Customer Reviews

NBA 2K9 X360

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

What did I do yesterday? I played 2k9 all night! Okay, I stopped for dinner, but that's about it. Remember loading up 2K8 and going "Hmmm...not sure I like it."? Well this is the same way. In 2K8 I initially thought that the animations were too much. That you go to do something and you're out of control while he finishes the animation. This is the same way. There are new animations to get used to. But by the end of the night I was having a ball! You have to get used to the animations.
So, first I'll start with my only downer...Clark Kellogg! I really miss Kenny "The Jet" Smith. Clark is just boring. He says all of the lines that Kenny used to say (I guess he didn't have much original material), but without the flare. He would have made a better commentator and they should have brought someone else in to add the color. But Kevin Harland is still good and Cheryl Miller is neither here nor there.
Game-play's a bit more realistic. There aren't nearly as many slams, and so far the alley-oops seem realistic. And the computer plays much better defense now. You're going to have to rely on a cross-over if you want to get to the hole. I have a tough time getting Iverson's cross-over, but Melo's is sick! It's just a really quick cross-over and as you look up there's a lane to the hole. It looks exactly like Melo's cross, and then his slam looks like his slam...but you better hurry because the lane closes in a hurry as the defense recovers so you've gotta hit it!
The computer controlled players move more realistically this year. They cut and come off screens and set picks on their own instead of just standing around. And if you want to run a play you can turn on "play view", which draws the play on the court for you. Oh, and the defense is smarter this year. If you get too hot with someone the computer will start bringing the double team. Didn't stop me from going for 34 with Melo though!
Also, instead of assigning certain coverages to certain positions, you actually assign a coverage to a player. So when you go to the coverage screen you scroll through all 12 of your opponents players. That way if you had the double team on the power forward because KG is playing, you're not stuck still double-teaming when his scrub back-up comes in. There's also been another coverage setting added, "deny ball". I like to use that on the post players to try and stop the entry pass. I'm not really seeing much of a difference in it so far though.
The graphics and animations are pure! Everyone's shots look like their shots. Melo's free-throw looks correct this year. Oh, and I'm playing from the "Broadcast" view. I tried to play from the 2K view I normally play but they seemed to have flattened it out (the camera's not as high). And then for some reason the transition when you get the rebound and head the other way is kind of stuttery. Basically, if you've seen what they did to the view in Madden this is the same thing. I guess they're trying to show the whole court. I'm actually enjoying being on the side again though. I haven't played like that in years.
When you start playing don't be immediately disappointed. Think back to 2K8 and know that it's going to get better. The graphics/animations are amazing!! Oh, and if you play in Hi-Def make sure you take the time to look at the crowd. It's not the blurry five generic people drawn 20,000 times. Oh, and there's no "fatigue" slider. This year you adjust the "stamina" slider. I'm playing 8 minute quarters and have the stamina set at 44. 44 seems like they tire just a little slowly, but 43 makes them tire too quickly. I think 44 is about right. And I turned all of the fouls and stuff up to 60. So far nobody has fouled out but I do get people in foul trouble (playing 4 fouls per game).
Oh, and during timeouts you can boost one thing for your team (rebounds, defense, etc.). The book doesn't tell you much, but there's an in-game tutorial you'll want to do. It's under "practice", and it lets you learn exactly how to do the everything from the basics to the advanced isometric moves.
So overall...one day in...color me impressed!
WTG 2K Sports!

At the time of this writing, there has not been any patches to correct the issues plaguing the game that the creators were too incompetent to see beforehand or prepare for. Even with these issues, which I'll talk about specifically in a moment, this is still the best basketball game I've ever played.


No matter what happens in the future to correct this game, this will forever be remembered for its absolutely and completely broken online game. A lot of people use hyperboles and exaggerated adjectives to describe an aspect of a game that fails to live up to standards to emphasize their point, but I mean this quite literally when I say it's unplayable. Here's the chronology of how things will play out if you attempt to play an online game: for an Unranked Team Up game, out of 10 tries, you'll fail to connect 7-8 times, when you do eventually connect, the game will either disconnect upon entering, or sometime within the 1st quarter. If you're lucky enough to not experience any of this, even then, your BEST CASE scenario is to play a completely lag filled game for 4 quarters. If it weren't for the lag, I wouldn't be as angry about the disconnects, because at least then, I can still enjoy a quality basketball game online, for however long it lasts (because the gameplay is almost perfect, which I'll get into). It's not much better with Ranked Team Up, your connection success rate is a lot higher, but it doesn't matter since you still either get disconnected midway through the game, or you're treated to a slow-motion, herky-jerky, lag filled game.


