My First Love: Why I Keep Giving the NBA Live Series Another Chance. - majestic24's Blog

majestic24's Blog

My First Love: Why I Keep Giving the NBA Live Series Another Chance.

Posted on September 9, 2014 at 12:33 AM.

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There's a saying out there that goes "first love never dies". Clich�. It may be true, it may be not. Here's one thing for sure though, if ever our first love does disappoint us, it stings the most. This might sound cheesy, but this might also be the best way to describe my relationship with the NBA Live series.

I got my very first taste of NBA Live with NBA Live 95 on the PC. Every day after school , I went straight to my Dad's room and played it until my Mom said it was time to go to bed. I vividly remember the diagonal camera angle that you had to play with, or the fact that Michael Jordan's video game character was only named as "Player #23". I fell in love with that game and when I got my SEGA, I made sure that it was one of the first games I picked up. I just kept buying the game every single year, upgrading from the SEGA to my PlayStation, the PS One, the PS2, the Xbox, the XBOX 360, and finally, the PS3. I had it on every console I had. While my younger brothers were all playing with 2k Basketball, I stuck it out with NBA Live. I just loved how it played back then and how it got every detail near to reality as possible. I'm also a big sneaker guy so it also helped that Live's edition of basketball shoes, maybe until now, are the best. I had every reason not to hate Live and I kept looking forward for its release every single year. It was my first (video game) love, and I was willing to stick it out with EA.

In 2009, the Lakers had just won their first championship since 2003. If you know me, you probably know that I am big Lakers and Kobe fan. So when 2k came out with NBA 2k10 with Kobe on the cover, I had to get it. I played with it a few times but still had to get NBA Live 10 with Dwight on the cover. I was able to play a little bit with NBA 2k9 a year before and I liked it. That year, I didn't really have a lot of time to play video games but 2k9 caught my attention. With 2k10, it was different. The game was so good that I knew it was ways ahead of Live 10, but like any other loyal guy out there, I kept coming back to EA's game. It sucked. I kept playing the game but it wasn't just making me happy anymore. I couldn't stop thinking about 2k and how she played great. So after 2 months of juggling the two, I had to leave Live 10 behind.

Years may go by fast but most of us don't forget our first love. Someone or something that made us feel in a certain way that we will never forget. NBA Live made me feel that way and I always thought it would never get replaced. But it happened, it was replaced.

When next-gen came around, Live 14 came calling, and I almost picked up. However, we have to admit that like many of our first loves, when it comes back and make its presence felt, we do foolish things, like giving it another shot, even when we shouldn't. That's what I did. I was reading every bit of news before it was released, every screenshot, every video, and since we were talking about next-gen, I was foolishly wishing that it can go back to its glory days. Nope, NBA Live 14 did not deliver and I was disappointed.

We are in 2015 now and I was excited when EA released some screenshots for NBA Live 15 and there it was again, playing with my feelings like I was 5 years old again. Then came the Visuals Trailer and boy did I get excited, maybe this was the year. I played with other EA games, Madden, downloaded the NHL 15 demo, looked at FIFA 15 and I was wishing that Live was going to be as good as these other games. Nope, I was wrong, again. I woke up and read news about Live 15 being delayed for three more weeks and I just took it as a sign that it was time to give up. I saw the gameplay videos and although it was an improvement over last year, it still doesn't come close with 2k.

So here I am, writing this for the world to see, declaring that I have finally given up on my first love coming back just the way she was when I fell in love with her. Years have passed and it's ride or die with 2k from now on. I promise I won't let EA, when it comes to NBA Live, play with my feelings ever again. Never.

But who knows.