The race for the NBA championship is yet again nigh, and accompanying it is the traditional new edition of EA’s longstanding NBA Live franchise. Throughout its history, NBA Live has never been able to fully escape its status as an average basketball simulation, but it’s hard to fault EA for continuously trying. Still, despite its various improvements upon previous Live games, Live 10 just isn’t an experience that’s good enough to warrant more than a rental.

At the start of your first game, you’ll likely notice the revamped visuals. The introduction to each game is pretty much the same as always, except this time EA has finally perfected player movements. In Live 09, players zipped around the court swiftly and jerkily, as if startled children hopped up on Red Bull. In Live 10, each player’s every motion is as natural and fluid as his real-life counterpart’s; from taking shots to grabbing rebounds, the realism has definitely improved.

Conversely, nothing else in the game is realistic. Bumping into any player, no matter who you’re controlling, is akin to sprinting headlong into a brick wall—you’ll stumble back, as if reeling from the collision, and more often than not lose control of the ball. But you’d probably lose control, anyway; the ball-handling in NBA Live 10 is frustratingly loose and unmanageable. So even when attacking the rim with the surest of point guards like, say, Tony Parker, the ball is pretty much predestined to come rolling out of the huddled cloud of defenders who are sure to follow.

And the newly oversimplified controls only serve to make things worse. Rather than being mapped to separate buttons, the different kinds of shots—including layups, jump shots, and dunks—have been assigned a single button. This may ensure an easier experience to newcomers, but since there’s no way for the game to tell exactly how you’d like to shoot anymore, it can provide for plenty a flustering experience, especially for series veterans.

The game’s analysts—Marv Albert and Steve Kerr—don’t make things any better, either. They have scarcely any new dialogue, and most of their statements are inconsistent with what’s actually happening in the game. A perfect example of this is an instance in which I found myself in control of Shaquille O’Neal at the top of the key, with his back to the basket. Unable to budge my defender, Sebastian Telfair, I attempted a turn-around, fade-away jumper and, naturally (or at least naturally in NBA Live Land), sunk the shot easily. Immediately, Steve Kerr proceeded to lambast the defense for not knowing that Mr. O’Neal is an especially talented shooter, and it doesn’t take a diehard sports fan to understand how outrageous a statement like that is. In fact, I’m almost ashamed to have witnessed it all firsthand.

But that’s fine; you can pretend the commentary is just white noise in the background. The powerful, jubilant screams from the crowd might even help you with that. It’s just a shame that the crowd is barely ever interested in the game (though that’s somehow become commonplace in NBA Live). When the crowd isn’t whispering amongst themselves, as though unsure of where they are, they’re either erupting with excitement at rather dull moments or completely silent altogether. And it’s worth noting that the moments of utter silence seem largely due to some strange glitch in the audio design.

During the few times that the crowd does react appropriately, it’s usually ruined by their obviously copy/pasted cheers. I mean, how many times do you have to hear “Go, [Insert Team Here], go!” before you realize the contrast in the crowd’s tone when they shout the team’s name isn’t because they all happen to have weird accents? But NBA Live has sort of grown a reputation for copied and pasted audio over the years, so fans of the franchise may well be over it by now.

Every offline game mode is pretty much the same as always, too. You can start up a dynasty, regular season, or your own custom playoffs. Dynasty mode allows you to run your favorite franchise from the position of Head Coach. It’s a long-lasting, deep experience that even allows you to compete in the FIBA world championship in the offseason, which few competitors can claim.

Online play is completely lag-free and impressively expansive. You can play exhibition matches, join clubs for team play, join online leagues, and participate in the Adidas Live Run mode. Adidas Live Run requires that a team of ten players choose their favorite NBA star to compete against other teams in games which are decided by whoever scores twenty-one points first. It seems like a good idea, but in practice it’s pretty hard to get together that many friends that own NBA Live 10.

Dynamic DNA has again been integrated into Live, as well. This time the Dynamic Season mode has been added, which will let you track upcoming and recent NBA games that you can play or replay. In this way, you can either relive the glory of an incredible victory or change the fate of your favorite ball club. It’s yet another of EA’s cool ideas, but it’s hard to tell whether this one will or won’t actually work out. We’ll have to wait and see when the season begins.

Overall, NBA Live 10 is a rather tempting offer. There’s so much to the package that it seems like it can’t be such a bad purchase. But padding out an average game doesn’t make it any better or worse; it simply adds more. If you’re a fan of the Live franchise, there’s no reason not to give this game a try, but if you’ve never touched a basketball game in your life, you may want to rent NBA Live 10 alongside NBA 2K10 before you decide. NBA Live 10 puts up a regular old C.

Grade: C

One Response to “NBA Live 10 Review”

1. magicfan says:

   October 24, 2009 at 1:31 pm

   Is Nba live 10 on Nintendo Wii?Iv’e been trying to find it but they say its not on there?