 Let me know if this has ever been you. I'm thinking about buying a video game. And so the first thing I'm gonna do is hop on YouTube and watch some reviews to see what people think. Anytime I do that, the first two reviews to pop up is both IGN and GameStop. And to me, I don't understand it. I play video games and I know through history that they can't be trusted. Literally a couple months ago, IGN was in a whole scandal because one of their reviewers literally stole another person's review, Verbata. A couple years ago, they were in a controversy because they rated a game based on how much water it had. Nine out of 10, my guy. That's wild, yo. And if that's not what they're up to, they're usually getting things wrong or buffing the game up that doesn't deserve it. All right, so actually let's do this just so I can show you. NBA 2K18 review. IGN's gonna be at the top again. Let's see what rating they gave the worst 2K of all time. And keep in mind, this is not after they played it for an hour or maybe a day. You have to play the game extensively before you come out with a review to make sure everything you're saying is fast. So after they did their due diligence, their job and came out with an NBA 2K18 review, the rating they gave it was an 8.4. Great. And the esteemed reviewer was Chase Bacott. Ladies and gentlemen, I can't trust these companies at all. But every year they come out with their reviews and every year they're top in the search. So hey, let's check out what IGN and Games will have to say about NBA 2K19. At this point, I've played the game enough over the last few weeks where I can make a judgment on how I feel about the game. Now I still think that 2K is one of those games and it should never be. No game should be where the game comes out and it's in an unfinished state and there's bugs that just ravish the game. And you gotta wait a couple of months before those bugs is cleared up before you can really judge the 2K. It shouldn't be like that. You should be able to judge it off-rit like every other game, but it's literally always had that issue. If I judged NBA 2K16 based on how it was at launch, then I would have no idea it was a really fun, great 2K to play. Because after they finished all the patches, come to find out the game was pretty solid. But before all that, it was a disaster. Same thing happened in 17s. Same thing happened in 18s. So let's check these reviews, man. Professional basketball. Real quick note, the facility that Toronto Raptors play on is usually called the Air Canada Center. It's gonna be called the Scotiabank Arena now. I know you don't care about that, but I just filled your brain with some useless information. You're welcome, my guy. Professional basketball has a sense of style that is unique to the world of sports. The glowing arenas, fashionable apparel, and high speed of the game are all unmatched. On the court, it's not just about the win or the loss. It's about the way you look doing it. NBA 2K19 builds upon its strong gameplay, fantastic presentation, and wide array of game modes to embody this attitude. Its style is cramped a bit by the small number of legacy issues and obscene microtransactions, but other than that, NBA 2K19 is a high point for the series. Okay. We're slamming it home, ladies and gentlemen. I'm from IGN, and I'm slamming it home. Hey, shout out to Ben Vollmer. So far, you've made no mistakes, my guy. You said there's potential legacy issues. Of course there is. Yes, yes, yes. You talked about the microtransactions. You said there's a wide array of game modes. You said the gameplay was better. That's all facts. So far, Ben Vollmer, you're coming with the shits. I trust you so far. Don't make me lose trust in you, my guy. This year's NBA 2K places a tremendous amount of emphasis on ball control and maximizing your players' abilities. That doesn't mean anything. And a step-back jumper with salivary or a fadeaway with LeBron is more satisfying than ever. But because of some of those changes, NBA 2K19 has a tougher learning curve than in the past, one that rewards skill and punishes novice play. That's a good point, you made, my guy. So that's a point that I would expect to see in a review. Hey, I might be beginning to trust this Ben Vollmer guy. He's coming with the shits. He's talking about a skills gap, all right. Successful dribble drives are much more difficult, with big men no longer content to let smaller players write to the hoop. Yeah, no blowbys. Animations look fantastic, but the catch is that the complex nature of the controls and movement system can lead to some really unflattering moments. An unsuccessful attempt to make a move often results in your player awkwardly running into the defender, like this. Hack the defense like that. I mean, they want it. Bro! That