NBA Live’s pitiful transition onto the current generation of console hardware turned the series from a contender into a laughing stock, and EA has been struggling to restore confidence in the series since. This year’s iteration in the series does not go quite as far as last year’s in trying to rebuild NBA Live’s busted animation system and inferior on-court play, but it provides some interesting new additions and minor improvements in key areas, giving players hope that the series may be back on track one day.

EA’s headline feature for NBA Live 09 is Dynamic DNA, a daily roster update system which will change player’s key statistics based on their performances in the upcoming 08/09 NBA season. If Andrew Bogut is getting it done on the inside on the real NBA court, you’ll see a boost to those statistics and abilities in NBA Live. The opposite applies too; if a player is having a sloppy performance in key areas, then those statistics will fall in the game. Of course, since the NBA season hasn’t started yet, we’ve got no actual evidence as to how well the system works.

Dynamic DNA goes beyond just being a fancy roster update system, by showing you statistics such as player tendencies and even suggesting plays based on your performance in-game, and the team’s performance in real life. It shows you these statistics after you’ve taking shots on the court or landed buckets that affect them, but funnily enough, the game never seems to do it with any degree of accuracy. On the other hand, playcalling is actually pretty useful, and executed in the most intuitive way I’ve seen in a basketball game. Playcalling is handled by a combination of the shoulder and face buttons – plays called can be focused around a specific player, and the game walks you through exactly what needs to be done by placing markers on the floor. It’s the sort of thing that can help a casual basketball fan develop a better understanding of the more complex parts of the game, and knock their skills up a notch.

On court play has seen a few refinements, the most significant of which is the pick and roll system. Pick and roll effectively lets you take control of two players on the court at the one time, creating space for an effective screen pass, setting up for an alley-oop, or drawing a defender away to clear the way for a shot at the basket. It works well, but it might be lost on the less basketball-savvy players. Once you get the hang of the system, you’ll often find yourself relying on it to break through the defence – your computer controlled teammates are rather daft when it comes to getting into position and trying to get the jump on their defender. If all else fails, you can always just easily charge directly to the net for a dunk – an issue NBA Live is probably never going to address.

The Lockdown Defence system which debuted in last year’s game has been improved a little, mostly through streamlining. Before you’d have to hold a button in and steer your player towards his opponent; now the game will automatically have your player move in for the lockdown when you get close. It works well in the key and in the low post scenario, but it’s practically made for exploiting in perimeter play. The new quickstrike moves also help to make the defence seem ineffective, but the ease with which one can block shots almost serves to cancel them out.

Like the majority of EA Sports’ 2009 line up, NBA Live 09 makes use of the Be a Pro system, where you take control over one player on the court and are assessed on positioning, performance and teamwork. It’s a cool system, and it works well in NBA Live (provided you can put up with the game’s on-court shortcomings). The problem is that you can only play a single match – it’s not like the equivalent modes in FIFA or NHL, which let you play multiple seasons or a full career as a created player or the pro-athlete of your choice. That lack of long-term mode makes Be a Pro seem like a bit of a novelty this year, but I am sure it will be greatly expanded in next year’s game. You can take the action online and join a team for five on five matches – a great idea in theory, but poor net code really lets it down. EA is really going to have to provide dedicated servers for its sports games if it wants to get these game types off the ground.

Most of your solo play time will be spent in the Dynasty mode, where you can take full control of a team of your choice, micromanaging every aspect of the franchise. A few tweaks have been made to the mode this year, such as being able to set a specific direction for a team. This is good if you’re one for taking a bad team and trying to build them up into a championship force; previously games would set unrealistic expectations for you, trying to have you win a conference or NBA Championship, even if you were a lowly team like the Hawks or Wizards. Now you can just indicate that you want to build a team up, and the goals the board sets for you will change accordingly. There are a few issues when it comes to simulating games rather than playing them – no matter how highly rated your team is, you always seem to be at a great disadvantage. Statistics in simulated games also seem to be unrealistically low.

There are a few other play modes that provide brief amusement, like the FIBA World Championship tournament, which lets you play against the various international basketball teams with the slightly different FIBA rules and regulations. It’s good to see EA embrace a different kind of basketball, but the stats of the other teams are a bit unrealistic – the Australian squad in particular seems to be a bit underrated. If you’re looking for something more entertaining, you can participate in the All Star weekend dunk and 3 point competitions; though the control implementation on both options is a bit hazardous. Finally, the game also provides a fairly in-depth training facility called the NBA Live Academy, which lets you participate in some training drills while providing plenty of advice on how to improve your game.

Presentation has been the weakest aspect of NBA Live for some time now. The animation is utterly atrocious; it’s rigid and robotic, and the transition animations either look silly, or are non-existent. Character models are completely inconsistent; your high profile players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and cover athlete Tony Parker all look fairly close to the real deal, but guys like Steve Nash and Paul Pierce look a bit off. Match presentation is totally lacking compared to the 2K and Sony games – the Marv Albert and Steve Kerr commentary is fine, but EA continues to drastically underutilise their ESPN license to make the most of highlight reels and half-time/end game analysis.

NBA Live 09 shows that EA is slowly but surely improving their basketball franchise, but they really need to focus on the gameplay side of things next year. Dynamic DNA and NBA Live 365 is a nice idea, but it doesn’t really carry any weight when you consider that there are major problems with player AI and animation – the game still plays like a dunk fest. If they can improve the on court play, expand the Be a Pro mode, and smooth out the online experience, NBA Live 2010 might be worth a look, but this year, players should continue to look elsewhere for their basketball fix.