The duo earned the nickname "Orange Juice," introducing a dual-player control mechanic. If you played well enough together, you could trigger "Orange Juice" mode, allowing you to control Justice Young’s movements and passes while playing as your own character. It remains one of the most unique narrative-gameplay crossovers in the series' history. The PC Advantage: Modding and Longevity

for PC is widely regarded as one of the most polished entries in the franchise, often cited by fans as the "last great" traditional 2K experience before microtransactions became more aggressive in later years. It offers a significant mechanical shift toward fluidity, removing many of the "canned" animations that plagued previous entries to give players more direct control over dribbling and shooting.

Yes—with a heavy asterisk.

On PC, with 2K17 , you control the experience. You can turn off the shot meter, ignore the story, and simply play 12-minute quarter simulations that look gorgeous on a 4K monitor. You can mod in the 2024 Boston Celtics to play against the 2016 Golden State Warriors. It is a basketball sandbox.

It runs at 4K, it looks stunning with mods, and the gameplay logic respects your basketball IQ. In an era of always-online frustration, booting up on your PC feels like putting on an old pair of sneakers that just fit perfectly.

2K17 introduced a more skill-based aiming and timing system. Unlike the purely timing-based meters of previous years, 17 required precision that rewarded players who mastered the "Green Release."