NBA Live 2001

Every new season of ___________ (fill in the blank with the name of a professional sport) brings hype and/or hubbub about the status of aging superstars and the standouts of the rookie crop. EA's NBA Live series, seasoned veteran of the virtual parquet, has consistently brought new energy to the floor for longer than any other computer basketball game around. The problem with some aging superstars is that they get complacent at the top; without any significant challenge, they start to slack off in their efforts. Not so with NBA Live 2001.

EA had been making console basketball games long before it ventured into the PC arena (not to mention 1983's seminal One on One—a pre-Jordan Dr. J vs. Larry Bird game—for the Commodore 64), but NBA Live's past seven seasons on the PC have seen it face tough competition from the likes of Fox Sports, Sega of America, Acclaim, and a number of others, including Microsoft; with a few exceptions, each subsequent version of the game has improved upon the former versions successfully enough to be handed that year's PC basketball trophy.

In NBA Live 2001, you can take control of your favorite team in a variety of play modes, including Exhibition, Season, Playoff, One on One, Franchise, and Multiplayer. Especially noteworthy this year are the realistic battle for the basket in the low post (in all play modes), improved graphics and real-live on-court "feel," and realistic trade options, which let you perform multi-team trades as done relatively frequently in the NBA. Also, although he's again not featured on the box, this iteration marks the second year that Michael Jordan is available in an NBA Live game. NBA Live 2001 also has a soundtrack worth mentioning, which combines NBA Live's trademark adrenaline-pumping studio pieces with songs from platinum recording artist Montell Jordan.

Thankfully, as flashy as EA's sports games can be, NBA Live 2001 at least offers a ton of substance to back up that flair. The game is so solid at this point that the improvements (and flaws) are now mostly found in the little things, such as the between-the-action graphics, the camera modes, the roster options, and the stat tracking. The b-ball gameplay is dead on—really, just about as good as it can get without actually picking up a ball and heading out to the court yourself—with games in each mode being highly customizable and offering realistic pacing, fluid action, and a variety of control options. Dunk when you want to, throw up a hook or an alley-oop, do a crossover and a spin move to lose your man on your way across the court or as you drive to the basket. Take a fade-away shot, go up and under the basket, back down the guy that's guarding you, call plays on the fly...it's all here.

All that yummy candy goodness doesn't come without a few bitter bites, however. Depth perception is still muddled by the conglomeration of bodies pressing the boards, which can make accurate rebounding unnaturally challenging; the foul-shot system, which involves matching up moving blips at the center of a cross, is still somewhat simplistic; and finding a perfect camera mode that allows you to see all the action at optimal angles is still missing. Also, while you can save stats and instant replays and you can save a season in progress, you can't save a game in progress. And where's Kareem? Of all the all-stars of the past that are missing, he's perhaps the most glaring omission. Generally, though, the game's additions and enhancements make up for what's missing or has gone awry. For instance, learning how to efficiently navigate all the menus can take some time, but that's because there are so many options and so much information available to you.

EA's multiplayer system is well refined and could even serve as a model for how other games carry out their multiplayer functions. You have the option of either being taken to the EA Web site for player match-ups, or, if you know the IP address of the person you want to play against, you can go directly to a configuration screen. Except for the occasional connection/lag glitch, online play runs just about as smoothly as the single-player games. And the variety of settings available to multiplay players is impressive. You even have the option of playing a full five-on-five or just going one-on-one against somebody. Unfortunately, sports games don't seem to have advanced to the point where more than two players can be supported, one at each position, with the computer controlling any slots that aren't human controlled. Someday, maybe.

The phenom that is NBA Live 2001 is almost too good to be true. There are too many features to discuss in a review, but as most of those features represent refinements to the previous year's edition, you probably already know more than you need to about the supremacy of the series if you've read any reviews about it from the past few years. At this point, NBA Live 2001 should be the only basketball game you need for some time to come. It offers a little of everything, and although it's certainly not perfect, you have to appreciate that EA didn't skimp on the details or merely repackage last year's edition. NBA Live 2001 looks better than ever, plays incredibly smoothly and "fun-ly," and the thrill of building a dynasty, taking your team to the championship, and watching your players mature over the years has never been more satisfying.

Install: Easy
Simple and straightforward. Nothing out of the ordinary. Doesn't take too long.

Gameplay: 10
Simply phenomenal. No matter what game length you choose or whether you want to go for the action-packed arcade mode or the more realistic sim mode, NBA Live 2001 offers the best on-court experience of any basketball game out there.

Graphics: 9.5
The game looks better than ever. You've got shine on the floor (and even a little bit on some of the players' bald heads), emotions on the players' faces, realistic fans in the stands, and Vince Carter's pile driving dunks are believable despite their "otherworldliness." There seems to be only one post-game cutscene, and the bench and free-throw line cutscenes are repetitive, and the home team's unvarying mosh-pit dance during the pregame introduction is ridiculous, but you can thankfully skip past those with the press of a button.

Sound: 10
It's just all good here: fan, court, and ball sounds are realistic and add well to the pulse of each game; interface/menu sounds are zippy and well done; the music is not only not annoying, it matches the energy of the game and is worth sitting and listening to; and the color commentary from the announcers has good variety and fits what's going on on the court for the most part.

Difficulty: 9
Camera angles and pacing do adversely affect rebounding and keeping control of the situation at the baseline, but otherwise, the players match their real-life counterparts in ability quite impressively, and you'll face an appropriate level of challenge no matter how difficult (Superstar setting) or easy (Rookie setting) you try to make the game for yourself. The game also gives you control over such things as the Keep Scores Close "catch-up logic," which determines your blowout vs. close-game ratio.

Concept: 7.5
While basketball has most certainly been done many times before, you have to appreciate the nice touches that EA throws in with their salary cap system, and also all the customization options. You can create players, edit players, and even make players who look like your grandma with EA's trademark Face in the Game function.

Multiplayer: 8
What's here is all good. Until networking technology matches the integrity of single-system technology, we'll always have dropped connections and such, but, generally, NBA Live 2001 offers the same experience via multiplayer as it does with single-player games. Tournaments are being set up on the net, and your performance can be tracked in any number of ways. Again, it would be nice if you could set up a true five-on-five game, where ten people can connect to control one onscreen player each, but until that sort of thing becomes the norm, EA's system will work just fine.

Overall: 9.5
At this point, the only things that could improve the experience would be a multi-year contract and a sneaker deal. In all seriousness, it would be cool if EA could get Maxis involved to make it so you could take the players off the court, get them some promotional income based on their performance, let them have a few chance run-ins with the law, and so on. As it stands, though, NBA Live 2001 is the best basketball game you can buy for the PC, period.