This game is truly special to me!

[LuxerWap]

I don't know where else I should talk about this as my first post on this site but I wanna gush about Live 19 for a bit! I bought this game a few years ago because, as a fan of arcade basketball games who was starved for arcade basketball, I was curious as the 2K games I have tried didn't appeal to me, but I have heard that Live is more arcadey so I gave Live 19 ago.

Something that I never have thought these games would have when going through the settings was that there's an option to turn rules on or off, which actually surprised me. I have avoided basketball sims for over a decade and nobody told me you can change the rules. As far as I know, this used to also be an option in 2K until 2K14.

I never liked the amount of fouls as I always say it's a video game, so at the time, I turned off every thing, including injuries and fatigue, made stuff easy to do by maxing some of the sliders, and it made the game into a fast and fun arcade experience...for a short time. It was at that point that I wanted to turn some of the rules on, such as Goaltending, Traveling, Shot Clock, and the 3-5-8 Second Violations to get the game moving. Because even the most arcade games have some rules. I even had to turn most of the sliders down except for dunks; those must stay maxed!

But yeah, it's because of Live 19 that got me to look at a bunch of older basketball games just to see that they also have options to turn rules and fouls on or off and I had a great amount of fun there. This really made me wish the recent 2K games didn't abandon their NBA Rules settings as it's been a staple for basketball sims, but I get it. There are Foul Sliders in the games, but I feel that they don't work that well as I would usually get fouled once in a few games.

So, thank you Live 19! I still play this game to this game when I'm in the mood of playing a recent basketball game!

[Andrew]

That's an interesting take! Personally I've always felt NBA Live was at its best when it was trying to be sim, but I do know that a lot of people have played with the rules off like that. I agree that NBA 2K should still offer that customisation; it's one of those lost features that somehow isn't talked about enough. That flexibility is important.

[LuxerWap]

That's an interesting take! Personally I've always felt NBA Live was at its best when it was trying to be sim, but I do know that a lot of people have played with the rules off like that. I agree that NBA 2K should still offer that customisation; it's one of those lost features that somehow isn't talked about enough. That flexibility is important.

I think that really helps due to the sliders I have seen the community share online. Even when I wanna play with an arcade setting, I do look up sliders used for sim as a base to whether or not I should increase or decrease certain options, so it's got a "simcade" feel to it, but more leaning on the arcade side.. As long as I can make most players do dunks and steal the ball pretty easily, I'll have a great time!

[Andrew]

Sliders are a must-have, I'm glad they brought them back in NBA Live 16, 18, and 19 after launching on eighth gen without them. There's definitely fun to be had with a sim-arcade hybrid approach. Indeed, that was basically its own genre back in the day, with Konami's NBA games bridging the gap between NBA Live and NBA Jam in the 90s.