Graphically, EA Sport's NBA Live 2001 is smooth and detailed. From your players to arenas, all things are lifelike. However, NBA Live is not the jaw dropper that NBA 2K was. The players, although very nicely detailed, lack the distinguishing characteristics, which NBA 2K has. The likes of players'hairstyles and tattoos, free throw mannerisms…things that went beyond, and made the players real. Also, unlike NBA 2K, players don't show any emotions (smiling or looking angry when dunking, bench players reacting to the state the sport), which takes off the games atmosphere. The crowds, once again, as with all EA Sport's games thus far, are flat. What's worse is that they're not very lively, which hurts the game, taking away from home/away atmosphere. Last, the camera angles, particularly the default, side view is just not too friendly. It's not easy to distinguish the depth/position of these players inside the opposite baseline. However, this can be fixed by changing to the more playable NBA 2K camera style.
Now, let's see what are the PS2 did with it's superior sound f/x. Right over bat…well you see nothing new. At the conclusion, you see nothing new. It's seems and definitely feels like EA is doing absolutely nothing to use the PS2 stronger hardware with regards to sound f/x. The commentary totally seems to be exactly the same exact replica because of its predecessor, NBA 2000. The crowds are dead, hardly ever can they chant, of course, if they certainly, it's unlike NBA 2K, from reacting to game situations.
The thing that NBA 2K lacked, when compared to EA Sport's NBA Live series so far, was as it arrived at options. This still holds true. NBA Live is brimming with playoff, options…exhibition and season 3 pt. Shootout, 1-on-1 with Michael Jordan, Practice, NBA Draft…Unfortunately for PS2, and especially most of the die hard sports fans which stayed faithful to Sony and didn't get yourself a Dreamcast, EA's NBA Live 2001 falls short when compared to NBA 2K series in all facets of game play.
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First, let's focus on A.I. Only stupid, retarded, and dimwitted come to mind, even though i'm trying to be as nice as possible. Maybe comatose or dead would be a better representation, because the CPU players are totally unreactive to any game situations. In lowest difficulty, a quicker player can blow right beyond the slower defender and dunk or lay-up without having many of the defenders inside the paint react. The defenders don't even react late. They merely remain still, like mannequins, only replying to their counterpart at the opposing team. The only thing that happens, is the CPU players become faster and quicker, and they seem to double and triple team the ball handler all the time, as you increase the difficulty. Now, you can't just zoom past them, forcing consumers to pass to 2 or 3 wide-open players. From this situation, it's seems easy and logical to pass to the open players for an easy basket, but it seems that the players move faster then the ball. 2 or 3 defenders enclose the player even before he receives the pass, as you pass to the open player. As far as offense goes, as difficulty increases, the CPU shooting % raises greatly. This is not because they play better, or smarter now. They only shoot a better percentage. Whether they're covered or wide open, it actually doesn't matter, they merely make more baskets. This too applies to Free Throws…when one has Shaq going 8-8 at stake, you know something isn't right. Nonetheless, you miss more shots, again, whether open or covered doesn't matter. Often 3 times a game, even though repeatedly I have missed fast break lay-ups and dunks, not once in a while. This may not be just stupid, but totally hurts this game, removing by reviewing the realism (whatever little it could actually have).
Next, let's explore playing this game itself. First, all players have the same special cross over move, but so did the 1st NBA 2K. Also, like NBA 2K, you possess some control, calling picks, double teams, ally hoops, etc. You can even have the easy 1-button directional passing option, or pass to a specific player. The only problem with passing to a specific player is that, unlike NBA 2K, the players specific button passing is not static, always changing from X to O to Square…First, this makes it harder to use that option, b/c you have to look to see what button a specific player is first, before you make that pass. Secondly, and more importantly, it takes from the flow of our game. Another lacking aspect of the game is the post-up move, or lack there of. In NBA Live you can post up, but you can't back down the defender, or do any special move like a hook. All you can do is turn your back, combined with a turn around shot, which happens to be pretty weak, and rather useless option. Last, and perchance the worst aspect of game play, rapid break dunk/lay-up. For some people unknown reason, EA Sport's has it so that you will can't use turbo to operate up and start a dunk. That is, you can use the turbo to run to, but have to release turbo, before attempting a dunk. Maybe they didn't realize this, but if anyone played the game, they would realize that once again, the flow of the game would stop.
I couldn't believe my eyes, whenever i saw the other flaw with the game. Relating to Free Throws, it appears that the immediately after you foul a player, the 3 players nearest to the basket are the type placed at stake to rebound. This might seem funny, but when you repeatedly have Damon Stoudamire standing where a Center should be, next to Shaq or David Robinson, you know your in trouble. The rebounding in general is a farce…you seem to have the best chance of rebounding if you stand right outside the paint. It would appear that by having your players box out, it only helps the players boxed away from the paint to rebound.
There are probably a lot more things wrong with the game that I haven't mentioned or realized yet, just because I got tired of wasting my time playing this sorry excuse for a basketball game. For virtually every hard-core sports fan, this can't be also termed as a Sim. I can't believe they would hurt their name and reputation but releasing something like this, although i know that EA, just like everybody else has been hurting from the stock market. In wrapping up, Michael Jordan's presence can't even help this game, and if he had played NBA Live 2001, he would probably have refused to be associated with such a joke.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEpDSoIRITA]
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