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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
not good at all, 29 Dec 2004
I cannot begin to tell you how dissappointed I was with this game after getting it for chrimbo and looking forwards to playing it for so long. I've also got NBA Live 2003 for the cube(which I thought was pretty good), but aside from that I've been playing basketball games since NBA Live 1995 on the SNES, so have had a bit of experience with both good and bad b-ball games over the years.I can't believe what EA have done to this game, it stinks! What I'd actually like to do is write down a total bile-fuelled non-sensical rant, but instead I'll try and explain why this game is so bad. As usual, the way the game actually plays is what makes or breaks it, and this game plays terribly. I've also got NBA Courtside 2002 for the GC, and it plays more like that than the previous NBA Live title I've got; like more of a supposed arcade game than a sim. It seems to suffer from constant slowdown, and a slight delay in reacting when you press a button on the controller. This makes it extremely unpleasant to play, since it means its almost impossible to string a decent play together or guard the computer opponent. I don't know what the hell they've done to the control system either, but its certainly lost any intuitiveness it had before. I thought this version would feature more player control when you went to the rack, changing from a dunk to a lay-up attempt etc when you were challenged; this does happen, but its totally out of the players control, you just push a button then the computer adjusts. One on one play is junk too, before you could beat the computer if he was guarding you too closely with a jab step, or pull up for the j if he was backing off just like in real life, now the computer just smothers you most of the time, yet when you try to guard him, blocking or stealing the ball is extremely difficult. The look of the game is terrible too, usually I'm not too bothered if a game looks a bit tatty so long as its fun to play, but this just isnt good enough. It seems like frames of animation are missing from the players as they blink and stagger about the court; also the camera vantage point sucks, you often can't gauge your position on the court when going for a loose ball or a rebound, which the computer duly gets his mitts on. The one saving grace I though might be the dunk contest, but I was even dissapointed by this. Your dunks look real sweet on the replays (just like when you play the actual game), but when you're actually doing them, the camera position means you feel a bit detached from the action; some of the dunks do look good though, and can be quite fun to master. You can't do any of them in the actual 5 on 5 game though, so thats a bit of a downer. Overall, I just cannot believe how poorly this game plays, and am flabbergasted that EA have managed to go backwards rather than forwards, what the hell do they pay playtesters for?! Did they just get close to the deadline and just decide to put out any old crap because they knew fans would still buy it?! Worked on me, so fair play EA. Do not buy this game, get your hands on NBA Live 2003, or NBA Jam for the SNES! EA, get your act together
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