Okay after about 6 hours of playing NBA Live

[Admin]

I have to say that I am pretty happy with it. It has a nice soundtrack to it as usual and the movement of the players has really been changed quite a bit. Everything seems much more fluid. The new dunking is a lot of fun. I havent done the dunk contest or 3pt contest yet but I have a feeling they will be a lot of fun. Also, they really made the pro-hop feature a lot more fun because last year you could pretty much pro-hop past anyone for a layup or dunk. This year if your man has good D on you, you will either get called for a charge or you will turn the ball over quite often so you have to be careful when using it. The shooting in this game also seems MUCH more fluid and looks like natural shooting to me. They also added a lot more control to rebounding this year and for the most part so far my CPU controlled players on my team actually went after rebounds and boxed out. Instead of just being able to jump for a rebound now you can either try and tip the rebound back in or try and dunk it back if you are on offense which is really cool. Something else that I really like about this new version is that you can go back and view FULL BOX SCORE info from every game that you have played which has been missing from this game and I am thrilled that they finally added.

I know that some people complained about the ratings on this game, but me personally I like seeing players rated lower than what many typical fans would rate them. For example our highest rated player is Toine at 80 and that seems very fair to me, even though he is a multiple time all-star player. I havent seen the ratings on the Kobes and Duncans yet but I would imagine them to be mid 90s because even they have room to improve a little.

One complaint that I have is that straight out of the box you will have to go and add Willis, Barry, and Anderson to the team but thats just because we signed them too late I suppose. Also straight out of the box you will see that fatigue effect and substitution frequency are both set to zero and as such your players will never get tired and your subs will never get to play. So I just set them to 45 each and that seems to have fixed that issue. It was the same way on last years version. Also, the default quarter length is 5 minutes and sim quarters are 12 minutes so I set mine at 7 and 12 to make the stats be pretty much equal for me and the CPU sim games.

Bottom line from me after 6 hours of playing is that this game is a nice improvement from last year. If you are debating getting it or sticking with last years model I would recommend this one because of all of the added features, plus the new rookies and new players and coach on our team.

[Admin]

I wanted to say how much fun it is to play with the new guys. First, they really made Josh Smith an athletic freak. He has trouble finishing in traffic, but he has some incredible moves and he also cant shoot worth a damn from the outside....cant wait to use him in the dunk contest. Childress also isnt a very good shooter from the outside, but he is very versatile and seems to do everything well but not great. Harrington does everything well except shoot from downtown. Toine is of course Toine but he is a lot of fun to use.

The only things I did to the team other than adding Willis, Barry, and Anderson were that I released Hansen who was still on there and I signed Mourning off of the FA list and Eddie Griffin off the FA list and they have that team rated as an 83 so thats pretty good respect I think.

[Plainview1981]

I find it rather retarded that they would rate the legends

in the 70's and rate Walker an 80. That seems pretty

retarded. I'll probably rent the game for the dunk contest

but it doesn't seem worth buying.... I can drag out NBA

shootout for 200-195 scores.

[Admin]

Its not as bad as you were told. There are several legends rated in the 90s. Bird, Magic, Pippen, Dr J., etc. are all rated in the 90s. The only player in the current league rated above a 94 is KG and there is now way that anyone can say he doesnt belong in the top 5-10 players of all time at worst. Granted, there are some players in the legends pool who are lower than I think they should be and who knows why some of them are rated like they are, but most of the current players have low ratings as well. I mean Kobe is only a 94. T-Mac is only a 90. I happen to prefer that to other games that just slap a 99 or 100 on the best players.

Oh and for those that wondered about Lebron and Carmelo. Lebron is an 83 and Carmelo is an 80 so its not like they made them superstars either.

And a comment for you Scrooge, what in the world makes you think the scores on NBA Live are 200-195 as you are suggesting by comparing renting the game to playing NBA shootout. I would honestly be stunned if you put the game on the highest level with 12 minute quarters and averaged close to 100 pts a game. You are just basing your opinions off of NBA from several years ago because every year you always use that same arguement and never get the new version. It has been at least since 2002 that the scores were outrageous. Since then the game has gotten much more defensive.

