It is true that this game doesn't live up to it's expectations to the fullest, but it's still an enjoyable game overall.
User Rating: 7.9 | NBA Live 2005 GC
The long running series of EA's "Live" series is a popular basketball series, but NBA Live 2005 is not as great as expected. Although it is a lot like NBA Live 2004, Live 2005 is still pretty fun. It packs some exciting and tense moment especially when playing against another person. New features like the slam dunk contest were added into Live 2005 and most of them are pretty fun. Being a sports game, I tend to hate the game when i'm losing and love it when i'm winning. That's just me, but NBA Live 2005 is enjoyable to all basketball game fans. Gameplay is a lot more slower-paced than previous Live games. It is still really fun, and a lot more challenging because it's pretty challening to complete plays. Often at times, driving into the basket and attempting to lay up or dunk, I would've got blocked almost every single time I tried. I found that the blocking system is off-target because sometimes it feels like a guy can leap 5 feet at you and block you. Although this is the case, NBA Live 2005 still offers a fun game of basketball. You can easily enjoy playing Live for a good amount of time because it rarely gets old. Although playing against a computer is quite tough, playing against a human opponent is the funnest. Since I have many people to play NBA Live 2005 with, juking out my brother is very funny. The solid gameplay mechanics are very nice but not revolutionary. Since Live is a lot slower paced, doing juking out your opponents is necessary to get a good shot at the basket. The greatest part of gameplay in Live is making many 3-point shots in a row. This is really tough, but if you manage to do it, it's very rewarding. To be honest with you, I thought that the graphics were some of the weirdest on the Gamecube. Facial animations are okay but not to the point of "eye candy." I hated when you had to look at the crowds, because they were just plain 2D figures that always waved their hands in the air. The actual players on the court are obviously the most animated of all things, but still, they are not graphically impressive looking. I've seen Gamecube games that look a lot better than Live 2005, because Live 2005 is the "average" looking Gamecube game. The sound is pretty nice and I enjoyed all of the soundtracks in the game. The soundtrack really sets the mood for NBA Live 2005, but I don't think I ever heard any of the in the actual gameplay itself. If it were in the matches and gameplay, I would've enjoyed them a lot more. I greatly enjoyed the commentators in the game. Since Kenny the Jet Smith and another popular commentator commentate a match, it sounds just like watching NBA matches on TV. Sometimes while playing the game or shooting free throws, you may hear something like "Who's got shooter?" for a second and is quite funny. If NBA LIve 2005 offered a some more sound components to the game, it would've improved on it's great sound forumla that is already enjoyable. The value of the game is really great, especially if you have someone to play the game with. I say this because playing against actual human opponents is not only give you the funnest gameplay moments, but bragging rights could be on the line. Beating other human opponents is incredibly fun and will keep you coming back for quite some time. Other features like the Slam Dunk Contest, 3 Point Shoot-out, Rookie Challenge, the All-Star game, etc. add a pretty nice amount of more gameplay time. The Slam Dunk Contest is going to be the most enjoyable extra feature, although a lot of the dunks are only theoretically possible to accomplish in real-life. Obviously, dunks like putting the ball twice between your legs, doing backflips and then doing a crazy dunk are possible in Live, but not really possible in real life. Playing against a computer is fun, but not as fun or as great as playing against a human opponent. Maybe a couple more features and online play would have immensivle helped Live 2005's value. Well, if you are not a basketball fan or a sports fan, than NBA Live 2005 may not be the game that will change your mind about sports games, but it will offer a good game of basketball. If you watch basketball games, then this game is definetely worth playing. New players of the Live series will find Live 2005 to have a lot to offer, because these players have not played previous titles that are like Live 2005. This game is defenitely worth checking out if you enjoy basketball, but if you never played a sports or basketball game, then NBA LIve 2005 will not be that one game that will cause you to start playing these type of games.
