(I know that threads have been made like this), but i think my review may help people more then a bunch of crap others have written. First off, after the installation, i noticed that there was a pop type of hip hop music on the main nba live menu page, which may or may not be good for some people. I configured my controller and played as dwayne wade in practice mode.
the main buttons/actions are the same for the most part, so it wont take that much time to get used to the controlling. the ice-skating affect is still there,

and the dribbling got dimmed down a few levels, mainly because the post up/back down is the down movement of the right analog stick. i thought id try out the "superstar" feature. so i pressed the button for it and also hit the dunk button. he dunked it of course... so i tried the superstar button with the pass button near the rim. he dunked it again but did a windmill dunk. same thing happened with the pro hop button. the shoot button did another dunk. i decided to see what would happen if i pressed those combinations farther away from the basket. he would sometimes do an almost-dunk, but miss it most of the time. when i hit the superstar button+pro hop button though, he did an alley oop to himself, which was kinda surprising.
i played as shaq, duncan, allen, and kidd in practice mode also. shaq did a variety of dunks near the basket with the superstar button. i thought the shooter superstar was kinda interesting because u can make the shooter "follow through" with his shot, keep his hand in the shooting motion after the shot, do an automatic bank shot, or a fake pass then shoot shot. so that was a unique addition i thought. i couldnt do superstar moves with kidd because he was a passer/playmaker (which i thought was kinda dissapointing because when i played an exhibition game i had no idea as to which pass was which when i controlled parker, thus turnovers were created). duncan kinda dissapointed me also-his "superstar" moves didnt match him at all. he did some weird ass shots in the post and did not fit him at all. but other then that-the superstar feature seems like a very good addition once i get the hang of it.
i played an exhibition game as the spurs, my opponent was the nets. the arcade feel is there, but the scoring doesnt play out like its arcade style. on superstar, it was a very hard game, most likely because i was trying to implement the superstar moves in the game. but the AI i can tell has been improved because the computer tries at almost every fast break opportunities and makes u work on defense in the half court set. as of right now i didnt mess with the sliders except for fatigue because im getting a feel for the gameplay, but i can tell ill have to later. like i said earlier, itll take time to get used to the superstar feature, but i think its a good addition. one highlight in the game that i remember the computer did was on a fast break. happened quite early in the game with like 10 minutes left. i didnt think the comp. would push the ball up so i didnt get back on D so fast.... jefferson was near the 3 point arch and kidd was near the halfcourt-kidd bounced passed to jefferson and jefferson finished with a 2 handed tomahawk. that was a pretty cool play i thought. only played 1 quarter but i can tell that this will be a good game. i may play later if i have time/feel like it and ill probably post again after i play it.
edit: o ya... the crowd sounds more realistic i noticed... as i was down for the majority of the quarter, they booed me frequently and cheered in a different way then in the past when my team made a big play. also, i had had a nice (although kinda unrealistic) alley oop close to the basket from ginobili to duncan. had duncan been a more athletic dunker, it woulda been more realistic but the alley-ooping i think has improved vastly too.
Last edited by
baller status on Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:00 pm, edited 4 times in total.