NBA Live 09 Previews: IGN, GameSpot, 1UP

"The first thing that players will be introduced to is the NBA Live Academy, which will act as the hub for all activity within the game. Essentially a practice facility for your favorite team, this gym features two full courts where your team will work on skills, such as their jump shots and defensive plays. To further help you with your game, you'll find a number of assistants and the head coach scattered around the court observing your practice and your moves. By taking a player over to one of these coaches, you can work on one of 40 separate skill challenges designed to get you accustomed to NBA Live 09's new gameplay mechanics."

"The most important animation tweak this year, however, may actually be a fix to an issue that plagued NBA Live 08. Many of you have probably experienced the frustration of being stuck in an animation in NBA Live 08 where you could do nothing but watch as your player was forced out of bounds. This year's game addresses that issue in two ways. First, the addition of sideline contextual animations, such as leaning up against the defender while tight roping the sideline, should eliminate many of these turnovers. Essentially, there is a soft barrier that prevents animations from taking you out of bounds (though you can still run out of bounds on your own accord). Second, NBA Live 09 gives you the ability to break out of driving animations such as this at any time by disengaging from the defender (left analog away from the defender). Between the two additions, there should be much less cause for ripping out your hair this year."

"If we sound relatively unimpressed, it's because we expected more in its second year of rebuilding. On the positive side, we dug the expansion of FIBA (from eight last year to 24 this year) that will also have stat tracking, an MVP award at the end of tourneys, and the trapezoidal key. We're also up for the Be a Pro mode that has been featured in FIFA 08 and was nicely tweaked for UEFA Euro 2008. And as for the animations, it's a huge positive that dunks now look fluid (last year they were janky as all get out). But in the end, we didn't see that spark that makes us want to leap at the controller. Maybe we'll take a different stance once we get our hands on it."