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The past NBA season held my interest more than any other recent season. Some of it had to do with the fact that MJ was gone, and I could now turn on the TV and see a team other than the Bulls. Some of it was due to the better parity in the league, with teams such as the Kings making a splash in the playoffs (White Chocolate is sweet indeed!). I think the main reason the NBA held my interest was the shortened season length. I kind of like the idea that regular season games might actually mean something. The NBA will never sacrifice the money of an 80+ game regular season, but that 50-game regular season seemed like a good length. I mean, come on, how many people really follow the NBA all that closely during the middle part of the season?

It seems like the Spurs just won the NBA Championship, yet sports gamers are already offered a basketball game for the upcoming season. NBA in August? Microsoft thinks so. NBA Inside Drive 2000 follows two other Microsoft-published titles - NFL Fever 2000 and Microsoft Baseball 2000. With the pennant races heating up, the NFL season about ready to get underway, and hockey about a month away, Microsoft releases a basketball game. My dad used to ask me in mid June if I wanted to throw some football. My response was, "Of course I do not want to throw football-it is baseball season!" Wrong response. I then would hear a 20-minute diatribe about how, when my dad was young, the kids played whatever sport for which they had equipment. "Back in my day, we were lucky to come across a baseball in December, or a football in June. We didn't care what season it was, we made do with what we had.yadda.yadda.yadda." Well, it is still friggin' summer and here we have a hoops title. After playing NBA Inside Drive 2000, I got to thinking-maybe my dad had a point. As long as a game is fun, who cares about the appropriate season?

NBA Inside Drive 2000 is one of the so-called budget titles of Microsoft Sports. NBA Inside Drive 2000 offers a lot of game for a little bit of money. The developer, High Voltage, has managed to sneak in a high-quality hoops title before the other boys have even thought about going gold.

First off, NBA Inside Drive 2000 does not offer a career/franchise feature. A full season of 82 games is the only long-term play option. This lack of a career/franchise mode is understandable, considering this is the first year of Inside Drive. Hopefully, a franchise feature will be included down the road. Second, despite lacking some of the features of the upcoming NBA Live 2000, NBA Inside Drive 2000 plays a great brand of basketball. In fact, the gameplay is the best yet in an arcade-style PC basketball game. Most of the standard gameplay options, such as quarter length, clock options, rules, etc. are available in Inside Drive.

There are several game options in Inside Drive: single game, season play, playoffs, tonight's game, and practice. There are three difficulty levels, as well as an arcade mode. While player trades are possible, there is no player creator/editor. There is a complete lack of GM features. The developers state, "Sure, we would love to have a GM and a career mode, but without a solid foundation those features would have been wasted. All we ask is that you just hang in there with us and ask yourself, how many years has it taken other titles to reach their current feature lists? " That is fair enough, but the lack of these features is too bad. The NBA rosters are far from final at this point in the year, and it would be nice to have the ability to customize the rosters down the road. Hopefully, the developers will make some type of roster update available when appropriate.

On defense, the user will have to pay close attention to the CPU offense. It will set picks, screen for shooters, hit the cutters, and burn defenders who lose their man. In other NBA titles, it is fairly easy to lose your man on defense for a spell, then get back in position with no harm done. Not so in Inside Drive! Double teams should only be used if someone is absolutely killing your one-on-one coverage. Against quicker opponents, such as Allen Iverson, it is advisable to give a little room on defense. If you try to get in the shorts of these quick players, they will lay some serious moves on your man and score. A couple things that seem to work well in containing the CPU offense are: 1) tempt poor shooters to put up the rock by laying off them with your defender, and 2) do your best to keep the ball out of the lane by dissuading the entry pass to CPU players trying to post up in the lane. Rebounding in Inside Drive is a joy. It takes some practice, but I eventually learned how to get my rebounders in position, box out, and grab the rock when it comes off the rim. Shot blocking feels about right. I was relieved to see that little men cannot go into the lane and block the likes of Shaq and Olajuwan at will. Finally, stealing the ball can be a bit on the easy side against slower players. I was garnering a ton of steals against the poorer ball handlers. Of course, this can be fixed by simply not using the steal button as frequently.

