(continued from previous page) ...the pass apparently missed its mark, we were stuck with having to call a time out in order to get the game working again.

Tweaking the game sliders works well in some cases and not so well in others. Just as an experiment, we tried lowering the entire computer shooting ability sliders down to zero. Not only did the computer continue to nail three point shots, but also their mid-range game was still effective.

It's also very annoying to work under the basket, since players tend to want to go behind the backboard or to toss the ball straight up into the rim. The move schemes are annoying. It's one thing if this is some scrub off the bench, but if there's one thing Dwayne Wade can do, it’s shoot close to the basket. It's simply laughable how often some of the top players will miss easy buckets from close range. This is especially infuriating when playing online, even if it is affecting both human opponents.

The Sprite Slam Dunk competition could have really used some more fine-tuning. It's incredibly frustrating to line up what appears to be a decent alley-oop only to have your player misses snatching the ball out of the air entirely due to a split-second lapse in your timing. This isn’t even accuracy, but more like complicating the game for the sole reason of complicating it. And on the other end of the spectrum, we were able to execute a perfect 50-point dunk, with LeBron's arm going through the rim and fireworks everywhere, only we have no idea how exactly it happened. The random feel of the event, coupled with its frustrating learning curve, makes it hard to really embrace this aspect of the game.

The three-point shot competition is similarly lackluster. We've played this mode before, in exactly the same way, and it's hard to suppress a yawn when you realize that the outcome is entirely dependent on some random workings behind the scenes. We've learned how to time our release at the peak of our jump already, so when we miss, it's usually due to the difficulty setting.

Free throws have been a much-maligned part of the series since it went for the stick-flicking shooting control. It's too difficult to make free throws with even the better shooters in the league. On the other hand, you can bypass the free throw shooting system entirely and just press the Circle button to toss in your foul shots. While this is a bad way out, it’s better compared to the original system.

NBA Live 08 is an improvement for the series, but still lacks in enough areas to keep it out of the perfect All-Star game. With improved defensive play, a fixed free-throw system and perhaps more original ideas, we can expect bigger and better things from the future iterations of NBA Live.