"Not outstanding in any way."

NBA Live 2004 is a basketball game that doesn't have much depth. The fundamentals of the game are in place, and the Freestyle Control addition allows you to manipulate the basketball in ways you couldn't before, allowing you to get more into the game. However, the game lacks once you try to delve farther in.

This game's most glaring flaw is on the defensive side. When playing with a player who is good at shot-blocking, you can block just about any player from behind when they try to dunk or lay it up, resulting in 5-10 blocks most games. This is adjustable in the game's options, but it doesn't help much; basically, you have to have this, or eliminate the possibility of blocking shots period.

However, the reason the producers put this in (or why I think they did, rather) is because otherwise, it's very hard to play defense. Try to play as a post player, and you'll get backed down all day. Try to play as a man outside, and you'll get burned a lot, forcing double teams which can be countered with dish-off passes for easy buckets. The result? Without stupid blocking, defense is extremely frustrating, and with stupid blocking, it's absurdly unrealistic.

Offense, however, is a different story. Offense is not only fun, but fairly realistic (though a little bit too easy) as well. The first 10 times you play this game on the hardest difficulty, it will frustrate the heck out of you. After that, it's decently hard, and then it becomes easy. Setting aside difficulty, however, the option of whether or not to pull up for a shot or take it in for the slam when shooting near the bucket is really cool, and as I mentioned before, the Freestyle Control feature allows unsurpassed dribbling manipulation.

The Dynasty Mode for this game is okay. After a few years, teams refuse to re-sign expensive players, and you can sign them, seeing as how you have unlimited cap room as long as you sign them for "Minimum", which they are always willing to agree with. In the fourth year of a Dynasty, I had Baron Davis, Tracy McGrady, Shaquille O'Neal, and Antoine Walker all on the same team.

A really cool thing about Dynasty Mode is the option to switch teams. If you do really well, after a couple years, a team that's been doing terrible will offer you their Franchise. You can't control more then one at a time, but you can switch teams, and change this terrible team back into a winning group. This, as well as the low Memory Card requirements (compared to the other EA Sports games of 2004), redeem this game somewhat.

However, good graphics, repetitive sound (in every way), frustrating defensive play, a Dynasty Mode that could've been much better, and not much replay value just don't make this game shine the way it could have. I think the best I can award the game is 7, which ranks it at "Good". Nothing special, but not that bad either. Rent it before you buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/05