NBA Live 09

"A dissapointment filled with bugs and technical problems"

I purchased this game expecting it to be a comeback after a poor NBA Live 08. However, after playing for only 5 minutes, I found that the game was anything but decent. The menus are INCREDIBLY slow at loading, and the graphics are just awful. They remind me of the gamecube version of NBA Live 2004.

The rosters are also incredibly inaccurate. For some reason, Derrick Rose is a free agent, there's no player pic of him, Daequan Cook is rated 84 overall, and Josh McRoberts ( I didn't even realize he was in the NBA till I started playing this game ) is rated 89. The reason I found these ratings surprising is that these players were drafted late in the 2008 NBA draft, and Derrick Rose is rated 82, so my question is: How does Daequan Cook come CLOSE to Derrick Rose, the 2008-2009 Season NBA Rookie of the Year?

Also, the gameplay is just terrible. When you're actually playing a game, and you press the turbo button, even T.J. Ford (the fastest player in the league) runs as slow as a PC from the 1960's, and every time I pass the ball, when the player catches the ball, it takes at least .750 or a full second for them to catch the ball and re-focus on the game.

Now about dynasty mode. This year's dynasty mode was a complete wreck due to the slow loading. But, to give a fair review, I'll overlook that. This year's dynasty was relativity well put together. One complaint I have is the draft. All the rookies in the dynasty draft are aged from 23-27 years old. 50% percent of the time, most of the players in the top 5 slots of the draft were old, leaving the player little time to develop them. Dynasty mode consists of the player going through multiple menus, so that was one complaint I had. The menus had incredibly slow loading.

One part I did enjoy is the innovative "The Crown" feature of the game. By performing in-game tasks, the player would receive experience points which would contribute to their goal of leveling their crown rank up. I also enjoyed the new "player chemistry" and "player hotspots" aspects of the game. The player hotspot function would allow the player to view the specified basketball player's hotspots, meaning that it's their best area to shoot from. The player chemistry function would allow the player to view how well their team meshes together.

Overall, this is a ridiculously poorly produced game, and I would not recommended anyone to purchase it. I would recommend you to save your 30-50 dollars and spend it on a more enjoyable game, such as NBA 2K9 or NBA 09: The Inside, to name a few basketball titles. This game is comparable to NBA live 2003 or 2004, depending on your perspective.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/09

Game Release: NBA Live 09 (US, 10/07/08)