Summary
It's very good... but it could have been even better.
The Good
Some things were improved compared to NBA Live 2000. Those are:
1. Animation. As much as the previous game was realistic, this one is even more. It is such a pleasure just to watch the animations of the game's beginning. The player's movements are so smooth and natural, that you start wondering whether those are graphical figures or real people. The expressions of the faces are even better than in NBA 2000. The players show more their frustration, argue with the referees and even swear. The palette of expressions is very wide and colorful: on the players' faces you can read irony, anger, satisfaction and aggressivity. Very good, indeed! Especially impressive, however, was the animation of the crowd and of the substitute players. While in NBA 2000 they were much less clear than the players on the court, in this game they are much more realistic. You can actually see their faces and their movements are very natural. Good work!
Considering the animation on the court itself, there was little improvement over NBA 2000. The dunks are even slightly less realistic, and some moves seem a bit awkward. But generally, the animations are as smooth and as realistic as in the previous game. Small things were improved, such as the behavior of the players when the ball is on the ground. Now you can really see how the player bends and picks the ball up, it doesn't just "jump" up to him like before.
2. Some little annoyances were eliminated. You don't have to wait years for the referee to run through the whole court, to pick up the ball and to give it to you. Same when performing free throws.
3. I dunno what the others think about that, but my biggest enjoyment when playing this game was creating custom players. In NBA Live 2000 there was a skill limit: you couldn't produce a player whose abilities are beyond a certain limit. And this limit was rather low. You could create good players, but they all lacked something very essential, and the game didn't let you to create another Shaquille O'Neil or Michael Jordan. Well, now the days of frustration are over, muahhahahaa! Not only you can now create a Shaq in NBA Live 2001, you can create even better players! Of course, if you populate a team only with those giants, the game will be a piece of cake. Then again, if you want to be fair and realistic, you are not obliged to create such strong players.
The Bad
NBA Live 2001 shares some minor annoying features with the previous games. my biggest complaint about NBA 2000 was the lack of realistic animations after the game - well, unfortunately, it stayed this way. I really don't understand why it was so difficult to show the players expressing their feelings after having won or lost. In the FIFA games, after each goal there was a wide variety of different expressions of joy. And after the victory, the whole team was jumping of happiness and the crowd roared back. In NBA games of Electronic Arts, people seem to be totally indifferent to the result of the game. Both teams just leave the court, and the crowd behaves as if nothing happened. Only after your team wins the NBA title, the celebrations begin. But it's not the way it should be. At least after an important victory, let alone during the playoff, when each game is crucial, the emotions have to go out. And that applies also to the losing side. I saw more anger and frustration after being called for a foul play than after losing the entire game. Very strange.
The sound could have been better. As a long-time fan of American basketball, I watched enough NBA games and I'm positive there are much more different music and sounds played during the game than it was the case in NBA Live 2001.
But my biggest disappointment was a flaw which didn't exist in NBA Live 2000. You can't create a custom team! Aarrrgh, I can't believe that! It was such a fun winning the NBA title with Jerusalem Mighty Unicorns or however I called them, that I felt sorely handicapped when playing NBA Live 2001. This is a limitation of our freedom... :(
The Bottom Line
Let's put it this way: NBA Live 2000 was MUCH better than the previous game. I can't say the same about NBA Live 2001. It is very good, very well executed, solid and can be considered an excellent basketball simulation, but it is not as revolutionary as NBA Live 2000 and it shows little improvement over it :()
