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For years the Live series hasn't had much competition. For most of its life, NBA Live was able to put out a product and it would be the best basketball game because there wasn't anything else out. This year is a little different. NBA Inside Drive was released without much fan-fare but presented gamers with a better gameplay option than Live 99.

Now we are up to the 2000 edition. Most earlier editions were consistent with EA Sports' philosophy of putting as much extras into a game as they can while sacrificing gameplay. Okay, maybe not sacrificing but for most of the series the gameplay was designed for arcaders. This year, the makers have beefed up the gameplay and AI while throwing in such eye candy as facial expressions and free-throw animations. To make you slivate like Pavlov's dog, the game has added five legend teams with such players as Wilt, Jordan, Bird, Jerry West, Magic, the Big O, and many more.

If we were to compare Live 2000's features with Inside Drive, Live would take home the bacon, the pig, the farm, the farmer's daughter and pretty much the whole damn county. However the question still remains - does NBA Live improve on its AI and gameplay? Gameplay:

Let's get this out of the way first, NBA Live 2000 is not a dunkfest. Whatever the makers of the game put into the code, it worked with amazing results. And some times a little too well. The game definitely shows a much better representation of basketball but there are some flaws that hold it back.

What is a surprise in Live 2k is how challenging the game can be. This comes from the fact that the game plays fundamental basketball. On the offensive side of things you aren't going to easily dunk your way to a win. The game still has the rip-roaring dunks but those come after working for a shot. The style that will win a game is setting up your offensive plays and looking for an open shot. It would have been nicer to have an easier play calling system. Currently, you must hold one button and select another. And sometimes you don't know if they are running the correct play.

Shooting the ball is a little suspect at times. Selecting CPU assisted or human controlled shooting makes a big difference in how shots go in. Heck if I know what that difference is. I have played on both levels and found both to be equally fishy. The CPU assisted type of shooting sometimes doesn't take the right shot. And in the human controlled mode shooting at the apex of the jump doesn't seem to increase the percentage of the shot will go in. While this is a minor factor, you will be questioning why you missed some wide open touch back. Another questionable part about shooting is shootine percentages. For example, I was playing in an all-star game and the CPU shot less than .300 for the field while I shoot an impressive .500. Sometimes percentages can go real low and real high which gives hints that the shooting isn't all that situation based.

Blocks and rebounds are handled in dubious ways. Players seem to be able to transform into brick walls and block a lot of shots. You will see Grant Hill rejecting Tim Duncan more times than normal. You will see Iverson block Gery Peyton or even Scottie Pippen. Granted, this does happen in the NBA, but it doesn't happen with this level of frequency. Blocking stats can be skewed up to unhealthy levels with the right personnel. After a while the rebounding stats will also lean heavily to one side of the fence. Personally I can't get good numbers on the O-boards. For some of you the exact opposite will happen; too many rebounds. The culprit lies in how the players jump. When you press the jump button to grab a rebound, you would think the player would jump toward the ball. Rather, the player jumps where the d-pad is directioned.

Defensively the game benefits from good AI. The players will stick to you like white on rice, like hot on babe, like well you get the idea. In fact, the players are almost too good in closing down driving lanes, just keeping up with you. For example Iverson should be able to school a rookie guard. But they can stop him from driving just as easily as "the Glove" Peyton can. On the human side of defense, you do have to play your man well. If you lose him for a second, he will drive or take a shot. Overall, the defense doesn't have too many problems. On the easier levels you will be able to play sloppy b-ball and win the game. In the tougher levels, you will get taken to school in Guam.

Longevity:

Taking a page out of fellow reviewer Paul Kelly's repertoire, EA again has loaded its game with tons of features. Simply put the game is DEEP.

The 2000 version ships with more than likely the only feature gamers need - Legend Teams. EA has "cyberized" Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Julius Erving, Larry Bird and just about all of the top ten great players of each decade from 1950 to present. That means if you think Larry Bird had a better three-point shot than Jerry West you could test that hypothesis on the court. Or you could experiment how good M.J. actually was. Believe me, EA Sports made Jordan unreal. Maybe he was this good in real life and if he was, wow.

Along from the legends rosters you have seven modes of play at your leisure; season, franchise, playoff, exhibition game, one-on-one, three-point shoot out, practice and multiplier. Season, playoff and exhibition mode are pretty self-explanatory. The one-on-one is very enticing. This is where you can test out your skills against the Big O (Oscar Robertson) or whomever you want to match up against. For three point shoot-out you select a few players and shoot five balls from five different positions. In total you get twenty-five shots, and the last shot at each position is worth two points. Multiplayer is a nice addition to the game this year. EA Sports recently saw the fruits of internet play with Madden 2000 and did the same with Live 2000. All you do is hop on to EA's match making service and you can set up a type of game you want to play. A warning though, its best to have a fast modem to avoid lag.

