NBA LIVE v. NBA 2K : An Unbiased Open Letter to the Basketba

[delmarjones]

To Whom It May Concern,


Although I may be new to these forums I am not new to the NBA LIVE and NBA 2K series. My love for sports gaming started with NBA 2K on the Sega Dreamcast. I was a NBA 2K fan until the Dreamcast folded and NBA LIVE 03 released. Since then I have been a die-hard NBA LIVE fan.

The reason why I made the switch from 2K to LIVE was because of the groundbreaking feature "Freestyle Control". Never before in a basketball game were we granted so much freedom to do with the ball exactly what we wanted to do. NBA Live made constant leaps foward in the gameplay department every year after the 03 installment up until NBA LIVE 07. Now I wont go in to a whole lot of detail about the game because as we all know, it was a complete disaster.

Although I supported NBA LIVE I felt that NBA LIVE 07 did not warrant a purchase from me, but neither did NBA 2K7, even though it was light years ahead of NBA LIVE on Next-Gen systems at that point in time. I always felt like the 2K series was missing something, yes, we know that the graphics in the series have been mediodcre at best, but that wasnt it, it was something deeper. After playing NBA 2K7 for a couple of hours I wasnt empressed, my basketball gaming cravings were left unfulfilled, and thus, I was empty. And then I finally figured it out, I finally figured out what was missing to me. The NBA 2K series lacked personality. Yeah, the jerseys moved and the players were shiny, but, was the really game that good? In my opinion no, but, NBA LIVE was so bad, and the basketball gaming community desperately needed a basketball game to play that the NBA 2K series was crowned king. I for one decided not to support either party because in my opinion both were bad in their own special way.

Now after a year off of basketball gaming I was determined to make a purchase. I scoured through countless websites and gaming forums to see with what series would I be siding with. Now I used the word "siding" because during that period of time I discovered that there was almost a war going on between the NBA LIVE and NBA 2K communities. I was astonished by the sheer passion that people held for their selctive series. Based off of reviews, previews, and the demos that were released I chose to purchase NBA LIVE.


Although I wasnt blown away by the LIVE 08 installment, I was relieved that it was at least playable and fun again. LIVE 08 had great graphics, great online play, but unfortunately the broken gameplay held the series down. Flaws and all, I stuck with NBA LIVE up until I ran across a by now classic NBA 2K8 video on youtube in the summer. The aforementioned video is the NBA 2K8 - O.M.G. video created by MomentousCeltic, I was immediately blown away by the realism in the player movements and animations. NBA 2K8 was a good game but again I felt like it lacked the personality and fun that no matter how bad things seem to be, NBA LIVE always has. I also felt that the controls , constant sliding, and other things kind of held the game down. But, it was enough to get my purchase in 09.

I bought NBA 2K9 and I admit I was impressed, the 2K staff finally gave the game a much needed facelift, animations were still life-like, and gameplay was still intact. I was so dissapointed in the fact that the LIVE series took one step foward in 08 and two steps back in 09, that I felt like leaving the series alone all together. But after a month or so of playing 2K9 the old feeling cameback. The feeling of boredom, the feeling of fustration, and that same old empty feeling came rushing back. Could it be the overly complicated controls? Could it be the disastrous Online play? I didnt know, but I did know one thing, NBA 2K just isnt for me.

Now it has been a few months since i had this epiphany and I am once again searching through the forums. I have been blown away by the LIVE screens so far and unimpressed by the 2K screens, but, last night the gamespot.com preview was very outstanding. Now without a doubt the feature that is most immpressive is the NBA 2K "My Player" feature. They have everything that is needed in the single player career mode. This includes summer games, the d-league, and even the nba draft combine. Now, while reading this article I got so angry because for years, well, since 05 the LIVE community had been asking for a Career mode. In 09 we got our hopes up when NHL 09 released the biggest feature ever in a sports game with their "Be a Pro" Mode, and we got teased in NBA LIVE 09 with a single game appetizer of what could have been.


I honestly feel that the NBA LIVE development team has been caught with their pants down again. Now as we all know, all information has not been released by either party, I just cant help but to feel like NBA LIVE is one step behind again. But I will not lose hope in my favorite game of all time, with Mike Wang, the architect of NBA 2K gameplay, and EA Sports asthetics first attitude as well as their infinite resources I truly believe that NBA LIVE will be back on top again. Only time will tell.


Sincerely,

Delmar Jones

PS:THANK YOU FOR READING. COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK ARE WANTED AND WELCOMED. THESE ARE JUST MY THOUGHTS. AGAIN THANK YOU.

PPS: If an administrator deletes this thread can you please tell me why

[Jamin23]

This is going to be locked. You put it in the wrong area.

[elev8rmuzik]

oy ... This place is ridiculous sometimes

[delmarjones]

Where should i put it next time...

[infam0us]

Basketball other this should be in.

[bateman11]

Thanks for posting, good read there.

[rockchisler]

Quote: Originally Posted by delmarjones

Where should i put it next time...

Your Blog........

[EvanRG]

Are people not allowed to have dissenting opinions on these forums? I completely disagree with the OP, but that doesn't mean I'll flame him?

He's not a fanboy and he made an honest post?

Mods need to swallow their whistle on these forums because they are too worried about 'flame wars' -- --- what exactly is a 'flame war' anyway?

Just my opinion, but I say you should let threads play out a bit more before you throw in the towel.

----

Now, I think that Live vs 2k will always come down to the eternal argument of "SIM" vs "FUN" -- personally, I think that 2k is both a sim game and an extremely fun game, but I guess I see the other side of the coin (I have poor shooting games w/my slider sets that make me want to toss my xbox out the window), but again, 2k gameplay is leaps and bounds above Live, in my opinion.

I will rent Live and buy 2k just to have an overall opinion on both, but I still think that 2k will have Live covered in every category except graphics -- which I can't tell the difference, to be honest.