I have finally had some time to play a lot of NBA live 10, so I want to share my impressions.

Graphics
Lets start out with graphics. As you can see above the game looks beautiful. The only downside I have are players being “shiny” and the blues being too bright. The player faces look great, as you can see above Wade looks like his real life counterpart. There really isn’t much to talk about in terms of graphics, because they are so great. One area that got a update in graphics was the fans, who not only look real now, but are loud and make the atmosphere amazing.

Click read more to read my full impressions on NBA live 10!

Atmosphere
Atmosphere in NBA live 10 is done perfectly. Before every game you can select the intensity or atmosphere of the fans from season to playoffs to finals. During the season the crowd is upbeat, but during the finals the atmosphere is the best I have ever seen in a sports game. The fans are constantly cheering and react well to the situation on the court. Your fans will definitely let you know when you are playing terrible, or playing great. It adds a lot to the game, considering in past sports games the fans/atmosphere was definitely a afterthought. But not in NBA live 10, you can expect “MVP” chants when Kobe is at the line, or a lot of cheers if you are dominating the other team.

Gameplay
The game plays a lot better then it has in previous years. With the addition of “hustle plays” and authentic player styles the gameplay comes to life in NBA live 10. Hustle plays are a great addition to the title. Gone are the days (NBA Live 09) where the ball would head out of bounds and all the players would look at the ball and not react. Players will dive on the ground and try to throw the ball back into play.

The authentic player styles really help out NBA live 10 as well. Playing against Miami it is amazing to see how Dwayne Wade dominates the court just like in real life. Gone are the boring days where the computer just plays lackadaisically and just goes with the flow. Try playing on All-star against Miami and you will definitely notice how smart the A.I truly is. Wade will drive all day long against your team, just like in real life.

While the gameplay is solid, there are definitely some things EA still needs to improve on, like the little things. Most hustle plays that are close to the sideline look great. But another look in replay mode makes you rethink this. Most of the time when a player saves a ball, both his feat are out of bounds, but the game does not recognize this. Also there are a couple of animations you get stuck in and cannot change the outcome of. There is a animation where the ball handler will be close to the sideline and to keep the ball in bounds he will just tip toe on the sideline and throw the ball back in. It is just annoying, sort of like playing Madden and getting stuck in a canned animation.

Online
I have had trouble getting in a match with Team play. I keep getting disconnected after two minutes of play, and I have read many other people have had problems as well. Also, I have not been able to test out Live run.

I have been able to play some one on one matches against Damon, which where a blast. We played four games last night and tied the series 2-2. I won the first two games by a little margin. And the last two games ended with myself missing a shot that could have got me two wins at the buzzer. Damon and I played with no lag which was great to see, especially since I couldn’t stay connected in team play. I will say that the momentum is interesting online. It would seem that at points during the game Damon would dominate for a stretch of time. Then all of a sudden his team would just fall apart. Overall though the experience was great online. Damon should have some footage of those games we played later this week!

Overall
The game is a lot of fun, and I am enjoying it despite some flaws in the gameplay. The atmosphere really helps the game feel authentic, as well as the uniform selection. EA did a great job with uniforms this year, they added a lot of throwback uniforms as well as the hispanic day uniforms (ie Los Lakers). I would definitely suggest playing NBA live 10 and telling us your impressions on The Sports Game Guy.

If you have any questions post them here!!

I am going to leave you with a Dwayne Wade video. As you can see they added a new video style which is to make the screen black and white, which is neat.