NBA 2K20

XBox Game Pass had a quest for 75 Microsoft Rewards points this month where you had to complete 10 assists in this game. Was pretty easy to complete. I built a MyCareer character with this goal in mind, and had completed it by the time my character was done with Summer League play. I then trashed that character and made an honest attempt at creating a star, focusing mostly on shooting ability. I also wanted to try the MyCareer mode with different dialogue choices to see how the story and ending changes (not much at all in my case).

They are also giving away all kinds of coins for MyCareer mode and a pack of cards for MyTeam to Game Pass members this month, so I was able to pump my character up and also create a pretty decent team of cards. I got the level 97 Kobe Bryant card they've been giving away as tribute to him and gave that a lifetime contract, and paired him with Hakeem Olajuwon with a lifetime contract to anchor what should be a pretty decent team even with piecing together high 70-low 80 bit players around them. I say all of that just to say I feel like I gave this game a pretty decent chance. I probably spent between 20-30 hours on this thing this past weekend.

Now to my question for the board: Does anyone else think this game is pure garbage? Trying to shoot the ball in this game may be the most difficult task in any sports game I've ever played. I can do the exact same thing every single time, and sometimes I'll hit a perfect shot and sometimes I'll completely brick it. Whether or not I'm being defended makes seemingly no difference in this regard. On top of that, team AI makes no sense. I can be driving an open lane with no defenders in front of me, and millionaire basketball players with 10-year careers will seemingly never see me. As soon as I back out of the lane and the defenders close up the gap, they'll throw it to me. If I call for the ball in this situation while driving an open lane, they still won't pass it to me and I'll also lose team chemistry points (or whatever they call it). I finally rage quit and deleted the game after going about halfway through my first NBA season and realizing MyTeam mode is basically pay-for-play (maybe MyCareer mode is too?). They kept acting like I was a superstar in MyCareer mode while my level 79 shooter is throwing up bricks from inside the paint. It was completely ridiculous.