Odds and Ends and NBA Live

It's been a week of 'busy time' for both me and Todd. As I said Todd has been in Canada playing Dragon Age for 2 days...I'd be jealous but hey...I gave him the assignment so I was happy to see him get away and relax a bit.

Todd's a ball of stress, if you didn't know. Angriest man in game journalism. Just ask him.

Todd's DA article is embargoed until next week but I have no issue at all telling you that he really likes it. A lot. Both Todd and myself are big RPG fans -- and both huge BioWare fans so having Todd IM me with "It's Baldur's Gate 3" makes me smile a big, happy smile.

OK NBA Live. Reviews are starting to come out and while little old me is still under embargo until 10/6 all I will say is this without getting too specific:

NBA Live 10 is the best version of NBA Live since NBA Live 2000. And considering the technology back in 1999, that pretty much makes NBA Live 10 the best version of NBA Live, ever. Flawless? Lord no. Worth playing? Oh, yes.

My full review will be at Crispy Gamer on the 6th with Todd's GameShark review following shortly thereafter.

But yes, I like it.

I have no clue how this will relate to NBA 2K10, a game that has always been better than Live but has also suffered from a lot of gameplay stagnation over the past few years.

I am very curious to see how that compares.

But I absolutely have to hand it to EA Sports, a company that I have been exceedingly rough on since well...let's say 1995?

The reason I have been so tough on EA is that I always felt the company catered one audience while ignoring the other. Add in the fact that they print their own money over there and it was a company that consistently frustrated me.

There was a time when 2K Sports throttled EA Sports across the board in every single genre --let's add Konami and soccer (Winning 11) and Access Software (Links) and golf as well. There was a time not so long ago (4 to 6 yrs ago) that EA Sports was the king of ZERO sports titles. None.

Football: 2K
Baseball: 2K with Sony starting to get close
Soccer: Konami
Basketball: 2K
Hockey: 2K
Golf: Microsoft/Access

And now?

Football: EA (specifically Madden. I still think NCAA underachieves)
Baseball: Sony (by a huge margin)
Soccer: Pick em -- Fifa has made enormous strides
Basketball: Undetermined (But EA is right there -- I'd rather play Live 10 than 2K9, I know that much)
Hockey: EA (Although I think 2K's game is underrated)
Golf: EA (Tiger needs a series reboot ...)

Exclusive licensing sucks. On that you will get no debate from me. I'd love to see 2K back in the NFL and the college hoops business (I really miss that series) and EA back in the baseball business. But the notion that it would lead to the worst era in sports gaming has been, thus far, proven to be incorrect.