NBA Live 09

NBA Live 09 is the real deal when it comes to a great video game basketball experience. There isn’t a new mode that takes the game over the top, or a new feature that makes it best out there, but it is the combination of a vision and the hard work to get through some rough years to get to this game which is by far the best NBA Live game I have played in a long, long time.

The game builds on the solid fundamentals of NBA Live 08, while making the game play more like an NBA broadcast.

Live 09 is leaps-and-bounds above its HD-era predecessors. With that said, it’s hard to imagine anyone but the sturdiest of pro-level B-ball critic not being able to find a clinical dosage of fun on the silvery surface of NBA Live 09’s disc.

The inclusion of Dynamic DNA and NBA Live 365 are two of the most important innovations in sports gaming this year. Combined with all of the other enhancements EA Canada has provided and you are looking at the most feature-rich basketball title to come along in some time.

For me, I chose NBA Live 09. Not only has EA brought legs back to this franchise since struggling its first two years out on next generation platforms, but they have delivered a very strong outing last year and now this year as well.

Regardless of some of the stumbles in NBA Live 09, this year’s game is definitely worth a purchase for the first time in years.

As for the heads up matchup with the 2K Sports series, NBA Live sinks the buzzer beater as time expires to steal the win this season. Live’s play mechanics and in-depth gameplay features surpass the competition in the heated battle for hoops supremacy in ’09. Without much debate Live ‘09 delivers the best all around NBA game this year.

NBA Live 09 for Xbox 360 and PS3 offers a similar experience with respect to its previous version, but with a series of improvements and features, making it more competitive. It's getting better year by year, however, still stands second to its big rival NBA 2K9. Though it´s not the best among the basketball games, yet a nice alternative with great repertoire in terms of dazzling options choices in videogaming.

Big improvement over previous games and the new features add masses of depth. This offers basketball fans the best way of following and playing the game. [Issue#37, p.85]

Like the New Orleans Hornets of the videogame world. It performs surprisingly well this season, and with a little more experience next year, it could be a title contender. [Nov 2008, p.70]

A solid step up for the franchise, adding a cool new online community element and the great NBA Live 365 element is a pretty revolutionary element not just for the franchise, but for the sports genre as a whole. Unfortunately, there are some shortcomings that hurt the overall experience, like a barebones Be A Pro mode and a few on-court technical issues.

Unlike NBA 2K9, you don't need to read the game booklet to perform sweet looking ankle breakers or run the reliable pick and roll, but there's more exciting features here than just playing exhibition.

The new features aren't exactly earth shattering for this year's installment, but the game is fun to play and a noticeable improvement over "NBA Live 08."

Things aren’t getting any simpler in EA’s sporting conquest, and new features tapping into resources we’d never dreamed of leave us dribbling. NBA 365 and the Dynamic DNA system are two such additions guaranteed to give you more basket for your buck and you’ll be hard pressed to find a slicker, more accurate representation of the sport anywhere.

If pro hoops was a one-man video game gang this year, we’d be pretty happy with Live. Luckily for us, though, competition is king and Live falls a couple of free throws short of the superior "NBA 2K9."

The new season of the NBA has started, and EA Sports offers us a great way of having the best basketball of the world in our homes. After several years of improving, NBA Live 09 achieves what we wanted to see in a next-gen basketball game. Great visuals, good gameplay (arcade-driven) and a lot of game modes, including the NBA Live 365, which updates constantly in the game.

As far as NBA Live 09 on the Xbox 360 is concerned it continues to fall short of being considered an elite basketball game.

It’s hard to understand what happened this year. While the developers have been able to successfully incorporate so many new features into Madden 09 and NHL 09, the same winning recipe can’t be found on NBA Live 09. Nonetheless, fans of the franchise will find fit to their shoe on what we can label as a good NBA Live game but not the best we’ve seen.

NBA Live 09 is not a bad game. In fact, it's a relatively good game, if a bit incomplete.

NBA Live 09’s gameplay improvements make this the best game in the series. If more care would have been taken to the new modes, it might have unseated the 2K franchise.

Live 09's made significant strides, particularly in terms of innovation, but like the Houston Rockets exiting in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, it's the same old story here. NBA 2K9 continues to be the dominant basketball title, hands down.

Despite being a fantastic game, we can't say we are totally satisfied with NBA Live 09. We are sure that the EA team has the talent to make a better game and taking the series to a really groundbreaking level, as they show with the NBA Live 365 functionality. [Oct 2008]

Live 09 is fun to play with friends. But some annoying animations and controls stop if from reaching its potential. Maybe next year?

NBA Live 09's gameplay has again seen some improvement, but there are still a few rough edges.

Some elements seem to finally be "complete" for the Live series, but for everything the game does right, four things are in obvious need of more work. On paper Live 09 sounds great; in execution it's the same story as usual.

If you're looking for just one NBA title to satisfy your sports itch this year, I'd honestly have to suggest NBA 2K9 over NBA Live '09 this time out. While the latter has the better presentation and better roster update system, 2K9 was just more fun to play.

At least the presentation is fantastic.

Sadly, even if the fans at Arco were banging authentic Sacramento cowbells like crazy, it wouldn't be quite enough to land NBA Live 09 on top of the basketball heap.

Though EA is doing all they can to create a realistic basketball sim, there are far too many blatant errors in their formula that make it far from perfect. The inclusion of new online features may not be enough to make up for repetitively frustrating mechanics.

While NBA Live 09 made great strides in the right direction, it seems like EA enjoys taking two steps forward and one step back. The addition of DNA brings a new aspect to the game, but is it really enough to set it apart? No. Even though NBA 2K9 might be a better choice this season, NBA Live isn’t a bad option if you don’t want to go the 2K route.