Review by: Todd Brakke

Given the franchise’s rather lackluster history, the fact that over the last couple of versions NBA Live has managed to take some positive steps forward has been encouraging. With NBA Live10, EA Sports has taken its largest step forward in years. It’s not perfect, particularly off the court, but it’s also the best basketball game to come out of EA in over a decade.

The most noticeable improvement is where it counts most—on the court. Last year, despite the addition of some strong features like Dynamic DNA and Pick and Roll control, there were still a lot of problems ranging from player clipping, to rebounding and loose ball issues. This time around, most of these issues are effectively cleaned up. Players do a fantastic job of blocking out for rebounds, diving for balls heading out of balls as well as adjusting their offense and defense on the fly to counter your strengths. If I spend the first half putting up big numbers with Charlie Villanueva, for example, the AI does much more in the second half to keep the ball out of hands and move quickly to double-team him. It’s this level of defensive planning that helps take Live 10 to the next level.

The only on-court gameplay issue that continues to carry over is the imprecision in player control. Whether it’s on offense or defense, trying to make precision moves with your player -maybe just edge him up a skosh closer to the three point line, for example- is nigh impossible. There’s also a lot of lengthy animations in this game, and while the situation may be improved somewhat, it’s still frustrating to have your player get locked into an animation with zero control of him until it completes. It may only last for a second or two, but that’s often the difference between staying in front of your man and having him blow past you for an easy basket.

Besides the improved gameplay, one of the real treats this year is the way the crowd reacts to the game and how the atmosphere changes between regular season and playoff games and between playoff games and NBA Finals games. When a crowd’s home team is getting crushed it’ll start to sound like you’re in a half-full high school gymnasium. Claw your way back a little and they’ll show a little more life. Turn a blowout into a legitimate contest and the building will explode. It’s impossible to overstate just how much this adds to the game. I just wish it carried over better to the announcing, which is adequate, but very repetitive and not nearly as energetic when it needs to be. Likewise, the lack of any commentary or crowd noise between quarters or at the end of a game really stands out. I can hit a buzzer beating shot at the half and have the crowd absolutely erupt only to have it and the commentary go dead silent mere seconds later as the game quickly loads up a narration-less highlight package and team stat summary that is there and gone far too quickly.