Post by MrLuck on Sept 27, 2004 23:27:28 GMT -5
Its about time, basketball season is right around the corner. So is EA Sports newest installment of NBA Live 2005. In just two days, thousands of cyber athletes will get their basketball gaming fix when Live 2005 hits the stores. This is always one of the most anticipated basketball titles of the year, and always looked upon as a reference for all other bball' titles. We all know Live 04' had a few issues here and there, but what we dont know is if Live 05'corrected the problems of 04'. Wanna find out.......Keep Reading.
All in all a good mixture of rap/hiphop, Stat Quo happens to be a personal favorite.
Ive seen mixed opinions about the selection, but what people need to remember is EA tailors the tracks to fit the genre, and I will leave it at that.
Commentary is the best ive heard in ANY in the Live series. Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson comment during the Dunk Contest, you'll either receive praise for pulling off some of the most amazing dunks known to man or you will be the butt of their various jokes for not rising to the occasion. For regular season play by play, you have Marv Albert and Mike Fratello, but in the commentary department Smith and Johnson are so much more easy on the ears.
Visually this game is appealing, player models are fairly accurate, court size and lighting looks good, this is a big plus in my book compared to last years game. For some reason the court felt like it was too small, there's more than enough room in 05' due to players not running all over eachother as they did in Live 04'.
Camera angles are pretty much the same as last year with....
Baseline Low (default)
Press Box
Baseline High
Center Court
Sideline
Baseline Low is very playable, but the trade off is a slow camera direction switch caused by a turnover. It takes a bit for the camera to turn 180 degree's and face in the direction of your basket. I quickly remedied that problem by switching to the next available cam' view in Press Box. Press Box view describes itself, its how you would view the game from up in the Press Box, over the top and angled a bit. The remaining views were never attempted as my game progressed much faster in the Press Box view vs. Baseline Low.
EA seems to have paid attention to detail more so this year than in the past. Players tattoo's are for the most part dead on, but the one are for improvement that I can see is the player model's themselves. Like I stated in the beginning, the models are fairly accurate, this is good, but no where near as accurate as other games in this genre. EA being able to snag licensed shoes from Nike, Adidas, and Reebok also played a major part in making this game nice to look at.
I am pleased to announce, gone are the days of EA Arcade ball. NBA Live 2005 has returned back to its sim roots, gone are the days of freestyling your way thru 5 defenders and dunking or prohoping thru traffic and posterizing two defenders. Dont get me wrong, both the freestyle controls and pro hop are still useful, but everyone who was dependant solely on these features, time to find a new gameplan or else have fun watching your favorite prohoping player sit the bench with 6 fouls. The effectiveness of both moves have been toned down immensely, first thing I tried to do was emulate the 04' cheese in the pro hop.
First possession I hopped thru the lane right into the defender and seen the first new animation of the game. My player threw his hands up into the air after bouncing off the defender and out came the basketball to be picked up by the opposition. I repeated just to be sure this wasnt a fluke, and again, turnover. Two thumbs up EA, now the pro hop is really only useful to create space only if you already have the defender beat. Freestyle moves are pretty much the same as last year, but they too have been toned down. I tried crossing over with Mutumbo and he quickly turned the ball over, I then tried "the freestlye wiggle" with Hinrich and was guarded closely and most times cut off by the defender.
Another big addition I noticed was the ability of the marquee players to take over the game. I played a game Vs. the Heat and Shaq was the main focus of the offense, the ball would be worked around the perimeter until they could find the right time to dump the ball into the big man. Only if Shaq was being played to closely did they resort to finding their own shot, and they still took the best available shot, not forcing something up since their main guy was bottled up. I also noticed this playing the Spurs, Live 04' was a guards game. Any team that had a decent 1 or 2 guard did well, as the majority off the offense filtered thru them. In 05' strong post players like Duncan, Garnett, and Brand can showcase their talent with a wide array of post moves enabling them to be offensive threats as well as the guards.
Tempo has been adjusted as well, not as fast as last years game, and not slow either. The pace is a near perfect mix for arcade/sim lovers alike. At default, the speed is kept in check well enough to run plays using off-ball switch. Thats where you can press R3 and pick the player you want to control by pressing the corresponding button, and call for passes, set screens for shooters all at the press of a button. As mentioned above, all players look for better shots, 04' was plagued with 3 pt bombs left and right, 05' has been curbed to only pulling the trey when its needed, or if wide open, and even then they opt to pass more often than not.
Rebounding has also been overhauled as you can now chose how you would like to rebound the ball. At the touch of a button you can either grab the mid air rebound as you would normally, Tip slam the ball home, or tip it in off the glass over a defender.
Sound
This years NBA Live 2005 soundtrack ranks one of the best in the last few years. 14 blazin tracks from....