[ersimo2889]

I got the game, too, but my main issue with it is that I can't drive past anyone worth a damn. Dolfan, you got any tips for me? I usually end up just trying to pro-hop into the lane, and then I'll lose the ball. Oh, and post moves.. can you break down how to do some nifty post moves, too?

Oh, yeah, and the dunk contest feature is awesome. You could have a lot of fun with that alone. But don't go straight into a dunk contest if you just bought the game. I was Lebron James when I did that, and I got 0's on my first two dunks because the time ran out and I didn't know what the hell I was doing. You gotta go into the tutorial practice mode..

[Admin]

Yeah here are some tips for you. Be VERY careful using the pro hop too much because its much more difficult to just use that on this years game. I have found that using the right analog stick left and right crossing over and combining with a pro hop are effective ways to get around most defenders. Also, try driving at someone and crossing over and then pulling back on the right analog stick will will make you jump back and then go straight up for a jumper.

In the post the best moves for me are backing the defender down with I think L2 and then either pump faking and shooting a short jumper or pump faking and attempting a dunk if I am deep enough. Pump faking is important in this game and although the best defenders wont go for it, most of the average ones will most of the time.

I just got done playing the rookie/sophomore game and that was a lot of fun. If this game is any indication both Dwight Howard and Josh Childress are going to be VERY good pros.....those were my two stars in this game against Lebron and Carmelo. I won the game by 3 with Howard getting me 2 big baskets and a big block in the last minute.

I also played the 3pt shootout and that was a lot of fun too. The announcers for that are Kenny Smith and Ernie whats his name. The announcing is very dynamic as well and they say things depending on what you have done, like keeping track of how many you have hit in a row, how many money balls, how many shots you need to get to the next round, etc so that makes it even more fun.

Getting ready to go try the dunk contest for the 1st time. I hope that its all its cracked up to be, but even if it isnt, this is still by far the best basketball game I have ever played.

[Admin]

I cannot stop short of saying how GREAT the dunk contest is on Live 2005. There is nothing like this in any sports game. The commentary is excellent for one, perfectly seemless with the action on the court and some UNBELIEVABLE dunks I kid you not. I just watched T-Mac throw the ball off of the camera on the side of the court, catch it and then 180 windmill dunk it.

Before anyone tries this though you MUST go do the tutorial or you arent very likely to figure out how to dunk it. This is going to take a while to master but like Esi said this feature alone would be enough to warrant buying this game.

[Plainview1981]

Its not as bad as you were told."

I heard that like Elgin Baylor is like a 74 and stuff

like that.

"And a comment for you Scrooge, what in the world

makes you think the scores on NBA Live are 200-195

as you are suggesting by comparing renting the game

to playing NBA shootout."

I've got alittle sour on NBA Live since Jason Kidd

was on the cover. The game felt unrealistic in games

to me and the scoring is too high. Gamespot only gave

it like a 7.9 also. The fans at gamespot didn't give

it much better

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sports/nbalive...tml?tag=mp_2to9

337 ratings and they give it a 8.0

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sports/espnnba2005/index.html

They give ESPN2k5 a 8.4 as do the 154 ratings

I might not by either.... But I'm guessing that ESPN

is more sim than NBA Live still. Sorry, NBA Live can

have the dunk contest all it wants... But if it still

isn't a sim I don't want it period.

I grew tired of ESPN from last year because the post

game is so week... You can't even back down defenders.

But I'm going to stay away from buying the arcade Live

for now. Perhaps it will change my mind once I rent

it... But as of right now I'm not buying Live.

[Blunt91]

team of this year but I used NBA Live 2004. I know that game isn't as good as this year's game, ( I will be getting the new one soon) but I just wanted to point out that you can still play with the New Hawks on the old one. I created Childress and Josh Smith in the create player mode. I gave Chilldress his big Afro and threw on a head band for Smith(I think I have seen him wear one. Their ratings were too w high with Childress 82 and Smith 80 but it was still fun to play with them. What I really liked is that by Childress & Smith having nicknames J.Chill & J. SMooth you can hear the commentator use their nicknames during the game. For example Childress was called Chill and Smith was called Smoove. I gave Smith an 80 ranking for blocking shots which might be a little high but we know he has the ability to be a good shotblocker. Well I had fun with that game and like I said will be getting the new one in a few weeks but this will hold me over till then.