Some other points:


**The 2K Camera view LAGS in offline single player mode. How is this happening. How can you knowingly release a game knowing that two main elements of your game are severely flawed. I can almost buy the online excuse that they didn't expect this many players to bog down their servers, but how do you not see that the camera view you've used for the last NINE years lags. Well, this is supposedly being patched, we'll see, no patch as of now, 11/5/2008, 11:30pm EST waiting for my shift to end..


**There's way too many blocked shots around the basket that END UP GOING IN ANYWAY. If the impact of the block was loud enough to be heard clearly, then surely the trajectory of the ball should change enough to NOT go in the hoop. Every now and then sure, but it happens too often.


**Lot of people complain about the right stick menu navigation, but my problem is with the pause system (what's up with me and pause menus?) In most games when you pause, you have the separate menu options to choose, and there's usually a menu option that you can click for something like "resume game," or "return to game," or if you're a normal human being, you'll simply press the equivalent of whatever the B button is on your controller, no matter what console or game it is (or you'll press Start again, thereby returning you back to the game). Well guess what, you can't do that here. You have to specifically choose the menu option that says "resume game." It may seem like nitpicking, but I despise bad, unintuitive controls. It just shows thoughtlessness from the designers. It's like putting the ignition to a car six more inches to the right, sure, it doesn't affect your ability to start your car, but why not make it as comfortable as possible?


**The only reason I play this game is because of the included option of playing as ONE player on the court. This feature has had many monickers over the years, but always been poorly implemented due to the fact that it's only superficial. Previously if you controlled one player, most of your teammates would just stand around waiting for you to call for the ball, doing absolutely nothing. The last game I played that had this feature properly implemented was Slam 'N Jam '95 for 3DO. 2K9 finally does it properly because even while you control a single player, your teammates are still reacting to what's going on on the court, hitting the open man, taking open shots, cutting, passing YOU the ball if you're open. It's a fun challenge to see how well I can carry out my assigned duties and play within the offense, and thanks to the on screen diagrams, you know where you have to be at what time, and what you're supposed to do, whether it be to curl, set a screen, etc. My only complaint is the location of how to access this feature. They've got this thing hidden in the button configuration menu, and even then you have to access the advanced subpage of it, where you designate whether you want to play PG, SG, etc. Why isn't this under the GAMEPLAY menu??? I just wonder how many people even realized this feature existed..


**When you're double teaming someone, once you are in that double team animation, it's impossible to break out of it. If I want to harass a post player, once I'm locked into my animation, I have no way to run back out to the now wide open player at the 3 point line. I don't care if they go 5/5 from the 3 point line, at least give me the option to run at them and put a hand up. This, and the camera issue is the only gameplay flaws that made me give it less than a perfect 10 score (the broken online doesn't factor in) Problem is, although the camera problem is supposedly going to be patched, I can guarantee you this gameplay flaw will most definitely NOT be patched. They may correct it for next year by chance, but they won't waste their time patching it this year, they probably don't even realize it's an issue.


**Speaking of doubleteams, when you doubleteam someone, if you don't pass the ball out fast enough, it ends up as a jumpball. Well here's where the problem is, you end up with 2-3 jumpballs a game. Instead of the end result of not passing it resulting in a jumpball EVERY time, how about simply a TURNOVER. That'd be much more realistic, and wouldn't ruin the flow of the game so much. In the NBA, a player who gets caught in a trap or doubleteamed in the post rarely gets in a jumpball situation, they usually end up getting the ball stripped. The jumpballs happen when someone's going for a layup or a dunk. Hopefully they realize this for next year and have the jumpballs be a result of a defender getting a hand on the ball as you're taking it up, and not because you were doubleteamed (again, those should result in a turnover).



