NBA INSIDE DRIVE 2003 (XBOX)


Basketball comes of age on the 'box

By BUTT NUGGET

Basketball gaming fans rejoice, for with Microsoft's NBA Inside Drive 2K3 on Xbox, digital dunking and bombing is taken to the next level.

NBA Inside Drive 2K2 was the best basketball game this player of both versions of the game - electronic and physical - had ever seen.

Inside Drive 2K3 maintains the great look, feel and play of 2K2 but refines it and adds the feature of player creation and development; a step which increases the longevity of the game one hundred-fold.

When you fire up the game and watch the intro you see a stylised presentation of the development of the game from archival footage, through to motion capture and offensive play setups. This gives you a good taste of what you're in for, but the truth is the game is better than the intro would otherwise suggest...

Game modes include exhibition games for instant NBA action, individual practice sessions to fine-tune your jump-shot and showtime dunks, or season to take your team from round one through finals and conference championships to the NBA championship (up to twenty-five times, if you have the desire and patience).

But the feature that really gives Inside Drive 2K3 the edge overits predecessor is the create-a-player feature.

This allows you to put yourself or any bizarre chracter you like on the court to match up against the likes of Vince Carter, Tim Duncan, Michael Jordan or Paul Pierce.

I have seen created players such as the shortest, lightest player that can be created, who can run like greased lightning, hit threes from anywhere and even dunks over David Robinson -- to the tallest, heaviest player who dominates the key and is (nearly) unstoppable, as well as all sorts in between.

The best thing about this, I reckon, is being able to create a player who has the game you wish you had. I would love to play down low like Duncan or Karl Malone for instance, but my lowly six-foot frame tends to prohibit it.

In NBA Inside Drive 2K3 my player has all the post-moves and dunks I could want, as well as shooting 80-odd per cent from beyond the arc!!

My six-foot-five teammate who dunks easily, however, created a small, fast, three-point machine who harrasses ballhandlers mercilessly and gets many steals.

To each his own.

When you create a player you give them skills by assigning points RPG-style, so you can't create someone who can do everything.

In fact, when you start out your player is probably not going to be that good. But after you trade them to a team and starting playing with them (giving them lots of court-time and possessions), they begin accumulating 'performance points' which can be assigned to improve your players stats.

It is this feature which keeps you turning on the game even when you're playing alone. It gives you the long-term goal of creating a gun character.

Graphically, this game is far superior to its predecessors. Motion-capture is flawless from the sweetest jump-shot action, to the craziest spin move, to the most spectacular 360 windmill slam. Sometimes you can actually tell if a three-point bomb will drop from your feel for the timing, the sweetness of the shot action and ball's arc while it's halfway through the air.

Players on the court look fantastic. You can recognize the guy you're trying to pass to from his face, body-type, or even the way he moves. The stadiums are all recreated in true-to-life fashion, including championship pennants. Landmark arenas like Maddison Square Garden look awe-inspiring with high ceilings and distinctive architechture.

The sound adds a lot to the game with audible trash-talking between players as well as comments which can help you improve your game such as "Someone better D(fense) me up" when an opponent is open or "left-side!" when a teammate is open.

It's the commentary that really adds to the gameplay experience, though.

Provided by Marcus Johnson and Kevin Callabro, their analysis of plays and hype of big shots really augment the gameplay.

The relevence of comments to play is always spot on, and if one has to cut the other off to keep up, they always apologize - analysis with manners!

Iteme Tike provides injury updates mid-game and also a post-match analysis, talking up your created player when they get a triple-double and paying out on his opposition for not being able to stop him. Or vice versa...

The truth is, though, that all these features wouldn't mean squat if the gameplay sucked. But a game that pays this much attention to detail does not have gamplay that sucks.

The controls, while initially hard to master, soon become second nature. At low difficulty levels the gamplay helps beginners star.

Defense is lax and shot assistance is high meaning massive dunks are scored easily on the heads of defensive giants like Hakeem Olajuwan (yes he's still playing) and three pointers can be shot in defender's faces left, right and centre.

40-point thrashings get boring though, and as you increase the difficulty you be pulled even more into the game. It becomes necessary to know which players can do what, so you quickly learn who to use in which situation.

Given the number of teams and players in the NBA, there's always some new gun to discover, who perhaps isn't rated so well, but who can rebound and block with the best of them.

Getting players open for shots is crucial, and to assist in this there is a massive list of plays to choose from.

This game can be played at many levels by all sorts of basketball fans, from those who sometimes watch highlights to those who follow closely and know the game in depth. Highly recommended.

ORIGINALITY 80%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 90%
PLAYABILITY 85%
ADDICTION 75%
ENJOYMENT 90%