I picked this game up on Thursday, and I'll try to explain what it is like
to everyone who hasn't seen it. 
First, this game is not really a simulation (like NFL Gameday or FIFA
Soccer), but more of a NBA Jam with five players for each team.  In other
words, it is an arcade-style basketball game, which some people will
really like and others may be disappointed with.  The action is very fast
and everyone can do amazing dunks.  There isn't much in the way of running
plays, other than quick passing, give-and-go style driving to the hoop and
dunking.  On defense, you can intercept passes, but not slap the ball away
on the dribble.  Instead, you are best off "running into" the opposing
player and picking up the ball.  If he gets past you, you go for the shot
block. 
Again, I think the most appropriate description of this game is that it 
is a five-on-five NBA Jam, if you can picture that.
First, the good news.  These are in no particular order:
** The graphics are absolutely amazing.  The court looks very good (I
think it gives a parquet-style floor for every team).  The team logo is at
center court, and the ends of the court say the team name.  All of the
colors are perfect and the stadiums look great.  The players themselves
are large and *incredibly* detailed, down to the numbers and names on
their jerseys.  Their faces even *look* like the real players. 
** The action is very fast and *very* smooth, and I haven't noticed any
slowdown.  This is pretty impressive, considering the number of polygons
the PSX has to move to keep all of the players, the ball, and the
background in motion. 
** The game has all of the teams (including the expansion teams) and most
(more on that later) of the starting players.  There is an East and a West
All-Star team.  Again, the players look like the real people. 
** There is a play-by-play announcer, who does a good job of keeping up
with the action. 
** The sounds are fairly realistic (ball bouncing, crowd).  However, the
crowd noise seems to stay fairly constant and the "we will rock you" 
sounds more like drums than a crowd clapping/stomping feet. 
** There are five levels of difficulty, you can choose quarter length (1
to 12 minutes) and whether to give an advantage to the home team.  You can
play exhibition and playoff modes (and the computer knows which regional
championship it is, and generally chooses good teams to be in the
playoffs).  Playoffs can be done as single elimination or as best of
5-7-7-7, in which you have 2 home, then 2 away, then back home, etc. like
the real thing.  As many as 8 people can play at a time (with multi-tap). 
** The memory card is used *very* well.  You can save up to 3 (? can't
remember, may be 4) playoffs in progress, as well as saving your custom
pad configuration, camera view preference, level of difficulty, etc.  It
uses only one slot for all of this.  :)
** The ref (unseen) calls 3 seconds, 5 seconds inbounding, 10 seconds to
get past half court, 24 second shot clock, fouls on shots, and out of
bounds. 
** All of the camera views (sideline, 3/4 view, and sort of a baseline
view) are usable. 
** You have an "action" button which you can use to get around defenders,
e.g., crossover dribble, dribbling around the back, low dribble, etc. 
** The menu interface, especially the team select screen, is excellent and
intuitive. 
** This may be repetitive, but I can't say enough about the graphics. 
Incredibly smooth, players may taunt after a dunk, point at the man who
made the assist, no look and drop passing, catch over the shoulder passes,
take off-balance shots, etc.  When tired, a player bends over and holds
onto the bottom of his shorts.  Fantastic little touches like that make
this perhaps the most graphically impressive sports gave I've seen.  Also,
the characters are not "blocky" when they are close to the camera. 
Additionally, the instant replays are amazing, and almost look as if you
are watching a real game.  You have to at least *see* this game.  Very
impressive. 
Now for the stuff I didn't like.  It may seem like a long list, but please
don't take this personally if you have bought and like the game.  I like
it too!  :) I'm just listing the things that I think would make it better: 
** Most importantly, and this has been pointed out before, there is no
"season" mode.  Thus, there are no season stats, league leaders, etc. 
This alone will keep some people from buying the game. 
** There is no Michael Jordan, no Shaquille O'Neal (sp).  There are
probably other players missing, too.  I assume those are people who have
(non-compete) contracts for video games of their own.  There is no player
create mode to fix this. 
** Alonzo Mourning plays for the Hornets, rather than the Heat.  There are
probably other players in the wrong places.  There is no player trade mode
to fix this. 