On offense, the user must change up their plays. Playing at the hardest difficulty setting makes the calling of plays even more crucial. The CPU defense will eventually learn the tendencies of the user and make the appropriate adjustments. While driving into the lane and getting a layup or dunk is not impossible, it is risky. The CPU defenders switch off and step into the lane to take charges in a very realistic manner. I learned quickly to work the ball around and avoid going one-on-one too frequently with the same player. Free-throw shooting can be frustrating. Most NBA games have a meter that is too easy to master. Inside Drive features a free-throw shooting system that involves a meter that can prove to be tricky. Three clicks are necessary: start the meter, accuracy, and power. I shoot around 75% as a team from the line, as opposed to 90% in the NBA Live games. All told, playing offense and defense in Inside Drive are as close to the real thing as I have seen in a PC basketball game.

NBA Inside Drive 2000 has nice coaching options. First off, calling plays can be set to automatic, or the user can call the plays. Second, player match-ups can be set by the gamer. Third, various overall strategies are available for both offense and defense. The user can decide whether to double team, switch off on picks, or apply pressure--just to name a few defense options. On offense, such variables as intensity and tempo can be set. All the settings in the coaching options make a real difference in the gameplay and are fun to tinker with in trying to get optimal performance out of your team. Combine these coaching options with a deep playbook, and Inside Drive becomes a fairly deep game, involving a good bit of strategy.

The gameplay of NBA Inside Drive is not perfect. First, big men hit too many shots between the lane and the three-point line. Second, there is not enough skill difference between the stud teams and the lower-tier teams. While I defeated teams such as the Clippers by a little larger point margin than teams such as the Jazz, I still got the feeling that the Clippers were really not that much worse than the Jazz. This problem is not major for my gaming style since I like a good challenge every game, but it may annoy gamers looking for a more accurate sim experience.

I must mention the ball and player physics. The ball physics are great. The ball bounces realistically off the rim, the deflections of the ball are good, and the passes and shots move at a realistic speed. The collision detection is superb. I get tired of playing basketball games in which the lane becomes a tangled mess of players. Many times, the players in such games will move through each other or just run in place. In Inside Drive, the players in the lane react realistically. This element makes screens and picks seem like the real deal. The user has to actually fight through screens and look ahead before blindly trying to run through the lane. The ball and player physics must be seen to be fully appreciated.

The highest difficulty setting of NBA Inside Drive 2000 will, alone, provide many hours of challenging gameplay. There is nothing more disappointing than purchasing a great game, but not playing it for long because it is too easy at the hardest settings. NBA Live titles have been guilty of this phenomenon in the past. Every sports game should have a difficulty setting that is next to impossible to beat. While the lower difficulty settings of Inside Drive are not too hard to master, the highest setting presents a nice challenge.

NBA Inside Drive 2000 disappointingly offers only one schedule length - 82 games. It would be nice to see varying lengths of seasons such as 16, 32, 41, etc. Not everyone has the time to play a full 82-game season, but would like to participate in some type of season play. Sure, I can simply sim the games I do not want to play, but that destroys the hands-on aspect of the game. I want to be in full control of my team's destiny!

A major aspect of a sports game that determines how long I play that game is stat accuracy. I simmed seven seasons, and played around 40 games in another season. The stats were definitely believable. Players such as Garnett and Iverson led the league in scoring with averages in the high 20s, while players such as Barkley and Mutombo led the league in rebounding. I was impressed with the realism of the stats. On a side note, the stats are sortable, and playoff stats are kept separate from regular season stats.

Finally, NBA Inside Drive 2000 lacks online play. A game this good deserves some kind of online play. Surely next year's release will offer this feature.

The in-game control of Inside Drive is not bad. From time to time I experienced a little lag in user input and player execution. However, this lag is not the norm. Using a Gravis Gamepad Pro, I found the players to be responsive the majority of the time. Inside Drive definitely plays like a good arcade game should play.

There are a ton of player moves. On offense, some of the possible moves are: shoot, pass, crouch, pick, turbo, jump, call for pass, fake shot, fade away, hook shot, and lean-in shot. On the defensive side, some of the moves include: rebound, put arms up, steal, crouch, draw a charge, and turbo. The user will generally feel in total control of the game. However, the passing system could be improved. At times, I had a difficult time getting the ball to the desired target player.