The worth of Live 2k lays in the franchise mode. You can play up to 25 seasons and take your team from cellar-dwellers to NBA champs by drafting and signing players. Let's start you off from the beginning. One of Live's nice features is the ability to set to set the quarter length along with the simmed quarter length. Let's say you can't match up well with the simmed stats, you could change how long quarters last to get realistic results. Also you are able to set the season length. Once you get all the down you select your team and start the season. What is impressive is the amount of options you have to evaluate your team. During the season you can see things like, player development where you can track a players results for each year of their career. Or you can see team evaluations on a year by year basis. For example, if you want to see what's the worst loss or largest margin of victory you have experienced in your 25 years of playing, you can do that. You can compare players, manage the line-up, trade or release players and much more.

At the end of every year you have the chance to draft your young talent. Live 2k only allows you to draft in two rounds but that doesn't take away from the game. The nicest point of re-drafting your team is that Live doesn't display their ratings. This might be the first game to make you guess the right player instead of cheating by his ratings. What EA puts instead is their physical attributes and good/bad section to the player. The scouting report could say things like this, "Player only cares about his stats", "Plays defense like a sieve", "will get abused on defense for many year" or "He won't win any footraces".

Lastly at the end of every season you are presented with awards. You could win, manager of the year, MVP, rookie of the year, make the All-Defensive team and a few others. This adds to longevity because you are actually playing for something.

The last little extra is the "create a player mode". Just like EA's NHL 2000, you can import your face into the game. This allows you to really see yourself going up against Shaq or Hill. Plus Live offers you a slew of features to pretty up your Frankenstein. You can set the height, weight, hair, face etc. But Live also throws in things like knee pads, sock type, facial hair type and glasses. And the variety is pretty good. If you want a fair-skinned 7'7" freak with an afro and goggles like Star Trek's "Geordi",…well, you can have it.

Controls:

A low point in Live is its controls. They are executed poorly and take away from the game. The problem doesn't form in the shape of players going left when you press right but occurs in the sluggishness to execute some operations. Let's say you want to jump for a rebound, well your man won't jump to the ball but jumps where you press the d-pad. This system doesn't make rebounds easier because you need to jump exactly to the ball or miss the rebound. The CPU can do this fine, everytime. Actually the whole jumping aspect of the game needs work. When you shoot and try to go up for a quick rebound, your man will a) not go up or b) go up after the CPU is running the floor. Also let's say you want to take Duncan and work on a mis-match and post him up. When you press the button he will then turn 180 degrees to work with his better hand.

The other big faux pas arises off the court. Menus are laid out somewhat clumsily and take a good deal of time to get to. Assuming you have a lower end PC, going from one screen to the next takes a little bit of time. While you won't wait for more than a few seconds, it is apparent the menus take a great deal of horsepower.

Graphics:

As in most EA Sports games, the graphics are a joy to see. And for the point of this discussion let's say the Dreamcast's NBA 2k doesn't even exist because comparing the two is just silly. For the rest of the world, who love PC basketball, you will be treated to a well-done rendition of the NBA.

This year the players have facial expressions. Overall it doesn't add much to the game but in cut-scenes it does let you see your player open his mouth and scream. Player models are down well. You will be able to see a difference in size, shape and appearance between D. Robinson and Kevin Garnett. Players like Shaw are big and tall and guards like Stoudamire and Kidd are smaller. Live also featues the real faces of each player. Duncan looks like Duncan and Ewing looks like Ewing.

Some other features that enhance the game are a real time scoreboard. While it doesn't come into play much, if you can get a glimpse of it once in a while you can see real-time stats. The crowd does have a basic appearnce to it. The crowd is just a bunch of 2D cut-outs but they do flail their arms when you make a basket and have a few basic movements.

Live 2000 shows how much technology is passing up pocketbooks. If you bought a computer system a few years ago you won't be able to run Live at its highest graphics options. Well, you can if you want a game to move in slow motion. Even if you have the middle of the road system you still won't be able to run Live at acceptable speeds with high quality graphics.

Sound:

We come to the worst part of NBA Live. After listening to the sweet sounds of NBA Inside Drive, Live is an ear-sore. I think the most important part of the sound is the commentary. Most of the time this is the sound that you are going to focus on. The background noise is important but doesn't need to be all that impressive. In fact even the player noises aren't going to affect the game much. But if commentary is bad than sound gets taken down with it.

The booth consists of Don Poier and Reggie Theus. Mr. Poier will call the action rather well. It's still not as good as Inside Drive but decent. My question is how many lines did EA Sports have Reggie Theus record? He might say and average a four lines a game. And most of those are at the end of a quarter when he says something about stats. After Inside Drive raised the bar to such a high level it's disappointing that EA Sports didn't try to match it.

In defense of the sound they added five songs from artists like George Clinton (not related to the big man) singing Mothership Connection, Run DMC's Don't Stop, and more. Each song gives you a sense of basketball history through music.

Overall:

The game is in a different class than other basketball games. It's not in a better class but Live tries to approach cyber basketball with a lot of features. If you want a deep, yet fun franchise mode along with the legends of basketball this game is yours. There is a price to pay for all this fun. Games take a good deal of time to get through. Yes the game does have a save game feature but getting it to load takes a good amount of time, as well. If you have a lower end system, you won't be able to fully appreciate the good graphics of the game.

All in all, this is one of the most complete basketball games. On the court gameplay doesn't have the same feel as Inside Drive, but it plays a notch just below. The features alone help out the game immensely and make this a must have for cyber dunkers.