News Post

Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA Live 09

11:59 AM - March 24, 2009 by RaychelSnr

For some die-hard basketball fans, choosing between NBA Live and NBA 2K this year was like going to a used-car lot and trying to decide if you wanted a refurbished Pinto or a beat-up Camry.

On the one hand, there is the familiar 2K engine, which has problems that have been compounded over the years because its owners have spent all their money adding frivolous features like a sleek spoiler, custom wheels and a lavish paint job, all while refusing to take the car in for the necessary maintenance on the parts that really matter: the engine, the brakes and the transmission, etc.

In the lot across the street sits an ugly looking Ford Pinto, with a rusting exterior, a broken passenger-side door handle and a non-functional air-conditioning unit. But since it just had its engine and transmission replaced, the Pinto runs well, and unlike the souped-up Camry, it will not leave you kicking it in its chrome-plated tires as it is lying dead on the side of the road with a pile of smoke rising from its engine -- though it may still explode if hit in the wrong spot.

Such is the state of this year�s basketball games: One is in dire need of an interior makeover (2K), while the other (Live) might be all right to use in a pinch but still needs a lot of exterior work before it is ready to become an "every day" type of car.

So, here are the key areas that the Live developers need to work on in the offseason if they want their game to earn a spot in the starting five of the 2010 lineup of sports games.

Read More - Why I'm Done With NBA Basketball This Year: NBA Live 09

Game: NBA Live 09Reader Score: 7/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS2 / PS3 / PSP / Xbox 360Votes for game: 38 - View All

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Member Comments

# 61 chrome381 @ 03/30/09 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iadf


	nba 2k9 is my favourite basketball game period. im surprised at all the dislike on it. it just looks and feels so real(so many animations). i wont play live until it gets a unanimous vote as the better game. until then ill take my chances with 2k for the future since i haven't been disappointed in the last two games from them. good write up

Brace yourself, a storm is coming

# 62 eDotd @ 03/30/09 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iadf


	nba 2k9 is my favourite basketball game period. im surprised at all the dislike on it. it just looks and feels so real(so many animations). *i wont play live until it gets a unanimous vote as the better game.* until then ill take my chances with 2k for the future since i haven't been disappointed in the last two games from them. good write up

Do people not have a mind of their own?

# 63 Pared @ 03/31/09 11:16 AM

The evolving Live DNA is great for individual players. I really like how it works for rookies.

A great feature that is certainly moving the genre forward. Can't wait for next year's games.

# 64 DaWolf @ 03/31/09 04:37 PM

Its all about the animations this year. I have the feeling that from year to year NBA 2K is taking away more and more control over the game from me. Its all so automatic, no user control on many things. But man, the anuimations are just so great that you go back to it again and again.

# 65 antony24 @ 04/02/09 05:23 PM

NBA Live 365 sucks. They made Dwight Howard unstoppable, making everything as long as you are inside the 3pt line, and rashard lewis makes it anywhere on the court. they need to fix this big time. in the nba you can't just get the inbound pass and chuck it down court to the center every time and get an easy lay in or dunk because the other players will come over and stop it, in this game however you can just throw it to anyone and run around people to the hoop. it's terrible.

# 66 sandman0823 @ 04/10/09 04:46 PM

Listen, some people may call me crazy for saying this but i feel that live is slightly better than 2k this year. i have been playing 2k9 since its release in october to only just master the game after i've been playing day in and day out for the past 8 months now. i had to adjust the sliders to do so. i love the game to only find that i was caught up in the hype and allure of what everyone felt was the better bball game this year. i just recently picked up live because i was not complete with 2k i was missing something. live is very rough around the edges i have even seen an actual double dribble in the game but for some reason i enjoy it more than 2k. i feel live is a better sim than 2k. 2k feels very arcade like this year and i think alot of folks love this game becasue it is to cheese in 2k which is why the traffic is so high in the 2k insider forum. cats wants boosts for players they use when playing online that is unrealistic to me. live got it right, everything was based on stats and true tendacies not some geek sitting at home acting as the basketball god determining who deserves boosts or not. ea is definitely moving in the right direction and with the hire of the cat from 2k i think they will take over next years bball war.

# 67 jaosming @ 04/11/09 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by antony24


	NBA Live 365 sucks. They made Dwight Howard unstoppable, making everything as long as you are inside the 3pt line, and rashard lewis makes it anywhere on the court. they need to fix this big time. in the nba you can't just get the inbound pass and chuck it down court to the center every time and get an easy lay in or dunk because the other players will come over and stop it, in this game however you can just throw it to anyone and run around people to the hoop. it's terrible.

it's an exploit that happens in 2k as well

Fix: Don't do it.

Online Fix:

# 68 Sluggo @ 04/11/09 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaosming


	it's an exploit that happens in 2k as well Fix: Don't do it. Online Fix:

it happens online in every game i've played
It's dumb. You can't even really do full court press because the game pushes you out of the passing lane after a basket. The on the ball D suffers cause the man you're guarding can suck another player into their animation leaving somebody else wide open. Don't get me started on the fundamentals of the game i.e. shooting and rebounding. I thought I would Live a shot after 2K8 was just awful. Both 2K9 and Live were below expectations.

