Closure: The Unfinished NBA Live 2002 FranchiseAs I said in my retrospective of NBA Live 2002, it's a game that holds up a little better than I remembered. For all its flaws, for all the controversy that surrounded it as the first game in the NBA Live series not to be released on PC, it's a game that I spent a lot of time with. Despite its problems, I can definitely say that I enjoyed playing it back in the day.
In fact, NBA Live 2002 actually produced one of my favourite basketball gaming experiences to date: a Franchise game with the Sacramento Kings. Unfortunately, as much fun as I was having playing through that first season - 82 games, twelve minutes quarters, of course - I never actually completed it. Needless to say, that save file is long gone, so there's no chance of ever picking it up again. It's a shame, because I was pretty close to the end of the regular season; close enough that it wouldn't have hurt too much to sim through to the end, and then just play through the Playoffs.
When I went back and reflected upon my most memorable failed basketball gaming endeavours in The Friday Five, I mentioned that if I still had that save file for NBA Live 2002, I'd probably make some time to finish it off with a combination of simming and playing the remaining games. Well, the save file might be gone, but I still have NBA Live 2002, and an urge to do some fun stuff for the 20th Anniversary of NBA Live. You can probably see where this is going, so let's not beat around the bush any longer. Join me as I gain some closure and finish what I started, with a helping hand from the simulation function!