NBA Live (video game series)

NBA Live is a series of basketball video games, published by EA Sports. It is the successor to EA's previous NBA Playoffs and NBA Showdown series. Its main competitor is the NBA 2K series by 2K Sports and formerly Sega.

NBA Playoffs

The predecessor of the NBA Live series was the NBA Playoffs series, which featured Lakers vs. Celtics, released first in 1989 for MS-DOS-compatible PCs and later adapted for consoles in early 1990 for the Sega Mega Drive. This game was played from a horizontal view (while later versions moved to an isometric view before ultimately moving to 3D on newer consoles). The game was one of the first to feature an NBA license, containing both real NBA teams and player likenesses and signature moves. Details such as Horace Grant's goggles are clearly visible, and Michael Jordan's "Air Reverse Layup" is animated with very high accuracy. Player numbers were also visible. The game featured only eight of the sixteen teams that qualified for the NBA playoffs that year, as well as both NBA All-Star teams.

NBA Live 14

NBA Live 14 is a basketball video game released on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2013.NBA Live 14 features Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers as its cover athlete. It is one of the most negatively received games in its franchise. NBA Live 14 was followed by NBA Live 15 which was released in October 2014. The game marks the first installment in the series since NBA Live 10.

Gameplay

The first gameplay for the game was shown at the Xbox One reveal event in a trailer by EA Sports, showing off the new IGNITE game engine. The game was released on November 19, 2013.

Reception

NBA Live 14 has received generally unfavorable reviews and currently holds a Metacritic score of 43/100 on the PS4 and 360 on the Xbox One. IGN gave the game a 4.3/10 with reviewer Jec Julio saying that "NBA Live’s flaccid return is made all the more disappointing because we waited three years for it. After all that time, NBA Live 14 in no way advances the basketball sim genre and, worse, leaves little to be optimistic about for next year." However, he did say that the Big Moments and the Ultimate Team modes were a positive.GamesRadar gave it a 2.5/5, comparing it to NBA 2K14 with reviewer Richard Grisham saying "The on-court gameplay doesn't look very next-gen-like, especially when compared to its NBA 2K14 counterpart." While he praised the controls in 5-On-5, the Pick-and-Roll mechanic and the ESPN presentation, he critiqued the animations and physics, the glitches, and that the Rising Star mode wasn't fully built yet.

NBA Live 08

NBA Live 08 is the 2007 installment of the NBA Live series by EA Sports. It was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, Windows and PlayStation Portable. This is the first NBA video game to include all three next-generation consoles. It was the last NBA Live game for the Windows platform.

Cover

It features Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizards as the cover athlete in most versions, but some international versions have players from those areas:

National teams

There are eight national teams featured in the game:

 Argentina,

 China,

 France,

 Germany,

 Greece,

 Italy,

 Spain,

 United States.

In addition to the contemporary USA team, there are also two USA Dream Teams.

Personalities in the game

Reception

The game was met with average to very mixed reception. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 73.70% for the PlayStation 3 version; 73.13% and 73 out of 100 for the PSP version; 72.85% and 73 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version; 66.45% and 68 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version; 65% and 67 out of 100 for the PC version; and 52.80% and 52 out of 100 for the Wii version.