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NBA Live 2003 Review
Richard Amos
05/12/2002
Bounce some balls and chuck them in hoops. Yay.
NBA Live 2003 is yet another game on the EA Sports label; home to the all-conquering FIFA series along with big-sellers such as Madden and NHL. EA secured their position as No.1 not by being the best, but simply having the most money available; to this extent NBA Live 2003 seems to be no exception and by the looks of things, a LOT of money has been thrown into the game.
Boot up the game and youāll be met with the typically lavish EA menu screen, allowing you to throw yourself straight into a game, start a season or just practice. Unless youāre a seasoned NBA Live gamer, we strongly suggest you watch the tutorial videos and practice; this isnāt NBA Jam.
The control system in this game is something EA is priding itself on, and rightly so. Using āFreestyle Technologyā, you have the ability to creatively improvise moves with the right thumbstick. This feature gives you a massive amount of control over the player, allowing you to weave in and out of players, raise your hands up in defence, and in general provides you with a vast amount of manoeuvres to use in defence and offence. Tricks such as charging and slipping to the left or right are perfectly implemented, meaning that tricking the players with a change in direction is a doddle.
Thatās not to say this game is easy; it isnāt ā“ whilst scoring a point by running to the hoop and dunking is easy enough, defending against the same attack back is very difficult ā“ once the opposing team has the ball, you will find it a massive challenge just to win the ball back (maybe itās because youāre English-Ed). We spent many games which just followed a routine pattern of āwe score, they score, we score they scoreā ā“ the key is to break this cycle and learn to win the ball back without letting the opposing team score. It all may seem obvious to anyone with a shred of basketball knowledge, but itās this sole element that provides the biggest challenge in the game.
Trawling through the vast menus will show that this game has amass of options to choose from - 3 on 3, 1 on 1, seasons ā“ everything; it really is the basketball gamerās bible. 1 on 1 is possibly one of the best ways to practice your skills ā“ pitted against another basketballer with a massive ego, you are given a massive challenge that really gets the pulse going; it by no means is easy, but itās rewarding.
As for eye candy, this game has it, but only in places. A nice slam-dunk will bring the camera flying in towards the hoop TV-style in a very impressive manner, almost convincing you that youāre just watching the game for real. Sadly at times this is let down by poor player models; when a refās decision is made we are shown close up cut-scenes of the coach or the players which look mediocre considering the generation of games weāre in now. It also seems that the cut-scenes were also made with little thought or attention to detail, there are only a limited selection and they begin to repeat after only a short period. Things like this make the game feel a little wooden and āfakeā, not attributes that you can usually label on an EA Sports title.
The animation of NBA is one of the finest points of the game; silky smooth and realistic, this has been perfectly created and looks wonderful. Most moves have many, many variations and youāll be hard pushed to spot the same 360 spin in a match or even in a week! Transitions from one animation to another is at times very ropey, and youāll find your characters legs suddenly moving from a 90 degree angle to a 0 degree angle with no movement in between. Again this makes the game feel a bit lacking for something thatās next generation and you really wish those guys at EA would use more artistic animation techniques rather than just relying on motion capture.
The soundtrack to NBA is on a rather narrow line, pure hip-hop. The developers may be trying to keep the āhip-hopā theme, but really, couldnāt we just have a slightly bigger variety of music? Shouts from the crowd are very authentic, and they react to situations and environments, however this is by no means a new thing to games and isnāt anything more special than, say, FIFA. Commentary uses the voice of Calvin Murphy; itās good, but not brilliant.
