Sports games generally appeal to armchair watchers who have a love for the particular game in question. NBA Live falls very much into this category with some prior knowledge of the rules of the game required to play the game successfully.

This game is a comprehensive representation of the 2003 NBA franchise right down to the recent player roster across the entire pro basketball league. You can chose your favourite team, dimiss and hire as you like, or if you want, you can also create players of your own. Each player has his stats faithfully recorded and with player created players you can also determine a set of starting stats. You also have the ability to create your own team in the league (our Gameplanet 'Lightfeet' fast became the 'leadfeet' in the league)

Game play options include a practice court, one on one court match right through to a full league game. You can predetermine the rules including game time and some of the offside rules. A working knowledge of the game is helpful at this point, and certainly one aspect we were disappointed with is the lack of a tutorial match and rules explanation for beginners.

In the game proper you can select the player with the ball or manually select the player you want. In offence the game consists of manoeuvring your player about the court, passing off to others as required and when the opportunity arises going for a shot. Some minimal skill is required in timing the shot but emphasis is more on avoiding blocks rather than accuracy at the net. Various key combinations allow some of the more spectacular shots such as slam dunks, up and unders and fade away shots. Successfully executed shots often result in a television style replay.

The game itself plays at a reasonable clip with the AI being no slug. Often you will be still basking in the glory of one of your own well played shots to find play quickly moved down the other end of the court. To counter this you have options of setting on-court strategies for the whole team whether it be on defence or offence. While not controlled by the computer player your team mates play very much to their stats.

As far as the foul line is concerned you have a targeting system where you have to time both an up and down ball and a left and right ball as they move back and forth. If you time it right you get it in the net and score, if not you miss. The concept is understandable however in practice it takes a lot of skill to get it right.