Latest Reviews of Visual Concepts Games
Angel fleeced
The life of a sports game reviewer can be a miserable one, but while much of Visual Concepts’ culturally colossal NBA 2K series is recycled year-on-year, it rarely settles for raw iteration. This is a developer that, for all its faults, genuinely appears committed to creating the best sports sim on the market – and it tends to lap...
Review WWE 2K24 (PS5) - Another Confident Entry in 2K’s Robust Wrestling Series
Continuing the story
As the calendar rapidly approaches WrestleMania 40, the eyes of the world are once again trained on WWE’s big house of muscular lads and lasses. With The Rock’s involvement in this year’s shindig raising the event’s profile to even loftier heights, WWE and 2K have pulled out all the stops to try and ensure the latest...
Review NBA 2K24 (PS5) - Stunning Sports Game Wants You to Spend
Dunkin' dough? Nuts
Visual Concepts came to an important but necessary conclusion with NBA 2K24: it needed to dial back the superfluous aspects of the series back. For the past two years, on PS5 specifically, the release’s popular MyCAREER mode has wanted to touch upon all aspects of basketball – including the cultural stuff, like fashion and...
Review LEGO 2K Drive (PS5) - A Creative All-Ages Kart Racer with Irksome Microtransactions
Building up speed
LEGO 2K Drive is so nearly there. This colourful arcade racing title makes great use of its licence, and has laid down a great foundation for fun, chaotic driving. However, for as much as the LEGO brand brings to a game like this, publisher 2K Games clearly saw dollar signs over its monetisation potential. The end result is a super...
Review WWE 2K23 (PS5) - 2K Sports' Wrestling Series Continues Its Steady Rise
Never give up
Minor tweaks and improvements are the usual selling points of annualised sporting titles. Yes, the teams and kits may be updated, player ratings may be tweaked, and 4K beard follicles may now be visible in replays, but that’s usually your lot. Not so with 2K’s WWE series. Standing on the shoulders of WWE 2K22’s solid efforts, the...
Review NBA 2K23 (PS5) - Not Even Microtransactions Can Ruin Revolutionary Franchise Mode
Find out what all the hoopla is about
NBA 2K23 is absolutely enormous. Look, we know that’s not necessarily what you expected to read: you thought we were going to tell you it’s another copy-and-paste basketball sim from 2K Sports – but this is so much more than a roster swap. The game has age-old issues when it comes to gated progression and...
Review WWE 2K22 (PS5) - A Return to Form for 2K's Wrestling Franchise
Head of the table
WWE 2K22 is a better game than WWE 2K20. There, that's the headline. For a variety of reasons 2K20 was released in such a disastrous state that we called it "a comedy horror title" in our review at the time. Surely taking stock of just how much the WWE license is worth to them, 2K and beleaguered developer Visual Concepts made the...
Review NBA 2K22 (PS5) - Basketball Sim Is At Its Best on the Court
That's a rap
For as much as fans complain about annual sports games playing the same, NBA 2K22 genuinely does feel dramatically different. A complete rewrite to the defensive gameplay means no longer can you ghost past 7-foot interior beasts like they’re made of paper, as you’ll have to actually work to engineer open looks and lanes to the...
Review NBA 2K21 (PS5) - An Ambitious Effort That Excels on the Court
Green release
Sports games go hand-in-hand with console launches like LeBron James and retweets. Except this hasn’t been an ordinary year at all: the basketball season only just concluded after being played in an empty gym in front of virtual crowds and NBA 2K21 is the only sports simulation available on the PlayStation 5 for now. That will change...
Review NBA 2K21 - Perfect for Those in the Bubble, Good for Everyone Else
Ballers only
NBA 2K21 captures the see-saw flow of real-world basketball so well that you’ll feel at one with thousands of virtual fans when you nail a clutch corner three with seconds left on the clock. Visual Concepts’ simulation has, along with the MLB The Show series, always been a cut above the competition when it comes to broadcast-style...
