This is unaccepatable. Granted, I did not have high hopes for it but on my first go of NBA Live for PC, I was extremely disappointed to see the exact same user interface as is used in console versions. It is simply ugly, tedious, and vomit-inducing.
And no, it's not a little thing. User Interface is what makes or breaks a computer program in many cases. Live 2004, fortunately is a basketball simulation game so UI doesn't break the program in this case, but in my opinion it comes pretty close. A user-unfriendly UI that is found in the recent Lives are just not cutting it. You will learn to hate it very quickly as you go through every team by clicking a gazillion time (no scroll-bar), click through a gazillion screens with very little information and freedom on it, and having to resort to clicking tedious buttons while looking at stats and organizing your roster. The fonts are way too big, doesn't fit nearly enough information in one window. And the whole UI is a long shot from being pleasing to the eye. I've asked this many times before, but why can't Live just EXACTLY COPY what the Madden series has done? They have the best sports game UI I've ever seen, with tons of information in one screen, a convenient general panel in every screen for quick navigation, and a nice overall look. If the Madden team isn't so lazy as to just copy the console UI over to the PC every year, why can't Live be also as diligent? I'm not a programmer so I know next to nothing about these processes, but just based on my common sense, it seems very hard to believe that creating a new UI for the PC version is a tremendously difficult and consuming venture, which the Live team makes it seem so. I remember Live 2000 having a very well-organized, only-for-the-PC interface. I was under the impression that new versions of things were supposed to feature improvements in every conceivable category, but... I guess that's just me.
But otherwise, Live 2004 is a GREAT GAME!
