NBA Live 07 was an absolute disaster. That’s not hyperbole - it’s just a plain fact. The game regressed quite clearly from 2006 to 2007, and the people over at EA obviously felt it was time for a change since a whole new team was brought in to work on NBA Live 08. Unfortunately NBA Live 2007 was so horrendous that only so much can be accomplished in one year. Nevertheless NBA Live 08 tries to emulate a more simulation style on the hardcourt, and while the effort is more a failure than a success, the game may finally be back on track for future iterations. And, unlike Live 07 everything added to NBA Live 08 is for the better.

Gameplay

The go-to moves bring the game to life in a way graphics can’t. Watching the videogame version of Steve Nash run down the court only to do his little running fadeaway with his knees high in the air is essential to blurring the line between reality and videogame.

The new quickstrike ballhandling system is used by moving the right stick in different directions and combinations. The quickstrike moves are used to pull off dribble maneuvers or initiate various stationary moves such as jab steps. The system is easy to understand and allows for the chaining of moves to be pulled off with relative ease.

The new post up and go-to moves tie in quite nicely with the new hot spots visual queues. Pressing the LB to see where a player is most effective and then going to the red spots to use the new post moves simply makes sense. The same process makes sense for go-to moves. Use Kobe’s signature fadeaway at the red spot rather than the blue spot.

But defensively the new post up and ballhandling systems can be hard to combat. The quickstrike spin move allows the attacking guard to get around the defender far too easily on most occasions, and in general, defense even with the new CPU assist button (LT on 360) won’t help in combating the quick spin move very well.

The post moves are also difficult to counter because the blocking and contest systems in place feel awkward. From a purely visual perspective, jumping on defense makes the players look very rigid. On a deeper gameplay level, it feels like most of the time just having defensive position isn’t enough to force a missed shot, but rather you feel as if you must block the shot. This helpless feeling could be corrected if it was easier to contest the shot without having to jump.{mospagebreak}

But even if those new elements were flawless it wouldn’t change the fact that there are so many remaining substandard gameplay aspects in NBA Live 08.

The passing system needs to be overhauled. Players who help on defense need to react quicker. Loose ball play needs to be reworked. Fast break AI needs to be tweaked. Rebounds need to hit the court much less. And the different buttons for shooting and dunking need to be removed yesterday.

The passing game needs to be overhauled because for one swinging the ball takes entirely too much time, and is only made worse because the icon passing takes too long to bring up. Holding the RB for a certain amount of time makes the icons under each player show up, but having to hold the bumper for an extended amount of time to do every icon pass will wear on your patience. And the icon passing will drive you nearly over the edge when you only click the RB rather than holding it down, resulting in a forced alley-oop pass to an unsuspecting teammate.

Passing also ties directly into an issue with the fastbreak. When receiving passes players frequently stop moving before continuing in motion towards the basket. Beyond the passing issue, players tend to get bunched on the break and without a way to quickly icon pass the fastbreaks don’t amount to baskets a lot of the time.

The AI is equally as bad on the breaks since the CPU will routinely mess up a 3 on 1 break due to greed. Being the last man back almost becomes an advantage for the user since stepping up and taking a charge is a sure fire way to stop the rush much of the time. AI opponents do not give the ball up quickly enough and instead barrel down the middle of the court right into a stationary defender.

The separate shot and dunk buttons need to be removed because as it stands now, the system leads to collision detection issues and foul problems. Many times the collisions in the air will look great because the user chose to initiate a lay-up sequence rather than a shot sequence.

But choosing the wrong option causes many offensive fouls which simply appear to be defensive fouls by the look of the animation. So if there was a single button press for both actions then the animation system could visually explain why something was an offensive or defensive foul.

 

Dynasty

Gameplay issues aside, the Dynasty Mode exhibits the same type of hit and miss elements.

After hiring your staff at the beginning of Dynasty Mode you will control various coaches who balance the team based on your settings. So for example an assistant head coach plans events, which involve team events (can build up team passing and defensive AWR), press events (increase team's ability to focus, boost team's FT and Dunk ratings), team practice (increase team awareness ratings, but decrease hardiness and fatigue), and day off (increases hardiness and fatigue ratings).

Those settings are all balanced on a 100 percent scale and you can have the schedule planned for however many weeks you want. Also assistants spend time with one player to improve his virtual game or research rumors around the league. {mospagebreak}

Scouting is done in a similar fashion. You hire scout(s) at the beginning of the year and then send them to scout potential draftees or future opponents. How much money you spend on scouts will affect how accurate their results end up being. So the choice boils down to either hiring the stud scout so your draft picks will be safe bets, or using the money on great assistants to train the players already on the squad.

Most of the choices and interactions with players and prospects is just menu based though; therefore, in the future it would be great to at least take part in some mini-games where you work out prospects or help train current players.

