NBA Live 08 Update

As I've been letting everyone know my excitement for the upcoming release, I was pretty let down by news that it won't be coming to the Wii until October 30th. Lame. For the record, it comes out on the Wii in Europe October 19th. Yep, Europe.

Just another downer after hearing that dynasty mode will not exist on the version for my adorable little console, and reading the mixed reviews that continue to pour in.

I finally discovered ratings for the teams and partial lists for the players available online. Only the overall ratings of the top 20 players are listed (if you have the game on xbox or ps3 and would like to fill me in on Blazer ratings, I would pledge my unwavering devotion to you). The oddest ranking to me is Toronto at #28, weren't they in the playoffs as a new and young team last season? Portland comes in at #24, by the way.

I decided to cycle through the list and check in on some predictions I made back in August:

LaMarcus Aldridge will be underrated.
Cheeeeck! Well, all the list tells us is that he's not among the top 20 power forwards or centers. But, being that Shareef Abdul-Rahim is #20 I would think Lamarcus should be in there. Interestingly, new Blazer Channing Frye is tied with Shareef, both rated at 75.
Channing is one of two Blazers that made the top 20 cut, which leads us to....

Greg Oden will be overrated.
Cheeeeck! Although keeping him at a 75 was certainly more modest than I anticipated. This ties him with a gaggle of players as the 7th highest ranked center in the game. No I don't know why Brad Miller is a 76.

My Baron Davis-centric playing will continue to be sweet.
Cheeeeck! I will not complain that Mr. Boom-Dizzle is rated as the 4th best pointguard in the game at 88. My style of play is such that all my hopes hinge on this.

Franchise mode will continue to suck.
Nope! Man, they really got me on this one. How can it suck if they take it away completely? By the way, most NBA Live supporters clamor for EA to make a dynasty option that is as good as Madden. Apparently, this has yet to be heard at EA.

The Bobcats will be fun.
Eh? Too early to tell, but they did come in ranked at #16. Thats 12 spots ahead of the Raptors.

It really isn't shocking, but Roy didn't make the top 20 cut either. Which is fine, until you notice Randy Foye came in at #18 with a 76 rating.

Much of what I'm hearing is bad, which is depressing because I know I will still feel compelled to shell out the cash on October 30th. Damn you NBA Live, you never learn. And I cannot learn to let you go.

NBA Live 08 Release

With all the excitement around here, I nearly forgot the new NBA Live is out (I've been waiting, read here and here). I need to go buy NBA Live 08, but am holding off until the weekend as it is conducive to me not messing my life up. Fate has decided to tempt me daily, as there is a video game store directly along my daily foot-commute. I must stay strong.

Here's some first reviews of how the people are liking it on the Wii. As one of many who has been clamoring for a dynasty mode on par with EA's Madden games, its pretty disappointing to learn that it no longer even exists.

Assuming I'm able to get some quality Wii time this weekend, expect a review and I'll check in on how my predictions turned out.

NBA Live 08: Bold Predictions (get it? Ha!), 18

I've already written about my giddyness for NBA Live 08 to come out. Since I bought the Wii, I'm also freaked out that the controls will be too weird, but I guess I knew all that going in. In that post, I wrote about how I knew that franchise mode will definitely suck, continuing a tradition of EA Sports giving Madden something so awesome and NBA Live something so lame. I have a few more predictions, observe this official bullet points:

• LaMarcus Aldridge will be underrated. I know its coming, I think the rest of the league has yet to really aknowledge how good of a player he really is. Without Zach mucking things up, its gonna be clear to all this season. Unfortunately, the game makers don't know this, so playing with Portland won't be as fun as it should be.
• Greg Oden will be overrated. Will fans kill me for saying this? Its true. Right now, Aldridge is better than Oden (and it isn't that unlikely that this will always be true), but don't expect to see this on the game. Oden will be an animal.
• My Baron Davis-centric playing will continue to be sweet. Thanks to a solid season and a classic playoff upset, I'm thinking Boom Dizl will be rated at a pretty amazing level, which is great news for me.
• Franchise mode will continue to suck. Yep.
• The Bobcats will be fun. Who knows if this will work in real-life, but video games aren't about real life, and on paper, the Bobcats will be nicey nice nice. I look forward to reenact Walter Herrmann's late season run that saved my fantasy basketball season.

I want NBA Live 08

All things quiet for a minute on the Blazer front. The Garnett Trade was pretty exciting. Other than that, NBA Live 08 has been on my brain. Many people aren't so high on the franchise, but its always been good enough for me (although I admit almost sticking my head in the oven every year when I'm reminded how much Franchise Mode or Dynasty Mode or whatever they call That Mode is limited).

Here's why I'm excited:

The "as is" Blazers won't suck this year, so that should be fun. It will still be awesome to take terrible players and develop them so they can do this, makes me miss Luke Schenscher. I might actually have to stray from my long tradition of Baron Davis-centric team selection, although that will probably be better than ever also (thanks Mavs!), so maybe not.

Gilbert Arenas on the cover is the first time I've been excited about who's on the cover of a video game, my favorite result of The Year of the Takeover so far. It is odd to me though that he's in the gold alternate uni. Gross. Odd. Why?

I bought a Wii, so I guess the controls could be cool. Or they could suck. Seriously, if I want to play basketball I'll go outside. I buy NBA Live to play a video game. Apparently theres some confusion on this issue. This could be a huge mistake. There's a lot of comedy (and perhaps horror) listening to who I assume is some guy who worked on the game and has never before seen actual basketball (or the sun) describe it:

So the countdown is on to October 2. Another grown man too excited about the release of a video game. Please believe there will be a multi-post review up on release day.