NBA ShootOut 2003
- August 06, 2002 00:00 AM PST
Yes, companies besides Sega and EA make pro basketball games. In fact, judging from 989's latest efforts, they make some very promising ones.
History will record it as powerful irony that the most popular basketball series in all of next-gendom was made by a company with almost no substantial experience in the genre. Sega's NBA 2K series, born on the Dreamcast a couple of years ago, surprised all competition last year by offering superior graphics and amazing amounts of innovation during an age when games like Live and ShootOut were mostly just coasting. Now it's time for said competition to strike back.The most noticeable feature of NBA ShootOut 2003, 989's latest PS2 basketball title, is the care they've been applying to the graphics. The player models have been completely redone, with everyone sporting the skeletal models, photo-realistic bodies (tattoos and all), and signature moves that are so popular with the b-ball games these days. More interesting to the hardcore fan is the new Career Mode�you'll be able to build a player, put him in the Summer League, and nurture him as he makes his way through the NBA Development League. (Whether he'll make it to the big show itself is another matter entirely.)
The next ShootOut is due to hit stores September 24, just a little bit ahead of NBA 2K3 and EA's NBA Live 2003. So who'll win this year? It's a bit too early to say, but at least we've got a competitive bunch of entries this time around.
