For EA Sports' NBA Live 2010, the gaming company signed Former NBA 2K lead designer Mike Wang, and put the series under his direction. The stagnant franchise finally showed signs of life and competency.
The game was a huge improvement over the previous year's edition, but then the next year EA decided to change the name of the franchise to NBA Elite and the series was never heard from again. Although NBA Live '13 is expected to be released this fall. Here are some of the things that NBA Live 2010 did right and some of the things it did wrong.
NBA Live 2010 had arguably the best presentation, which included great commentary, player models, and realistic animations. At times the game could make gamers feel like they were watching a televised game. This was a huge improvement over previous titles in the Live franchise. After years of stiff and robotic animations, the digitalized NBA players finally moved around the court more dynamically, setting up screens, making picks and rebounding. The then-new freestyle passing control, allowed gamers to pull off passes worthy of the highlight reel. The game was almost ready to take the game-winning shot, but there were issues of team chemistry.
The biggest problem was the basketball itself. The basketball in NBA Live 2010 had the abilities of a poltergeist, eerily floating straight through players' bodies and the backboard. Other issues include overlays causing the game to get choppy, players getting locked into animations, players constantly going out of bounds, and computer controlled teammates that were useless. The dynasty mode also provided a lot of headaches, trades were almost impossible to get done and rookie draft choices looked like space aliens or Sam Cassell.
There were other issue with the game, but I don't want to keep bringing up Live's negative aspects. NBA Live 2010 was a good effort by EA and provided some entertainment value. I always found the gameplay to be a little more arcade-oriented then the simulation based style of 2K Sports' NBA 2K series. It was a game that had a smaller learning curve than 2K. Hopefully, NBA Live '13 releases this year and creates a great alternative to the 2K series.