Since recently getting into basketball, I decided to buy the official game of the NBA, which can be found in many stores and on the internet in the UK, just like the Madden and NHL series. The game cost me £29.99 from Game when I bought it, and I got it for the PSP, so I was only expecting ... Read review
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Advantages: Lengthy gameplay in seasons, challenges and unlockables Disadvantages: Not the best of graphics and some glitches
...to have played in the NBA in my team, and they are very true to life and as good as they should be, as sometimes some of the best players ever aren’t that good when you actually try them out. Strangely though you cannot unlock Michael Jordan, who is seen as one of the best if not the best basketball player of all time.
Due to the controls of the PSP, the way in which the game is played is quite simple, but can take a bit of time to become ... ...overall life of the game that has been created through challenges and various modes of the game make up for this. I would definitely recommend buying this game or the next version, NBA Live 09, and you will have certainly got your money’s worth.
Since recently getting into basketball, I decided to buy the official game of the NBA, which can be found in many stores and on the internet in the UK, just like the Madden and NHL series. The game cost me £29.99 from Game when I bought it, and I got it for the PSP, so I was only expecting reasonable graphics but a longer lasting game life. I was not disappointed.
The cover athlete is Gilbert Arenas, who plays for the Washington Wizards as a point guard. The game is produced by EA Sports, who have been producing the series since around the turn of the millennium. EA Sports also produced individual games for almost every sport imaginable, from Ice Hockey to Golf. The PSP stands for Playstation Portable, and is a handheld device produced by Sony that accompanies the Playstation consoles. The disc comes as a small, circular shaped UMD disc that is fairly resistant to damage.
The graphics of the game are not great, but as it is for the PSP, you cannot expect the graphics to be too good as there would never been enough memory on the disk for the game to store a great deal of quality in the graphics like the players. What is good though about the graphics is that EA have managed to make the surroundings like the court, hoops and fans in the stadium look realistic. On the PS3 or Xbox 360 however, the players do look a lot more realistic from the screenshots I have seen, however this will be due to a more powerful system and more memory space on the disks. The lack of quality in the graphics would have to be made up through good game play and I thought this was what really made the game enjoyable.
Firstly, you can play different modes, such as season and dynasty, or just regular exhibition games. Within the season and franchise modes you can also attempt challenges, for example an easy challenge to complete would be to score 10 points in a game with a player. This challenges add up and you are awarded for this, and you can then unlock unique challenges which will allow you to unlock players and jerseys for example. The challenges often are along the lines of win a game from behind 100 - 96 with 3 minutes remaining, and vary depending on the difficulty of the challenge. I have managed to complete most of the challenges and unlocks, however some are incredibly hard and would require you to play at your very best for the whole game. I currently have unlocked some the best players to have played in the NBA in my team, and they are very true to life and as good as they should be, as sometimes some of the best players ever aren’t that good when you actually try them out. Strangely though you cannot unlock Michael Jordan, who is seen as one of the best if not the best basketball player of all time.
Due to the controls of the PSP, the way in which the game is played is quite simple, but can take a bit of time to become use to the controls and how much pressure to apply when pressing or moving each button. For example, when you shoot if you press to hard or to soft, the ball will either shoot too far or too short of the basket. On easy mode, it is quite simple to get used to the controls and I have often ending up beating opponents by twice or more of their score, which makes completing some of the challenges more easy. The best of the challenges are also the ones where you have to play a whole season to complete, which gives the game a lot more depth and increases the time you would spend playing. In the set up options for the game, you can choose how many games you would like to play each season, so you don’t have to play the full season. You can also decide the lengths of each quarter of the game, ranging from 1 minute to a full 15 minutes each quarter.
Overall, the game is really good considering the format of the game, and even though there are some minor glitches like players running through each other and not the best of graphics, the hours you can spend playing the game and the overall life of the game that has been created through challenges and various modes of the game make up for this. I would definitely recommend buying this game or the next version, NBA Live 09, and you will have certainly got your money’s worth.
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