[Bornindamecca]

I'm glad you guys are all having fun with it, and I guess I'm the lone dissenting voice.

I think this is a very mediocre basketball game. The passing is much better than last year, but there are a host of issues that keep this from even being a debatable purchase for me. I might be in the minority on this, but I don't like the way the game looks. From my brother: "What's wrong with Kobe's face? Is it me, or do the players' legs look skinny?" My brother doesn't play sports games, and didn't even know which one this was. He has no allegiances to either game and isn't even aware of the rivalry.

There are some good things. Obviously the commentary and presentation are light years ahead of 2k. The dunking animations are improved. Not great, but improved. While I don't like having two buttons for shooting, the logic of the layup button is great. Players do exactly what shot I expect them to do, be it a reverse, a floater, around to the front of the rim, etc. The collisions feel pretty good overall and the icon passing is much better. In fact, I hope 2k has the same mechanic of holding the LB rather than having it be a timed display.

On the negative side...really there are a ton of things. Awkward animations, sluggishness, weird defensive interactions at weird times. For me, the QSA is inferior to the Isomotion system. Initiating the quick strike seems to create a little bubble that the player operates in, rather than having him interact naturally with his environment.

I have to play it some more before giving a fair and complete impression, but after a few games the Live franchise still seems more than a year behind 2k.