Shoot some hoops
Like earlier installments in the NBA Live series, this edition goes heavily for realism instead of the arcade thrills of NBA Hangtime, and manages to pull it off with aplomb. There's nothing massively different here from previous versions, but it's the little tweaks and alterations under the hood that make the game what it is, even if you might not notice it at first. This one impresses with its options, which includes the usual array of modes, including new ones such as a one-on-one street basketball game and one which allows you to manage a team for a season. As before, you can also create teams and players of your own, while there are a bunch of new moves to try out of the court. The computer AI has also been heavily tweaked, making a decent strategy an absolute must if you want to emerge victorious. There are improved animations and speech, a full roster of players from the 99 season as well as classic players from All-Star teams both past and present. If you are looking for a semi-realistic basketball game and haven't tried out earlier editions of this franchise, then this is a pretty good one to go for. It certainly looks the part, with the graphics coming across as sharp and vibrant, with nice representations of the players and the courts. Controls are nicely fluid, and are intuitive enough to make picking up the game a breeze, but which still present a challenge in getting your moves right. Throw in an extensive range of options and you have a top notch sporting sim which easily holds its own.
