door at the end of this season and I'm glad. He hasn't really done a good job developing any of the players on the team at all. The team has no identity and they're really just going out there and playing games. Some fans are saying that once these young players develop then Lebron can lead them to a Championship but just how long will that really take? Lebron is 34 now and he has 3 more years on his contract with the Lakers. The competition is only getting better and Lebron's skills are consistently slowing down. It's either now or never for Lebron and the Lakers and if they don't acquire a big player in the offseason then the next few years will be useless in LA.

I’ll Be Crazy If I Can

No one can have you if I can’t 

Call me crazy. I’ll be crazy if I can.

Give me your hand

Take a ride with me to nowhere 

A place where you can’t feel pain

Besides the pain that I cause

Which is completely unintentional 

You see I love you like no other should

More than myself at this point 

I love you so much that 

I never want to see you hurt again.

Not even a simple headache 

Or a cramp from exercising

Or being disappointed or dissatisfied.

I can’t give you pure joy here.

Here being this planet. 

This Earth. This Life.

I’ve decided to take you with me

To the afterlife. It’s better there.

Where the sun is always shining.

It’s always about 76 degrees 

And you can have anything your heart desires

Unlike the hell we live In on this planet

Be with me there and not here .

That way we’ll always be together 

You see,

No one can have you if I can’t 

Call Me Crazy. I’ll be Crazy if I can.

life updates

I originally planned on writing this post on my laptop and that’s when my laptop gave up on me so here we are. It’s honestly been time for me to get a new computer for a while but now I’m forced to . I also have to go ahead and get me a new camera as well. I’ll probably end up spending around $1k on both of those items combined and I’ve just accepted that at this point. If anyone has been wondering where I have been when it comes to blogging, I’ve cut back since I’ve started my podcast. You can find me on anywhere that you listen to podcast thanks to anchor. That website is really the easiest way to start a podcast. I’m almost 10 episodes in thus far with an episode dropping every week. It’s not easy to consistently drop content without being redundant especially since I’m recording each and every podcast by myself . They are about an hour long and I talk about anything that’s pretty much popular and sports. The views aren’t really there yet but I’m trying not to look at them. It becomes really discounting putting your work into something and it’s not getting any recognition. I don’t even know if my podcast is any good or not . I don’t know who actually consistently listen to it due to the fact that nobody ever hits me up or really promotes it saying that they love it or that it’s good . I wish I knew how many subscribers I had as well but that information isn’t available. What I do know is it’ll be difficult to record for the next few weeks until I get me a new computer . I also have rediscovered my love for photography. It’s really art in general, but mainly photography. I’ve already thought of aesthetics and silhouettes to shoot. I’m excited about it and I’m looking to grow my portfolio as a photographer .

It really seems like I’m writing a lot but there’s so much to talk about . I’m growing up and yet browning colder . I don’t really care about as much as I used to. My thoughts and values are starting to change as well. My relationships with people are much less important to me but I’m never the one to burn bridges. I think it’s important to spread love and only deal with people who bring joy into your life . I’ve been personally going through some things as well that I’d much rather not speak on but just know life hasn’t been easy day to day. Some days it’s a drag just living . Where I’m in a place of just daily confusion and to me , it’s becoming frustrating. My conversations with people are starting to become minimum and my interest outside of the things abover are starting become dull. Maybe I just need to be around more people that I’m like or I should hang with my friends more but I don’t know . Idk what part of life you’d consider me going through currently and I’ve rambled too long soo yeah. A few positives and a few negatives but just me being honest here, that’s all. Oh and I’ve paid off my car