This year's campaign, called The Long Shadow, is a colossal disappointment

That is great in a few ways: none of all the minor alterations have done anything to spoil the exceptional on-court encounter, which accurately emulates the drama and style of NBA basketball. Of course, it repeats the sins of its predecessor too: Off the court, NBA 2K22 MT remains a disjointed mess and riddled with noxious pay-to-win microtransactions that leave a bad taste in my mouth. The accession of shot-stick aiming along with a MyCareer reskin are nice improvements, but it's becoming more difficult to ignore the lack of updates to key game modes while the focus on monetization only intensifies.

Between the baskets, NBA 2K22 comes with a handful of small updates but is otherwise exceptionally familiar if you have played any of those recent-year iterations. My favorite improvement is the new shot-stick planning, allowing for the challenge of really aiming shots rather than simply timing them. The best part is it's really hard to grasp and resets the learning curve for experienced gamers in a beneficial way, and hitting a green shooter -- that requires nailing the goal from the meter that appears when you hold down the ideal rod -- is tremendously satisfying.

This system also provides some much-needed nuance to offense in the paint. Hitting floaters or crafty layups depends upon having the ability to successfully aim your shot, (that's much easier to do using a celebrity such as LeBron James than it's with a player off the seat ) and it creates potential elsewhere on the courtroom. I've even found it will help lighten the blow off of latency problems, which continue to plague online play, because of fewer issues with time. Perhaps it's because it's one of those few things that feels completely new about NBA 2K22, but it stands out as this year's greatest inclusion.

Shot-stick aiming is one of the very few things that feels completely fresh about NBA 2K22. As a side advantage, the right rod now has a complete range of movement for dribbling, such as pressing forward for touch size-ups such as Jamal Crawford's exaggerated crossover and behind-the-back moves. Being able to focus on making space for myself with the proper stick without worrying about accidentally flinging a shot up is a significant improvement. Generally, dribbling feels more responsive and rarely contributes to the awkward, uncontrollable animations that have plagued the franchise for ages. Chaining moves like a step backwards with James Harden to a Eurostep, is much more natural than it was earlier. The changes are not always visually apparent, but it will help improve the already good gameplay.

One of the reasons the lack of upgrades is really frustrating is that a handful of heritage issues stay stubbornly present. Among the most aggravating, particularly when playing against a different individual offline or online, is how clumsy post-play is. On one hand, it's far too easy to get the ball into the paint. Outside awkward plays where the ball just strikes the back of a guardian, moves almost always get to the interior without much interference. Even more frustrating is that when the ball gets to the article, the start-up on animations is much too slow and lacks urgency. Rather than just going directly to the hoop for an easy dunk or layup, players will sluggishly move toward the basket or hurl a shot from only a couple of feet off. Whenever there is open space between the participant and the basket, the participant must always go directly to the basket. In NBA 2K22, that's rarely true.

NBA 2K22 does such a good job of looking like a game of NBA basketball that when things go awry, it's really jarring. Then there's the CPU's mishandling of all things associated with clock direction, which still happens constantly. For example, sometimes a player will hold on the ball free of urgency, five feet out from the three-point lineup as the clock ticks down. Another problem I noticed is that gamers often behave strangely in transition. Whether it be someone slowing down (even if they have a numbers advantage) for no reason, or three-point shooters falling in from the arc and crowding the inside, there is often no logic regarding the A.I. decision making in transition drama.

Likewise the CPU is frequently much too competitive on double teams, making it much too easy to find open teammates. This has been an issue for several decades, and it's maddening that it stays so apparent. NBA 2K22 does such a fantastic job of appearing like a game of NBA basketball that when things go awry like this, it's really jarring.That said, spacing was improved in general, and that I noticed that non-controlled players behave more realistically off the ball. I had a good deal of fun finding open teammates as they curled around screens, made strong cuts into the basket, or slunk out quietly into the baseline to get a corner three-point shot. Particularly in online play, I was delighted to find my A.I. teammates creating space for themselves and creating room for celebrities such as Giannis Antetokounmpo to isolate more effectiveness.

This year's campaign, called The Long Shadow, is a colossal disappointment. It's unfortunate that almost everything outside the on-court experience pales in comparison. Over the past several years, I've found myself awaiting the MyCareer campaigns in the NBA 2K series. They are usually polished, well-written in spurts, and feature a fun throw. However, this year's effort, called The Long Shadow, is a gigantic disappointment. The story follows Junior, a promising young talent playing in the shadow of his deceased dad.

In between his trip out of high school drama to the NBA Draft, The Long Shadow spends hardly any time developing any of its dull characters and too much investigating Junior's college love, in which he awkwardly chases after his girlfriend to declare his love just like something out of a Hallmark movie. It's too bad, since the assumption could have been genuinely affecting, but it is far too disjointed and shallow for Your Long Shadow to be anything but an excuse to play with a few games at a school uniform. It's nice seeing some form of college sports in a video game again, but that's about it. Luckily, there is an option to skip the story and head straight to the 2K22 MT Draft.