First Impressions of NBA 2K18, Plus A New Trailer

Sports gamers finally got a chance to play NBA 2K18 starting at midnight, or if you’re a die-hard fan of basketball or 2K like me, you could have picked it up at 9PM. I’m going to give some BRIEF first impressions because, well, I want to get back to running The Neighborhood. I’ll have a full review next week once I can dive into all aspects of the game.

• First of all, how awesome is The Neighborhood? It’s the sickest thing in a sports game since ESPN NFL 2K5’s MyCrib.
• It’s a little crazy that haircuts cost as much as shoes, but I’ll just give 2K a break and say we’re paying for the “experience.”
• People are upset that the create-a-player options took a huge step back this year, but at least they are going to patch some changes in at some point. They better, too, or else I’m not even going to play MyLeague anymore because draft classes would be trash.
• Ditching animations is going to pay off in the long run, but I think players are going to have to adjust.
• Centers in particular (which I use) will need the biggest adjustment, but hopefully we can master post moves this year to use them in Pro Am and The Neighborhood.
• I still wish we got at least a little more freedom to put attributes where we want, but I guess they do archetypes so no one is overpowered.
• The Playground dunks are insane.
• I haven’t played other than opening packs for the Legend Gold Edition, but MyTeam is much improved as far as I could tell. The actual cards look way better this year.
• I still feel like the shooting needs to be adjusted because it doesn’t make sense for “slightly early” release to go in more than “good,” and that’s what it seems like happens. Maybe it will even itself out with a larger sample size.
• Classic teams, though.
• The best part of the game is not having to play MyCareer to grind for badges and upgrades, and with that, it’s time for me to get back dunking on people at the Playground.

Editor’s Note: 2K Sports also dropped a new trailer for NBA 2K18: