Yep they are still most definitely there. My friend convinced me to pick this up and because I have been off with surgery I had some time on my hands. The career or story mode is definitely better or bearable this year. Not as much garbage, some scenes you cannot skip through. The game seems more fluid overall than last year.
Advancing online with one player is still a pay to play venture to be competitive IMO. It takes $200,000 VC to get your guy 60's to an 85 before you can unlock more slots. You could do it without paying of course, it would take you a tremendous amount of time. Basically paying for the $149.00 version gets you there -
The career is a ton of fun bouncing between NBA games, I like how you just pick your team now instead of the draft, ProAm and Park as well. You earn VC and credit towards your attributes in all, they simplified it. Proam works better - only issue is after every game it kicks everyone to separate parks and you need to rejoin. NBA , after level 90 I'm supposed to be able to suggest trades. Just set up a league team so I'll see how that goes.
Graphically, continues to be one of the best games I have ever seen. It almost feels like I'm in an open world RPG at points as I visit the tattoo shop, NBA store, game store and so on... LOL.