Review of NBA 2K16 Livin 'Da Dream

Does anyone remember when Spike Lee Stark was involved in the Mycareer mode of NBA 2K16? This rather ambitious story mode called “Livin 'da Dream: A Spike Lee Joint” is more than just another proven story that goes from below and has worked upwards. It is about family and loyalty to take care of the great love they have in their lives … and also earn terrible amounts of money to throw balls in tires. Seriously getting money is a fairly big factor in history. It is a celebration and everyone is happy to get tinier and richer.

As someone who can hardly play basketball in a video game, much less in real life, I just wanted to talk about the strangest story mode in an annual sports game that I have ever seen.

Spoiler for a nine -year game.

The problem begins on the screen for creating characters (literally the first thing you do when you fire the game). Now you can create every male character you want, but I would recommend making a character that has a darker skin tone. Apparently nobody in the writing team ever thought that someone who plays the game would make their aspiring star a different ethnicity as an African American. You can't really ignore it because you are explicitly related to your twin sister and your parents and your appearance does not fit your player. If you choose to play as a different ethnicity, it makes every cutscene super cumbersome, and the only pale you are, the strange one that you get.

Please don't make a white character.

While you have a name that you can enter, everyone relates to you under your nickname (or I think your real name): frequency vibrations or short “freq”. I can see why someone would find it cool and stylish, but it is really, very stupid. No wonder that it made fun as soon as it was found that it would be the name of her player.

After everything that is said and done, you will go through the movements of a good college in one of the best basketball team in America and slowly set out to be one of the big basketball legends. Ultimately, the way they appear in the game does not matter for history: they could play the lukewarm B-ball in history or even be put on the bench for entire games, and they are still treated like the second coming by Michael Jordan. It's actually funny and sad at the same time.

Freq and his family (and Vic)

Spike Lee himself appears throughout the story and receives interviews from the different characters in history. Now it is one thing to do this in a documentary or a similar film. It is another to do it in a basketball game with fictional characters, and it even manages to drive one of them to stop the interview with his hard -wearing questions and play it completely straight. Not even the most demanding game directors do that – Hideo Kojima doesn't even do that! At some point they only have … a friend. There is no structure or even mentioning from her. She only appears and her character model does not do justice to her actress.

Spike Lee, you hack.

However, I think that the most unforgettable thing about Livin 'Da Dream is Victor van Lier, the best friend of her main character. In the minute Freq, a large basketball team reports and becomes famous, he abuses the fact that he is the friend's friend. He throws parties, gets into trouble and lets him save him from prison (for A from prison for A Quarter million). Vic is constantly manipulating Freq to make him this stuff, keep him nearby and to be the most selfish person in history. He grabs some shockingly dark places to get what he wants. He tries to use his dead parents to manipulate Freq to give him an intro in a record label … after trying to get with his girlfriend! And even has the bile to blackmail Freq after he has forgotten him for all of this!

The team owner says Freq very reasonably that he should cut the relationships with him publicly. After all, it is not a good image for an emerging superstar if you combine with someone who has so much professional and personally difficulties. Apart from that, it is from the way the scene is shot, and from acting it is very obvious that the “right” is to keep Vic nearby, because Vic is a family in Freq and he really takes care of them, shares his wealth and ensures that they are all looked after.

Vic is the worst and his hat is stupid.

But the real kicker is what happens to Vic in the end: it dies. He gets into an accident (with her car because of the extortion mentioned above, by the way) after he got into a chase. While this is represented as a tragedy, I can't help but feel that he deserves it; He has never really done anything to explain a really sad reaction to his death. In all likelihood, he caused the car and fell himself, and it is a miracle that no one else was injured.

And finally Vic comes back as a spirit at the very end and gives a Seven -minute monologue Explain his entire background story and his motivations about why he did everything he did and talked about how much love and care Freq and his family gave him while his own meat and blood left him with nothing. It should make him appear more likeable, but for me it feels like the opposite – it makes it worse! Despite everything and all the love that he was shown, he abused Freqs caring nature for his personal profit. He really doesn't deserve to finish this spotlight.

His past does not excuse his presence.

Despite its problems, it is actually a pretty gratifying story mode, even if it can only be seen how kitschy and natural it can be. There are a few really good moments in Mycareer, like the car driving scene with VIC. Only to see how Freq was in him after he appeared with everything he had told him, is cathartic to see them.

Spike Lee is a good director and can make some great films … but this is not a film, it is a video game that even the minute of decisions with a story that wrote more to stroke his own ego than anything else. I still wonder what he tried with Vic, because it is nothing more than “he is a family”. I think the lesson here is that you shouldn't step into anyone, not even in the family, in them and let them confront them with their consequences, or they could end worse than before.

Yes, we live the dream, okay …

Nevertheless … I saw how many people were actually sad about his death. I mean, I understand it. You can't help but take care of someone, no matter what he is doing. They knew them all their lives and they still die. Regardless of how faulty you can be, you still share a connection that is not easy to break. It is still amazed for me, but there is probably a Vic in a person's life. Maybe Spike Lee has a Vic. I encourage you to experience this story at least once because you have to understand what is going to be daring.