Tuesday, December 26, 2017

If It's In The Game,It Might Be In The Game !

EA Sports famous slogan -" If It's In The Game,It's In The Game".And then later on It would be shortened to a more, straight to the point  - "It's In The Game".This was true of all the newer  installments of their sports video games.Not so much for the introductory releases.Every year ,my nephew and I couldn't wait for the new Live for the PS1 to hit  store shelves,because,even though EA claimed to put everything that was In the real game into the video game,such wasn't   the case. That's how EA got you,by incrementally adding content to each years release.We knew that EA did this gradually,adding more and more realism with every release.For instance ,It wasn't until NBA Live 99 on the PS1 that we would see the bench players along the court side .<Funny how the majority of 16 bit NBA games all had visible bench players along their court sides

NBA Live 98 was the third released game from the series on the PS1  ,and while not much changed graphically from the year before ,new game modes and color commentary lent more credibility to the "It's In The Game" claim.



Is It playable,today?


Meh.It's a little bit on the easy side but I guess you could mess with the settings to remedy that  via the "keep scores close"  feature.Even though I hated the idea of the cpu interfering with the outcome of my games.Also,If your a fan of  that late 90s dynasty Bulls squad with Dennis Rodman (you'll have to create Jordan ,though)then this Is definitely a game you're gonna want to snatch up at some point.You can get the game  complete  for about $4 bucks  shipped .That's not bad considering the re play-ability.Plus you get to air It out from beyond the arc with  guys like Reggie Miller  and Detleff Schrempf  while recreating greatness with the likes of Malone and Stockton.



Is It Playable Today Rating 

8



Sunday, December 17, 2017

Top of the First!


My first exposure to sports video games came back In the 80's.I was around 10 years old when  Major League Baseball released on the NES. I didn't own an NES but a kid my mom used to babysit did,and he lived right down the street from me.Perfect!We were both Met fans and since neither of us would give,NY Mets vs. NY Mets match ups were prevalent.I hated that shit :( Why couldn't he just pick another team,I mean,I was older than he was and should have pulled rank.Of course ,that would have gotten me a lifetime ban from his basement.He was a notorious soar loser and after an unlucky streak ,angry yet hilariously uneffective punches to my shoulder would ensue.That was pretty much commonplace.

  MLB had real teams but no player names .Instead,the numbers of each player displayed alongside some stats helped us to distinguish the guys we had in our lineup.You don't know how many times we took to our baseball cards for  number verification.

Since I don't currently own an NES ,I can't give you a  review of how the game plays now,I can only go on memory.From what I can remember ,the game was fun.But I was 10 ,so.While MLB on the NES was entertaining, addiction to baseball video gaming wouldn't rear It's ugly head until about the 7th grade.