It wouldn’t be completely out of place to say that NBA Live 07 was an unmitigated disaster. The player animations were awkward. The collision detection, which featured such anomalies as players soaring through the back of the backboard to make a dunk, was an abomination. And there were some truly bizarre-looking shots, as players would do things like tossing up rainbow shots when just a few feet from the rim. Make no mistake, if you wanted a NBA hoops game last year, NBA Live was not a good selection.

With NBA Live 08 EA Sports is out to revamp the series reputation, much as they did for the Triple Play/MVP series (before it went the way of the Dodo) and the NHL series. Just how much they succeeded is up for debate, but there can be no doubt that this is a much improved game that, while not better than it’s NBA 2k8 competition, does provide a worthwhile pro basketball experience.

If you had the misfortune to play this game last year, and can still find the intestinal fortitude to give it another go, you’ll be happy to find improvements to the game’s animations, a new set of “Quick Strike” moves for the right analog stick that work considerably better than the old “Freestyle” system, superb play in the post that makes playing with the NBA’s elite giants just as much fun as controlling the play with guards and slicing small forwards, and an AI that’s actually capable of running a fast break. It all adds up to an experience that not only resembles NBA basketball –something that could not have been said last year- but is actually fun.

In particular, the new Quick Strike system is a lot of fun to use. Pushing the right stick in a given direction directs a player to use their personal arsenal of skills to perform dribble moves that are usually context appropriate for the given situation on the court. Pushing the stick up, for example might attempt a spin move or it might just cause a crossover dribble. It depends on the ball-handler’s skill and the defender in front of him. The randomness of it can seem frustrating at times, but at least you’ll never see a guy like Rasheed Wallace attempt a drive that would make Steve Nash blush.

There are also a few other new on-court features that, while not knock ‘em dead, are at least innovative enough to warrant a look. The least of these is probably the Hot Spots feature, which allows you to bring up an overlay on the court that notes where a ball-handler’s prime shooting spots are. Unfortunately, the overlay on the court is just that. It covers the entire court, which is just plain distracting. Having a couple of small circles appear on the court instead would’ve been far less intrusive. EA Sports also added the ability to play the FIBA World Championships, which includes eight international teams. It’s neat, but not expansive, and more can be done with it.

Still, all is not rosy. Load times for games are flat out ridiculous, sometimes lasting several minutes. Windows boots up in less time. While the animations are improved, there’s still a weird hitching or jumpiness to them that’s reminiscent of the days of 2D games skipping frames of animation. Any time there’s a canned animation –and there are a lot of them—the game just doesn’t appear nearly as fluid as you’d expect, regardless of whether you’re just running the ball up the court or driving the lane for a quick bucket. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but it is distracting.

Free throws, which utilize the right stick, are ridiculously easy, regardless of how good the shooter at the line is. It’s also all but impossible to pass the ball out of a shooting motion. Now, I’m all for making it difficult to make a good pass out of shooting animation, but to not be able to bail on a shot at all, is a bad choice. I’m also not a big fan of the separate buttons for shooting a jump shot and going for a layup/dunk. Too often I find myself pulling up for a jump shot because I’m not sure if I’m in a player’s sweet spot for executing a quality layup, since executing one from a less than ideal spot on the floor almost always results in a missed shot. Finally, there’s a distinct lack of offensive rebounds under the default settings. The situation can be improved with the game’s sliders, but by default teams gobble up an offensive rebound about as often as a contestant on The Bachelor manages to scrounge up a modicum of pride or self respect.