It's kind of a strange time to be writing this review, what with NBA Live 2001 due to come out in the next couple of weeks. But with a game like NBA Live 2000, you really need quite a bit of time to check out all there is to offer. And even though I've had this game for a year now, I still haven't even come close to experiencing everything.

It's hard to write a review of Live 2000, because there are so many different aspects of the game that you can play. I just play a basic season as my favorite team, the New York Knicks. But Live 2000 gives you the ability to play a collection of All Starts from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's or 90's. Or, you can play a one-on-one battle on an amazingly cool city hoop court (with the option to choose day or night time play!). Match up Jordan vs. Bird, or Oscar Robertson vs. Alan Iverson. Or Chris Dudley vs. Shawn Bradley! The possibilities are endless! That being said, I wasn't crazy about the one on one feature. When you match up 2 great players, like Jordan vs. Bird, they're so good defensively that it's almost impossible to beat them--unless, you try a head fake as soon as the play starts. If they go for it, you drive to the hoop. If not, you drain a jumper.

As I said, I play a full season, and any complaints I have with this feature are minor. There's always the problem with rosters being out of date, however there is a great web site--www.nba-live.com--(not affiliated with NBA Live 2000, as far as I can tell), where you can download some incredibly detailed roster patches (if Alan Iverson decides to shave his head during the season, they'll have a roster patch update for it). The only problem with this is that once you start a season, you can't download an update (actually, you can but it requires the program Access and it appears to be extremely complicated). In that case, you can always make revisions to rosters as you go along. But that can be tedious. So if you're hoping to play along with the real season, it's a bit tricky to do.

The skill levels range from easy to extremely hard. I'm playing this season at the hardest level, and to be honest it almost turned me off the game immediately. I could barely score and I could do almost nothing to stop the opponent defensively. But after a while, I got better and now I win most games (my Knicks have a record of 43-19, which I know is not accurate!). If you're new to the game, you should probably start at the next highest level, and then work your way up to the highest level.

Overall, the game play is extremely accurate, with some minor complaints. Vince Carter will have a few phenomenal dunks in a game, but occasionally he'll have a clear path to the basket and will pass the ball. Usually, when a team's point guard has an open break away, he'll stop and wait for his teammates. I've had a few experiences like this where the player will just do something totally unrealistic, but there are not too common and they don't ruin the game at all.

The graphics on Live 2000 are great. Obviously, it's not at the level of the new Sega and Playstation platforms. But it's certainly acceptable. The players really do look like themselves, with a few exceptions (they did a really bad job of trying to reproduce Brian Grant's hair).

I have a few additional complaints with Live 2000. There are no technical fouls, which I think should happen every once in a while. Also, while there is an injury feature, it's not realisitic. My Knicks team has not had an injury all year, and there are only 20 games left in the season. I'd love to see these features change slightly in 2001. I think it would also be really cool if the new game gave you the ability to more closely monitor what else is going on in the league in the season that you're playing. You can track other team's records, and the standings and league leader features are really great. But it would be excellent if you could get a recap of the week's action, almost like a SportsCenter report showing results, leading scorers, even highlights. I know that's probably asking a lot, but it would be cool.

But overall, Live 2000 is a great game, a significant improvement from Live '99. I can't imagine that EA Sports won't improve the game with Live 2001, but if you can't wait that long then I'd definitely recommend Live 2000. There's so much in this game it could keep you busy for years!