Beyond the personnel choices, the Trade AI is a mixed bag in Dynasty Mode -- a norm in sports games. The trade AI between human and CPU is actually quite solid, but CPU to CPU trades are rather out of hand. Witnessing a Kevin Durant for LeBron James trade will be a norm as superstars seem to be flipped between computer controlled teams far too often.

The off-season is straight forward: sign, re-sign, and draft. But the free agent aspect has a sort of guess and hope element. You will garner interest from free agents by guessing the talking points that will interest the free agent. Once you intrigue the free agent, signing the player to a deal he likes is the next step. Now if you try and lowball the player he will lose interest in your team and never sign with you.

None of those things are entirely compelling but playing a lengthy season in Dynasty Mode will be enjoyable in large part due to the spot on arenas and commentary. The authentic arenas were in Live 07, but they are no less impressive in Live 08 -- though it would be nice if the arenas were lit a bit better so they could be seen more clearly.

Furthermore, the commentary stirred up between Steve Kerr and Marv Albert is the finest to date in video game sports. They are always talking back and forth and rarely does the dialogue between the two of them feel canned. There is also an abundant amount of player and situation specific commentary. If you are down 3-1 in a best of 7 series they will discuss that fact and also explain coming back from the 3-1 deficit is not impossible.

The CPU AI issues have been outlined but at least the computer recognizes who the go-to players are and also what the situation is late in the game. The CPU AI will call timeouts to advance the ball late in the game and then go for a 3 when down 3 points late in regulation. After the timeout the CPU will try to find the star player first and foremost, that is if he can shoot a three, and if he can’t the computer will find the next best option.{mospagebreak}

Online 

Players who venture online should find the experience to be lag-free for the most part since connections and frame rates have been very stable to this point. Users will be able to use the new FIBA teams online, along with the other specialty teams, such as the rookie or sophomore team.

Online Leagues are also new to Live this year. It’s not a league in the truest sense, but 2 or more players may take part in leagues with a completely customizable flex schedule. There are no playoffs but there does appear to be stat tracking much like NHL 08’s online leagues.

One final new element in online this year is an add-on to the versus mode which allows you and three guests to play on the same console while online.

As was previously stated, the performance of the servers has been good to this point but there have still been some odd moments. During one online game all the icons on screen disappeared. This occurred once in an offline game as well and is a very strange glitch that appears to be randomly triggered as far as DSM can tell.

When this glitch occurs icons vanish. So when you are clicked on a player his name will not show up below him. Consequently, the user will also not know who he or she is controlling on defense, or know who he or she is passing to. It can be very frustrating and it’s something that DSM is trying to pinpoint so it can be judged as a random bug or an identifiable glitch.

Also once the game releases the lag and frame rate may not be as stable. If that does happen DSM will surely write a follow-up describing the issues.

At any rate, NBA Live 08 still ends up being a beautifully wrapped present that turns out to be nothing but tube socks. The game maintains an element of entertainment throughout, but as a basketball simulation it falls well short. The game is visually impressive and the commentary is simply the best in sports games today, yet the gameplay is still underwhelming when compared to the stiff competition.

However, users not searching for a game that exhibits the truest form of simulation basketball will probably appreciate the game quite a bit more than the hardcore hoops fan.{mospagebreak}

Scores   

9.0 Overall Presentation: The commentary done by Marv Albert and Steve Kerr is top notch; it just would be nice if the stadiums all weren’t so dark.

8.5 Graphics: The arenas are all modeled after their real life counterparts and the player models look very realistic, but the Live team needs to do some work on the player models. Players like Eddy Curry and Shaq don’t appear to be large enough in the upper body region, and in general most every player has the same build.

4.0 Gameplay: It’s scary that a 4 is actually quite a step up from last year. The quickstrike and go-to moves add a lot but there’s still a lot left over from old Live games that needs to be stripped out and redone.

7.0 Lasting Appeal: Dynasty Mode is adequate, but dull off the court. The FIBA tournament will add some legs but the tourney doesn’t use FIBA rules and takes place in an NBA arena. The 3-point and dunk contests are still a nice time waster though.

8.5 Online Options: Zero lag, constant frame rate, online leagues, and versus play with the option to play with three guests on a console make this one of the better online attempts of the year. Next year it would be great to finally get some true online leagues and a replay sharing option though.

5.0 Intangibles: The crowds, audio wise are intelligent enough, but the fans need to be spruced up visually. It should be a sea of blue in Utah come Playoff time, and the same goes for the orange in Phoenix, the white in Miami, and so forth. Also teams don’t play differently enough. You only feel like you’re playing the Suns because Barbosa and Amare are scoring a lot, not because Nash is running an up-tempo style offense.

 Overall

6.0: An improvement when compared to last year, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, specifically in the controls and gameplay departments.