NBA Live 10

Every year, a debate rages on about which basketball game is the best.  The conversation always revolves around the usual suspects: NBA Live and NBA 2K. In my humble opinion, NBA 2K has earned bragging rights for the top ball game of the past four years. So with the release date of October 6^th (both games will be released on the same day) approaching fast, I figured perhaps you might want some insight. I was able to get a demo of NBA Live 10, so let me break it down.

The game starts as usual with the customary: “EA Sports, it’s in the game.” Afterwards, you find yourself in an off the chain basketball gym with plasma screens on the walls; where Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and LeBron James greet each other by a series of handshakes and daps. All of these players are on one side of the court shooting and dunking. You get to control whichever player you want. On the other side of the court, you have Chris Paul, Brandon Roy, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. Same principle, you can control the player of your choice and practice with him. Once you get bored with that, you press the start button and then you get the chance to play two quarters of NBA basketball with either the Orlando Magic or the Los Angeles Lakers.

The first time around, I chose the Lakers. As the bright lights of the Staples Center come on, the starting five of the Orlando Magic walks up with D12 in the middle. As they stop so that you can see the players, Dwight Howard does the ridiculous Soulja Boy Superman dance. The scene then shifts to the Lakers starting five where Kobe Bryant does his best to summon his inner Jay-Z as he brushes off his left shoulder and then his right shoulder. It’s now time for the opening tip and Marv Albert and Steve Kerr are on the vocals; which is cool until you remember that Kerr is the GM of the Phoenix Suns. Apparently, conflict of interests don’t exist in video games.

Right before the opening tip, the camera turns to Howard who does his pregame ritual of simulating a fade away jumper at the scorers table as he throws something into the crowd. Game time baby. At the outset, the crowd is in full fledged Finals mode (the demo is a remake of the NBA Finals). They are excited and chanting throughout the game. Phil Jackson is walking up and down the sidelines as bench players routinely get up to celebrate a great play, or challenge a bad call. Although Ron Artest is already part of the Lakers, it’s unfortunate that Stephen Jackson is no where to be found on either team bench or even the crowd. I’m pretty sure that would have led to the first ever video game brawl. Nonetheless, I start off the game with the ball in the hands of the Black Mamba. He takes Vince Carter baseline and makes a tough circus type lay up in traffic. After scoring about eight straight points with Kobe, I try to get some teammates involved. I pass it to Gasol in the post who immediately gets stripped. Kobe is double teamed by Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson at the pinch post; so I pass the ball to Derek Fisher who is wide open on the baseline. He shoots, he bricks. Bynum gets the board, passes to Kobe who is once again double teamed; I pass it again to Fisher who bricks it again. Go Lakers. As the progresses, I realize that no one besides Kobe can score. But there is one problem: Kobe is unstoppable. I go on a rampage with the Mamba as I make fade aways, hook shots, bankers, floaters, dunks, free throws and contortionist shots. At one point, I dribble at the free throw line, and press the shot button to take a jump shot; only to see Kobe get all the way to the rack for a lay up with Rashard Lewis and Dwight Howard happily looking . I catch the ball in the post and press the shot button again, anticipating a Kobe fade away, instead Kobe dunks the ball from the post. You realize that when you’re in the post, your back is turned to the basket right? Once all the carnage was done, Kobe Bryant had 28 points on 13 of 14 field goal shooting….at the HALF!! NBA Live made Kobe Bryant a force more dominating then Shaquille O’Neal and Wilt Chamberlain combined.

After destroying the Orlando Magic, I pulled an “Inglorious Basterds” move and switched teams. I played with the Orlando Magic, and it was not pretty. Check out the play by play:

-Dwight Howard in the low post with the ball, gets tripped backing down his defender;

-Read that same line again, because it happened three times;

-Dwight Howard in the low post trying to face defender to use quickness but still gets stripped;

-Vince Carter tries to shake Kobe and shoot a jump shot but gets blocked;

-Carter crosses over right, left, and then right again (in real life, this would look like the famous Iverson cross over on MJ) and Kobe steals the ball and goes the other way for a dunk;

-Carter baseline with the ball, and Artest picks him up on a switch; I try to go baseline for a dunk but Artest bumps me and I fall out of bounds , the ref whistles and the public address announcer says “Laker ball”.

From the info mentioned above, it would seem that everybody in the game sucks…..except for the Black Mamba. Draw your own conclusions of the game.