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 Electronic Arts NBA Live generally gets a bad reputation every year.
 


 
Written by: John Nguyen - Bio info: John Nguyen is a regular basketball junkie who pays top dollar for NBA League Pass who currently resides in California. John’s goal is to bring some real fan noise and unnecessary PR (...) More  
 
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Electronic Arts’ NBA Live generally gets a bad reputation every year.

  By John Nguyen
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?

There were 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. Here are the problems that plagued Live ever since 2K came out.

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.

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.

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.

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/]
4 Comments: Electronic Arts’ NBA Live generally gets a bad reputation every (...)

Posted by

on 10.20.2009		 Hey the orginial snika do u seriously think they will actually ban him? c’mon man u dont own the ’Snika’ name n if u do u have done something to piss that guy real bad .
Posted by

on 10.19.2009		 snika bar =]jks aside tho. i agreee my first nba game was nba live 05 and i thort it was great but then all this huff and puff about 2k came out and i was like hmmm woteva its the same crap. jus a bball game. but then one yr my aunty got me 2k9 and wow that was sooo much cooler then Live. i love it now. probly wouldnt go back to live unless like u said it overtakes the 2k series,. take care will read ur next articles soon. .
Posted by
The last post of the Original Snika
on 10.19.2009		 Please ban anything from any version of Snika, I am getting my identity stolen... and I would just prefer to start posting under a different name, to prevent the ridiculous nature of this situation. .
Posted by
Snika
on 10.19.2009		 sorry to be cruel but this article is pointless. Can you honestly tell me one time you have said anything interesting. It is also clear english is your 2nd language so I wont hate on your writing skills but at least write something interesting. Can I write on this site to show you how it is done? That was a serious q by the way. .

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© 2009 CraveOnline Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Flagrant Foul : Electronic Arts’ NBA Live generally gets a bad reputation every year. - Updated on 10.19.2009