Is this year's edition hip or hype?
Well, it's that time again, the grass is green, the leaves are falling, and school has just begun. Perfect time for basketball right? Well evidentally EA Sports thinks so in this obvious war they have with SEGA. NBA Live not only is celebrating it's 10th anniversary but it's coming to your house earlier than ever before. Does this mean that the game is not polished and that it should have been in development a little longer? No. Could they have improved on things? Of course. But most importantly, is this the year EA unseats SEGA as the king of the court? You'll find out shortly.
We left off last year grumbling about the catch up speed on fast breaks, the poor player models, and the "ice skating" on the hardwood. Although there are hints of these issues reoccuring in this year's edition, the folks over at EA Sports have made sure that the gamer hardly notices them. What does this all mean? Well for example, the players do skate, but it is usually before they take off for a dunk or layup. EA claims this is to avoid the awkward player movement that would happen if the "skating" were not put in. The skating does make the transition from court to basket smoother, but it still does look fairly odd.
As for the "catch up" AI on fast breaks, it is in this years game. On lower levels, it is not as visible but the higher in difficulty you get, the more of it you'll see. Sure, this can be avoided by a simple flick of the right analog stick in the forward direction to perform a spin move, but sim ballers will have a problem with this. Also, when making the move for a fast break, when passing the ball to the player, the catch animation is based on the type of player you have. A center will jump up to catch it while a guard or small forward will catch it in stride sort of as a hop step.
The NBA Live series has been severely behind the ESPN series in the graphical department. This year, by far is the biggest improvement in graphics from one game to the other ever put out by EA Sports. The player faces are uncanny and every player is perfectly recognizable. EA has also taken a page out of SEGA's book and have made the tatoos and accessories a player has more realistic. Perfect example is with Yao Ming of the Rockets. Folks, he's actually asian this year and has brown eyes. This is a significant improvement over the tall white guy with blue eyes and the crop top hairstyle. The player faces are great, but the overall builds of the actual player model is still lacking. You kind of get the feeling that all the players ranging from Shaq to Yao have the same body shape and no muscle definition. This is definately something EA will have to improve on next year.
Almost EA, but not quite there yet.
The gameplay this year is primarily the same as last years. This does not mean that all the same moves as last year are as effective. The "pro hop" is almost impossible to pull off unless you actually have a lane to do it in. When you try to do it to create seperation between you and the defenders, you will collide with the defender and most likely lose the ball. The freestyle is also toned down a bit to make it not as arcady but it still shows flashes of NBA Street when done too much. The "forcefields" are toned down as well and you don't feel limited to what you can do. This is strange because it is toned down when you are playing 5 on 5 but when you are playing 1 on 1 it feels like last year's forcefield.
The primary reason why most of the same moves as last year aren't as effective, is the improved defense in the game. Sensing a theme this year in EA's games? I really have never had more fun playing defense in a basketball game before. The stealing animations are done very well and when timed right can lead to a one on one meeting with you and the hoop on the other end. This also means that inbound passes are no longer a free inbound to your best player. You have to work for them when the defense is playing a full court press. There are still too many blocks in the game and the physics of them seem a bit off. Normally when you and the shooter jump up at the same time it makes sense that maybe you would block the shot, but it seems more likely that you will block the shot when you jump after the shooter.
Too defensive like Madden?
NBA Live's biggest strength this year is the features it boasts. The already infamous NBA All-Star Weekend is a blast to play when you just want to fool around and not play a simulation game. The modes are the rookies vs. sophomore game, the NBA All-Star game, the three point shootout, and of course; the slam dunk competition. You are able to choose who you want to participate in the slam dunk and three point competitions, but the player has to be at a high enough rating.
What has gotten the most attention since the game was announced is the slam dunk competition. It really is addicting and it's the mode that has taken up the most of my time. It definately has a steep learning curve with thousands of different button combinations to deal with. The primary focus is to toss the ball using the right analog stick (every direction or shift of the stick results in a different toss), run under the ball and do a "gather" (a lift off) using the face buttons, and finally using a combination of the R1 and L1 buttons and face buttons slamming it home. There are many easter eggs (throwing off the jumbo-tron, doing a cartwheel gather) in the game that you can experiment with when trying to learn the ropes. This is a great feature in the game but it is so disappointing that it is not online. Shame on you EA!
WOOOOHOOOO, Slam dunk competition against the computer!
You have the option to start a season, franchise, or playoff tournament in NBA Live 2005. A major complaint from last year was the obnoxious player trading last season (Kobe going to New York for a bum). It is safe to say that you will no longer need to worry about that. Unfortunately I have not spent a whole bunch of time in these modes but made sure to check this situation out.
Online play, like all past NBA Live games is a big disappointment this season. Default ranked games are set to 5 minute quarters, and fatigue OFF. Adding to that is the frustrating lag that takes place (To let you know, i'm playing the ps2 version). Basketball online is like baseball, one small bit of lag throws your timing off the entire game and makes for an unenjoyable experience.
Overall, NBA Live is an enjoyable experience. To be honest, the All-Star Weekend feature makes this game. Unfortunately, actually playing the game doesn't live up to the hype. While fun to look at and at times fun to play, there seems to be once again too many things that need to be fixed to ultimately call this a simulation. Is that what EA is going for? Who knows. I must say the game is on the rise with former NBA Live Series Center admin taking control of the series, but only so much can be done in one year. Bumping the sliders up on the fatigue (left at zero) is a must for this game to feel the least bit sim for gamers. Finally, is this game better than ESPN?
How should I know? It comes out tomorrow.
7.9
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