The first thing that struck me with this game was the graphics. All the player's movements were smooth, the court looked glossy and reflective, and the environments surprisingly realistic. In a word, the graphics looked stunning. There were some flaws that emerged after a couple of hours of gameplay, however.While the players look great, the crowds in the stands are little more than polygons that make occasional jerks and jolts. While I'm willing to admit that it's better than a static background, I think we should be able to do a little better in this day and age.
The player's movements still seem quite limited as well. All the basics like dribbling, running and dunking are all there, but it feels like they haven't made many improvements over previous incarnations of the game. When the player holding the ball gets surrounded by two or more defensive players, he does the same movement I saw back in NBA Live 2000. Come on guys, really?
The commentators need more things to say as well. It seems like the audio tracks are far too limited for this type of game. Imagine playing through an entire season, 82 games, only to hear the exact same commentary on your team's star players. Not satisfying. I know we can do better in this department.
Finally, the music is just awful. I don't know what they were thinking when they picked these tracks, but I suspect that "annoying" and "irritating" were high on the list of qualities they were looking for. Yeah, NBA Live 2000 had some annoying songs too, but it was still better than this hogwash.
I love playing basketball games, and NBA Live has certainly had its moments. Sadly, 09 really isn't one of those "moments".
