The history of the two major competing NBA video game franchises has been compelling. First of all, Visual Concepts' 2K series has been steadily excellent. Each year the new "NBA 2K-" provides small improvements to the previous edition. However, the game's basic structure is the same. The gamer knows exactly what he's getting with NBA 2K. This consistency is NBA 2K8's greatest strength. However, that consistency is concurrently the game's greatest weakness.
When I first started playing this game with NBA 2K1, I noticed some fundamental attributes of the game I disliked. It was almost like the game had glitches in its matrix. The crossover system was rough and prone to misuse. Post play was atrocious. I had no feel for what I was commanding a big man to do in the post, on offense or defense. Charging and blocking fouls were rampant, seemingly called completely randomly. Now, all the way up to NBA 2K7, many new features have arrived, like signature shots, "target" defense, shot stick, celebration animations, etc.... but the core gameplay is still what it is. I still can't execute a post play with natural feel, can't crossover naturally (i feel like someone is telling me on my cell phone, "Hello Neo... they're coming for you..."). In the end, the 2K series provided excellent production year in and year out, but upon looking closer, the game couldn't get basic basketball moves simulated correctly. It's almost like the 2K series was shooting the basketball with a fundamentally flawed release.
The story of the NBA Live franchise is much more exciting. The series peaked in 2004-2005, with NBA Live 05. This game was a spectacular Man-Child, anointed by all hardcore gamers as the most explosive, exciting iteration of NBA Live.
http://nbalive2005.nba-live.com/ Most importantly, the game felt very natural. Crossovers were basic but very fluid and useful. Post play was done extremely well. Executing hook shots, fadeaways, up and unders, was easy and natural. Post defense was simple, as one only needed to time block attempts correctly. Racking up STATs on offense and defense was an easy task.
The hype machine roared to full blast for NBA Live 06. Unfortunately that year was a complete disaster for this game that I held so much amare (italian for love) for. The game featured an atrocious Freestyle Superstar system that was terrible in every way. There was even an incredible glitch exposed: the "running sky hook shot" freestyle move was flawed, and could be used at 90% success rate all the way out to the three point line. The sight of Dirk swishing five 20-foot sky hooks in a row is enough to make a gamer break the cd.
Ok, so NBA Live 07 was even worse that 06, so my Amare Stoudemire analogy is breaking down. Anyway, my point is that the 2K series is akin the Shawn Marion. Consistently excellent, very flashy and athletic, but with core gameplay that is lacking in true basketball skills.
NBA Live is like Amare. Peaked in 2005. Crashed to the bottom of the barrell 2006. NBA Live 2007 was also atrocious, but here's where the story turns. The EA developers have completely revamped Live's gameplay. Dribbling animations can now be cut-off mid dribble and changed, much as people do naturally. CALLLLLLING AZIRISH: The game has copied every byte of data from NBA.com's hotzones and applied it to the game, so for example Bowen can't hit straightaway threes anymore. The rebounding, post play, and presentation have been completely redone. Finally they've added true signature moves, so Kobe takes his spinning fadeaway, Parker does his floater, Arenas/B-Davis do the step back, etc.
SO, NBA Live has broken down and completely rebuilt its gameplay, just like Amare after his injury. People want Amare to regain the 100% explosiveness of 2005 and bring a post game and his new jump shot to become an insanely awesome player... that's what NBA Live 08's potential is. Or you can buy 2K8 and have another year of Shawn Marion.
