The Best just got better!!
In every way this one EA Sports title has improved vastly more than any other this year and not since Madden 2005 has a game improved so much at least not from EA.
NBA Live comes out swinging and swings hard. First the game play from last year returns but gets much better. The controls are so good its scary. The in game directions on how to do superstar moves are great. It reminds me of the old days when the game was called Lakers vs the Celtics. Every star player had signiture moves Magic, Air jordan, and Tom chambers all had unstopable moves. So too does the newest basket ball game from EA. The way you play the game is so good. Stealing is simple tap L1 and square and there you go. A realistic and believeable animation begins. Best of all theres always more than one animation to steal. You can pick balls out of the air. You can behind the backpass on the fly. The dunks are great Dare I say it better than any other sim bball game Ive ever played or seen. The other game modes have been improved. Sure they couldve let the 3 point and dunk contest or the all star game stay the same, but thank god they didnt. Youll now do some outageous dunks in the slam dunk contest. The all star game showcases the talent in the now defunct fundamental NBA. Dunks rain down on your foes with nasty results, the fade away J's look to sweet. The Superstar moves make thigs look almost showmenship again.
The graphics --Wow I wasnt sure this was an NBA Live game. The wrinkles in the shorts are there. The animations of the steals, the Blocks, the supestar moves. It'll have you jumping out of your chair. The coaches and crowd still look garbage but the meat and potatoes are great. Sizeing of players are great. No longer do the wrong players do the wrong moves such as shaq doing amazing reverse lay ups. The intros are brief yet sweet. The dunks are ferocius, but I dont think they happen as much as they use to in the nineties. You rarely see anyone getting dunked on like this anymore in real life. Although its still sweet to have.
The sound in the game is a mixed bag. Kudos for having a verity but It seems more hispanic and hip hop driven. None of the music fits Basket ball if you ask me. There are no tunes to get you pumped to play. The soud effects are standard fair and get the job done. The commentation on the other hand is stellar especially Kenny and Bill. Down right funny, but repetitive. Mixed bag on this one.
The good bad and ugly: The good this game has vastly improved more than I thought it would or could. The freestyle superstars are a big deal here. You get the bravado and celebrating of the modern day sports star here. The bad some problem still exsits: You inbound pass going out of bounds for no reason. Poor colision detection. Fouls being unjustly called. The worst though being called for backcourt at the most inoppertune times. There still is the feeling of being more arcadish than sim, and Unlike last year they went back to making it easy to score. If you get it down court and in your star players hand trust me 9 times out of 10 you'll score.
Let me close on this one lots of games can get a lot better even you MGS's and your RE4's, but its always a nice treat when a game you dont expect a lot from gives you what you want. I think this is the best game of round ball to date way better than last year didnt think I'd be saying that about this years. Thanks for reading and PEACE OUT!!