polygon downgrades nba 2k14 review from an 8 to a 5

During the time I spent playing NBA 2K14 on PS4 for review, it was playable online with a bit of lag, although The Park was broken until a post-release patch. I had no other issues with connectivity in the main modes: MyCareer, MyGM and MyTeam. But since December 26, the game has been plagued with connectivity issues, visual bugs and crashes that have persisted on both PS4 and Xbox One, despite assurances from 2K Sports on multiple occasions that developer Visual Concepts had resolved certain problems.

Chief among the issues is downtime for the 2K Sports servers. MyTeam is an always-online mode because players' collections of digital cards are stored in the cloud, so server downtime leaves MyTeam completely inaccessible. I've been unable to enter the MyTeam mode on a number of occasions over the past few weeks; after another attempted fix this week, I successfully loaded the mode but was stymied by server issues when I tried to do anything.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/1/4791876/nba-2k14-review-throw-it-down

Not only that but 2k was also called out by Sports illustrated

http://extramustard.si.com/2014/01/09/nba-2k14-microtransactions-overkill-2k-sports-cut-it-out/

It's gotten to the point where people are getting full refunds not only from retailers, but also on DD from Sony and Microsoft, because the product simply doesn't work

Regardless of their reasoning, I think it's pretty unprofessional to change review scores. I guess it's something they do fairly often, and their original score never goes away, but still. Scores should be a finalized sort of thing. But I suppose it is rare for a game to be in worse shape a few months after it launches.

Well most of these reviews tend to be pushed out very early, if not before the game is officially out. So a lot of these issues can't be seen early on, but the more time you spend on it, it becomes obvious what you missed. So I don't really have an issue with amending the review to reflect things you couldn't possibly be aware of early on

Probably pretty small consolation for those who bought the game already using the Polygon review in teh decision making process. That's why I don't trust pro reviews -- they aren't any more thorough than forum feedback. Take all the Titanfall hype for example. The press has been hyping the shit out of that game as this big, giant, COD-evolving experience, and they didn't even know the fucking game was 6 on 6 with AI. The incompetence present in the reviews community is fucking embarrassing and one of the reasons game journalism will never be taken seriously. Anyone know any reviewers over age 40? Why is that? It's because it's a joke to write video game reviews for a living. It's a short-term career, a rung on a ladder, not the destination.

Well in regards to Tf, I heard that they changed the player count numerous times, so there wasn't one definitive player count. Still I don't see a big corallation between player count, and the validity if hype

That makes it sound like they don't spend an adequate amount of time on a game before reviewing it. Any game with online portions can be difficult to review depending on the state it's at upon reviewing it. But I think it should be judged on when it's working, unless it has serious issues the entire time you tried to play it. Either way, changing a review score just shows that they shouldn't have rushed the initial review. You can spend a ton of time on a game and eventually find more things wrong with it, but I still believe a review and its score should be a final decision.

I agree, which is why reviews should be delayed until the reviewer can properly grasp online issues and incorporate them into the review

Really? Perhaps they'll uplevel their Killzone SF (5) and BF4 (4) scores instead...?

However, they'd better post a second "revising" review like on GS...

Agreed. It's certainly not the reviewers' fault if they play a game that works fine when they're reviewing it.

i doubt anyone will care, from what i heard the 2k sports games are superior to the EA game, so 1 crappy review is from an unknown site is meaningless

The game suffered a terrible weekend. Outside of that I am able to play with friends now. There is a wealth of content in NBA2K and I'm sure it's very difficult to maintain everything at once.

@nicecall: That would be the case if it was one isolated review. However, it's been constant backlash for weeks and attacks on 2k's pr guys. In fact it's gotten to the point where people are getting fully refunded by retailers, and also getting fully refunded on their DIgital downlads from Microsoft and Sony.

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/nba-2k-next-gen/699753-nba-2k14-problems-mount-some-gamers-getting-refunds-retailers.html

You can read About it there. Because of the heavy Implementation of Virtural Currency into the game, nearly every single game mode requires an Internet connection at all times, including their mygm mode and season mode. However, 2k has had the most unreliable servers the past 5 years, and it's made 90% of the game unplayable a lot of the time.