NBA Live 365 MIA

If you’ve been watching any of the NBA games so far this year you surely haven’t been able to miss the onslaught of advertising for NBA Live 09’s 365 feature. Certainly the feature is already proven beneficial for improving Live, but what most everyone was waiting for was the daily updates. After all the slogan is “Made Fresh Daily”.

To EA’s credit they’ve done manual updates including details such as player accessories leading up to the start of the season. Though I felt that they should have started 365 right away after the first night of games, it wasn’t a big deal to wait two days and have the very first update be significant and affect every team in the league. So the promise was made that the first update would be out this morning. Yet is no where to be found with no explanation having been given. It sure would’ve been nice to get whatever is causing this delay out of the way two days ago…

Needless to say this isn’t the ideal start for a feature that EA is hoping to be perceived as a value add-on. I’ll have a full look at how well 365 turned out for this year as well as the 2K Insider which hasn’t lived up to its own PR hype. That is when both of them actually get serious and start providing what they’ve promised.

Update: I’ve just now received the following statement from EA

“Hello Everyone,
Like we told you guys yesterday, NBA LIVE 365 would go live today. Well, I’m officially letting all of you know that NBA LIVE 365 has now been turned on, and is scheduled to go live between really late Friday, and early Saturday morning. You should see all roster lineups accurately reflected in-game based on what’s currently happening in the real NBA season. You’re probably wondering about DNA and Tendencies right? Well, those will be ready for you to download soon, but we’re waiting for teams to play a few games so that you see some differences in their DNA and tendencies.

This is an exciting and brand new feature for not only us, but sports games period so there’s bound to be some kinks that need to be worked out. I wanted to thank you on behalf of the entire NBA LIVE 09 development team for being so excited, eager and patient about the implementation of this feature. Because this is happening as the season goes along, it’s something that we wanted worked out and fully tested before we turned on the switch to you guys. Two things to note; there are some inconsistencies in the lineups that you may see, but they will be addressed as we move forward. Also, in order to keep the daily updates going, if there is a player at any point in time during the season that is not in our game but has played a game in the real NBA, you’ll see him reflected in-game as a generic player. Don’t worry, he’ll be implemented in-game accurately that same week, and the generic player will be out of your game.

Thanks again for the patience everyone! These are truly exciting times for all of us as the future of basketball is now!

Thanks,
The NBA LIVE 09 Dev Team”

NBA Live 09 Highlight Contest Clips and Poll

Thanks again for everyone who submitted entries for the NBA Live 09 highlight contest. It was very difficult to narrow the field down to five, but I feel pretty good about the handful that are being put up for vote. Continue on to watch the clips and vote on your favorite one!

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NBA Live 365 To Start Tomorrow

Everyone is excited to experience the immediate impact that comes with NBA Live 09’s 365 feature. I know I have been looking forward to profiling how it is changing the game on a daily basis. With the season now underway we await the first update however I have been informed that it won’t be coming until tomorrow. They decided to wait until every team played their first game. From then on the updates will arrive daily.

The last NBA teams will play their first game on Thursday (10/30). To accurately reflect what happened for every team’s first game in NBA LIVE 09, we’re going to turn on NBA LIVE 365 on Friday morning (10/31) for everyone that input a code on the insert inside the NBA LIVE 09 packaging. Once every team plays their first game, you will see your daily changes as promised.

The Live 09 team has done an admirable job in updating the basics so far, and they’ll need to continue to do so in terms of many of the ratings categories, player appearances, and accessories. 365 will only affect a few ratings, player and team DNA, and streaks.

Along with a look at the first 365 update the highlight contest will be up this weekend.

NBA 2K9 Highlight Contest Clips and Poll

Thanks to all those who sent in links to their NBA 2K9 highlight videos. From the submissions I’ve selected five to be voted on to determine the winner of the contest. Voting will run through Sunday morning. Continue on to view the five videos and vote in the poll.

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NBA Street, Ballers No More

While the NBA once considered giving out an exclusive license they decided against it, instead choosing to keep the competition and have multiple games available. In addition they gave EA and Midway the right to put out arcade style basketball games in alternate years.

For the arcade games that is about to change. Midway is struggling as a company and is now attempting to buy itself out of the licensing deal. That isn’t as surprising as the news that EA Sports is putting the Street series on hiatus.

Jon Robinson at ESPN broke the news on this story and got the official confirmation from Peter Moore. Check out the full details and statement from Moore there near the bottom of the page.

It’s hard to believe that the NBA will be void of arcade offerings so it’ll be interesting to see where things go from here and what comes in to take the place of Street and Ballers.

NBA 2K9 PC Copies Missing Activation Codes

The PC community was very pleased when 2K Sports announced that NBA 2K9 would be releasing a PC version. This amounts to the first attempt for 2K and with the platform vacated by EA Sports they have the basketball crowd to themselves this year. Anticipation was made even higher when it was stated the game would be a port of the 360 version rather than the PS2 version as Live had been offering up until this year. Though it lacks any online functionality there seemed to be a pretty large contingent of consumers looking forward to it.

