Graphically, EA Sport's NBA Live 2001 is smooth and detailed. Within the players to arenas, things are all 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 players real. Also, unlike NBA 2K, players don't show any emotions (smiling or looking angry when dunking, bench players reacting to the condition of this game), that takes from the games atmosphere. The crowds, once again, as with all EA Sport's games thus far, are flat. They're not very lively, which hurts the game, taking away from home/away atmosphere,. That's what's worse. Last, the camera angles, particularly the default, side view is just not too friendly. It's very hard to distinguish the depth/position of an players about the opposite baseline. This can be fixed by changing to the more playable NBA 2K camera style, however.
Now, let's see what the PS2 does with it's superior sound f/x. Right over the bat…well you notice nothing new. In the end, you see nothing new. It's seems and definitely feels as though EA does nothing to make use of the PS2 more efficient hardware when dealing with sound f/x. The commentary totally is those exact replica for its predecessor, NBA 2000. The crowds are dead, very rarely do they chant, and while they, it's unlike NBA 2K, from reacting to game situations.
The thing that NBA 2K lacked, in comparison with EA Sport's NBA Live series thus far, was whenever it came to options. This still holds true. NBA Live is full of options…exhibition, playoff and season 3 pt. Shootout, 1-on-1 with Michael Jordan, Practice, NBA Draft…Unfortunately for PS2, especially every single die hard sports fans which stayed faithful to Sony and didn't pick up a Dreamcast, EA's NBA Live 2001 falls short when compared to NBA 2K series to all facets of game play.
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First, let's start with A.I. Only stupid, retarded, and dimwitted come to mind, even though i'm trying to be as nice as possible. Because the CPU players are totally unreactive to any game situations, maybe comatose or dead would be a better representation. In lowest difficulty, a faster player can blow right beyond the slower defender and dunk or lay-up not having from any of the defenders around the paint react. The defenders don't even react late. They simply remain still, like mannequins, only replying to their counterpart around the opposing team. The only thing that happens, is the CPU players become faster and quicker, and they seem to triple and double team the ball handler all the time, as you increase the difficulty. Now, you can't just zoom past them, forcing one to pass up to the 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 merely shoot a better percentage. Whether they're covered or wide open, it really doesn't matter, they only make more baskets. This too is true of Free Throws…when you have Shaq going 8-8 on the line, you understand something isn't right. Conversely, 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 the game, taking away from the realism (whatever little it could actually have).
Next, let's evaluate 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 have got 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 even more importantly, it will take off the flow of that game. Another lacking aspect of the game is the post-up move. Alternatively, lack there of. You can't back down the defender, or do any special move like a hook, although in NBA Live you can post up. All you should do is turn your back, and then a change shot, and is pretty weak, and rather useless option. Last, and perhaps the worst area of game play, rapid break dunk/lay-up. For some unknown reason, EA Sport's has it to ensure that you can't use turbo to move up and start a dunk. That is, you can use the turbo to run to, but have to release turbo, before attempting a dunk. If anyone played the game, they would realize that once again, the flow of the game would stop, although maybe they didn't realize this.
I couldn't believe my eyes, after i saw the subsequent flaw included in the game. With respect to Free Throws, it seems that the when we foul a player, the 3 players nearest the basket are the ones placed on the line to rebound. When you repeatedly have Damon Stoudamire standing where a Center should be, next to Shaq or David Robinson, you know your in trouble, even though this might seem funny. If you stand right outside the paint, the rebounding in general is a farce…you seem to have the best chance of rebounding. It appears by using your players box out, it only helps the players boxed away from paint to rebound.
Just because I got tired of wasting my time playing this sorry excuse for a basketball game, there are probably a lot more things wrong with the game that I haven't mentioned or realized yet. For just about any hard-core sports fan, this can't be called a Sim. I know that EA, just like everybody else has been hurting from the stock market, but I can't believe they would hurt their reputation and name but releasing something like this. 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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