Apart from all that, I've never played a basketball game that was this realistic and this close to perfection. The gameplay is unbelievable. I can't believe the number of nuances and details they have in this game:


**I really like the driving mechanic on this game. This game has a perfect sense and understanding for feel of *space and *momentum. It breaks down in a couple ways: depending on your relative positioning to your defender, you either have the space and/or the player quickness to get by that defender or you don't; and if you don't, you can then dynamically switch directions, or come to a quick stop, and your defender will realistically be off balance for a split second, giving you the time and spacial advantage to bury a quick jumper, or drive AGAIN and this time get by them, since you now have a step on them. I really like the sense of being able to fully control your dribbling player and school the defender.



**It's perfect the way they captured the essence of *getting by someone. Once you have a little bit of space and you get that first step on them, your player lowers his shoulder as you barely get by them.


**The triple threat option is done perfectly. You can do all kinds of footjabs and ball fakes and your defender reacts so realistically and perfectly as he desperately shifts his body weight keep up with you. The AI won't react the say way every time either, you can jab step to your right, and they may not bite, then you pump fake, and quickly jab step a second time, and this time the defender might shift in that direction thinking this was your real move, as you take off towards the left side towards the basket. The same thing goes for a live ball, just like I said earlier, you really have a sense of rocking the defender as they respond to your every dribbling move to keep up with you, and depending on their reaction, if you're quick enough and savvy enough, you can pull off some really cool appropriate counter moves (I say 'appropriate', because sure, maybe you can react and do the same exact counter move every time on the opponent, but for the true NBA fans, you'll want to try to do the most realistic move given the situation, and you have a lot to choose from).


**How's this for authenticity, on one occasion I jumped into the air trying to anticipate a CPU player that I assumed was about to shoot the ball so I could block it, but before he jumped to shoot, a foul was called on someone else off the ball, so in order to get two shots at the line, the CPU player actually JUMPED INTO ME while I was in the air to initiate the contact. And yes, it looked exactly how you would imagine. Show me one other basketball game that does that.


**The motions and movement of people's bodies in this game in general is amazing, particularly on the defensive end. Defenders are keenly aware of the man they're guarding, relative to where the ball is. So he'll kinda put his arm out, to keep contact and feel his man, as he tries to also watch the ball on the other side of the court.


**The faces of players may not look perfect, but the details of their bodies are crazy. Sure, we all know about T-Mac's protruding vein on his right arm/shoulder, and obviously Sheed's white patch on the back of his head. This is nothing new, but who else noticed that they actually included Kobe's NECK FAT? I watch enough basketball to pick up on small details like this, and Kobe has this layer of fat on the back of his neck. Any game that's detailed enough to draw someone's neck fat definitely has my respect.

You know the graphics are really good and so is the gameplay but the controls kill the fun. They're way to difficult and the crossover moves are very hard to execute. I don't mind playing against a friend but playing against the computer is kinda frustrating and hard. The dunk contest isn't so bad except the controls are hard to figure out. I think if you're a fan of the NBA 2k franchise then you might still love it but if you're a new comer like I am, it's not exactly new user friendly.

The bad: Very similar in gameplay to 2K8, but it seems like like 2K Sports made it harder to rebound and defend in general. The AI defense is terrible in my opinion and only a few star players (Dwight Howard, Yao Ming, Tim Duncan and a few others) can consistently play good defense in the paint. I hope for the 2010 version they can really work on defense. Oh and one more thing - is it just me or is it impossible to win the three point shootout?

The good: The animations are even better this year and I think that is the strong point of the series. Presentation has been excellent for the past few years and it really does feel like a real basketball game. Anyone who wants an authentic game experience should really enjoy this title. There are a bunch of extra gametypes available including slam dunk contests, 1 on 1 or a game of 21, season/association mode, practice, online play and more. Also the new roster updates that come out every once in a while are a great addition and something that should have been in the 2K8 version last year.

Overall I would give the game a grade of "B" for good. If the defense wasn't so bad the grade would definitely be higher. I also think the menu's (especially in the Xbox Live menu) can be improved. We'll see what happens in 2010, but I hope to find some great new features.

Been playing nba 2k for a while and I am disapointed by this years' version which I bought it 2 weeks ago.

My issues:
1. Lag when playing OFFLINE in 2k mode
2. Online mode - no 2k view. I don't like any of the views they have

on the positive side they have really tried to improve graphics (which is what creates offline lag) and lack of certain views online. also they made the game a lot more realistic which means you cant cheese(use one methodology to score) as much as in the past.