With the release of the PC version today people are getting ahold of their copies and reports are now coming in that the Steam activation code is missing from the packaging. This was not a problem with the overseas release last week and so far seems isolated to the US. Essentially anyone in the US who has the game is unable to play it because they can not activate it. This establishes a dilemma as to how 2K will be able to distribute codes considering the circumstances.

Update: 2K has released the following statement and are promising details by the end of the day.

If you recently purchased the NBA 2K9 PC title in North America, 2K Sports is aware of the issues with the Product Keys and is working hard on a solution.

Update #2: Apparently now the game can be installed without the need for an activation code. Having this step bypassed should allow for everyone to install their games now.

NBA 2K9 Online Play Update

2K Sports stated earlier today that they have implemented improvements that should be reflected in online performance. Reaction so far is mixed with some reports of increased success in playing standard head-to-head games but others still experiencing freezing issues or difficulty starting a game. The 5 on 5 Team-Up mode is not expected to see significant improvement due to whatever was done as the severe lag and disconnects are still prevalent.

Other topics of concern such as the wrong rosters being used, no flex scheduling in leagues, and the removal of the 2K cam have yet to be addressed. The removal of ranked lobbies was done on purpose and they won’t be returning. There is apparently a patch in the works but the details of what will be included is not being communicated at this time. Given that they are still working on it that would put it at least 2-3 weeks out from being realized.

This evening I was unable to start a standard head-to-head game as I continually received the “refer to FAQ” message. My attempt at a Team-Up game went through the same “refer to FAQ” for the first few attempts before getting into one that had unplayable lag. Pretty disappointing that it has been well over a week and the online play for 2K9 is still in shambles. But again while 2K did not bother to fix the terrible online experiences with MLB 2K8 and their other recent releases it does appear that they are working diligently to do so with NBA 2K9. There have more incentive than ever to do so with the promotion of The Other Season (reverse fantasy league), Team 2K, and the advertising of the Team-Up mode.

How is everyone faring in attempts at online games? Leave your thoughts in the comments. Also continue on for a look at the current typical Team-Up experience.

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09 NBA Games Offer Something For Everyone

Despite the constant bickering between fans of the games this has turned out to be a fantastic season of NBA offerings. Each of the three titles does some things really well while falling short in comparison in other areas. There may be some frustration that there is no “total package” as unrealistic as that may be. Though unlike the NFL and MLB there are multiple choices available on each console which allows for consumers to choose the game that suits them best.

NBA 2K9: Continues its gameplay excellence, has the most natural and varied animations, and offers the best presentation. Fans of the series will appreciate the familiarity and while it remains the least accessible it is often found to be the most rewarding gameplay experience.

NBA Live 09: Has the best features including the revolutionary Live 365 and the NBA Academy, the best online play both in terms of performance and modes, and has far and away the best commentary. It is now considered to be comparable in quality to the 2K series.

NBA 09 The Inside: While I haven’t been able to delve into this game yet it does have the story mode which has been the major selling point. The gameplay may not be up to par with the other two but having a unique way to play can have definite appeal. While it is unlikely to be the first choice for an NBA game having that mode makes The Inside a potential compliment to the other two.

As I’ve mentioned in the comments on numerous occasions I find it interesting that here we have a sport that has competition since there is no exclusive license involved. Supposedly everyone believes this to be a positive yet the level of vitrol between the communities is remarkable. Fans of one particular game want that game to be seen as the only respectable choice subsequently putting down the other games and anyone who likes them. Ultimately everyone should be playing whatever they enjoy regardless and appreciate that competition is truly paying dividends with the NBA titles.

NBA Live 09 OTP Night Recap

Last night I was finally a member of a victorious group in the NBA Live 09 Pasta Padre club. I had felt doomed after having lost most of the games with the EASHL club and starting up with Live and having lost every game previously. It was a really good feeling to get the win, especially since we played well as a team from start to finish and despite the continued overly fast pace it was probably the most controlled matchup thus far.

After a rough start the club seems to have settled down and has won five of the last nine games. Once the improvements are made to the mode I’m confident the level of success will increase even more. Continue on for recaps from both the 360 and PS3 clubs and the full game video of the victory.

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Highlight Clip Contest

Over the next week I will be accepting entries for a highlight clip contest featuring NBA Live 09 and NBA 2K9. Create them within the games with consideration given towards the actual play shown as well as the overall style of the video. You can enter as many clips as you like for either or both games. The clips must remain active on the websites throughout the duration of the contest.

Through the respective community sites, EA Sports World and 2K Community, upload your highlight and then send me a link to your entry via the contact form. Please make sure to include a valid email address when filling out the contact form as well as your Xbox Gamertag or PSN name.

I will be selecting five of my favorites for each game and then posting those up to be voted on to determine the winner. The person who submitted the highlight receiving the highest number of votes for each game will receive a $25 gift card to Amazon.com. Make sure to send in your clips by the end of the day on Wednesday the 22nd and the voting will begin heading into that weekend.