NBA Live 2001 Review

The game doesn't let the spectacular players like, Carter, Iverson, or Kobe "fly" so to speak (I mean Carter can dunk better than that - he actually jumped over a 7ft guy in the Olympics). Instead, the focus is shifted on power forwards and centers -- Webber and O' Neal sticking out their butts for the easy duce. Hmm... I wonder if that was a right call by the dev. team. And I wonder if they even knew what kind of results they'd produce with this shift to the inside game... Sure enough, the overall number of points per game is down, but that comes at the expense of some mighty spectacular fast break highlight reels.

As usual, AI will almost... no scratch that... will never run a speedy fast break. The point will simply slow down the game and set up a half-court offense, adding to the overall decrease in the game speed.

And Boxing out... What's that? I've never heard of boxing out in an NBA Live game. Have you? Same old, same old... Your teammates will never box out, and that free for all scramble under your basket that follows the missed shot will mean an offensive rebound for the other team in 70% of the cases. Your teammates will rarely time their jumps when they're trying to block a shot (yet again), so you'll have to constantly switch between defenders in order to keep the game close on "Superstar".

Offensively, the game's biggest flaw is the passing, which is at times beyond any common logic... Points will make some dubious decisions (directional pass or not), and centers (yes centers) will do crosscourt behind the back passes... Hmm... I saw Sabonis do that once, but only once... This is like a regular thing in this game.

However, the fact that EA Sports hasn't adequately dealt with the nagging AI glitches is not nearly enough to seriously diminish the overall impression and the unmatched atmosphere of the series that has been its trademark throughout the years... I have omitted many positive elements, which were already an integral part of the previous games, and have concentrated more on the sort of ranting you'd expect from a long-time fan... Kinda like an EQ hermit, only about hoops... If you're an NBA Live rookie, then you don't have to worry about a thing, because NBA Live 2001 is still pound-for-pound the best hoops sim. out there. If you're a hardcore fan however, don't expect anything more than what you already had in 2000, and that includes the constantly reoccurring aforementioned gameplay glitches. Yeah, the inside game adds a different spin, but as I said, it takes away from the Nelsonesque "run and gun" philosophy and some of the ensuing acrobatics, which is what the fans are looking for the most in an NBA game. Right?

Maybe EA Sports need to think more about some of the fundamental aspects of basketball and AI coding, which they sure haven't done ever since the series was introduced in '95, rather than just trying to impress us with the newest, bestest, and flashiest graphics, and rap tunes ever. I dunno. If my team is No.1 in rebounding, I expect it to pull down the boards like it's nobody's biz.