It's impressively close to what you'd see on an NBA broadcast.
In professional games, the crowd noise soars when you make a big shot shoes squeak as players enter scramble for position players slam into the stanchion after a big play and you hear the announcer talking about everyone getting free pizza or tacos if the home team scores X number of points. On the brighter side, NBA Live 19 impressively captures the atmosphere of professional games and basketball culture in general. These abnormalities are unfortunately common, and take you out of the game. There were also times when AI players would stand in the paint and get called for three-second violations as if they didn't know it would get whistled. AI players can make strange decisions like fouling on threes consistently and making obviously errant and silly passes. There are also odd sequences related to AI logic. During some free throw animations, the player may grip the ball in a way that science says would prevent them from releasing it cleanly or at all. Bounce-passes almost never look right, with the ball zipping to the recipient at an inhumanly fast pace and sometimes at impossible angles.
The animations have their ugly side, though. The player models are for the most part more realistic-looking.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's What's more, player-specific moves, like Steph Curry's step-back jumpshot and Joel Embiid's windmill dunk are all brought into the game with a fine attention to detail. Players jockeying for position in the post or making a quick cut to get free for a shot look better than ever, while defenders closely guarding an opponent with their hands replicate the kinds of motions you'd see on TV. There are a number of impressive details that NBA Live 19 replicates authentically, including the transition from jog to run to sprint, how bodies collide when you drive the lane, and the way a player falls to the ground in embarrassment when they get their ankles broken by a well-timed crossover. The game uses the Real Player Motion technology that EA implemented in Madden NFL 19, and this helps make player movement and animations look better and more realistic.
However, its numerous animation and AI issues and lack of significant updates to Franchise mode make the newest entry ultimately feel like only an iterative update on last year's game.īasketball is a fast and fluid game, and NBA Live 19 excels in replicating this on the court.
With tight controls, a more engaging career mode, numerous reasons to invest in your character, and fine attention to detail, NBA Live 19 is a surprisingly big drive forward in many aspects for EA's pro basketball franchise.