Joell Ortiz - Mean Business
Murphy Lee - Its In The Game
Dirtbag - Here We Go
Don Yute - Dem Gals
Brand New Heavies - Jump N Move
DOC - Mind Blowin
Stat Quo - The Best
Will I Am - Go
Wylde Bunch - Our Life
Nomb - Carolina Blue
Lloyd Banks/Young Buck - Me Against You
Pete Rock - Warzone
MC Lyte - My Main Aim
Bump J - We Dont Play No Games
All in all a good mixture of rap/hiphop, Stat Quo happens to be a personal favorite.
Ive seen mixed opinions about the selection, but what people need to remember is EA tailors the tracks to fit the genre, and I will leave it at that.
Commentary is the best ive heard in ANY in the Live series. Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson comment during the Dunk Contest, you'll either receive praise for pulling off some of the most amazing dunks known to man or you will be the butt of their various jokes for not rising to the occasion. For regular season play by play, you have Marv Albert and Mike Fratello, but in the commentary department Smith and Johnson are so much more easy on the ears.
Graphics
Visually this game is appealing, player models are fairly accurate, court size and lighting looks good, this is a big plus in my book compared to last years game. For some reason the court felt like it was too small, there's more than enough room in 05' due to players not running all over eachother as they did in Live 04'.
Camera angles are pretty much the same as last year with....
Baseline Low (default)
Press Box
Baseline High
Center Court
Sideline
Baseline Low is very playable, but the trade off is a slow camera direction switch caused by a turnover. It takes a bit for the camera to turn 180 degree's and face in the direction of your basket. I quickly remedied that problem by switching to the next available cam' view in Press Box. Press Box view describes itself, its how you would view the game from up in the Press Box, over the top and angled a bit. The remaining views were never attempted as my game progressed much faster in the Press Box view vs. Baseline Low.
EA seems to have paid attention to detail more so this year than in the past. Players tattoo's are for the most part dead on, but the one are for improvement that I can see is the player model's themselves. Like I stated in the beginning, the models are fairly accurate, this is good, but no where near as accurate as other games in this genre. EA being able to snag licensed shoes from Nike, Adidas, and Reebok also played a major part in making this game nice to look at.
Gameplay
I am pleased to announce, gone are the days of EA Arcade ball. NBA Live 2005 has returned back to its sim roots, gone are the days of freestyling your way thru 5 defenders and dunking or prohoping thru traffic and posterizing two defenders. Dont get me wrong, both the freestyle controls and pro hop are still useful, but everyone who was dependant solely on these features, time to find a new gameplan or else have fun watching your favorite prohoping player sit the bench with 6 fouls. The effectiveness of both moves have been toned down immensely, first thing I tried to do was emulate the 04' cheese in the pro hop.
First possession I hopped thru the lane right into the defender and seen the first new animation of the game. My player threw his hands up into the air after bouncing off the defender and out came the basketball to be picked up by the opposition. I repeated just to be sure this wasnt a fluke, and again, turnover. Two thumbs up EA, now the pro hop is really only useful to create space only if you already have the defender beat. Freestyle moves are pretty much the same as last year, but they too have been toned down. I tried crossing over with Mutumbo and he quickly turned the ball over, I then tried "the freestlye wiggle" with Hinrich and was guarded closely and most times cut off by the defender.
Another big addition I noticed was the ability of the marquee players to take over the game. I played a game Vs. the Heat and Shaq was the main focus of the offense, the ball would be worked around the perimeter until they could find the right time to dump the ball into the big man. Only if Shaq was being played to closely did they resort to finding their own shot, and they still took the best available shot, not forcing something up since their main guy was bottled up. I also noticed this playing the Spurs, Live 04' was a guards game. Any team that had a decent 1 or 2 guard did well, as the majority off the offense filtered thru them. In 05' strong post players like Duncan, Garnett, and Brand can showcase their talent with a wide array of post moves enabling them to be offensive threats as well as the guards.
Tempo has been adjusted as well, not as fast as last years game, and not slow either. The pace is a near perfect mix for arcade/sim lovers alike. At default, the speed is kept in check well enough to run plays using off-ball switch. Thats where you can press R3 and pick the player you want to control by pressing the corresponding button, and call for passes, set screens for shooters all at the press of a button. As mentioned above, all players look for better shots, 04' was plagued with 3 pt bombs left and right, 05' has been curbed to only pulling the trey when its needed, or if wide open, and even then they opt to pass more often than not.
Rebounding has also been overhauled as you can now chose how you would like to rebound the ball. At the touch of a button you can either grab the mid air rebound as you would normally, Tip slam the ball home, or tip it in off the glass over a defender.
