Graphically, EA Sport's NBA Live 2001 is smooth and detailed. Within the players to arenas, it is all totally lifelike. NBA Live is not the jaw dropper that NBA 2K was, however. Very nicely detailed, lack the distinguishing characteristics, which NBA 2K has, though the players. 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 state of this online game), that takes away 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, especially the default, side view is not actually too friendly. It's hard to distinguish the depth/position of this players on opposite baseline. This can be fixed by changing to the more playable NBA 2K camera style, however.
Now, let's see what is the PS2 did with it's superior sound f/x. Right over bat…well you see nothing new. By the end, you find nothing new. It's seems and certainly feels as though EA is doing absolutely nothing to make use of the PS2 more efficient hardware when dealing with sound f/x. The commentary totally is very much a similar exact replica for its predecessor, NBA 2000. The crowds are dead, rarely would they chant, then when they will do, it's nothing like NBA 2K, from reacting to game situations.
The single thing that NBA 2K lacked, when compared to EA Sport's NBA Live series thus far, was if it got to options. This still holds true. NBA Live is brimming with season, playoff and options…exhibition 3 pt. Shootout, 1-on-1 with Michael Jordan, Practice, NBA Draft…Unfortunately for PS2, and particularly the different 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 with NBA 2K series in any areas of game play.
Mas jugados 133 Juegos de Terror
First, let's begin with A.I. I'm trying to be as nice as possible, but only stupid, retarded, and dimwitted come to mind. 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 past the slower defender and dunk or lay-up not having many of the defenders inside your paint react. The defenders don't even react late. They just remain still, like mannequins, only responding to their counterpart within the opposing team. As you increase the difficulty, 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. Now, you can't just zoom past them, forcing you pass of 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. As you pass to the open player, 2 or 3 defenders enclose the player even before he receives the pass. As far as offense goes, as difficulty increases, the CPU shooting % raises greatly. This is not because they play better, or smarter now. They just shoot a higher percentage. Whether they're covered or wide open, it doesn't matter, they only make more baskets. This also goes for Free Throws…when you have Shaq going 8-8 at stake, you realize something isn't right. At the same time, 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 is not just stupid, but totally hurts the game play, taking away by reviewing the realism (whatever little it may have).
Next, let's take a peek at playing the game itself. First, all players have the same special cross over move, but so did the 1st NBA 2K. Also, like NBA 2K, you might have 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 most importantly, it will take beyond the flow for this 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 can do is turn your back, combined with a change shot, that is certainly pretty weak, and rather useless option. Last, and perchance the worst part of game play, the fast break dunk/lay-up. For some people unknown reason, EA Sport's has it so that you can can't use turbo to operate up and start a dunk. Have to release turbo, before attempting a dunk, although that is, you can use the turbo to run to. 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, as soon as i saw your next flaw within your game. In the case of Free Throws, apparently the every time you foul a player, the 3 players closest to 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. The rebounding in general is a farce…you seem to have the best chance of rebounding if you stand right outside the paint. It seems that through your players box out, it only helps players boxed beyond your 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. To get a hard-core sports fan, this can't even be called 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.
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