The Rookie Challenge and the NBA All-Star Game are always played at a faster pace, with more exciting plays and less fouls called - and that’s exactly how the game plays in "Live". "Live" is the first game to recognize that there is a totally different pace to an All-Star game than a normal NBA game. There are also some nice small touches like players at courtside excitedly jumping out of their seats to react to a great dunk. I’m usually the type of person who gets bored with the extra features of a basketball game, and only focuses on the gameplay of actual contests - but I found this mode to be really addictive and I keep coming back for more. It takes a lot of practice to be able to execute the more complicated dunks, but the learning curve isn’t that hard. Instead of hitting a combination of buttons in order to execute a dunk like in "ESPN College Hoops", a dunk in Live depends on positioning, the type of gather you choose, timing, and creativity. While this isn’t the first game that features a dunk contest, the game features the best way a dunk contest has ever been executed.
The arena looks exactly like it does in during the actual Dunk Contest with the exception of only half of the court being visible. The Slam Dunk Contest is well done in every way. All four events, the Rookie Challenge, the Slam Dunk Contest, the Three-Point Contest and the All Star Game, are all available. The biggest addition is All-Star Weekend. Let's start with the new additions to this year’s game. I’m willing to cut EA some slack when it comes to the in-game commentary because the All-Star Weekend commentary is so good. The duo sounds as good as they sound on "Inside the NBA", as they constantly go back and forth and make relevant comments about the contests. and Kenny Smith call the Slam Dunk Weekend and Three Point Contest. EA’s commentary focus seems to be on the All-Star Weekend as Ernie Johnson Jr. The in game commentary from Marv Albert and Mike Fratello is very repetitive, and it doesn’t appear that EA added much new commentary from them this year. The arenas are still very accurate and I love that EA has continued to add to the authenticity by making the changes to different arenas that have occurred over the past years and by including arenas that they were unable to get licenses to last year to this year’s game. Also, players like Shaq and Oliver Miller should have distinct player models, however, they are built like most centers in the game, tall and thin. While many of the major players in the game have accurate faces, many of the midlevel and lower tiered stars still have generic faces.
Thankfully, it appears that they didn’t.Ĭompared to the competition, "Live’s" player faces and models don’t hold up. So before diving into "NBA Live 2005", I was just hoping that Electronic Arts (EA) just didn’t take a step back with this year’s version. I recognized that even with the rebounding problem, it was a fun game. With all that said, I still played "NBA Live 2004" more than any other game last year. At the time, I didn’t know and take into account how much the lack of offensive rebounds would annoy me and take away some of my enjoyment of the game. I have to admit a mistake when I make one.