The good folks at Electronic Arts once again flew your boy up to Vancouver B.C. to check out the reincarnation of the NBA Live franchise - a first look and preview of NBA Live 09.

I used to love her like hip-hop. I have known NBA Live for a while. We first met at Sega Genesis, but for the last 3 years NBA 2K has been my heart. They very first time I saw NBA 2K and interacted with her, I knew that my love affair with Live was quickly going to come to an end.

Each year I would check back in with my former love to see how she was doing, but it would always seem like she could never get her s*** together, and alas, I would stay faithful to NBA 2K for another year, until that one day.

I’m in Canada to visit EA. They say that they have found NBA Live and that she is doing better, she knows that she hasn’t been at her best in years and was committed to bringing her sexy back.

To see how David’s love affair ends….

I was very skeptical, I have heard this before. I truly wanted to believe that after all these years that Live could bring back all the qualities that made me fall in love the first time.

The good people at EA assured me that she has made vast improvements and is on the fast road to recovery and that I would learn to love her once again. By then my anxiousness had vastly out weighed my curiosity. I couldn’t wait to see her.

Anticipation
The next day, I could hardly keep my composure on the way up to the EA campus. I was soon about to be face-to-face with my former love. My head was full of thoughts. What would she look like? How would she react? Did she develop new features? How would she move? I was soon about to find out.

I opened the door to the room and there she was and I must say, from a first glance, I was quite impressed. We sat down and talked and she explained to me all the changes and upgrades she has made. First off, she looked amazing! The players really looked like the actual players, the details of the arenas and crowd atmosphere really made me feel like I was at the game. The crowd actually reacts to the flow of the game.

Smoothness
The players movements were more fluid and it felt like they got the pattern and rhythm of each player down precisely; Ray Allen’s jump shot looks just as silky smooth virtually as it does in real life! I was thinking to myself, Wow, is Live for real this time? Has she truly committed herself to being the best? Then she showed me her defense and offense.

Defense
Lock Down Defense. “What is that?,” I asked her. And she showed me. I had to catch myself from drooling; it was real defense! The player actually gets a body on the offensive player and can apply pressure and force the player into traps and turnovers. The low post defense was pretty weak, but overall I was impressed.

Players could play the lanes and pick off passes. When you blocked a shot, you felt that s***. It finally felt like you can play on both sides of the court evenly. Truthfully, I had more fun making a solid defensive stop than playing offense.

Offense
The defense alone had me geeked. Then she threw her offense on me. First off, that little jump hop s*** is gone. I was a little disappointed at first, but I soon forgot all about it. It wasn’t needed. The players move so naturally now that it does it when needed, when a player is making a Power Move close to the basket. The crossovers are more athletic and alley-oops are a whole lot easier to pull off.

And one more thing: she added a real pick and role! You can control two players and either get open for the jump shot or take it right to the basket. I was f***king dudes up running the pick-and-roll with Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler. Tyson would set the screen, Chris would come off, Tyson would shoot down to the basket, Chris would throw the direct pass back down to Tyson. Easy buckets! It was like conducting an orchestra.

More Features
The more we talked and got reacquainted, the more I remembered why I fell in love with her the first time. It was like we were making up for old times. She showed me her new online and global player editing features and my heart started racing. She has made so many improvements; she has showed me so much. I had to tell her that I was sorry for abandoning her and s****ing on her all these years. But before I could get the words out, she said she had one more surprise for me- DNA.

DNA!? She said that this feature was going to take her to a whole new level, no more would I get bored with her, every time we would get together it would be like a new experience. She said you know the slogan, “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game.” “Yeah,” I replied. “Well, I’m taking that to the next level and DNA is going to help me.”

She explained that the NBA players’ level of play in real life will be reflected in how they play on the video game. WTF!? EA will take the stats of the actual NBA players, input them into their computer software and that will translate into code that they will use to update the players tendencies in the game, 24 hours after the actual NBA game is over.

Again, WTF!? “So, if for three games straight Kobe has been driving to his left 75% of the time. then when I play against the Lakers on the game and I’m guarding Kobe, there is a 75% chance that he will try and drive to the left to score?” “Basically,” she answered. The players on the video game will mimic the actual players’ tendencies, and she said that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Closing
I couldn’t wait. I was so impressed. I just wanted her to leave and come back with me immediately. But she couldn’t. She said that even though she has made vast improvements, she was still not ready. She still had some bugs and kinks to work out. I asked her when she would be ready. ”October,” she replied.

As I sat on the plane back home to Atlanta, I couldn’t get NBA Live out of my mind. I started reminiscing on all the good times we used to have back in the day and how those days could soon be once more. Then I started thinking about 2K. I have grown to love her and she has been so consistent over the years. What will happen to our relationship once NBA Live shows back up… until October.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 12:48 am and is filed under Previews, Reviews, KKZ. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.