NBA 09: The Inside [PS3]

One of Sony's largest selling points for their basketball series has been the focus on true HD gameplay in 1080p, along with an easily accessible shooting mechanic and gameplay scenarios thanks to the NBA Replay feature. However, while the arcade-styled game was friendlier than some of the other basketball games on the market, the Sony NBA franchise suffered from old issues and a lack of some features found on the PS2 and PSP versions of the game. A year has passed, and Sony has recently released its latest installment of the game, NBA 09: The Inside. However, even with a couple of new features thrown onto the court, NBA 09 doesn't feel like it's improved at all in the offseason.

When it comes to gameplay, most fans going through a basketball title look for something that is vastly improved over the previous year's gameplay, or that addresses any outstanding problems that existed in the prior version of the game. To that end, you expect a new control scheme or gameplay mechanic to take advantage of. With NBA 09: The Inside, the most noticeable changes to this year's play aren't so much newly created gameplay features as they are changes to the pre-existing items that are turned off by default. One of the largest selling points attached to the series in previous years has been the inclusion of Sixaxis "Free6" control to dictate the spins, jukes or crossovers on offense that you'd typically use the right analog stick for. Similarly, the defensive "Free6" controls allowed a defender to "get high or get low" with his hands by tilting the controller up or down to simulate putting your hands up or down to interfere with shots or moves.

These have been disabled in favor of using the right analog stick to perform all of these moves on both sides of the ball. While you can still turn on the Sixaxis controls, and they still work essentially the same as they did last year, it is an interesting retreat from motion controls. The same can be said for the Showtime feature, which provided boosts to your team's shooting and speed, and the frequency of the rebound indicators, which highlighted the best time for a player to leap up and have a chance to pull down a shot. While the disabling of these doesn't make or break the gameplay, especially because you can turn them on and off at will, but it's fascinating to see how much 09 has titled away from the franchise's roots, particularly the direction towards the fact that the analog sticks, which are more accurate, have established dominance in even Sony's basketball game.

What has been addressed somewhat is the AI of the players in the game; they don't make nearly as many stupid moves as they did in last year's game. Now, you'll actually see the game taking advantage of fundamental parts of the sport, such as passing to open teammates that are parked on the perimeter waiting for the ball or taking advantage of mismatches and capitalizing on them. The AI also won't commit as many clock management problems as before, so it will take a shot instead of holding on the ball or fouling a player when they're behind. Plus, while it will still make a number of plays where it will run out of bounds and call for the ball or commit turnovers by stupid passes, the frequency of these problems have been somewhat reduced. In fact, the game will perform some impressive defense on poor passes, although the passing mechanic does seem to slight the bounce pass in the game in favor of tossing the ball through the air where it can easily be intercepted.

Even with some of the AI improvements, the tweaks only highlight the large number of pre-existing issues that have not been addressed at all in this year's game. Defenders will still "crab walk" towards a defender 90 percent of the time or more, remaining in a ready stance to attempt to cut off cuts to the basket but remaining susceptible to a quick spin or fast break because they're not able to get a step on a ball handler. Putting a body on another player isn't a guarantee either because the game has to recognize that it has to stop sliding across the field to make contact with the ball handler, by which time the ball is frequently passed or shot. There's still no way to perform a half- or full-court press, and even calling for tight defense requires hitting the command a few times to make sure that your team rotates to pick up a free man on the court. The low post game is full of holes, and you'll frequently see an offensive rebound because the defenders haven't boxed out an opponent who swoops in and gets an easy layup. The lack of branching animations also stands out, as you'll frequently see your players stuck in one animation or another that they have to complete before they can pass the ball or go up for a shot. In fact, their momentum will often carry them out of bounds before they can shoot the ball or pass to a teammate. Fouls also seem to have an extended distance, and other people in the office playing with me would frequently comment on how the reach-in fouls that were being called occurred without a defender near the ball handler. Fatigue, while used to determine when a player is subbed out, has no impact on a player's shooting or speed. I could go on, but overall, the arcade-like nature of the game and the unrealistic flaws really make the play feel antiquated.