NBA Live 2005 Review
February 21, 2005 by John G
by John G - February 21, 2005
The NBA Live series is one of the best selling NBA franchises out there. Sports games tend to have a lot of repetition from year to year, so EA really had to advertise NBA Live 2005 on it�s new and improved features, which are the freestyle air controls, NBA all-star weekend, improved dynasty mode, and online capabilities for the game.
The NBA Experience
The first then you get to in NBA Live 2005 is obviously the main menu, which has some nice animations and themes. The first gameplay mode is the �play now�, which is in most sporting games. Just like the name implies, you can jump right into a game after a few setting changes. Any NBA team can be picked of course, and it shows the teams overall rating for this current season. There is also Euro-stars, International stars, and All 1990�s, 1980�s, 1970�s, 1960�s, and 1950�s NBA groups that can be played. Difficulty and time settings can also be changed, as they can for most game modes.
NBA All Star Weekend mode is a fairly new addition to the NBA Live series. There is an option for it right on the main menu, and from there you go to the NBA All-star game, which was held in Denver this season. Another mini screens comes up, and you can join in on the three point shoot out, the slam dunk contest, the rookie challenge, or the all star game itself. The three point shootout is pretty self explanatory, as it has been in other NBA games. The slam dunk contest is a bit more tricky. There is individual practice and tutorials for dunks alone, because the controls can be hard if you want to do insane dunks. There is a large variety of button combinations to use for starting a dunk, doing a move, and finishing. Judges will rate your dunks, and those of the AI opponents if you don�t choose to have them player used. From experience I can say that getting a good score is pretty hard to do, but it�s a fun feature in the game.
Dynasty mode in NBA Live 2005 is pretty impressive. It allows you to be the owner of an NBA team and lead the franchise for 25 seasons. Many of the things that need to be done are done by using icons on the calendar. For games, there is a logo of the opponent on the date you need to play them, and when you select it you can simulate all games to that date, including that game, or you can go in and play the game yourself. Every season has its own all star game, and you can take part in the events each season if you wish. If one of the players from your team is invited to the all star game, rookie challenge, or dunk contest, you will be notified by PDA. PDA is the communication system for NBA Live 2005. You can get messages from the owner, training staff, and the league about various thins like trade offers, injuries, and free agent signings.
Dynasty mode can be started by either taking a real team from this season, or doing a draft and getting a new group of players. Your job as a GM requires you to do many functions for the team. You have to manage training for the team so that players can improve. Training can be done individually or by the whole team. Dynasty points are things that are earned by completing tasks, and these points can go toward team training, scouting, or extra features. Training can improve players in up to four groups: shooting, offense, defense, and conditioning. As just stated, scouting will be another job. Scouts can be sent to take a look at the incoming draft class. You can scout five players at most at a time, plus it costs 100 dynasty points per scouted player. This makes you better informed for the draft. There is a draft lottery just like the NBA, and then the draft a while afterwards on the calendar. You can pick the players your team drafts, or simulate it.
During the season the GM will have to reorder the roster to whatever they feel is best, and also keep track of injuries and player statistics and so on. Another interesting part of dynasty mode is the MVP candidates section, where the five possible MVP choices at the time are listed, along with their current stats and team. Off-season duties include resigning your own players, and signing free agents, if you have the room. NBA Live 2005 has a realistic salary cap that can be frustrating sometimes, but works out fairly well.
Dynasty mode is the largest and most enjoyable, but there are also a few smaller ones. One on One mode is where you pick any two players, and have them play one on one with half court rules, having to take the ball back, and check it, etc. If dynasty is too long for you, you can opt to play only a single season in the �season� mode, or just playoffs in the �playoff� mode. As mentioned earlier, there is also a slam dunk school, where they teach you some of the controls and techniques, and then you practice them yourself.
The team management section allows for players to be created and edited, and rosters altered. I found the player creation section to have depth compared to some other sports games. Many aspects of the players face can be changed in slight ways, along with hair styles, colors, eye color, position of the eyes and nose, different aspects of the body, and gear like headbands and glasses. Normal details like player name, position, school, and age can also be changed obviously.
Usually Getting Better
The graphics for sports games usually improve from year to year. NBA Live 2005�s graphics are pretty well done. The players appearances and rendering are done nicely, they look recognizable to the actual NBA players. The arenas and lighting are also nicely done. On-court animations like dunks, tip ins, blocks, shots, and all the other moves are done well also.
Soundtrack
NBA Live 2005 works similar to other EA sports games, like Madden. They put in music from some of the latest artists, and it usually runs through them all as you play, the name of the song and artist appears at the bottom of the screen whenever the song starts. As for the music itself, it fits the games atmosphere well, and whoever picked what songs went into it did a good job.
In game commentary can be a little bland at times, but it isn�t a major problem. All the voicing and sound effects are done well, right down to the shoes squeaking on the floor. The only thing I didn�t like was that the new players that enter the league in dynasty mode are not added in like the current NBA players are, so later on in dynasty mode when you have all fictional players, the commentary runs: �Number two passes to number twelve�. They probably could have done the fictional players name voicing, because EA has done it in other games, or maybe I�m just picky.
Online Capability
What is a good sports game without some multiplayer? For offline multiplayer, up to four people can play in a game of basketball. There can be multiple players in the other modes as well, like the dunk contest, which has four players in it, which allows for them all to be played by different people.
For online, NBA Live 2005 is Xbox live enabled. Some other features like headset, voices, scoreboards, and downloadable content are also enabled. Most NBA Live 2005 multiplayer experiences are good.
The Factor
NBA Live 2005 has a lot of depth in many areas, where past, and some present NBA games did not. The create a player and Dynasty modes were well laid out, and everything within the game was easy to use, with the exception of the dunking thing, or maybe I�m just lacking the skill�Anyways, many of the options within NBA Live can be changed for convenience or preference. The length of each quarter can be altered, along with in-game settings like how much it takes to foul out, or you can get rid of certain things completely, like five second inbounding or back court violations.
NBA Fans
The newer features of the game, and the improved ones, all seem to work how they should. The dunk and freestyle controls are nice, and the improved dynasty mode and all star weekend are nice additions. At times some of the gameplay can get a little repetitive or shallow, but the gameplay overall is good for a basketball game. Any NBA fan should consider NBA Live 2005, one of the best NBA franchises.
