I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in the quality of the player models in this year's NBA Live title. It's not to say that the skinned faces are terrible, but they do look like their real-life counterparts only while squinting your eyes just right. I believe that the texturing is probably okay, but there is something about the facial animations and/or bone structures of many players - including stars - that throw things off just a bit too much. In addition, EA has a cloth simulation running on the players' jerseys and shorts, and while there are times when it looks good, it is much more frequent that the clothing freaks out in all directions and looks horrific. (As a side note: maybe more time should have been spent on gameplay rather than these types of "features".)

It also needs to be mentioned that NBA Live 09 is not without its graphical glitches and other issues. As a prime example of the former, during an end-game cut-scene, the most prominent player on the screen was missing his front jersey number, and other popping happens in a similar way at times. Oh, and may I say once again... HEY DEVELOPERS... YES, THEE WHO CREATE NBA Live 09: CAN YOU PLEASE STOP MAKING THE MENU SYSTEM AND IN-GAME NAMES AND HUD IMPOSSIBLE TO READ WITHOUT AN HDTV?! Seriously, if I have to bitch about this any more, my fingers will be bloody stumps from all of the type-screaming that I do. Would it be so difficult to use the entire screen for Menus, instead of squashing it into what may be 2/3rds of the space? The in-game scores on the top of the screen are ridiculous too, with the team names looking more like the NBC peacock than that of team names. It feels like the only way to know who's who on the scoreboard is to know that the home team is always second.

Okay, here we go. (I'm just getting started, people.) The audio in NBA Live 09 is also lackluster. While the commentators do have interesting tidbits of information on certain players at times, the overall quality of these in-game voiceovers is stagnant more than it is attractive. Marv Albert and Steve Kerr call the action, but the amount of dead air and miscues don't do the game justice. The most annoying ongoing comment is when they mention (each and every game) how all of the shots are going in for both teams, when it should be obvious... because the defense in NBA Live 09 sucks and the shooting of the stars is too good.

On a great note, NBA Live 09 does offer up a lot in terms of gameplay modes and other new features. Sure, you can still mix it up in either a single game or within a Dynasty, but you can now take your favorite team into the new Online Leagues. Here, you can allow up to 30 players per league, playing as many as eleven games. It would be much more of a feature had the leagues been more like an online multi-player season or dynasty, but at least it's a start.

The biggest new feature in NBA Live 09 is that the game now contains DNA365. Yes, you heard me. This is EA's new way to track stats, and they are updated daily (for one year's time) for your basketball pleasure. You can now play your games based on the real-life players' hot or cold streaks, and even have the ability to play the previous night's game using their stats to help recreate the game. It's a cool feature, but other than constant updates, the rest of it still hasn't sold me to the fullest.

NBA Live 09, like its fellow EA Sports titles for the 2009 generation, contains a Be A Pro gameplay mode. This is a cool feature that allows you to take control of your favorite player and use him throughout the game. I have loved this feature in other titles, but I'm actually fairly disappointed with its use in NBA Live 09. In NHL 09, for example, committing a penalty had you looking through your player's eyes from the penalty box, actually penalizing you for your mistakes, and Madden 09 only had you play the downs that were actually on the field. Both titles allowed you to create a player as well, and whether you created a player or chose a current star, you were in control of that athlete for the remainder of the season. These features are strangely missing from NBA Live 09 though. First off, you cannot create a player for the Be A Pro feature, nor do you control your player - and only your player - throughout the season. Instead, you will choose a position to play, essentially, because while your chosen player rides the pine, you will be in control of his replacement. In addition, you have the ability to choose a different player each game, so it's harder to feel as connected with your player as it happens to be in those other sports titles.

The upside to this Be A Pro feature is that online, it has a spin-off. Here you can play team games and essentially create your own basketball clans, playing up to 10 players on the same court, controlling a single player. Strangely, I do find this to almost be more enjoyable than the normal modes of play that allow you to control the ball-handler at all times. The level of strategy and patience involved helps to pick up an otherwise drab game.

Finally, let's talk about actual gameplay. NBA Live 09 has got some very fluid player animations that look great, but there is a high cost to this, sacrificing gameplay tremendously. When you think you are about to perform one action, the computer will often decide something else for your player to do instead, and more often than not, those animations are set in stone and can't be broken out of. As one example, trying to run back and cover my man on defense had me instantly stop and double-team the dribble, even while I continuously pressed away from the ball handler, trying to get back on defense. Blocking shots has also become a nuisance as well, because the animations associated with them are so #?@% long that it is almost impossible develop a well-timed blocked shot. In a similar manner, rebounding has become extremely challenging because your player will jump out of position sometimes.

I also have to mention that my game disc had both temporary and fatal freeze-ups that seem to be happening on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 (do a search online). Passing is also sometimes not spot-on the way it should be. Usually, pressing the direction of the pass with the Left Analog Stick will pass in that direction, but sometimes it will choose to either launch the ball down to a covered player off-screen (thereby throwing the ball away) instead of the guy right in front of you, or it will even pass to a player in a different direction, relative to the way that you pressed the controller. Another frustrating thing about NBA Live 09 is that because the (default) camera is quite far away from the action, it is very difficult to know who's who on the court. Sure, the game shows player names underneath their feet, but did I mention that I CAN'T READ THEM ON AN SDTV?!

NBA Live 09 does have different difficulty settings, but if you ask me, the biggest thing is that by default, the gameplay is so screwed up that you'll find shooting to be way too easy, yet won't be able to control your players intuitively, making other aspects of the game more difficult. It is so extremely frustrating to play against human opponents that can't possibly miss a shot with certain star players. In one example, my opponent had Allen Iverson all over the court, and I don't remember him missing a single shot the entire game, regardless of if I had two people hanging on him or not.

The game's A.I. in general is terrible. Aside from these perfect games, the defense is often so bad that the match turns into one giant fast break (against human players especially). The computer-controlled players will often either stand around or be completely out of position to defend the hoop, or will take errant shots when you don't want them to.

You do have the ability to run plays as well, and I found that NBA Live 09 really stresses the Pick And Roll as a marquee play. Because of this, it is often way too easy to score, especially if you are the one throwing the pick or are just cutting through the lane in general. The alley oop pass also can be used (once again) way too often, exploiting the bad defenses that you will face.

NBA Live 09's control just feels awkward. There are way too many times when you'll intend to perform one animation and end up doing another, or expect a quick animation that ends up sailing your player across the court. Another example of this comes in the form of the pump-fake. While playing against the computer, one of the players actually picked up his dribble, then pump-faked his way from beyond the free-throw line to under the basket before throwing up a shot. I know this is the NBA, but even the refs in the pros would have called that a travelling violation!

I do need to bring out my soapbox one last time. I'm sorry for those out there who have to read through my screaming, but I have to hope that one of these years one of the developers of the NBA Live franchise will finally hear me. CAN YOU PLEASE STOP MAPPING THE STEAL BUTTON WITH A SHOOT BUTTON?! It never fails, at least once (but usually more times) per game I will manage to get a steal on one end of the court, only to have my team launch a full-court prayer, all because the steal button is mapped to the dunk/layup button. Thanks, EA Canada. I'm begging you... stop this insanity that happens year after #?@% year with this series.

As you can tell from the words above, only true fans of NBA Live should worry about picking up the 2009 version. While it does come with some outstanding new features and gameplay modes, it's like putting a Band-Aid on leg full of shrapnel. First stitch up the wounds of the gameplay, then (and only then) start adding features. As much as I love basketball, this one will likely end up collecting more dust than hours of play.