NBA Live 2003

"What in this game?"

Intro

NBA Live is a series of official NBA games for those who live under a rock. The game first launched (I believe) in 94 on SNES. It was once a 2D, ref lacking, press box camera angle game; however now it evolved into a 3D, multi-camera angled, realistic game. Well, just scroll down and we'll see what's in the game.

Gameplay: 9

In this edition of Live, EA Sports added the new freestyle controls to shack and break your opponent down. Basically you use the right analog stick as a shortcut for crossovers, stutter steps, and striping the ball from your foe. Everything else is almost the same. The only thing mentionable is the fact that ally-opps are harder to do from half.

Audio/Visual Aspects: 7

Well visually it’s really entertaining. The players got smoother and more up to date. For example, Ben Wallace from the Detroit Pistons can have 2 different hairstyles. Although like it says in the copyright or what every that thing is in the beginning, “Everything is accurate as of August 1, 2002.” So Wang Zhizhi is still in the Mavericks instead of the Clippers. Audio wise, it’s not as trilling. After three to four weeks you’ll notice the same commentary.

Replay Value: 8

The famous franchise mode is back. There have been some minor changes beside layout, but nothing major. Franchise mode tends to get boring after one or two seasons; or at least when you get tiered of salary cap penalties, injured key players, or annoying crappy trade deals. Either way, it gets fun to play with other people, preferably people as good if not better than you.

Rent or Buy?

The most important question to a review is rent or buy? Well lets put it this way, if you love basketball or sports in general, you’ll have to have this your collection. If you’re just interested with it, the game is a rent. Last, if your more interested with politics than anything else, then don’t even touch this game.

Overall: 8

EA Sports have added new feature to bend the game a little, and become the best basketball game this year. Some examples are the full control stick and online capabilities. Although with all this, honestly it doesn’t seem better than NBA 2k3 in the publics eyes (or at least my friends eyes). Overall it’s still better than last years live. Oh yeah as a footnote I’ve haven’t played online so that can very the playability of the game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/02, Updated 01/14/03