The graphics in NBA Inside Drive are good. The animation of the players makes for a realistic NBA experience. Some of the more notable animations include: jams, steals (these look incredible!), hook shots, and cuts into the lane. NBA Inside Drive 2000 is one of those games that, viewed from across the room, looks like a TV broadcast.

The players look above average, but do suffer from a couple problems. First, there is some lack of continuity in the bodies of the players. For example, from some angles, the players' thighs appear detached from their lower legs. Also, the players have a somewhat blocky appearance when viewed from certain angles. Overall, though, the players look good and many of the players look like their real-world counterparts. It is nice to see the heads of the players follow the path of the ball on passes and shots. It is also cool to see players' mouths and eyes move when viewed from up close.

The arena graphics are excellent. There is an option to allow for reflection - use it if your setup will allow! The floors, logos, goals, shot clocks, and such look very realistic. While it is not animated, the 3D crowd looks magnificent. Instead of using an effect that makes for a jumbled crowd appearance, the developers created crowds in which the individual fans are seen. It is not just a few rows of fans, but an entire arena of fans. The whole effect is cool. Also, NBA Inside Drive 2000 features three officials. Perhaps my memory is fading, but I cannot remember a PC basketball game that shows three officials running up and down the court, staying in position the whole way. I am amazed at the life-like behavior of the officials. If you are annoyed by three officials on the court, there is an option to turn this feature "off."

The menu and statistic screens look sharp. The fonts are easy to read, and the whole interface is logical and simple to use. Although there is a little lag in the transition between screens, it is nothing horrendous. The TV-style presentation features in-game stats. These stat boxes are nicely presented. There is a nice variety of camera angles. The amount of zoom is adjustable from all of these camera views. The camera does a great job of giving the user the best angle by effectively following the action.

I absolutely dig the FMV intro to NBA Inside Drive 2000. It shows a slew of nice highlights, backed by a funky groove. Take a look at that spin move by Payton! The whole look just really works.

The sound in Inside Drive is superb. From the opening FMV sequence to the on-court sounds, Inside Drive delivers some of the best audio in a sports title. The commentary is given by Kevin Calabro and Marques Johnson. Calabro does a competent job of following the action, with a little humor thrown in every once in a while. Johnson is quite entertaining as the color commentator. He has a totally laid back tone, but stays on top of the game. These guys make fun of players, announce relevant stats and trends (ie-"Garnett has made his last three shots."), and give a large number of sayings and basketball cliches. The announcers even apologize when they interrupt each other! Sure, the commentary gets a little repetitive at times, but the excellent execution makes it work and stay fresh.

The on-court sound is realistic. All of the usual on-court sounds come through clear. All of the audio elements can be adjusted in regard to volume. The crowd sound is not spectacular. The crowd will get revved up at appropriate moments, but fails to convince me that I am in a NBA arena. Anyone that has been to a NBA game knows that there are a multitude of taunts from the fans, crowd energy, and an overall loud experience. This is one aspect of Inside Drive that is not replicated well.

The installation of Inside Drive is hassle free. The user is guided through the installation process via a system of menus. The uninstall is also smooth. I installed, uninstalled, and re-installed without the appearance of any nasty little issues.

NBA Inside Drive 2000 is an impressive first attempt at NBA basketball. High Voltage Software clearly spent a good deal of time developing the AI and nuances of the pro game. While playing Inside Drive I kept harking back to the first High Heat Baseball title. It was a little-known title that tried to challenge the big boys of sports gaming. The first edition featured solid gameplay, but lacked many features. However, the recent version of High Heat incorporated the best set of features and career play yet seen in an arcade-style PC baseball game. Inside Drive is in the same position as the High Heat series. Hopefully, the next version will feature a slew of new features and options, while maintaining its solid gameplay. As previously mentioned, NBA Inside Drive is a budget title. Even if it were not a budget title, I would recommend this game to sports gamers. For arcade-style gameplay with stat tracking and season play, it is the best PC title to date. NBA Live 2000, while offering a slew of cool options, will have to make some pretty big improvements in the AI to stay on the court with Inside Drive. NBA Inside Drive 2000 is a heck of a game and should not be overlooked by fans of NBA basketball.