NBA Live video game will definitely getting better...

Electronic Arts, Graphics, Animation & Game play is the reason why NBA Live generally having bad reputation every year.The Electronics did not fix this 'arcades' feel for years resulting ingrained which served the major downfall to the series. I remember playing Live 2004. They had a nice soundtrack, but the game itself was freakishly NBA Hangtime. Here are the problems that plagued Live ever since 2K came out.

Written by:Saudi Ali - Bio info: Saudi Ali is a regular basketball junkie who pays top dollar for NBA League Pass who currently resides in California. Saudi’s goal is to bring some real fan noise and unnecessary PR (...) More

Flagrant Foul (most popular)
2008-2009 Top 20 NBA Fantasy (...)

Derrick Rose’s Rookie Year: (...)

NBA 2K vs NBA LIVE

more...


Electronic Arts’ NBA Live generally gets a bad reputation every year.
By Saudi Ali

10.19.2009 - Updated on 10.19.2009

Why does NBA Live always get trashed by the general videogame community by default? This was a questioning plaguing me for years now. I couldn’t figure out many of the reasons why this train of thought has become the “go-to” conclusion for the series. Why? With all things, I had to travel back to the day when the Sega Dreamcast made its’ debut in late 1999. Anyone remember those days? The NBA 2K series was released around that same time, too. Allen Iverson was still torching up the league with the corn rows sporting the Philly Sixers gear. How time flies eh?

Graphics – Live was holding it down for awhile, but take one look at 2K’s graphics engine evolving and then we notice that EA has some catching up to do. I can’t describe it. They just look better right down to the facial expressions. Even the faces themselves on the models are closer to their real life counterparts.

Animation – 2K’s animation moves a lot more realistic than Live’s disjointed action figures. Most players dribble the rock in a similar fashion in Live. This is still noticeable.

Gameplay – The game feels too “arcade.” This is supposed to be simulation basketball. I didn’t pay to play NBA Jam. If I wanted that, I can just play it on my MAME emulator. Electronic Arts did not fix this “arcade” feel for years. This became ingrained with the series. This is their major downfall right here. I remember playing Live 2004. They had a nice soundtrack, but the game itself was freakishly NBA Hangtime.

Despite those two things distracting the gamers, those things do no destroy the game. The decade long dominance of NBA 2K really put Live in the backseat. That type of dominance somewhat destroyed Live’s significance, but I’ll address the true problem of EA’s flagship basketball series. This is the one thing that turned off former fans.

There were also games before NBA 2K that gave EA a run for their money such as Kobe Bryant’s Courtside, NBA Shootout, and NBA In the Zone. Those series did not last long because they didn’t strive to improve the game unlike EA’s Live. I’m pretty sure they didn’t get to improve due to lack of support from the company. Nonetheless, 2K came around and changed everything.

In retrospect, competition is a great thing between the two series since we get to observe differences. Think about it; if the NBA ever gave this up just like how the NFL let Electronic Arts rape the football license then that means we are in huge trouble. Madden is just a bunch of roster updates. That’s pretty much it. Live could have been that way, too. Here is the good news: NBA Live is somewhat back. They’re almost on par with 2K. Give them another year or two and they’ll eventually over take them. The gap between the two series is closing. That’s a great thing. NBA 2K10 has more problems compared to their past games from frame rate issues, My Player problems, and “in the paint” battles are too easy. Kudos to the EA crew who worked on Live 10 because based on Metacritic’s overall review, Live is getting an 80 while 2K10 is averaging an 83.






[image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dekuwa/3910622766/]
1 Comments: Electronic Arts’ NBA Live generally gets a bad reputation every (...)


Any message or comment?

Who are you? (optional)

Your name (or alias):

Your e-mail address:

Please leave this field empty: