NBA Live 09 has finally hit the European Playstation Store today, but was already in the marketplace for about almost two weeks. The anticipated game tries to be different from its revolutionary and fantastic prequel NBA Live 08 – and to make thinks clear – that is a tough mission.

First of all, NBA Live 09 brings fresh animations and graphics. Everyone who played the previous game can instantly see the changes between the games. In the previous game the graphics were a little “fake” – the skins where shiny and the models looked pale and darkish. EA Sport’s development crew took these issues with the graphic and put some effort to build almost perfect models of the players – especially their faces. The whole stadium – starting the ball itself, the net, the board – every little detail is just fantastic (I must admit that I played the demo on a SD TV, so imagine how f-i-n-e you will see everything on HD).

The best thing graphics-wise is that it’s so alive. So many things are happening at the same time that at the first, you won’t be able to catch all the elements in the stadium. The game has learned from its competitor – NBA 2K – and for the first time, EA Sports put some effort with the crowd (in one of the interviews they stated that they created 64,000 different crowd models!). And finally, EA got some brain and put cheerleaders (at last!) and mascot guys that are active the whole game and react to the events on court.

As for the gameplay, it got some improvement but seems they are using the same basic engine as the previous game. The first vast improvement, is the pick & roll technique. In NBA Live 2008 it was soooo hard to learn how to execute a pick & roll move. It was also very static and repetitive. The developers took the pick & roll move to the next level – it is very easy to execute the move now – a simple one button press. The ability of the player come as a factor, you decide when the screen player will move and how to move, whether he will run, roll or pop it. It is your decision and if you know how to use the three options correctly, you will execute very effective moves.

The second major change is the quick-strike moves in which you will ankle break your defenders and go without any interruptions to the basket for another easy score. The player is able to do that by just tapping a button in the right moment and combining it with a vertical movement + sprint. Every defender will just eat your dust… There are more improvements and changes in the gameplay but their effect on the game isn’t that big, but they are just good for a more comfortable game.

The top of the cream in this magnificent cake is the NBA 365. NBA Live 2009 actually updates the player’s stats and game style according to their execution during league season (The NBA league will start on October 28). Another great feature (that the demo actually lets you try) is the option to play real games that were played in the NBA league. The game will try to copy the player’s stats, who is hot and who is not etc. This feature is great and if EA will deliver on what they promised (to release an update after every league game) then we will just have to wait for this game to be released and let the show begin!

In conclusion, I can honestly say that if I first thought that the game can’t get any better after NBA Live 08, the demo just totally proved me wrong…

I’m counting the days until the release of the full game.