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''NBA Live 98'' is a
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
video game based on the National Basketball Association and the fourth installment of the '' NBA Live'' series. Its cover art features
Tim Hardaway Timothy Duane Hardaway Sr. (born September 1, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player. Hardaway played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets a ...
of the Miami Heat. The game was developed by
EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...
and released on October 31, 1997, for the PC, November 30, 1997, for the PlayStation and December 31, 1997, for the Sega Saturn. It was the final ''NBA Live'' game released for the Super NES,
Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
, and Sega Saturn. The game introduced the now-standard feature of passing to any teammate with a single button press. Its graphical improvements included new player designs modeled after actual player photographs. The PC version introduced support for
3D acceleration A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobil ...
, utilizing
3dfx 3dfx Interactive was an American technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, founded in 1994, that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics processing units, and later, video cards. It was a pioneer in the field from the l ...
's
Glide API Glide is a 3D graphics API developed by 3dfx Interactive for their ''Voodoo Graphics'' 3D accelerator cards. Although it originally started as a proprietary API, it was later open sourced by 3dfx. It was dedicated to rendering performance, sup ...
. The PlayStation, PC, and Saturn versions feature Ernie Johnson Jr. as studio announcer. Play-by-play commentary is performed by
TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
/ TBS color analyst
Verne Lundquist Merton Laverne Lundquist Jr. (born July 17, 1940) is an American sportscaster. Biography Early life and career Lundquist was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas, before attending Texas Lutheran Un ...
in the PlayStation and PC versions. ''NBA Live 98'' is followed by '' NBA Live 99''.


Gameplay

The game features rosters from the 1997–98 NBA season. New features include the "Total Control" system, that allows players to choose between a dunk or layup or pass to any teammate with the press of a button. "Tight" player moves allow players to spin, crossover, back down, ball fake and more on command. Player lock lets players always control a specified player on court. Though it is set during the 1997–98 season,
Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...
superstar
Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...
is not featured in the game. This was because Jordan was not part of the National Basketball Players Association and at the time the cost of licensing his individual name and likeness for video games was approximately $15 million a year, beyond the total budget of most video games. Jordan is replaced by the fictional "Roster Player" in the Bulls lineup. However,
Charles Barkley Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst on TNT. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck", and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons in the Nati ...
made his first appearance in ''Live 98'' as a member of the
Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...
. Motion capture work was done by NBA players
Tim Hardaway Timothy Duane Hardaway Sr. (born September 1, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player. Hardaway played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets a ...
, Mitch Richmond, Larry Johnson, Joe Dumars and
Christian Laettner Christian Donald Laettner (, ; born August 17, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player. His college career for the Duke Blue Devils is widely regarded as one of the best in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hi ...
.


Features

New modes introduced include GM Mode, which lets players choose franchises, draft players and play custom seasons, and the
Three-Point Shootout The Three-Point Contest is a National Basketball Association (NBA) contest held on the Saturday before the annual All-Star Game as part of All-Star Weekend. The 2019 iteration of the contest involved ten participants. From its introduction in 19 ...
, which can be played using full or split screen. Four difficulty levels are available, including a new Superstar difficulty level, along with improved AI with smarter players and more accurate stats. With the introduction of 3D players, courts, and jerseys came an opportunity to patch and update these aspects of the game, including with the EA Graphics Editor software.


Reception

The PlayStation release received mostly positive reviews. Critics praised the detailed player graphics, new animations, interface, music, and the full motion video sequences. ''
GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...
'' commented, "What makes Live '98 so enjoyable to play is its fantastic mixture of NBA realism and wild arcade action." ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' assessed it as an across-the-board improvement over '' NBA Live 97''. Critics hailed the number of new gameplay features, with the three-point competition, custom team feature, icon passing, and direct ducking all earning particular mention. A few criticisms were voiced, but they did little to impact the critic's overall recommendation. For example, Jay Boor of ''
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...
'' found the dunks were not as dramatic as they should be, but still concluded ''NBA Live 98'' to be the best basketball game presently on the market. Sushi-X wrote in ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The ...
'' that weak A.I. makes it "the easiest basketball game I've ever played." However, his three co-reviewers were more laudatory, with Kraig Kujawa summing up, "''NBA Live 97'' was easily the best basketball game last year, and now ''Live 98'' has done it again." As with ''NBA Live 97'', critics reported the Saturn port to have much lower-resolution textures and jerkier frame rate than the PlayStation version, to the point where the action can be hard to follow. Critics also found the absence of play-by-play commentary in the Saturn port a severe shortcoming. Kraig Kujawa and John Ricciardi of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'', who both rated the PlayStation version a 9/10, gave the Saturn version a 5.5/10 and 6/10 respectively, with Kujawa remarking, "Obviously, this was a quick and easy port that was paid very little attention. ... EA could and should have done a better job." ''GameSpot'' and '' Sega Saturn Magazine'', while noting that the Saturn port retains strong aspects of the PlayStation original, judged that it compared unfavorably with '' NBA Action 98'', another Saturn basketball game which was released at the same time. Gary Cutlack of ''Sega Saturn Magazine'' summarized, "Live '98 isn't that bad, it's just unfortunate for EA that Sega are releasing their better NBA game at the same time." ''NBA Live 98'' was a runner-up for ''
Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...
''s 1997 "Sports Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to ''
Baseball Mogul ''Baseball Mogul'' is a series of career baseball management computer games created by game designer Clay Dreslough. The product was first published in 1997. The 25th and latest installment is ''Baseball Mogul 2022''. A proprietary database, inc ...
'' and ''
CART Precision Racing ''CART Precision Racing'' is a racing video game developed by Terminal Reality and published by Microsoft Studios for Windows. Development The game was showcased at E3 1997. Reception GameSpot said for the PC, "''CART Precision Racing'' raises t ...
'' in a tie. Editors called ''NBA Live 98'' "the latest and best ..in EA's awesome action-oriented" series.


References


External links


IGN: NBA Live '98
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nba Live 98 1997 video games Electronic Arts games NBA Live Windows games PlayStation (console) games Sega Saturn games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Sega Genesis games Tiertex Design Studios games Video games developed in Canada Video games scored by Brian L. Schmidt Video games set in 1997 Video games set in 1998 Multiplayer and single-player video games ru:NBA Live 98