Customer Reviews

NBA Live 2005

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Yes, I know it is old, but I forgot how much I hated it >.< It is the only PC basketball game that I know of, unless I have missed when ESPN 2k made the hop. Lets start from the top: The first two levels of play are too easy, even if you cripple yourself and get horrible players no better than 50!! So up the ante to all star level and superstar and you will find yourself getting outrun on a fastbreak by 340 lbs. Shaq. I had no idea Shaq had the speed and quickness to not only chase Steve Nash down the court but to run alongside of him, and get in front of him stopping him completely. This is one of many bugs in the game, it is either too easy, or too hard. Even with the slider adjustments you will find yourself frustrated at the none middleground in playability. How about the blocking in this game! Jesus christ I didn't know Tracy Mcgrady could not only block a two handed dunk under the basket by Shaq but he could also knock him off balance in the process! And as with all CPU blocks they kindly end up in the hands of the CPU, you know, cause you can CONTROL where a blocked dunk goes. And trust me you will get many, many blocked dunks under the basket, and from behind??! How the heck do you block a dunk from behind! I can see in some situations yes but when you are a full body away from the person and you can block a one hander from behind??! Wouldn't the blocker have to hit the dunkers hand to even accomplish that?? And don't be fooled by freestyle control-it is crap. I can make up a fake player in his golden age of 70's with a rating of 1 and it would take Allen Iverson 15 seconds just to dribble past him. The analog freestyle is a joke, and needs to be fixed-it only gets in the way. One button for dribbling is fine-and hold down that button and push the analog stick in a different direction to get a different dribble. See how much more simpler that would be than 2 analog sticks? Those are just one of the many, many annoyances. The biggest (believe it or not) being the menu. Please tell me why I have to click like 20 times or hold the mouse button down to make my college LSU instead of getting a drop down box? Try to change a players rating from 30 to 80 and you will sure get a workout. But alas, this is the only Pro Basketball game on the pc, therefore I have to reccomend it by default. But you have been warned.

I have been playing Live in its various EA sports incarnations since the Sega Genesis days, when the hoops titles were called "Bulls vs. Lakers" and so on. I still believe that NBA Live 2000 is the greatest hoops game ever made, but curse modernity, I still buy the new versions (and Sega Sports ESPN titles, too) every year. I can say after having put in numerous hours with Live 2005 that it is the best since that watershed year of 2000. The graphics are generally well done, though EA still lags behind Sega in that department. The addition of the slam dunk contest is fun but a bit frustrating, and the tutorial is weak. On to the meat and potatoes: the Dynasty mode. The interface is a bit cluttered (I hate virtual PDA's in games; I'm already on a PC, don't simulate some chincy piece of plastic, just give me clear menus!), but generally works pretty well. All of the options are there, although the create-a-player is unusually weak in its graphical options. Why is it that games like "NBA Courtside 2002" (Gamecube) had a more complete create a player feature than a game 3 years later? Boggles the mind.

The gameplay, the core of the game, is solid. The freestyle controls are generally not very effective against the CPU (though, as always, you can adjust the sliders) and the idiotic pro-hop step is back (traveling, to purists like myself). The separate dunk and shoot buttons are a good idea, but take some getting used to. The players move well, independently, and there aren't too many silly animations. The problems are the same: rebounding is difficult and hard to gauge (no hoops game EVER has managed to solve that problem), there are too many blocks, and players often stop and jump to catch a pass, making fast breaks more difficult than necessary. The computer defense is generally very good, shadowing you everywhere, to the point that it can get frustrating. A 99-rated player shouldn't have too many problems with a sub-par defender, but you will in this game, because everyone plays like Bruce Bowen or Ron Artest.

This is a fun game, and the addition of "tasks" which are rewarded with points is a good idea (get a triple double, score 20 points, etc). These can be redeemed with extra coaching boosts, or in the EA Sports "My NBA Live" which is cool, and you can retire Jerseys, etc. I see this version of Live as returning a bit more to the simulation roots of basketball, and away from the cheesy arcade game that it had become. Let's hope it carries over into 2006!

My first, and major grievance, is that the "sliders" have little to no effect on the gameplay. I found rebounding to be a chore, even on the lowest difficulty. The main issue is that the PC is tracking the ball, while you need to depend on a visual method, which is often inaccurate.

I tested the sliders by pushing the CPU rebounding to 0, and the user rebounding to 99. I then upped my center's rebounding to 99 as well, and I squeaked out a few more rebounds than the PC.

