Probably my first and last review on this site.
When Kobe died early last year I got a little nostalgic and thought it would be a good idea to play with one of the old NBA Live games. I found the 2005 version and played 10 seasons in dynasty mode (about 10 games a year). Simply put, my general opinion is that whoever was responsible for the gameplay of this game should burn in hell, asProbably my first and last review on this site.
When Kobe died early last year I got a little nostalgic and thought it would be a good idea to play with one of the old NBA Live games. I found the 2005 version and played 10 seasons in dynasty mode (about 10 games a year). Simply put, my general opinion is that whoever was responsible for the gameplay of this game should burn in hell, as this is the most cheating sports game I have ever played with, and I played quite a lot of EA Sports games.
My favourite scene was when I was blocked on a fast break by Shaq who was at midfield, while I was already on the 3 point line, two steps ahead with my point guard who was waaaaaaay faster and rested. Speaking of fast breaks, virtually impossible to do, as your players stop 90% of the time they receive an outlet, or have to jump to catch the pass, raking at least two seconds to settle, killing your advantage. In case of rebounding, a lot of times when you should have a clear rebound, the ball suddenly bounces twice on the rim, so the CPU player can get the board. On some occasions, the CPU player will get the rebound, while being on the other side of the board, as the ball magically gets glued to his hand. If you somehow get the rebound, your players have a tendency to jump out of bounds with the ball. Totally disgusting. If you want to play pick and roll, it is simply impossible to pass the ball to the rolling player, instead you throw the ball to somebody who is completely out of the play, usually resulting in a turnover. Anyways, lots of times, the pass goes totally the opposite way it was intended. Physics, as I mentioned are very bad, and not only the running gives a totally unfair advantage to the CPU, you also cannot get physical like the opponent can, often you just bounce off the attacker while on the other side your shot gets blocked very frequently. You also easily get pushed off the court, while you can do nothing to stop a running opponent. Your team make so weak passes that the defending team can make and drink a coffee and still steal the ball while it's in the air. Very very bad physics, and I know I speak about a 16 year old game,
The games doesn't get more difficult on harder difficulties only because the CPU does things with less mistakes, it gets more difficult because it cheats more and more as the level gets harder, to a point where it is just simply impossible to enjoy the games.
The dynasty mode is also absolutely unrealistic. Except for the offseason, where there were some trades here or there, there were ZERO trades in 10 years of my dynasty. The rookie draft pool is a joke as well, If the pool is very strong, you can find starters deep in the second round, even undrafted, if it is very weak, even the first picks are completely useless. Speaking of rookies, I'm not going to complain about the names as they were at least trying to get more international (still I had 8 players in the league with the last name Yang, 5 of them not even from Asia),, but the generated players ratings are just awful. In my final season, there were 10 starting shooting guards in the league, who had a 75+ 3-point rating, while shooting under 55% from the line. This happens maybe once in a decade. Power forwards had an inside scoring over 80, and strength under 30! 30 point differences between quickness and speed were as common as somebody having two legs and two feet. I had small forwards listed at 7'1" and power forwards at 6'5". Completely trash defenders with ratings under 20.
Simulation stats were always the weak points of these series, still shooters with a 3-pont rating under 30 attempt like 150 threes a year, making like 21%, while Kyle Korver as a starter, with a 90+ rating, attempted 12 threes the whole season. Steal and block numbers are high for everybody. In a season, where my rookie had an 18/5/5 in 35 minutes line, the ROY award went to a guy who had 4/6/1 in 19 minutes, probably because my guy missed 6 games out of 82, while the other played the whole season. You can win the MIP award while decreasing all your averages, it is a total lottery.
I know some if these things are not really important for an average user, but why not write all the bad things if I have the space? :)
The only thing that saves this game from being a total failure is that this was the year the All-Star weekend made it's debut in the series and in generated some real buzz when I was a kid back then.
So, if you also decide it is time for some nostalgia, just avoid this iteration of the game. Play NBA Live 2000, 2004 or even 2008, also not perfect games, but at least those were not made by the devil itself.… Expand
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