NBA Live 09
DEVELOPER:	EA Canada
PUBLISHER:	EA Sports
SYSTEMS:	Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii

NBA Live 09

Looks Good, Plays OK

I've reviewed NBA Live 08 for PC, and I was terrible. A sad, sad state of affairs. So, in that light, I'm reviewing Live 09 on the Xbox 360 to hopefully give the series a fair shake, seeing as how this - the 360/PS3 build - is the version EA Sports has been putting all of their effort into. What I found is that this is not what I'm used to on the PC, and that's both a good and a bad thing.

First, let me get the graphics part of things out of the way. For the one or two of you who are wondering how it looks, it's as easy as 'still image' vs. 'moving image.' Were this a slideshow instead of a game, it would be  amazing. The skin textures, hair, faces, and uniforms are all dead-on. However, after reviewing NBA 2K8 last year,  I can't help but feel that the players seem a little stiff and robotic. There's also the age-old NBA Live problem of dunking through backboards, which I swear EA should have fixed by now. Live could also benefit from Madden NFL 09's animation system, because the animations are way too long and take you out of control of your player way too much.

In fact, being out of control is a far too common occurence in Live 09. On inbounds plays your player runs to a set spot on the court before the play, and you have no control over it. The same type of thing happens after scores, where your player will run down court, regardless of your feelings on the matter. This just makes the NBA 2K series that much more impressive.

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