By Donovan Erskine

Copyright shacknews

With NBA 2K26, developer Visual Concepts touts vast improvements to player movement, The City, MyTeam mode, and more. It’s an installment that brings needed feature changes and quality-of-life improvements to 2K’s existing mode, but its foundation remains a mixed bag thanks to microtransactions and forced online interactions.

Out of Bounds

It’s only right to start with MyCareer, a mode so central to the modern NBA 2K experience that the first thing you do when loading into the game is play a fantasy 5-on-5 match against Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and various other NBA players while you control your (uncustomized) MyPlayer. This year’s MyCareer features a storyline called Out of Bounds, which chronicles your character’s basketball rise and eventual NBA arrival.

Out of Bounds, like most NBA 2K storylines of years’ past, is passable at best. It’s riddled with hoop dream cliches, cringy moments, and rough performances. Luckily, you’re given the option to completely skip Out of Bounds and go straight to the NBA Draft, but I’d argue that Out of Bounds is still worth playing through for the exclusive rewards and VC (Virtual Currency) that you’ll earn. Besides, you can skip the cutscenes.

One unique aspect of the Out of Bounds prelude that I enjoyed was the ability to play in Europe. There comes a point where you can choose to play basketball in Paris or Madrid. With how many of basketball’s biggest stars hail from Europe, it was fun to mix up the MyCareer formula with some international play.

Once you finally make it to the NBA, you officially begin the routine of playing games, earning rewards, and using them to improve your player and earn more rewards. I’ve been critical of MyCareer mode in previous years, but I enjoyed its improvements in 2K26. I felt like I had more control over my schedule and when I play which games, thanks to the various Key Game presets and the reduction of forced quests in between games.

Also, when playing against stars in MyCareer, these players can activate their own Goat Skill, titled “Evil Goat.” It functions similar to the GOAT Skills introduced a couple of years ago, but gives temporary stat bonuses to opposing players instead of your own. In my first career start, Devin Booker absolutely torched me in the second half, activating Evil Goat on his way to dropping 40 points and spoiling my occasion. It was awesome.

In the heart of the city

MyCareer, in part, now exists as a vehicle to The City, NBA 2K’s online hub where players can interact, play pick-up games against each other, buy new clothes, and… race go-karts, for some reason. The City is intentionally smaller this year, lessening the time players spend commuting between activities. Still, I long for the days where I didn’t need to navigate an MMO hub at all, but it’s certainly less of a burden this time around.

The City is also the beating heart of 2K’s live service element, which seemingly grows more prominent with every new game. There are battle passes, limited-time events, and various other forms of FOMO that have become the trademark of modern online games. I feel the same way about this as I always have: it’s tiring and often a hassle to keep up with, but if you live and breathe NBA 2K, then this is an absolute feast. There are always rewards to chase, events to participate in, and challenges to complete. Speaking of challenges, the on-screen “Quest” objectives in The City are constantly on-screen. There is seriously no way of getting rid of them, except completing them. Come on.

One of NBA 2K26’s most glaring early issues presented itself while I was trying to play Park with friends: cross-play is broken. When you try to send friend requests or game invites to players on other platforms, it just… doesn’t work. It’s an issue that was present as soon as the Early Access period began, and it remains unsolved nearly a week after the proper launch. It’s frustrating, as I’ve had to cross my fingers and try workarounds I found on Reddit to simply play a new premium-priced multiplayer game with my friends. I’m confident that this issue will be solved in the coming weeks, maybe even days, but it left a nasty taste in my mouth during the period of a new 2K release that’s supposed to be the most exciting.

Crossing over

MyCareer isn’t the only major mode that’s gotten new content in NBA 2K26. MyTeam, the card-collecting mode, has added the ability to play as WNBA players. Having men and women share the court is a fun addition to the mode that adds to the modes overall zaniness and wish fulfillment. You can have a backcourt of Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu, or the pair of shifty Dallas hoopers Kyrie Irving and Paige Bueckers handling the rock. MyTeam outside of that, more or less, is business as usual.

My personal favorite mode, MyNBA Eras, got some surface-level changes, but nothing too substantive in this year’s game. The big, heavily-promoted addition was Dynamic Banners, which allow players to see the banners from their championships inside of their stadiums. It’s a neat new feature, but it shouldn’t have been the mode’s biggest selling point this year. It’s also disheartening to see bugs from previous 2K games persist in this one. When playing as the commissioner of an online league, during the Historic Changes period of the offseason, the game simply ignores you if you try to reject an upcoming change. Wanna rewrite history and stop the Charlotte Bobcats from ever rebranding? Too bad. Want to prevent the Wizards from doing away with their 2000s blue and brown color scheme? Nope! Just a sobering reminder of how much is carried over in these games from year to year.

At the very core of it all, the actual on-court experience remains great. NBA 2K26 advertised changes to player movements, and I could feel the difference as I dribbled, played defense, and moved around without the ball. Visual Concepts has added Go-to Shots for players in the post, so that you can take advantage of signature animations exhibited by players like Nikola Jokic and Dirk Nowitzki. It incentivised me to be more creative and aggressive in the post.

A new year means a new shot meter, but 2K26 actually brings a massive overhaul to shooting itself. The Green Window, the section at the top of the shot meter that ensures a made shot when properly time, no longer uses RNG. This means that players who master shot animations will make shots at an absurdly high rate, but lesser-skilled players will miss more shots than ever before.

This change boils down to the classic debate between prioritizing casual vs competitive players in multiplayer games. For me, it’s a welcome change. When you shoot a real basketball, you can feel when it’s going to go in, or if your shot is off. It’s a nuance that NBA 2K games have never truly replicated—until now. With less RNG, there’s no guesswork when you put a shot up. You’ll know instantly—whether through the shot feedback or your own intuition—if a shot is likely to go in. It made it much easier to understand the shot animations I used, but also empowered me to play more informed defense on the other side of the court.

Ball over everything

To round things out, I’ll say my piece on microtransactions in 2K. Once again, VC is the engine that makes everything run. MyCareer is an intentionally slow grind where you’ll spend dozens of hours earning enough VC to make a formidable player, with the game frequently reminding players that they can swipe their card to buy the VC instead. Everything costs VC. Clothes, accessories, animations, MyTeam packs. Everything. It’s even more insulting that VC can’t be used to buy Season Passes or level skips, meaning that players who choose to go free-to-play and grind it out can’t even access all the game has to offer.

NBA 2K26 is a good basketball game. It’s got a great on-court experience, and some of the rough edges have been sanded down. Still, issues that have existed for years still persist. Philosophically, not a lot has changed. I’ve enjoyed my time with it more than I did 2K25 and 2K24, but I still yearn for a more well-rounded and fulfilling basketball experience.

This review is based on an Xbox Series X|S code provided by the publisher. NBA 2K26 is available now for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC for $69.99 USD.