This year NBA LIVE 07 will play as good
as it looks with gameplay advancements that build upon the depth and
authenticity that the NBA LIVE franchise has delivered for more than a
decade. Powered by next generation technology that EA showcased at
Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), NBA LIVE 07 will introduce the next
generation of basketball gameplay with EA SPORTS™ Total Freestyle
Control, a new feature that gives users more control over athletes than
they ever imagined. By introducing a ground-breaking next generation AI
system that is both intuitive and intelligent, combined with
advancements to fan-favorite features like All-Star Weekend and Dynasty
Mode™, NBA LIVE 07 will continue to deliver its award-winning gameplay
experience to fans worldwide.
If you're in the market for an NBA game on the PC, NBA Live 07 is your
only choice. Unfortunately, it's not a very good choice. There aren't
any noteworthy new features; the visuals are the same as last year, and
the gameplay is riddled with bugs and glitches. Live 07 seems as though
it were rushed out the door, and it's an all-around disappointing game.
The slam-dunk contest is one of the game's highlights.
All of the game modes from Live 06 return. You can choose from quick
play, season, dynasty mode, playoffs, all-star weekend, freestyle
challenge, one-on-one, practice, and slam-dunk school. The NBA all-star
weekend includes the rookie challenges, three-point shoot-out,
slam-dunk contest, and, of course, the all-star game. The dunk contest
is easily the highlight of the weekend mode due to its depth and the
large number of great-looking dunks you can perform. The freestyle
challenge lets you take on friends in the slam-dunk contest or
three-point shoot-out.
Dynasty mode places you in the role of general manager for the team of
your choice. After hiring an assistant coach, an assistant, a trainer,
and a scout, it's off to training camp where you set your team's
training priorities. Over the course of a season, you can use your
staff in a number of ways. Assistant coaches can research rumors and
schedule team events, assistants work with players to improve their
skills, trainers help players heal faster, and scouts can evaluate
talent year-round in preparation for the draft. In addition to
monitoring players' happiness and overall team chemistry, you'll need
to keep an eye on their fatigue levels to make sure they don't get too
worn out over the course of the season. If you're looking to improve
your team via a trade, you can do so. Another way to better your squad
is through the draft--a process made easier if you keep your scouts
busy during the year. Your team can still perform well if you don't
keep your staff occupied every day, but putting in the work will yield
tangible results.
Last year, EA wanted to highlight the difference between the great
players and the average Joe by introducing the concept of superstar
players, and it has expanded the concept this year. Each star player is
designated as having one or more superstar abilities--high flyer (great
dunks), scorer (athletic layups), playmaker (fancy passes), post (power
dunks), and shooter (variety of jumpers). Strong defensive players are
designated as inside or outside stoppers and have a wider array of
defensive moves available. The best of the best are designated as
"superstars" and have flashier moves than regular stars. Freestyle
moves are performed by holding down the freestyle move button and a
face button. The moves are easy enough, and while some are more useful
than others, they add a lot of variety and pizzazz to the game.
Changing players' abilities can be done on the fly, but you'll rarely
need to do so.
Players with a knack for stepping up in big spots, like Robert Horry,
are now designated as "x-factors." If you use an x-factor enough during
a game, he'll heat up and earn temporary superstar abilities. This
works as advertised, but it's not very useful. If you're in a close
game, you've got more important tasks to worry about than making sure
Ben Gordon gets his touches.
If you're thinking about playing Live 07 with a keyboard, forget it,
because it's near impossible. You'll need a controller with two analog
sticks to get the most out of the game. The basic controls are easy to
learn, and freestyle control, which is mapped to the right analog
stick, feels great. It's simple to use the stick to perform advanced
ballhandling moves, and it's just as intuitive when turning a normal
jumper into a fadeaway or stealing the ball. Touch passes are another
new feature, but they don't add much to the package since they're
rarely needed. Dunks and layups are now mapped to separate buttons.
This is supposed to add a risk/reward element to your shot selection,
but the concept is poorly executed since it's difficult to figure out
if you'll be able to make a dunk before you commit. If you elect to
dunk and your player isn't going to make it, he'll either switch to a
layup or clank it off the rim, making the option pointless. Hop steps
are one of the better changes to the control scheme and are easily
performed by pressing up on the right analog stick. Free throws are
shot by pulling down and then pushing up on the right analog stick. The
new mechanic works OK, but the old system was fine, so this change
seems superfluous.