happens to me on my career so much. It's like they're made of steel, ladies and gentlemen, like this Iron Man there, and he shoves you back and you get a backcourt. That happened to me twice in a game yesterday, man. I'm glad you pointed that out, my guy. I hate that shit, too. I like you, Ben. Ben, I mean you were going to get along. On that layup. And the official signal of the backcourt violation. Not very careful there. While it's been hooping over previous iterations, NBA 2K19 still lags behind in the fast break. The floor spacing is a little better, but everything seems too slow. These are supposed to be some of the fastest athletes in the world, after all. The AI does, however, do a nice job of distributing the ball to its playmakers, which really accentuates how different every player feels. Hey, you guys want to see something funny? Let's take a quick little intermission, ladies and gentlemen. What the fuck are you doing, you stupid bitch? Imagine a computer throwing another computer a fucking out. You know what I'm saying? And then fucking missing on pro, nigga. Wait for it. Wait for it. All right, gem this year, ladies and gentlemen. They be doing some really reckless shit. Hey, if your name is Jordan Clarkson or Colin Sexton, and you won't pass me the ball when I click X, it's a fight. It's a fight. Hey, there's something you've always got that one or two teammate that rebels. Like you click X and they're not going to do it. Do you want to get kicked off the team, my guy? It's my team. It's my career. This is where I grind for badges, bro. Let it go. Predicting what moves your opponent will make and when they'll make them becomes of the utmost importance, especially if you don't have a strong defense behind you. It's been a long time since the defensive side of things has been this interesting and engaging, but it helps keep NBA 2K19 fun all of the time instead of just half of it. Well, did you get advantage on the scoreboard? Yo, why is he spitting so much facts? Hey, real quick, my guy, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben. Is your name Ben? I forgot already. It's probably Ben. Listen up. This whole time, you've been showing my team footage, play now footage. Let's talk about the park or the pro aim, right? The park is the most played game of. Probably want to talk about that most of the time. That's what I would do if I was reviewing the game. But hey, that's just me. That's just logic, right? You'll have that. You'll have logic. All right. With the exception of some inconsistencies in player physique, NBA 2K19 is a masterclass in presentation. Clever in-game commentary can keep even a blowout interesting with small anecdotal stories. No, it can. Stop saying stuff like that. Stop saying these empty words that don't mean anything. You mean to tell me the commentators is going to keep you interested in a blowout? No, they won't. They don't even do it in real life, let alone in a game. Come on, yo. I hate when they say stuff like that. Like, they're trying to be so poetic with the words when they're writing this shit out. It's like, don't do that. It doesn't mean anything. Nobody sticks around for a blowout because the commentators just say the commentators were good. You don't have to say all that extra shit. That's not true. If you said the commentators were good, nobody would go, I don't believe this guy. That seems like a pretty believable thing to me, my guy. Interviews with players that add to the impact of what they're doing on the court. Sasha's right before the games and the stretching and all that. I know he's not talking about the first quarter and the first quarter reviews before he talks about the park. Now, let's stop at the microwave. I'm shooting, so no, I do. Let's see what he's talking about microwave. You're welcome. The story centers around an undrafted- Wait, hold on. You see that? You see that? Serial in the background. The most generic no-name brand of cereal you could possibly imagine is called cereal. Right now, the story centers around an undrafted basketball player named AI. Whose story is both personal and pragmatic. It never lacks for interesting- Bro, is that ATM? See, I skipped the whole story this year. That's ATM. He's back. Flicked. But it does start to run out of creative juice toward the back end of its five-hour run. A lack of impactful decision-making and the poor teammate-grating system are the only real issues with it. It's back. Oh, snap. Oh, I never seen the microwave story, so this is new to me. Not all of the modes are as worthwhile as my league and my career, though. What? Not all of the modes are as worthwhile as- You put my league in that category? All right, you know what? The laptop is in the street basketball mode. And though it isn't bad, it lacks the exaggerated