Last week, I got the chance to review EA Sports’ NBA Live ‘09 a few days before it hit stores. While I felt the game had some great features and was moving in the right direction, I still believed it had a ways to go before reaching the level of the NBA 2K series. Now, after a few days of playing 2K9, the gap between the two franchises appears to be wider than ever.

When you first pop in NBA 2K9, you’re greeted by one of the game’s new features: Living Rosters. While not as deep and detailed as NBA Live’s incredible 365 feature, Living Rosters will enable players to constantly have the most updated rosters possible. Early reports say rosters will update weekly and there was already an update available on launch day. 

We know all about the deep franchise mode that sports video games possess. NBA 2K9 is no exception; “The Association” is incredibly deep. However, unlike NBA Live’s limited superstar feature, 2K9 does not offer a feature like this. However, if players want to control a single player, they have a chance to do so online. Read the rest of this entry »