The first thing players will notice is how the graphics represent such a tremendous leap beyond previous installments of the series. In general, players are nicely animated, and there is a good amount of detail to the arenas. However, the individual-player graphics are uneven. While most of the bodies are well rendered, many of the faces are way off the mark. Virtual Shaquille O'Neal's face looks nothing like the real Shaq's face, and most of the NBA's lesser names are completely unrecognizable. Some marquee players, like Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan, look fairly authentic.

While the PS2 usually plays an intelligent game of basketball, the controls in NBA Live 2001 have a slightly sluggish feel to them and take some getting used to. Also, EA stripped away both the franchise mode and the NBA challenges (three-point contests, etc.), which had been in previous incarnations of the NBA Live series. There is, however, an excellent one-on-one mode, as well as many legendary NBA players of the past to play with and against.

While NBA Live 2001 doesn't have all we had hoped for in the first pro-basketball PS2 game, it does have enough game to keep you playing all season long. --Mark Brooks

Pros:

• Often brilliant-looking graphics hint at what the PS2 can really do
• Very good hip-hop/funk soundtrack
• Cool one-on-one mode

• Many individual players hold no resemblance to their real-world counterparts
• Franchise mode and NBA challenges removed from series
• Somewhat unresponsive controls

DON'T BUY!


nba dead 2001   March 3, 2002
Joshua Pearl (Kandahar, Afghanistan)
This is the worst video game I've ever played! The worst! I'me not sure what the right camera for a basketball game is, but this isn't it! The game play is duscusting. It has only mediocre graphics. None of your team mates can catch any passes, and you stop running when you get the ball. The commentating is horrible. In a spurs- lakergame, on one end, he'll say chris webber is getting all the rebounds. Then he'll say the lakers are dominating on the boards. It is reppetitive also.


This game is cool!!!!!!!   February 1, 2002
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I think this game is awesome! It has good gragraphics and the players have tatoos and they have instant replays and pretty cool music. They have All Star teams all the way back to the 50`s. They have all the newest players and even show the players coming out of the locker rooms. IF you dont buy this game you are missing out on alot of fun.


this is one of the best games i have ever played   January 6, 2002
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This game is the best! Outstanding graphics. Wonderful, it has all the real players from 2001, and the real schedule. If u dont wanna play by the rules, who cares change the settings and play however you want. I thought this was the best game I have ever played in the whole world!


A Reason To Keep Your Dreamcast   September 14, 2001
Andrew Knoll (Montclair CA, CA United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

The slow-moving, confined NBA Live 2001 is one of the biggest reasons that I have not yet decided what I think of the PS2 and am so deeply distressed over the discontinuation of the Dreamcast. Between Live, the former leader in NBA games for Genesis, Super Nintendo, and even later systems like Playstation and N64, declines rapidly in the transition. Much as the 989 studio games all very sharply declined, EA games with the exception of the flagship Madden Football and NHL2001 have all translated poorly to this new system. This game, apart from sharpness of graphics and a mild increase in game speed shows little improvement from its predecessors and a decline in game play. I will check out 2002 in hopes of an improvement, but thus far the best NBA game for PS2 is ESPN Bball 2Night (not much better). If you only buy one basketball game this year, it should be NBA2K1 or 2 for Dreamcast.