by hoopscitylive on Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:03 am
Frankly, I didn't think it was worth the $6 rental. I ended up returning it two days before it was even due. I think what bothered me the most (besides franchise mode sucking) is the fact that with so many new animations, you don't have the same feeling of control as Live 2003.
The ball handler, for example, automatically turns his body to the defender to protect the ball, which leads to a lot of awkward jump passes, and makes using freestyle moves difficult because you don't necessarily move forward.
I also miss being able to do a simple crossover to switch hands with a button instead of having to do some elaborate freestyle move.
Also, maybe its just how I had the auto-subs set (50-60), but your starters don't get subbed back in automatically after the half.
Don't get me wrong, the game has it's strong points. It's nice to finally have in-game injuries. The sliders are a welcome addition. And the new animations make for a more realistic game (except for all the jump passes). But IMO it's not a great improvement over 2003, and as usual, they managed to screw up things that worked fine in previous versions while adding a bunch of useless crap.