Being a sports fan, I picked up NBA Live 07 last week for the PC. I'm not a big NBA fan, but I love college basketball (Go Tar Heels!) and basketball in general. I've played just about every version of the NBA Live series since it debuted years ago. I was looking forward to playing some games with the Charlotte Bobcats since they are the home town team. I wanted to see how well Adam Morrison performed since I wasn't too keen on him being their first round pick (a story for another time).
NBA Live 07 is graphically impressive with the players looking realistic and moving around fluidly on the court. Once you get past the graphics though, NBA Live 07 doesn't appear to be much more than last year's game with updated rosters. It also didn't feel as fluid and easy playing it as the 2006 version. I use a USB adapter to plug my PS2 controller into the PC. I've never had any trouble playing any games with it. This includes Madden, MVP Baseball, and Tiger Woods Golf. The shooting was the toughest part. I like shooting jump shots (I'm a decent height guy who was never really fast or could jump real high - IRL though I can stick 15-18 foot jumpers on a regular basis and put Shaq to shame at the free throw line - think Chris Mullin without the buzz cut and the NY accent and minus about 7 inches) and it was difficult to get a feel for when the ball should be released. It was almost like there was a delay between letting the button go and the ball being released on-screen. Considering my style of play, you can see where this would be frustrating. Other gameplay issues that I noticed were rebounding and stopping point guards with decent speed. The point guards can penetrate at will and shoot for a good percentage. It doesn't matter the defense either.
From a feature standpoint, I haven't run through every facet of NBA Live 07, but the dynasty mode still has something I dispise, micromanaged scouting. I HATE having to go in and tell a scout to check out certain players every few days. What's the point? The draft and GM aspects are normally my favorite parts of any sports game, but NBA Live 07's click fest to scout one player for the draft gives me fits. You can do the 2006 NBA Draft as part of dynasty mode which I've done twice, once selecting Randy Foye and the other time choosing Brandon Roy. No Morrison on my teams.
My overall impression of NBA Live 07 isn't favorable. It's a redo of last year with updated rosters. The graphics are good, but it's still lacking in other aspects. Sometimes when you play a game and then exit to the menu, there's no way to exit to the desktop without playing another game, exiting it, and getting the X icon in the upper right hand corner back. At what point will game designers learn they need to fix stuff that is incorrect first before adding more stuff? I wish there was a game to compete with NBA Live 07 on the PC. My current favorite PC basketball game is Total Pro Basketball 2005, which is no longer for sale. I'll give a review of that game in the near future.
If you've got to have a PC basketball fix, NBA Live 07 is sadly your only choice
Geek Scale Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Geeks