However, when the difficulty is at its lowest, you can have players reach triple figures in scoring while still only getting 20-25 team rebounds per game. As for blocked shots - there are just certain centers that you don't want to face.

Yao Ming, for example, will easily rack up about 10-15 blocked shots. Most of these are, as another review stated, in ridiculous situations.

The foul calls are horrendous. I was averaging a 6/1 ratio for foul calls (against me). So after 30 fouls had been called, 24 went to the PC, 6 went to me. I have yet to see a PC run player even break the top 30 for Free Throw Attempts.

The only real thing I noticed about moving the difficulty sliders was how often they'd steal a pass. At the lower difficulties, you can pass right through traffic, where at the higher difficulties, you better make sure you have a clear passing lane.

This is the kind of game you install, bang your head against the desk, then put away.

Hello!, first of all let me tel you that I am a big fan of the sports games, especialy basketball games. For me, this is a good game, whit good graphics and animations.
The only complaint I find is that is very easy to score in some levels. In rokie I have to put the time of the quarter in 6 minutes, because in the 12 minutes period i score almost 200 points whit every team. For me is not very dificult to score in the beginers levels, but what a change when you play in the all-star level, you can easly lose a game for almost 25 points, even if you play against the weaker team.
GRAPHICS.- Are very good, with excelent presentacion of the local team, almos as the one you look at the T.V. The detail on the players are very good, including tatoes an facial expressions. The people on the bench also move and you can so them talk with each other. Te coachs walk and sometimes move his hands. In the All Star game, the ligths are excelent, the presentation of the players is verry good. The only complaint is whit the spectators, they look so woody, and only jump.
CONTROLS.- In this game you can put a key if you want to shoot, another if you want to dunk, another if you want to pass, another if you wanto to throw and alley hoop, another if you wanto to jump. Almost all of the action you saw in a game is here.
SOUND.- The sound is very good, you can hera the coments of the players, the instruccions of your coach, the cheears os the sepectators, and also the way the ball hits the basket in a dunk.
In all, this is a very good game, if you like basketball, this game is pure fun, enyoy the game.

Sigh. EA Sports has done it again... created a basketball game that gets some things right but totally blows it on others. I guess I'll break this thing up into catagories...

GRAPHICS: Perfect example. Everything looks really good (even some 18 months later)... the players look like their real-life counterparts, the arenas look good and are faithful recreations... and then... the plastic wrap. A few other reviewers mentioned it. Basically it looks like the players were put in an oven with clear heat shrink. Like they are silver and someone just polished it. Despite this oddity (how does stuff like this make it to the final product? Because it's honestly the first thing you notice) I'd give graphics 9/10.

SOUND: It's fine. The commentary gets repetative, but that's to be expected. They can't have a random comment generator. Crowd is nice too, although EA still lacks the capacity in ANY of their games to make the crowd explode (when I hit a three to win it, I want the place to explode and the commentators to flip out).

GAMEPLAY: Again, they can't put it all together. Each version does something really well, others really badly. Then they try to fix it in the next version and just flip the faulty areas.

The difficulty can be set in 4 modes:

Rookie: You can beat the Pistons with the Bobcats your first time out. Just drive to the hoop and press "layup." Points.

Starter: Glorified rookie mode. Easy yet. Might give you a close game your first week or so. Once you learn to play the game, expect to easily double the other team's score.

All-Star: Suddenly the CPU can play defense. Really good defense. Like have a player fly from 10 feet away to block your open layup attempt. Have Shaq rocked from behind by Shawn Bradley. Meanwhile, your offense has run dry. Expect to shoot in the 30 percents a majority of the time. You will only make threes if you are wide open (even then Stovakavic will clank at least half). Meanwhile, for the CPU, players like Gary Payton will play like a 23 year old Reggie Miller. Nail threes in your face. Drive to the hoop, do a 360, and reverse the ball in. If you try to block their shot... foul. Yet they slap away similar shots with ease on the other end.

Anyways it just seems like the computer has to cheat to play decently. EA Sports just hasn't come up with a way to make the game challeneging AND fair. Tim Duncan running down Allen Iverson on the break is just not realistic.

I am still able to win on this mode like 60% of the time. Mostly with similar teams though. Don't even try playing the Raptors against Detriot or anything.

Super-Star: Basically like beating Bobby Fischer at chess while getting pelted with rubber bullets. Oh, and you're blind.

