Hopefully Tim will fix this. *cough*
Blocking can equal four main things in real basketball:
-Block resulting in a turnover for offense with possession given to the blocker or a tip to a teamate. "Gimmie that"
-Block resulting in possession back to offense after being knocked out of bounds. "Get that Sh*t out of my house"
-Block resulting in jump ball.
-Block resulting in a made field goal "Only the finger tips"
In NBALive 2003 there is only 1 form a blocking. The "Get that sh*t out of here" blocking. And this is VERY POOR JUDGEMENT. If the game is close in the fourth quarter, possession of the ball far outweights blocking the ball out of bounds and giving it back to the other team. Add to the fact that it is nearly impossible to actually block someone once they initiate a dunk or layup animation, then blocking in this game serves no other purpose than to be show boaty and only slows the inevitable of the computer making another attempt at a 3 pt shot that will go in as he fades out of bounds with three people covering him just because you happend to miss the 8th or 9th block that possesion.
Also, blocking a ball all the way to the opposite baseline is F'ing stupid and has got to go.
I realize EA is trying to reach a larger market. They can do that by building an engine that produces the same OEM functionality they desire but allows tweaking for those who want to get RID of the sensless show boating non-productive bullsh*t some of us can't stand.
Let me clarify. I want to "Get that sh*t out of here." I just don't want it every possession, and I don't want it several times in a possession leading in the ball never coming back to me.
Make blocking and other abilities function on a gradient rather than a toggle switch. Or do both, but let us turn them off for christ sake.
You can call this a b*tch, I call it a desire for a real basketball game.
This is NBA Live, not NBA Jams.
The Product Manager who forgot this should be dragged out onto the street and beaten with plastic coffee stiring sticks. Instead they will probably give him a medal when they see the sales figures. Sales figures of a bunch of buyers who purchased with the hopes that this year will fix last years problems. You son of a b*tches, I used to work for a gaming company and I know your type.
But if you have a PC what is your other option? Exactly.
I'll leave my gripes about the AI for another day.