NBA 2K21 Review: 4 Ups & 4 Downs

3. MyMONEYFARM

MyTEAM has received considerable upgrades this year. Seasons give structure and make rewards more gratifying, the visuals are sick, and this appears to be the one part of the game in which tweaking customisation has actually been emphasised, with new skill paths allowing you to craft a more focused style of playing. The team also deserves credit for making MyTEAM look like these of a straight-up casino this time around - but only a slither.

Regardless, MyTEAM is still a money farm. Its main purpose is to coax as much cash as possible from people who have already paid for a full-price game, should they decide against grinding through 2K21's achingly slow progression system. It remains a gross, predatory system in a game that is as pay-to-win as your impulses dictate, and while "it's your choice to pay that extra money" is a common rebuttal, it is too narrow to hold weight. Humans are spontaneous creatures who don't always make decisions (like burning $50 on meaningless MyTEAM packs) that serve their best interests.

The microtransactions debate has been done to death in recent years, though the criticism still bears repeating. VC is rotten month-old cake, long past its sell-by date and taken-over by maggots, with the glitching game's inability to add the bonus currency "rewarded" to those who'd forked out extra for the Mamba Edition on day one the festering cherry on top.