My Review

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Game: NBA Live 07
Platform: Playstation 2
Creators: EA Sports


EA have taken strides to make this 'the' best basketball game on the market in recent years by introducing the FSS ability for players who are more skilled than others. Before Live 06 I didn't care whether I traded for Steve Nash or Steve Blake cause they were both fast white point guards. EA made the difference by adding abilities to top players such as the playmaker, the inside scorer, the outside stopper etc. However last year we then could not tell the difference between guys like Kobe Bryant and Larry Hughes. They were both outside stoppers and capable of putting up 40 points by being the inside scorer or the team. EA have now moved on an introduced stars, superstars and plain old role players. And not to forget the X-Factor player. Stars are guys on the team who can make the difference but will not carry their team to a Larry O'Brien, think guys like Lamar Odom and Tony Parker. The superstars are the franchise players who will make the difference and be the leader of the team. Guys like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are all worthy superstars. The X-Factor player is the player who may not have the skills to be a constant star on the team but can light it up some nights playing their role on the team. This is where guys like Robert Horry come in to make the big shot in the playoffs. These new additions have been tremendous to the game.

Another new feature is the ESPN Integration which is a nice feature. That's all, just nice. Nothing special but gives the game a little edge and realism in Dynasty Mode. This year Dynasty Mode has improved vastly with the option of taking part in the Draft of 2006 once more if you were not exactly happy with your team's selection (cough) New York (cough). The Dynasty Mode is the same format as last years and not much has been added in the off-season apart from the Mid-Level Exception. During the regular season though there have been changes in relation to your players. Players now are assigned playing time and they must be kept happy with the playing time they receive. This is more advanced and adds to the realism of the game. The best feature added in the Team Chemistry of your team which is a big difference whether your team wins or loses. For example, New York have the talent and ability in their team to make the Eastern Conference Finals at least but their chemistry can bring their team right back down to earth and they will fail to make the playoffs because of the chemistry in the team. One major problem with the Dynasty Mode is the unrealistic player stats. They were very realistic stats in Live 06 but this game has got it all wrong. See for yourself: Leading Scorer - Antoine Walker 22.7 with players like Kobe, LeBron, Wade, T-Mac not even averaging 20 points per contest. Leading Assists - TJ Ford 6.6 with players like Nash and Kidd averaging just above 6 assists per contest. Really let me down this year in relation with stats.

Gameplay this year is one of the major downsides of the game. Firstly, the infamous substitution bug is something that can ruin the game. Playing realistic quarter times such as 10 or 12 minutes will result in playing against dead zombies in the fourth quarter because the computer fails to make substitutions with the exception of foul trouble. The next problem is the speed of the game. Last year fans wanted EA to slow gameplay down to make the game less of an arcade. But they have slowed the game speed down to 40 meaning that when Pheonix run a fast break it seems like slow motion and the opposition will quickly catch up on you. The game speed must be increased to enjoy the game better. The next problem is the general gameplay where EA have tried to duplicate 2K Sports as best the can where players don't make as many shots. This has lowered game scores dramatically and players fail to make easy open shots. Improvements made on the gameplay this year have been the better CPU defense where your opposite is much harder to beat in comparison to previous games. Also the option to either dunk, shoot or lay-up is a bonus in my opinion. This has turned the game more NBA-like instead of a dunk contest which plagued Live 06 where players with the highflyer ability dominated the game. Also EA Sports have introduced a new free-throw taking method where the right-analgoue stick is used to pull back then push forward to release the shot. This is greatly improved where free-throws are easily made by putting the line in the box.

One major setabck the game has taken is how to perform FSS moves. The L1 or L button must be pressed like in Live 06 with the right analogue stick which is a terrible change in my opinion. I have nothing to say about the decision to change this but it seems unnatural when performing these moves and it is incredibly annoying using the analogue stick.

To sum up NBA Live 07 I feel they have made significant progress in adding stars, superstars and X-Factor players but they have neglected the gameplay in a certain respect. They have tried to make it more sim-like but have not focussed enough on it throughout the last year to make it a success and reach the levels of the 2K Sports gameplay. Minimal other new features have made me come to the point where it is an update from Live 06. In conclusion EA Sports need to put in much more work to make this a winning franchise and make less errors and bugs to cause a fan revolt. In terms of new features they have taken one step forward but in terms of bugs and slack gameplay they have taken two steps back. If basketball game fans want to play a good basketball game I suggest they purchase NBA 2K7 and wait for EA Sports' next edition of NBA Live.


Overall Review: 5/10

On the basis where I have thoroughly enjoyed playing recent games in this series but I don't enjoy this one. I liked the somewhat arcade-like feel on NBA Live 06 and the sim-like feel of NBA 2K6 but NBA Live 07 is in the middle of this with several bugs and is not really an enjoyable game for players of the game.