Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Ea sports has done it again. they've produced another overhyped, overrated, and overbought game. not that i'm an easports hater....i buy this game every year; and am more disspointed every year. easports introduces some spectacular new features each year, while taking away several that it had last year or the year before. the end resut it another mediocre game.
on the good side, this year is probably the best nba live i have ever seen. the freestyle is much improved, for once, the players actually shoot halfway realalistic percentages, and the 10 man thingy is incredible. there are struggles for loose balls, incredible graphics and a much improved franchise mode.
but the franchise mode...as good as it is, that's where the flaws start. the computer led teams never have the money to resign thier superstar players. this means that tim duncan and every other good free agent will, after a year or two, will not be resigned by thier team, or signed by any other team, and will spend the rest of thier career as a free agent. do you want a franchise where all the good players never get on a team (unless you sign them, making your team an incredible powerhouse every year...which you CAN do).you'd think easports would make a franchise mode where the GOOD players get on the teams.
also, the computer pretty much lets you destroy it for the first 3 quarters, only to put together an amazing comeback victory (or near victory) in the fourth...EVERY time. seriously. i'm talking 20 point leads gone (frequently). this happens EVERY time...and not just to me.
here are the other flaws: it is nearly impossible to go up for a shot and then change to a pass, it sometimes forgets to sub the guys you told it to, people "wrestle" for the ball WAY too often, the game has a little place to see how much your players improved in trining camp, and it is ALWAYS "0", crossovers don't get you to change direction, and are generally a bad idea to do, trading players is very akward (it's hard to see how good the other player is, how much he's improving, how much time is left on his contract, etc.).
the good: they are actually (kind of) trying this year. having two shoot buttons is awsome. trading draft picks is great, gameplay is great for the mostpart, almost everything is adjustible (gamespeed, fatigue effect, ect.)
in the end, this game comes close to being REALLY good...and with a few minutes of extra work, they could have done it. but that's the amazing thing...now that the end is clearly in sight, now that they are actually trying to be good, they stop just short of it. and nothing other than some sort of secret pledge to mediocrity could have kept them from doing so.
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NBA Live 2004NBA Live 2004 delivers the thrills and rush of serious NBA basketball!All-star announcer team Marv Albert and Mike Fratello give you authentic play-by-play commentary
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