So things come to a head when Vic asks Freq to give him a sponsorship on his new rap mixtape. Vic reveals his rapper name, Bo$$ Key Yacht$, which is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard in my years of existence on planet Earth. I mean, I’m no expert when it comes to rap music, but even I can tell that name is just plain awful. Freq finally puts his foot down and chastises Vic for costing him so many lawsuits, for leeching off his fame, and, here’s the big one, for making a pass at his hot girlfriend. And how does Vic respond? With blackmail, of course! Vic brings up a manslaughter incident from their past, and this immediately shuts Freq up.
This actually isn’t a bad scene at all. It’s pretty intense. The voice actors really pull their weight here. If only Vic didn’t look so dang stupid in that ugly cap, huh? But hey, don’t hate on him. He’s an FOF, a Friend of Freq.
The story ends with the closing of Freq’s rookie season and him receiving a phone call that Vic crashed his car and died. At the end of it all, we see Vic’s ghost on a basketball court as he reads a letter he wrote to Freq before he died. He talks about how he lost his parents, how grateful he was to Freq’s family for taking him in, and how he had nothing but loyalty and respect for Freq. Hmm. Okay. That’s why you tried to steal his girl and blackmail him, right, Vic? He also off-handedly mentions that he had the hots for Freq’s mother which, frankly, is rather disturbing, and I’ve decided to just pretend he never said that.
Also featured in NBA2K16’s MyCareer Mode is the animosity between Freq’s sister, Cee Cee, and his girlfriend Yvette. The tension between these two unfolds like a catfight on a bad CW show, except littered with racial slurs like ‘ming ching’. We’ve also got greedy, money-grubbing agents who only ever talk about – you guessed it – money.
Never mind the fact that the dialogue and the writing in Livin’ Da Dream is overwhelmingly tacky and clichéd, but when you put all of these things together, all you get is a mish-mash of stereotypes that serve no greater purpose at all. If the story itself is painfully cheesy, is it meant to be a message about class warfare? I mean, sure, we’ve got the rich white guys and the poorer black guys living in the projects, but the conflict wasn’t between them. The main source of tension stemmed from the friendship between Freq and Vic. And what message did we get from that? Never trust your orphaned childhood friend because he might get jealous and try to steal your girl and blackmail you? I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore. This entire first part of NBA2K16’s MyCareer Mode has been so appallingly bad I feel like my brain has turned to mush.
Whatever Spike Lee was trying to achieve with Livin’ Da Dream, it was completely lost on me.
Thankfully, once you get past the rookie year, the game goes back to the standard MyCareer stuff we know so well from previous NBA2K games. You get to select the teams you’re interested in, grab endorsements, tune up your game, and actually play some fun basketball without all the needless drama.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from Livin’ Da Dream, it’s that basketball simulator games could often do without a ‘story mode’. 2K14 and 2K15 gave your character a little bit of backstory, but it always followed the same curve: play well, and become an NBA megastar. In my mind, Freq has left his entire past behind and right now, he’s just focused on becoming the best basketball player he can be. And that’s good enough for me.
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