FEATURES: Awesome features. Dynasty mode... cool. Although you should be able to make the whole "salary cap" thing a little more lax. Gets pretty frustrating. All-Star weekend is cool as well. Although the Slam Dunk thing is basically worthless without a gamepad. Unless you have three hands, then you could maybe do all the moves. NBA Live 2005 is chucked full of features though, it's very cool. However, I think they should have dumped a few of them and concentrated more on the gameplay issue.

OVERALL: Again, NBA Live has lots of great features but just becomes frustrating. It's fun at first when you're terrible and the Starter level games are exciting. Once you get good though, it really becomes a frustrating experience. To the point where you don't even want to play. There needs to exsist a difficulty that's like "Starts and got robbed and probably should've been on the bench for the All-Star game." Then maybe it'd be fun. Again the CPU has to cheat to remain competive and that's just not fun.

However, all the other features are really fun and it's great to see if you can take a team like the Blazers to the championship (I simulate all the games and so far in year six they are almost here). Also, if you have someone to play against via gamepad or LAN it's also fun. A fast-breaking slamfest, yes, but at least you're playing it with your buddy.

Again, EA Sports gives us sniffs of glory but falls short of making a realistic basketball game. It may not be their fault... basketball is a complicated game and very hard to simulate. Instead of chucking a new version out every year, maybe take a year off and work extra hard on '08.

i dont know what the other guys are talkin about the graphics are great, you just have to adjust stuff. the player faces look real, and in the dunk contest, i saw the guys smile when they were introduced. live 04 didn't have that. also, 05 has different types of layups and dunks and the dunks actually look real. its kinda hard to shoot the trey in 05 though
too bad you cant control your dunks in real game mode.

You can do alot of things with this game beyond your wildest dreams! Just do a thorough research and it may just surprise you Live players.

EA Sports owns the greatest sports titles. Always has and always will...Madden being the king and MVP Baseball which I am sad to say no longer is being made due to politics would be a close second and Tiger Woods would now take over 2nd place leaving of course NBA Live to fall into third place. But that is for sports titles period and I may be a little partial due to the fact that I am a huge football and baseball fan and actual am not really into basketball....That may make this title even better then the rest....

Basketball titles have a lot more competition though. Noone can touch football or golf and noone ever made a great baseball game except for EA Sports with MVP Baseball, but basketball the line isn't so clear.

I loved all the old titles from NBA Jams to Streets, etc. but they got old quick...too quick. Some more realistic games are great too but EA Sports is untouchable in my mind.

I owned this game for xbox while overseas and played it alot. A solid fun game and with a lot of playability. The franchise allows you to play it for years...or until the next one comes out. That being said I bought xbox 360 the following year and subsequently NBA Live '06....I don't know if it was because they rushed it out for the new system or what, but the game play slowed down, the camera angles sucked and altogether it was just not nearly as fun to play. Sure the graphics were better, but gameplay is more important to me.

I since bought the '05 again this time for pc and it is just as great as the original xbox version and I love it. I play it all the time however I do play Madden and MVP Baseball a lot more....of course I will never stop playing MVP Baseball 2005 not unless they come out with a new one and stop all that 2K crap. I have been aboard with Madden since the days of Sega back in '93 I believe and MVP '04 and '05. Basketball games have always been fun but lose excitement quicker them most sports games for some reason but not this one......it is a typical EA Sports classic and until I'm convinced that '08 or something else is better all aorund I'm sticking with it.....besides its only $[...]...you can't beat it

As it is with any sports video game, you will find things you love about it and things you hate. Free throws aren't quite as easy as they were in 2004, but you will still make a vast majority of them. I really like the free throw strategy used in 2006 better than here. In 06, you use the right analog stick and move it backwards, then forwards, in rythmn to have accuracy and distance. 06 is much more life-like.

The special moves in 05, however, almost become worthless. If you try to do a crossover, spin move, or hop step, just expect to lose the ball. You have to be very careful when you use them.

The one thing that is ridiculous is how easy alley-oop passes are. It is easier to do an alley-opp than to get a good pass into the low post. Might as well run down the court and lob up an alley oop. Blocks are also way too easy. You shouldn't have games where the average amount of blocks per side is in the teens.

It's still fun. The AI is pretty good, the graphics are improved, and all in all, it's a decent improvement from 04.

Well, it is clear, this is the best basketball game I have ever owned. There are so many minigames like the slamdunk contest or the three point shoot out. I play this game for hours and hours at a time because it is so much fun. Nice job EA!