The visuals haven't changed much from last year.
You might think that NBA Live 07 is significantly more difficult than
Live 06, but that isn't the case since they just bumped up the default
difficulty to all-star. Teams are supposed to run more realistic
offenses this year, but if they are, the difference is tough to see.
The action feels as fast as ever, with most teams hustling down the
court for fast-break buckets. The teams that don't fast-break won't
waste any time getting shots off quickly. Offensive players run the
same exact pattern on every break, never cutting to the hoop when you
need them to. For the most part, players don't work very hard to get
open in the half-court offense, and they tend to be content to just
stand around. Should you want to run a specific play, you can call one
via the D pad. Defensively, the CPU is aggressive, rotating quickly,
fighting through picks, and double-teaming often. You will notice
players winding up out of bounds for no particular reason, and there
are an inordinate number of offensive foul calls.
NBA Live 07 comes apart because of the numerous glitches and bugs found
throughout the game. Regardless of how tired players are, the CPU won't
substitute them out; certain players that should be able to dunk (like
Rasheed Wallace) can't throw one down to save their lives; free-throw
controls periodically reverse; and direct passing is a mess. Though
it's near impossible to play with a keyboard, very few brands of
controllers are supported, and it's a cumbersome process trying to get
one to work. We also had difficulties installing the game--we finally
got it to run on the third PC we tried. To top things off, the game
also crashed to the desktop on several occasions.
Online play includes ranked and unranked matches, as well as
one-on-one, slam-dunk contest, and the three-point shoot-out. As is
typical with online-enabled EA games, the initial sign-in process is
cumbersome, but once you're logged in you'll find that the menus are
easy to navigate. On the rare occasion that you manage to get a good
connection to another player, the game runs well enough, but lag is
frequently a problem and makes events like the three-point shoot-out
and slam-dunk contest rather frustrating.
Other than some slight tweaks here and there, the game looks identical
to last year's NBA Live, which means the visuals are starting to show
their age. The frame rate isn't horrible, but it does struggle to keep
up on fast breaks and when the paint gets crowded. It's tough to say
that players' faces look realistic, since they have inordinately large
heads, but if you ignore the odd scaling, you'll have no problem
recognizing players. For the most part, players will turn their heads
in the general direction of the action, but you'll often find their
blank stares set in the opposite direction, and they tend to warp from
one animation to the next. Clipping issues--such as a player's arm
passing through another's or the ball going directly through someone's
chest--are rampant throughout the game. In fact, players constantly
grab rebounds or dunk by reaching through the glass. The arenas are
faithfully replicated (other than the Raptors' home court), and the
animated crowds look good.
There's very little ESPN content in the actual game, but if you're
online you can get updated scores and information from the ESPN ticker
that runs across the screen, and you can read news pages in the online
lobby. The ESPN Radio SportsCenter feature that all of the other
versions of Live 07 have is nowhere to be found here.
The right analog stick is used to shoot free throws.
One area in which NBA Live excels is its commentary. Marv Albert does
the play-by-play, and player-turned-announcer Steve Kerr provides color
commentary. The two have great chemistry together in real life, and
this comes across in the video game in the off-the-cuff remarks and
banter between the two. Ernie Johnson is joined by Greg Anthony for the
all-star weekend, which means after a weak dunk you'll get to hear
Anthony say off-the-wall cracks like "I'd rather watch girls dunk on an
eight-foot rim." NBA Live 07's soundtrack is vastly improved over last
year's. The well-rounded soundtrack includes a wide variety of artists
from around the world, including Sergio Mendes & The Black Eyed
Peas, Gnarls Barkley, Jurassic 5 featuring Dave Matthews, Rhymefest,
Lady Sovereign, and Talib Kweli.
The best things you can say about NBA Live 07 are that it sounds great
and that the slam-dunk contest is entertaining. There are lots of
different play modes, but all of the options in the world are worthless
when the gameplay has so many problems. If you simply must pick up a
copy of NBA Live this year, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions are by
far your best bets--the PC version is inferior to them in every way.
System Requirements:
CD-ROM: 16X+
CPU Speed: Intel 933MHz Processor
Display: AGP Video Card with 64MB Memory or NVIDIA GeForce3 or ATI Radeon 8500
Memory (RAM): 256MB
Operating System Compatibility: Win 98/ME/2000/XP, Not Mac Compatible