Well, what can I say. They did it again. Great graphics, great gameplay, and just great overall. It is by far the most realistic NBA sim on the market. Some people might complain about how you can't just break the defender and get to the basket easily, but it's REALISTIC.

Other features, such as Living Rosters, Association Mode 2.0, and Online Play are absolutely amazing. You can play Association Mode for hours on end and it is so addicting! One improvement in Association is you no longer need to have a top 5 or even top 10 pick to get a decent player; with the last pick in the draft, you can get a serviceable player for years to come if you know how to scout and draft right!

Living Rosters are updated whenever 2K deems necessary, and it is a great option; no longer have to wait for months to update rosters online or doing it manually, this is a great feature to have!

Online is so much improved this year, it is amazing. 5v5 online games are a blast! Tons of fun to do, with friends or just random people who are online.

At the beginning, you might not like it. You might groan and say "Not again!" in response to your first impressions at NBA 2k once again not being as good as 2k7. That's what I thought... Well, keep playing, all you have to do is get used to the game, and you will realize that it is better then 2k7! Or at least the same.

Though NBA Live is improving every year, NBA 2K is once again the owners of the title of "Best NBA Sim on the market".

5/5 Stars. Keep up the great work 2k!

My first review of NBA 2K9 resulted in a 5 / 5 review; however after playing more games I begin to notice problems with the game. For that reason I decided to rewrite and re-rate my review of the game.

NBA 2K9 is the third year in a row in which I bought 2K's basketball game; and for good reason. Year after year 2K has proved that that they know (and care) about producing quality, realistic basketball simulations. They do not rely on gimmicks to move a few more units, instead they put their attention where it matters the most; actual game play. Except for CH2K8, I have always been very impressed with their basketball games and as long as they continue to produce quality games that are fun to play. I expected nothing less from NBA 2K9, however while the game is still enjoyable there are a multitude of problems with the game that is not 2K-like.

Visually the game is improved over previous versions. Players sitting on the bench are more animated this year and there are even some shots showing them chatting with each other while watching the game. Coaches benefit from makeovers as well however the biggest improvement graphically is the crowd. In the past, 2K basketball games suffered from a rather bland looking crowd with only a handful of distinct people copied and pasted throughout the arena. In addition, they did not react to the game being played that well. It wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it was just what we had come to expect. However, this was one area that had a lot of room for improvement. Well 2K did just that in NBA 2K9; audience members are more diverse, more detailed and more animated. Their actions appear to be dictated by what is happening on the court, and instead of everyone in the audience doing the same thing at all times, some will stand up and cheer while others will remain seated. As always they will cheer and boo based on how you're doing so what was good about last year's crowd has not been lost in this year's version.

Game play while improved does seem to have some problems that previous versions of the game didn't have. The AI is smarter and makes for a more challenging game on offense, but just the AI seems to be quite reminiscent of CH2K8. By this I mean that the CPU seems to be able to hit uncontested jumpers 100% of the time, while heavily contested jumpers "only" are hit 93% of the time, Normal pressure on jump shooters while results in a success rate between the 93 and 100 percent range. Also, forget about contesting layups and drives to the basket, it's pointless. Just like College Hoops 2K8, as soon as the layup animation starts its two points every single time. Also, like CH2K8 CPU players almost NEVER miss free throws, so I wonder why the game doesn't just go ahead give the CPU an automatic two points since the free throw sequence is basically pointless. Luckily, UNLIKE CH2K8 the problems with the unstoppable AI are fixed by adjusting the sliders. I am usually not the one to adjust slider settings, but with this game I had enough, I just got tired of the CPU 3rd string bench warmers draining threes with my guy all over him and me somehow blowing 12 point leads with 50 seconds left to go in the game due to the AI being programmed to keep games close by any means necessary. I downloaded a set of sliders from the 2K share and got a more realistic and still challenging game, even though I still lost, it was more enjoyable and more importantly, fair. However, even with adjusted sliders the CPU still pulls of miracle comebacks late in the 4th quarter due to your players mysteriously dropping the ball or missing wide open layups. Hopefully this can be fixed with further slider adjustments but in any case, the default sliders are absolute TRASH.

The best addition to NBA 2K9 are the huge improvements in collision detection and more called fouls. NBA 2K9 does an amazing job of capturing the roughness of the sport and while there are more collisions and players ending up on their butts due to incidental contact, the game does not call a foul every single time, which is like the real thing. This is not to say that fouls are rarely called, in fact quite the contrary. It seems to me more fouls are called in NBA 2K9 then the previous versions I have played and again like the real NBA, most fouls are called in the paint.