attitude of something like NBA Jam. Did he say- No, I know he didn't just say the black top lacks the exaggerated impact of NBA Jam. Did he just- Okay, I might have heard that incorrectly. Probably. That's probably what happened. Most disappointing is the my team mode. Oh, snap. Where card packs and infuriatingly overpriced micro transactions dominate the experience. Online play is pretty good, with the largest issue being a very small delay between the push of a button and the resulting action. Yeah, high latency, baby. He talked about it. My guy, Jen, Jen knows what he's talking about. High latency, ladies and gentlemen. It's too high. Why is it so high in this game? It's not that high in any other game I play, ladies and gentlemen. All right, let's do a summary. My internet is fantastic. My setup is fantastic. I really should never have to deal with high latency ever in my life. All right, but whatever. Jen, that was a good point. First, there are some instances where it would freeze altogether. All the same, the thrill of going back and forth with another player is still worth the effort. Do you guys think that- Come here. Come closer. Closer, bitch. There we go. What's the chance that he's going to drop the whole 2K19 review and not talk about the biggest game mode? What do you guys think? Probably very unlikely, considering it's what most people watch and play. He didn't even talk about Pro-Am not once. It's probably unlikely. You're right. I'll just wait for it. Basketball is more than just a game. An NBA 2K19 doesn't take that lightly. It throws every resource it has into the theatrics of the sport, creating charismatic presentation, a well-written story mode, and strong core gameplay. The series' persistent weaknesses are still apparent in areas like the transition game and Ludacris micro-transactions, but there's so much variety to how it- Hold on. I just- Give me- I need to think this through. You mean to tell me NBA 2K19 is rated 0.1 higher than 2K18? I know that's not what Benny here is trying to tell me. Benny. Come on. Be straight with me, Benny. He didn't talk about the biggest game modes, and even when he talked about my team, he only mentioned the micro-transactions, which is a big part of it, but he never mentioned the actual improvements to the mode at all, which leads me to believe he didn't play it. He didn't play the park. He didn't play my team. The two biggest modes on the game, and then he didn't even talk about program. He barely made mention of my league, but although the my league part is probably in the middle where I skip all this menu screen shit. If you made your purchase decision, based off what my guy Benny here was talking about, you would have made a fucking horrible... I mean, you might have came away with a good product, but it would have been purely based off luck. This is why I can't trust what these guys say. It has no merit. So I know NBA 2K down to the very bottom, so I would know that this is some bullshit. But let's say it's a game I don't know. I would have trusted this guy. You would think he's the professional. I would have trusted my guy, Jen. Jen is going to tell me the truth. I'm going to come with the shit. Jen's going to tell me what he thinks, and I'll make my purchase decision. That's what they're used for. That's what RV was for, my guy. But when you come out with a review, that's like, this is half a review. Where is the other half? Is there part two coming out? Did I miss part two? I assume GameSpot is a lot like the same. If I scroll through here... Oh, is that part? Okay, GameSpot! Okay! Hold on, I want to see what they're talking about. Nasty Count, shortly a three point play chance. It induces a high skill ceiling, especially when playing... Are we talking about skills? The momentum is also manifested in the new takeover mechanic. If a player catches fire, a few advantages are applied for a short time, depending on the player's archetype or position. While it's good to know that you have so much control, considering the potential for challenge, it's disappointing when things break down. Of course, you should be punished for mistakes. What a horrible pass. But frustration starts to settle in when there's sluggish player movements and a lack of responsiveness. Like, say, getting stuck on other players not defending you or trying to change direction. David, you can keep pushing me on. Hello tonight, Kevin. Thanks, David. It was a performance that not many players are capable of. I won't forget it for a while. And you have to think... Your defense is horrible, my guy. 2019 has the advantage of including top personalities from professional sports media, including renowned sideline reporter David Aldridge, an iconic sportscaster. What? See, the stuff they talk about in these reviews, you would never think would make it into a review. He just said that it includes reporters like David Aldridge. Who cares? Have you ever made a decision based on what reporter was included in the game? Come on, yo. Unless you're playing Spider-Man in which case, the reporter actually plays a pretty pivotal role in the overarching story, and so in which case, you would need to have the reporter there, or else the story itself wouldn't make any sense. