EA Sport has gone the way of Arcade NBA Jam, if i was Ea sports i would of taken the Gameplay of Live 2000, added these graphics and ability to back down a player as well as a few of the other new featues and you they would have the perfect game.
David, I couldn't agree with you more here. The gameplay does have a bit of an arcade feel to it, definitely a "run-n-shoot", Denver Nuggets/Doug Moe feel to it. I agree the best Live title I've ever played was 2000 and why they changed the gamplay from 2000 to 2k1 will always confound me. But to be honest, I also like the graphics of 2000 slightly better than the current one [at least for the player animations] since the players have this muscular feel to them that just doesn't seem right. But this year's graphics are at least better than 2k1. I'll never understand why you EA just doesn't stick to what got them there. Like I've noted in other thread's there are still loyal 2000 guys who to this day play that game. So I'd tell EA to look hard at what made that game so appealing and get back to that, spending more time adding new features as opposed to trying to re-invent the wheel in the game-play department. It was already solid in 2000, so why not simply re-vamp it instead of overhauling it all together.
And as mginsburg
"I want the gameplay of Live 2000 and the graphics of 2003. I can live without the "high flying graphics". When I play basketball (real basketball), we set picks, play defense and pass to the open man. That's what bball is all about."
Well I also agree with these statements, although I do want some better graphic than the 2000 ones, but not completely different. Just tweaked a bit. For instance, Use the live 2000 player animation models but make their skeletal structure more defined, make their vascularity more defined, but don't make a totally different player model. So I'm 50/50 on the "high flying graphics" part. But the rest I agree with.
Best,
P