NBA Live 2005

There's An argument that says we shouldn't even review these annual EA sports updates. Given the incremental improvements, it's almost the equivalent of reviewing a patch. It's a theory that EA would appear to endorse, given the difficulty we had extracting a review copy from them. By the time you read this, NBA Live 2005 may well be residing in the bargain bin, along with all the previous incarnations.

That's no reason to ignore it though, as in the EA Sports tradition, it's a highly polished affair, whatever you think of basketball as a sport. While it's easy to dismiss it as an American version of netball played by overpaid freaks, it can be pretty absorbing if you give it a chance, as we regularly find out every E3, clashing as it does with the annual NBA play-offs. And having witnessed Mallo's roommate launch household objects at the wall as the LA Lakers spunked another lead, we can confirm that it certainly engenders passion amongst its fans. In fact, more recently, a riot broke out at an NBA game, with millionaire players wading into hotdogmunching fans.

Thankfully, such disgraceful behaviour is absent from NBA Live 2005, although it's pretty much the only thing that is. For a sports game, there's a staggering amount of depth, and it's almost too bewildering for the average punter to get into. Thankfully, it can be simplified to a playable level, although to get the most out of it, a PlayStation 2 pad is pretty much essential, with the secondary stick providing some impressive freestyle moves.

Dunkin' Donuts

As ever, it's a lot more fun attacking than defending. The nature of basketball means defence (or as the crowd would have it, "De-fence! De-fencel") is far more of a strategic area than an individual affair, and given that you can only control one player at a time, it can prove largely ineffective. Going forward is a different matter though, and with practice (and all the aids turned on and the game on rookie level) you can produce some impressive alley-oops and so forth.

For those who actually follow the series, new features include adjustable mid-air lay-ups and dunks, as well as the aforementioned alley-oops. Ultimately though, you will spend a lot of time floundering about attempting to work out what button does what while your opponents put on a display of Harlem Globetrotters-style dexterity. Some close matches are possible, with the frustration of your defence being torn apart only countered by you doing the same ad infinitum, until the final frantic few seconds. And more than most sports game, it's a lot more fun winning than losing. NBA Live 2005 is undeniably an impressive game, but not one that you're actually going to play, especially on PC.