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a f***ing 2K, man. Michael Higgam. All right. I'm going to call you Mike. See, I like this guy. You see this guy? And you scroll through this review, you can see he knows what he's talking about. Not that he knows what he's talking about. I'm not... I'm jumping to conclusions myself here. Is that he at least knows what to focus on. Also, Mike, you're a b***h for making a shot maker. I just wanted to point that out, my God. You're a whole a** b***h. Not half a b***h. Not a little bit b***h. Nope. Full circle, my God. An entire b***h. Lot of eyes on him, too. What's with you, man? I try to ask you a direct question, and all I get is this runaround. Like, I don't understand. There you go. Like, the world owes you a spot in the NBA. All I do is work. That's all I do. All I do is win, win, win, win, no matter. I don't know why they spend time on these reviews. With all these unnecessary cut scenes. IGN and GameSpots trash. Hey, Bar. That should be a wrap, bro. Let me drop out of YouTube school. It's carried on throughout your time in my career. The story mode is just an appetizer in my career. After signing to an NBA team of your choice. Bro, he really talked about everything. I like this review so much better. Wow, he bled this show in the cages. Look, look, look. There's the rec. He played the rec. This makes sense in a review to play all the game modes. He talked about the microtransactions. Hold on, back it up. Definitely, that's an important note. It's shit is ODOD this year. And then he hop back into this is my league or it's my jam, actually, I think. This is what a review should look like. IGN, pay attention. If you want guys to trust you in your reviews, you need to do better. You're not doing good enough right now. Nobody believes IGN. Hold on. IGN, plagiarism. I learned from a young age, plagiarism is bad, man. IGN posed review after plagiarism accusations update writers fired. See, these writers, they're some special, man. It's like IGN goes to the bottom of the pit to pick the guys with the least amount of potential and then brings them up in their review games. And then they post those to their channel and then when things happen, you literally copied another review verbatim. They have to fire people and pretend like it's not a part of our mission statement. We're IGN. We're so trustworthy. Hey, at least I know this. Next time I'm gonna go get a review, first of all, it's not gonna be IGN. Second of all, it probably won't be GameSpot either, but at least they're a little bit better. Maybe I just gotten used to the microtransactions. It's sad because 2K19 is genuinely a good game relative to the last two, definitely. But all people seem to focus on and deservingly so is the microtransactions because no game should have this much of it. And no one's really talking about it in 2K19. Maybe because a lot of people are just used to it or maybe because they're ignoring it or maybe they already talked about it too much and they're sick of talking about it. Look, this guy here, I like this guy, man. This is much better than IGN's review. GameSpot actually addressed the VC issue, which they did. It's sad 2K has no real confidence. It is. Even NBA players don't play live unless it's sponsored. Yeah, that's a good point. IGN, I have a proposition for you, man. I know this guy and he's actually really good at what he does. His name is Crashy Lyon, makes fantastic glitch videos. I think he'll be a fantastic addition to your team and a great writer. Now, he's probably gonna end up quitting YouTube real soon because I gave him a challenge. I told him, show me 15 million real VC in your account to prove your glitches are real or you're a liar. And he still hasn't done it, IGN. So after he's done with YouTube and he fails my challenge, he might be best set working for you guys, dropping reviews on games he knows nothing about. And then influencing people in the wrong direction, even though you guys are supposed to be the trustworthy ones we come to for advice. How's that sound, guys? Sounds good to me, ladies and gentlemen. Drop a like, subscribe to the channel if you guys are new, man. And yeah, I set out to do what I wanted to do. Click on these two videos, man. Click them. You probably missed one of these, at least. So just click it. I'm out. Peace.