It may be a tainted victory for NBA Live 18, but after years of being second-best, they deserve applause for eking out a win this time around. But when the alternative is the hot steaming garbage that is NBA 2K18, solid will more than do. Normally, of course, “solid” wouldn’t be a descriptor you’d apply to the best basketball game of the year. The players don’t seem as graceful as they do in 2K18, and it occasionally feels like you’re fighting the camera, but on the whole, it’s a solid basketball experience. Likewise, the gameplay itself does the job. Smith screen time, but nonetheless: there’s a solidly engaging single-player story here. Admittedly, the talking heads are a little annoying, seeing as they give Stephen A.
The game has a proper story mode, told via text messages and TV talking heads. That’s not to say that NBA Live 18 doesn’t want players to spend money - you can buy plenty of shirts and shoes and shooting styles here - but the way it’s implemented here is far less obnoxiously intrusive.īut NBA Live 18 also succeeds, to a certain extent, on its own merits. It doesn’t seize every opportunity to gouge you for money, and it’s possible to improve your created player without having to either dip into your real-world wallet or grind through hours upon hours upon hours of practice. To be clear, a big part of why NBA Live 18 is so good, relatively speaking, is that it’s simply not NBA 2K18.
For the first time in years (possibly even forever), in the battle between EA and 2K Sports, EA is the clear winner. The NBA 2K18 prelude release is set for this Friday, September 8, at 5am BST on Xbox One and PS4.
This sense, of course, requires looking strictly at the year’s basketball games - and seeing as NBA 2K18 was a pay-to-win abomination, if you’re trying to decide between the two, the choice couldn’t be clearer. I was playing nba live 18 on ps4 then my nba live 18 crashed when i was play live run 3v3 when it crashed and close the application and when i had start the game back up i press the start button then on my tv its said data corrupted i have lost my throwback jerseys and shoes and my 5 created players i lost everything please fix it please please. In a more narrow sense, however, there’s an argument to be made that NBA Live 18 is a Game of the Year contender. In this sense, it’s a good-but-not-great game. There are obvious areas where it could improve, but mostly in terms of minor tweaks, rather than huge overhauls. It doesn’t do anything incredibly well, but it’s significantly better than NBA Live 16. In an objective sense, judged against the entirety of, say, every current gen basketball game, it’s a little above average. 'NBA Live 18' was reviewed on Xbox One and will also be releasing for PlayStation 4 on Friday, Sept. Grading NBA Live 18 is all a matter of perspective.