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EA Canada delivers another compelling basketball experience.
There’s plenty to do in NBA Live 09. The “core” single-player experience is still the Dynasty Mode, where you’re trying to build a team from scratch into greatness. But you’ll also find NBA All-Star Weekend, Be a Pro Mode, as well as a practice mode and international championships. The online component is plenty robust. You can play a full five-on-five game with nine other players, play in full-on leagues, shorter leagues, or Be a Pro multiplayer modes.
Completing the package are Live 365 and Dynamic DNA. Live 365 is the game’s update system, allowing you to keep up-to-date with roster downloads, etc. It also powers Dynamic DNA, which uses professional reporting to receive player updates on a daily basis. If a strong shooter is becoming a bit weaker in the season or was just injured or traded, you’ll have the ability to download this new information into your own game, effectively allowing the game to recreate what is actually going on during the broadcasts.
EA Canada has spent a considerable amount of time refining the core gameplay elements in NBA Live 08, addressing the basic dribbling, shooting and passing issues of the first two Xbox 360 NBA Live titles. NBA Live 09 refines the solid gameplay and makes the whole process a bit smoother. Thanks to improved physics, which gives the players a realistic sense of weight, watching someone play the game looks like it could be an actual NBA broadcast. The slight arcade feeling of previous games has been subdued a bit for this entry, meaning that there you need some actual strategy to pull off a shot and that dunks aren’t commonplace, like they used to be.
There are plenty of new gameplay features, too. The game borrows the play calling system from EA’s NHL series, allowing you to effectively call your shots (with fancy graphical notices to boot) or let the game choose the best play for you. There’s also a new ankle-breaker move that allows the defensive player to guess the offense’s next move. If they guess right, they’ll cut off the other player; if not, they just made that player’s shot much easier.
Visually, the franchise retains the strong graphics from its predecessors. The players look great as EA Canada paid a lot of attention to detail. The big-name stars and even the second-tiers are instantly recognizable. The courts and arenas look fantastic, too. EA Canada added many new animations to this version, allowing the game to feel more fluid and real. As mentioned above, the refined physics system also lends to the game realism.
Overall, NBA Live 09 is a terrific entry from EA Canada. The game builds on the solid fundamentals of NBA Live 08, while making the game play more like an NBA broadcast. Live 365 and Dynamic DNA are great new features, something that we bet other sports games will have to borrow for next year’s offerings. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Oct 27, 2008
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