

In effect, your game characters would never respond with the speed their realistic counterparts would.

What’s more, stringing together these combos weren’t guaranteed to perform the move you wanted. In the past, basketball games relegated fakes to button presses, sometimes requiring complicated combos to elude an opponent. A well-placed fake, crossover, or spin can electrify a team, demoralize an opponent and stun a crowd. Moves are actually at the heart of Live 2003, especially with the advent of EA’s new Freestyle system. There’s also a Franchise mode for you up and coming GMs, and practice modes where you can work on your shot and your moves. For anyone interested on taking the game back to the playground, you can play one-on-one in any one of three courts. If you’d rather spare the time it would take to go through a season and just want to go for the championship, jump into Playoff mode. There is the usual season mode, where you ride out the up and down play of a team for a year, hopefully making it to the post-season.

The Play Now mode allows me to get a game started in under a minute while still offering a ton of teams and potential options. For instance, there are moments when I gotta get my b-ball game on for a quick fix. However, it’s the way these options are executed that makes Live 2003 truly stand out. Like every other basketball title, NBA Live 2003 features all of the typical modes you’d come to expect with a yearly sports title. Vying for control of every console and computer is EA Sports’ NBA Live 2003, recently released for all systems. However, those of us who are terrestrially bound can emulate our favorite players with the myriad of basketball titles that hit each system. Yep, all the exhilaration and heartbreak that can come from a blocked pass, a fast break or a clutch shot is now upon us, so we can all look forward to tons of highlights of our favorite ballers going ”above the rim.” Most of us might not be able to take to the skies with the same authority as NBA stars can in real life. Pretty exciting, huh? Guess what, with the start of the basketball season only a week old, we’re in for a ton of moments like these. Caught at half court, there’s a quick spin…fadeaway jumper at the buzzer…and it’s…” “Three seconds left on the clock, score’s 87-86…Here comes the inbound pass.
