NBA Live 2005

The Good
This version is a huge improvement over last year's game. The gameplay has been improved with better animations and the new Freestyle Air control, which lets you change shots in mid-air. The graphics have been improved as well with better player models. Players now look very real especially their faces. The Dynasty Mode is also improved with a PDA system, which informs you about your team and news around the league. One major added feature is the All-Star Weekend Mode. In this mode you can play the Rookie vs Sophomore game, the All-Star game, the 3-Point Shootout, and best of all the Slam-Dunk Contest. You can do hundreds of dunks in this mode and the judges give you scores based on how spectacular your dunks are. Also new is the game soundtrack which features 14 original songs. They are pretty good and fits this game well. In-game commentary is once again handled by Marv Albert and Mike Frattello with a few added lines.

The Bad
Slowdowns happen but they don't happen that often. It usually happen only when there is a lot going on the court at once. Another thing is that players still skate when being push by others. Other than that the game is solid.

The Bottom Line
I would highly recommend this game to any basketball fan who have a GameCube. This game is the best you can get for that system. If you don't like NBA Live games then you could get NBA 2k2 or 2k3. I have them and they are also pretty good games.

The Good
* Added sliders to control things like offensive rebounds, steals, dunks and so on.

• Graphics are somewhat nice.
  
  The Bad
  * Presentation, menu and add-ons are frankly abominable.

• The music is an aberration and will put you on your knees for silence. What's the need to subject everyone to rap music? Seriously. How about an option to play songs from a specified folder? Is it really that far-off?

• The changes in the stupid sliders I mentioned before don't really seem to make much of a difference in the game.

• The animations are absolutely appalling. You will see players sliding down half of the court in every other dunk move.

• The MyNBA area is useless and boring beyond comprehension (someone must have gotten fired over that stuff).

• The gameplay continues to feel awkward and arcadish, far from the so called "simulation" they claim to provide.

• The editing and creating a player options have been slimmed down so bad that makes Live 2005 the certified winner of the game with the worst creating and editing tools of the past 10 years.

Now, basically, Live only offers three choices:

1) caucasian with elefantitis, 2) peruvian with funky moustache, 3) or big african hairless dude with no teeth.

Make your pick. How much difference can it be between these fellows and you? The resemblance's has got to be somewhere!

• The commentators are down to their fourth straight lobotomy this year, so comments are spot-on! Just brilliant.

• EA kindly offers 32 million pairs of shoes, socks and t-shirts. That's cool. But to spice it up a little and make it a tad more challenging, none of them are available. "Unlock 'em and feel the ride of wearing what on-screen appears to be red, white and black bricks around your feet". Brilliant!

• The Mega-Ultra-Patented, revolutionary EA Freestyle thingy is terrible. Terrible!

• No keyboard short-keys.

• The in-game menu and the seemingly useless options are an insult to any basketball fan.

• The Dinasty options, like hiring some coaches to train on specific areas, although welcomed, remained extremely arcade-like and frustrating. After playing a little Football Manager 2005, options like these seemed more frustrating than anything.

• The trading system remain as unfriendly as usual, with a guaranteed 1,000 quit/loads before you can actually agree on a decent trade.

There is still no option to search for a player with certain specific characteristics. Let's say you need a small forward with good defensive attributes: browse the "comfortable" EA pages, team by team, and take notes with pen and paper. But no searching option, no, sir. Never! It's too "avant garde", you know.

As well: Yes, the computer continues to offer you Shawn Bradley (plus a dozen fajitas con queso if you bargain hard) for Shaquille O'neal. And no, there is still no option to prevent the computer from spamming the hell out of you with these retarded offers.

• The Slam-Dunk contest is pretty cool, but learning how to pull those moves off can be a pain.

• The Three Point contest is as exciting as pressing the shoot button with one hand and zapping channels w th the other.
  
  The Bottom Line
  The 2005 version of the yearly basketball disappointment that EA stubbornly provides us with, falls short of pathetic.

This game was just fine in, let's say, 1997, when it was downright arcade and had no over the top expectations to become a simulation; when players performed 560's and dunked it from the three point line without breaking a sweat.

I can't blame EA for trying to make the crossover into simulation, but they've been making fools of themselves with this franchise since then.