In regards to roster updates, many of us know all too well that 2K didn't make roster updates a top priority in their past games, or ANY priority for that matter. But based on what I've read and experienced with the game so far 2K finally appears to be on top of this. 2K claims to have hourly roster updates so every time you start the game up you will automatically have the most current roster. I observed the game downloading a new roster every time I start up the game, but only time will tell if this continues throughout the season.

As far as online play, I already see that I won't be playing there much. Not even mentioning the fact that it takes about a half hour to even successfully start a game, online play is full of Kobe and Lebron cheesers; even in non-ranked matches! I don't care about my ranking, rating or W/L % I just play to have fun online and unfortunately many players online only care about winning and if they don't win and/or score 100 points with Kobe, they reward you with a negative or neutral rating. As with all sports games online, there is no point in playing ranked matches either because player leader boards mean absolutely nothing other than showing the players who are the best at cheesing and glitching. Play online at your own risk; personally I don't think it's worth it the trouble or frustration.

While playing the game more and more I seemed to find bugs that range from an annoyance to being downright unacceptable. While I understand ALL software will have bugs, a few bugs I discovered led me to believe that the QA department was on vacation during the testing phase of the project. I won't go into much detail of every single bug as any message board related to 2K9 will have a slew of people reporting all the bugs they have found. But a quick overview includes freezing/crashing issues, inbound glitch, Wins counting as Losses in season mode and the game not being able to handle trades properly. One bug I get ALL the time is that the game freezes up entirely whenever I exit season mode meaning that you have to physically turn off the XBOX. This happens every single time I exit season mode, and it freezes in the exact same spot; when the screen displays its "loading rosters..." It would seem common sense that new features added to any software project will be tested the most thoroughly. Again, there is no way any project can be released without bugs, but bugs that directly affect the outcome of the game and freezing and crashing problems are unacceptable.

I'm trying my best to enjoy the game, but I don't even look forward to playing it anymore. In fact I haven't played it in over a week because it seems every time I play, I find another bug. Presently, I am 50/50 on whether I'm going to keep this game or get rid of it via Ebay or trading it in for store credit. Previous versions of this series were much less buggy, and the AI was fair requiring little to no tweaking of sliders. I expect this kind of nonsense from EA sports, but 2K has always been great when it comes to their basketball and football titles. It's a shame 2K9 doesn't meet the very high bar that 2K set themselves. I still will definitely recommend a rental, but as far as purchasing this year I can't say either way. I guess it all depends on how well you can deal with the multitude of bugs. I hope this is not a representation of future NBA titles from 2K sports.

I would continue to purchase 2K's football titles, but oh yeah I forgot; EA took care of that. Speaking of EA, I dumped the NBA Live series 10 years ago in favor of 2K because EA has proven time and time again that they are incapable of producing quality basketball games. Since I started playing 2K's basketball games I have always been impressed, but if 2K continues this downward spiral on a once great series, then I will just do without ANY basketball game because there is absolutely no way would I feel forced to play NBA Live again. After all, I have been doing without any football game since 2K announced that there would be no APF 2K9.

iv been a fan of 2k Basketball since the dreamcast days and LOVED NBA2K5, as it was possibly the Best basketball game i had ever played. it gave you almost Ultimate control over your players Dribbling abilites and made the game Very realistic. but since 2k5, this game has not really Grown or done anything Dramatically Different to Improve on itself. infact, its kind of Gone backwords. and note, i have played NBA2K5, 6, 7, AND 8. as well as was a HUGE fan of the Live series since Live 96 on the Sega...and also a Large fan of NBA Live 2000 on the Playstation. iv been playing Hoop games a LONGG time.

with NBA 2K9, some of the players dont really look like themselves...more like ZOMBIES of themselves. this is Puzzling considering that 2k5 had the players likeness DOWN TO A T. also, the decision to take away the B button for Isomotioning was quite possibly the WORSE decision 2k could have ever made. and 2k8 suffered from this as well. when i use the DIRECTIONAL stick to do Iso dribbles...it just Does Not Work Well...as this takes away a HUGE part of my Offensive Game ie: Difficulty in Creating Space for a Shot. also, tying in a Shot fresh off of an iso-motion doesnt really Flow smoothly. after an Iso Motion, you STOP in one spot..and then shoot. very Ugly.

