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 »

Big thanks to EA Sports Canada for hooking us up with an early copy.

In the days of Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, NBA Live was a testament to how sports games should be made. NBA Live ‘95 still ranks as one of my favorite sports games ever made. But in the past couple of generations, the franchise has fallen on some hard times. While the 2009 installment has made strides from past efforts, it still has a long way to go to catch up with the dominant 2K basketball series.

As usual, EA Sports has pushed out its hype machine for a couple new features. The big one here is the introduction of NBA Live 365, a truly revolutionary concept (albeit similar to a feature of NBA 2K9). Live ‘09 introduces Dynnamic DNA into the game, a concept used in the real NBA by a company called Synergy Sports. Synergy Sports is a dynamic engine that calculates player ratings, tendencies and all sorts of data from every single game on the schedule. While DNA encompasses about 60% of Synergy’s data, the concept is still the same.

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Big thanks to Marcus up at EA Canada for hooking us up with a review copy.

I’ve never disguised my persistent love-hate relationship with many EA Sports titles. From Madden to FIFA, EA Sports has consistently frustrated me by annoying glitches and gameplay. However, if one EA Sports title has it right, it’s NHL 09. Flying under the radar because of other titles, this game delivers not only an authentic hockey experience, but one that is truly a blast to play.

Following in the footsteps of the Madden/NCAA Football titles, NHL 09 features an all-new “Be a Pro Mode.” While I haven’t dove incredibly deep into the mode, it has enormous potential. After creating your very own toothless goon, you’re dumped into a team’s affiliate in the AHL, forcing you to work up the ranks all the way into the NHL. But unlike Madden and NCAA, NHL’s pro mode forces users to play with a little more strategy. Because it’s impossible to skate around for 60 minutes, it’s up to you to manage line changes to keep your player fresh. 

But your pro doesn’t have to be all about the glory. For every sniper, there’s a handful of ungraceful grinders that do nothing but kick ass and take names while on the ice. If scoring goals, winning fame and having sex with hot women isn’t your style, feel free to play as a grinder while sporting a mullet.

But that’s not all. One of the best parts about Be a Pro mode is the ability to take your player online and form a team with other users’ created characters. Have some friends with their own pro creations? Why not join forces and destroy skulls online? With NHL 09’s EA Sports Hockey League (EASHL), it’s possible to create teams of up to 50 players and join the league. A similar innovation is being used in this year’s installment of FIFA, which should promise an absolute shit show of 10 vs. 10 fun.

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Can’t make it to Austria-Switzerland next month? Don’t worry, EA Sports has you covered with UEFA EURO 2008. In what may be their best soccer game to date, EURO 2008 includes all the ins and outs of what makes the sport enjoyable. UEFA EURO 2008 combines excellent game play, innovative game modes and most of the all, the tradition that every soccer fan loves.

*Game review based on XBOX 360 version.

Key Features:

Story of Qualifying. Sad that England missed out of Euro 2008? Don’t be. This game mode lets you retrace the qualifying round to compete as one of Europe’s 52 nations.

Interactive Celebrations. Back in FIFA 64, you had the option of choosing a sound effect after scoring a goal. Finally EA brings this feature back after almost a decade of absence. Score a goal and see what I mean.

Battle of the Nations. “Represent your country online against your rivals around the world to win global supremacy. Earn individual and team points. Think your nation is the best? Now you can prove it! A groundbreaking points system means that your every performance is rated, recorded and uploaded and your ratings all count towards players and nations.How crazy is that?

Captain Your Country! Wow! Create yourself, select a nation and take that team to European glory in Be A Pro mode!

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In an effort to promote the upcoming release of the new Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii, the people of Nintendo are taking their “Mario Kart Driving School” across the country. We here at Sportable were lucky enough to be invited to the first of such days held in San Diego and the good folks let us in an hour early to preview the game. A full review will be coming once we get our hands on the game, but for now there will be a few thoughts based off about an hour of game play.

The first impression was that the Wii Wheel, which is a fantastic idea, is a little tough to get a hang of. When you get to the character selection menu, all the usual are there, undoubtedly with more unlockable characters waiting in the depths of the game. The ability to choose between a motorcycle or a go kart seemingly is a minor detail, but makes the game incredibly more fascinating, especially because of the ability to do a wheelie on the motorcycle at will.

There are 32 tracks in Mario Kart, 16 new ones as well as 16 re-makes from previous editions of the game. This means that there are eight “cup” events, four of which were playable from the beginning of the game. The remade tracks are spot on accurate from previous games, and the new tracks are great, with new dangers and nuances to get used to. Along with the new tracks comes a few new items including a pow block, a mega mushroom, and a rain cloud that I still have no idea how to use effectively, though the Nintendo representatives promised me that it was effective if I could figure it out.

The battle mode, a personal favorite of mine from the Nintendo 64 era is back with new levels and old levels coming together for great fun. Team battles provide opportunities for you to team up with computers or other players and take on large numbers of opposing CPU players, and this time instead of being limited to 3 lives, you are able to come back after being hit 3 times, the scoring system now keeping track of total take outs per team.

The time I got on the sticks of the new Mario Kart really showed me that this game is everything that I hoped it would be. The game lives up to previous editions of Mario Kart and I can definitely see multiple people sitting on a couch with the Wii Wheels doing battle. I know that I will be investing in more Wii controllers and Wii Wheels when this game is released, it is too great of a game to not look forward to. Check back for a full review when we get a copy of the game, and check to see if the driving school is coming to a city near you.

Before I begin I would like to throw out some things to the readers. I have been playing FIFA since I was a child. Remember the old school diagonal field back in FIFA ‘94? Yeah, that’s how long I have been playing. Second, soccer is my life; and if there is one thing that makes me enjoy my favorite sport more than anything else, it’s FIFA. The one game that I look forward to every year is this one. The FIFA 2008 staff didn’t disappoint me. The presentation: minimal to no flaws. The gameplay: significantly better and more challenging. The satisfaction: rewarding.

*Game review based upon XBOX 360 version.

Presentation: If there is one attribute that FIFA does not lack, it is the presentation. Year after year, EA Sports continues to deliver the most fashionable soccer game out there. Gameplay aside for the moment, FIFA always provides gamers with more authenticity than any other sports game on the market. To me, licensing is important. If I would like to play with Manchester United, I would also like to play with their actual jerseys and player names. Another soccer game out there does not feature that and quite frankly, I won’t even consider buying it for reasons like that. FIFA offers 621 licensed teams with 15,000 players. If you did your math from last year, that’s a 20% increase.

Upon turning on the game, you can still enjoy messing around with your favorite player on the menu screen(one of my favorite parts of the game). One presentation flaw? The graphic which shows the score, time and teams in the upper left corner of the screen is horrid. You can’t tell which teams are playing in the game because the logos for each team are about the size of a grain of salt.

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