# 69 bigdfan76 @ 04/12/09 05:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandman0823


	Listen, some people may call me crazy for saying this but i feel that live is slightly better than 2k this year. i have been playing 2k9 since its release in october to only just master the game after i've been playing day in and day out for the past 8 months now. i had to adjust the sliders to do so. i love the game to only find that i was caught up in the hype and allure of what everyone felt was the better bball game this year. i just recently picked up live because i was not complete with 2k i was missing something. live is very rough around the edges i have even seen an actual double dribble in the game but for some reason i enjoy it more than 2k. i feel live is a better sim than 2k. 2k feels very arcade like this year and i think alot of folks love this game becasue it is to cheese in 2k which is why the traffic is so high in the 2k insider forum. cats wants boosts for players they use when playing online that is unrealistic to me. live got it right, everything was based on stats and true tendacies not some geek sitting at home acting as the basketball god determining who deserves boosts or not. ea is definitely moving in the right direction and with the hire of the cat from 2k i think they will take over next years bball war.

Ok so I have been a NBA Live fan my whole life! Seriously since bulls vs blazers days(which is the beginning I believe, bulls vs lakers? anyway) I ran into the IR lock problem with my particular file for Live 09 and I said screw it. I was frustrated that someone like Kobe got hurt and would miss the entire year(healthy!). I bought 2k for the first time. I REALLY like it. I hated getting used to the isomotion bs but the dynasty/association mode is MUCH MUCH MUCH better. Not to mention the fact that if the cpu's players got hurt they would not stay on the IR indefinatly. It made me disscover what 2k fans have been into for years. So now please inform me. They have fixed this stupid IR glitch that was in place for the on line cheesers? And they have a new guy on board from 2k? I REALLY hope this guy fixes the dynasty because it blows compared to 2k, quite frankly. I would rather play the EA version of any sports game but as far as basketball goes this year, 2k was the lesser of 2 evils and I am thouroughly enjoying it. But now I'm hitting a wall after starting over several times with my Spurs association. Now quite honestly I'm really looking forward to Madden 10, and hopefully EA and NBA live can make my loyalty worth it.

# 70 solutions @ 04/12/09 09:35 AM

I hear you bigdfan. I was really enjoying my dynasty but I was wondering why my guys weren't getting hurt. So I came in here hoping it wasn't a bug like that none of my guys get hurt well I found out something much worse and that is of course that guys don't come back from IR. So I am playing with injuries off now but I'm missing quite a few stars. I just don't know how they could miss that

# 71 Behindshadows @ 04/12/09 08:55 PM

Is this a PS3 bug or something, because I've had numerous players on my team get hurt and come back and get placed back into lineup and I have 360. What am I missing here? Because I'm obviously not getting this same issue.

# 72 bigdfan76 @ 04/13/09 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Behindshadows


	Is this a PS3 bug or something, because I've had numerous players on my team get hurt and come back and get placed back into lineup and I have 360. What am I missing here? Because I'm obviously not getting this same issue.

Not human/user controlled teams, the cpu teams. I always run with the Spurs, for example, Kobe goes down with a bad twisted ankle for 2 weeks and the cpu Lakers move him to the IR and move some bench warmer up off of IR. Then when he would heal he would stay there, unless the Lakers experience several more injuries which would "push" Kobe back into the starting line up. I'm sure others have experienced it also, check the other teams stats and check games played for instance. I can't remember who it was one time when I simmed to see if it was true and I think Amare had played 15 games at the end of the regular season with something dumb like a twisted ankle. I got fed up and bought 2k.

# 73 Behindshadows @ 05/28/09 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigdfan76


	Not human/user controlled teams, the cpu teams. I always run with the Spurs, for example, Kobe goes down with a bad twisted ankle for 2 weeks and the cpu Lakers move him to the IR and move some bench warmer up off of IR. Then when he would heal he would stay there, unless the Lakers experience several more injuries which would "push" Kobe back into the starting line up. I'm sure others have experienced it also, check the other teams stats and check games played for instance. I can't remember who it was one time when I simmed to see if it was true and I think Amare had played 15 games at the end of the regular season with something dumb like a twisted ankle. I got fed up and bought 2k.

oh ok! I gotcha, I noticed on the injury list sometimes it will still show them as being out, but you are scheduled to play their team. They will be in the lineup as normal. Weird. Yeah this will definitely have to be addressed and fixed in 10!

# 74 NINJAK2 @ 05/29/09 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Da_Czar


	shadows the rebounding is broken there is no covering that up bro also the locomotion is bad man real bad. this game has a lot going for it but to overlook what is bad in the name of uplifting the series helps no one. The animations and bad locomotion bad passing. Horrible rim physics, suction defense and scrawny player models in addition to the severly limited animations all together after playing for a few months can make this game unplayable. not that it is a bad game. if you want to like it there is certainly enough there to do that but there just isn't enough there currently to make the game as good as you seem to claim. Remember I actually like live 09 for the potential it shows but that doesn't mean its great in its current state. I do think live 10 will be exceptional but a year away from genius.

Great post Da Czar

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