ofcourse this leads me to HEAVILY relying on the Post game..which is Excellent as always with 2k. i have No complaints there. the Realism of the game is there..when the Speed of the game picks up with Fast Breaks and Dunks, it does all come together Well...but with the Iso Motion issue...and the Overall Lack of GROWTH in the series..i felt like i would have been better off Updating the Rosters in NBA 2K5 and just playing that..where everything was Perfect. and in all Honesty, it just Lacks the ENERGY and EXCITEMENT of the 2k's of Old.

honestly, i say Pass on this and either get 2k5 for Xbox...or get Live 08 or 09..a game which has Finally gotten rid of its Arcadeish engine and has presented its fans with Realistic gameplay, Spectacular Likeness to Actual Players and Revolutionary Presentation as well as Online Features such as 365 and near Flawless online play. feel free to read the Review im about to do on NBA Live 09 as well.

iLL .

I have been a 2k user since it was on dreamcast. I loyally purchase it every year, and have ridden all of the ups and downs that the franchise has offered. The franchise has always suffered from one notable issue... difficulty levels. Instead of becoming more difficult based on overall statistics, 2k always seemed to simply make the game a bit "cheaper". Suddenly, come the 4th quarter, you couldn't make a wide open dunk. You'd miss it over and over and over. You couldn't hit a shot, while the cpu was busy alley ooping over your head.

Sadly, this has gotten even worse in 2k9. Usually, I start an "association" and it takes approx 20-30 games to really get the handle of it. I lose a bunch, I get humiliated, but it's part of the fun. I've just finished my first entire season of 2k9, and I have to say, it was less than fun. I would regularly have to go into the 4th quarter with 10-15 point leads to be able to endure the notable (20-30%) drop in my shooting percentage and the notable raise in the cpu's. I would play 23 seconds of killer defense, only to have Rip Hamilton hoist a 3-pointer out of a 2 man trap and drain it. Meanwhile, with 20 seconds left, I'd have Greg Oden missing layups and dunks. Very frustrating.

To continue on this theme, It seems that basic rules don't apply to the cpu. Often I will take the ball to the hoop, be absolutely hammered by upwards of 3 players, and no call is made. Where as everytime they have the ball in the post, it's an and-one scenario. In late game scenarios, things get worse. Suddenly, it's impossible to run basic pick and roll offensive sets. Everytime you go to pass to your big man on the roll, it's stolen or knocked loose. If that doesn't happen, he rolls it off the front of the rim, even if he's been slaying it all game long. I haven't even started to mention the crazy charging fouls that get called on you if you decide to not pass on the pick and roll and try and take it to the rim.

Overall, the first 2 quarters of every cpu game play out wonderfully. Your men are moving without the ball in that amazing 2k9 way, you can run a pick and roll, you can (sorta) play a full 24 seconds of defense without some hail mary going down... but then comes the 3rd and 4th quarters. And things change notable.

A big bummer for me. I don't need to win every year, but I atleast wanna be able to be at peace with losing (shoulda run the offense more, should have gotten to the line, etc).

First off I have bought every nba 2k game since about 04. I played 2k8 online quite often and was very good it it. Was in the middle hundreds of the hundreds of thousands that played (rank). NBA 2k9 has been reinvented maybe a bit too much. I experienced freezing, errors, not impressed with game play.

The controls are awkward and very hard to learn. I started to learn how to play online, but the 2k camera is not in option in multiplayer. Foul shot timming is off on online. In normal play Id make 80% and online about 15%. The games been reinvented a little too much. Probably putting in hundreds of hours on 2k8 about a week of gameplay of 2k9 was enough for me. 2k only updated the rosters 2 or 3 times last year nba live claims they do it daily. Nba 2k is no longer my favorite game, in fact im selling it. People can still pause the game during online with or without the ball, which you will experience people doing this during foul shots to make the timming quite difficult.

Ultimatley the game was pretty much just changed, not so much for the better but just different. Defense seems more difficult, so spamming with yao, kobe, lebron. I recall last year spammers with yao and kobe shooting 50-60% 3pt while being double teamed. Can't say nba live is better since I havent played it, but I will probably give it a shot.