better than last year, but still not the best
User Rating: 8 | NBA Live 09 X360
The NBA live series has been rebuilding slowly and with their first effort in 07 with nba live 08, EA seemed to be back on track. In nba live 09, EA has fixed some of the problems that were in nba live 08, but some things still feel unrealistic. The improved quickstrike ankle breeaking doesnt work that well, and on defense, if you dont keep your player in front of the cpu, they will easily get past you for a dunk or layup. The other stuff is done well like the faces and the player models which generally look better than the competition, even if the sweat effect is a little too much. NBA live 09 has less clipping than before, but occasionally players will pass through other players and on replays you can see their hands go through the rim and its pretty distracting sometimes. 09 also has less game glitches like freezing up during the game and theyve gone back to the practice shooting during the loading of the game, which hasnt frozen up since ive been playing it like the trivia that would go on forever in nba live 08. NBA still has as many features as before, bringing back all the favorites like the all star weekend and dynasty, which is still a deep sim of seasons. Theyve also added be a pro mode from NHL 09, but it doesnt work as well here and ends up being pointless to play. The new NBA academy doesnt serve much purpose except for practicing to get familiar with the control systems and playcalling which work very well. You can call plays easily on the fly and set a pick and roll which works very well. Overall, this game was pretty good, better than last year as expected but some player movements are jerky and the gameplay still isnt on the same rate as the 2k series, but not bad as it has been in the past.