** The opening (and menu) music is unbelievably cheesy.  It sounds like
Richard Simmons aerobic workout music.  The "game over" music is just
bizzarre, and sounds like your disk is melting inside your PSX. 
** There is no "speed burst" button. 
** You can only pause the game (with the start button) when the ball is in
play.  Not during throw-ins or foul shots.  This may sound like a silly
gripe, but it is more annoying than it sounds. 
** There is no backcourt violation.  Once you pass the half court line,
there is an "invisible wall" keeping you from going backcourt.  If you try
to pass back (over the midcourt line) to someone who is still coming up
from backcourt, the ball bounces veeeerrrrrryyyy slowly to where the
player will cross the halfcourt line and receive the pass (but never
crosses the invisible wall).  In the meantime, the defender cannot go
retreive this slowly moving ball.  This is really weird and detracts quite
a bit from gameplay. 
** The computer aids the team who is behind, like in NBA Jam.  If you are
behind, or the score is close, you can just drive right past the computer
defenders for a dunk.  If you are ahead by ten or more points, the
computer blocks *everything*. 
** A shot block out of bounds resets the 24 second clock.  So does
knocking the ball from the dribbler's hands out of bounds.  This is
horrible!  Even NBA Jam got this right.  This does not reward good defense
and is extremely frustrating. 
** There are only five players per team (unless there is some sort of a
code for more players).  Thus, there are no substitutions. 
** Because there are no subs, the computer doesn't even bother to keep
track of fouls (it doesn't even show up in game stats), since you can't
foul out. 
** The computer only calls fouls on shots.  Therefore, you can't
intentionally foul at the end of a game to stop the clock. 
** There is an instant replay after *every* made shot.  As I mentioned
before, it is graphically beautiful, but it gets repetitive.  You can skip
it, though, by pressing a button as it replays.  However, you can't
*choose* to instant replay anything, and can't control the instant replay
(no slow-mo, rewind, looking at the other side of the play, etc. -- only
iso-cam on the player who made the shot at normal speed after a made
shot). 
** Your players do a lot of standing around.  After you put up a shot,
everyone just stands there.  *Nobody* goes for a rebound or boxes out
until it's right in front of their face.  This makes it easy to get the
offensive rebound if you follow your shot.  You'll find yourself yelling
at your (computer) teammates, "It's right in front of you!  Pick it up!!" 
** There are no set plays, and everyone seems to post up really high. 
Every once in a while someone may set a pick for you (or maybe that's just
my imagination).  Thus, most of what you'll do will be give and go plays
or straight one-on-ones since you'll have to do it all yourself. 
** You can't choose to crash the boards or send someone long after a shot. 
You can't set up a double low post offense.  You never see anyone make a
backdoor cut.  You can't choose to press, though your guys will
automatically do it if you fall too far behind. 
** The announcer is from the Ridge Racer School of Public Speaking,
sounding a bit like (but not quite as bad as) the cheesy guy in that game. 
He mispronounces some names (Divac sounds like "Dihvus," Dumars is
"Do-MARS," etc.).  Also, he will sometimes say "Ball goes to [team a]," 
when in fact it is team b's ball on out of bounds plays. 
** There are no player create or player trade modes. 
** It is difficult to choose who you want to pass to.  There is a button
to change the player to whom the pass will be made, but it is often hard
to get the computer to pick the right guy, even if you try to cycle
through the players.  This could be made easier if there was a button to
pass to the guy you are facing. 
** On 2 on 1 fast breaks, the computer controlled player will not break
toward the hoop.  Instead, he will set up (like everyone else) at the top
of the key.  Thus, you both don't drive to the basket, and you can't pass
to the other player as the defender commits, which is the natural thing to
do.  Instead, you end up passing to him as he heads back to the top of the
key.  Ahhhhhggg!  >:(
** The ref (who is nowhere to be seen) only calls fouls in the act of
shooting.
** There is no shot clock above the backboard.  (Okay, this is *really*
nitpicking, but wouldn't this be nice?) :)
** No time outs.  Not that you need them, but it would be nice if one team
could get "hot" and a time out would stop the momentum. 
** The computer counts a shot in which the player is fouled as a missed
field goal in the game stats. 
** You can't move the player throwing in the ball.  Actually, this may be
something that you can't do in the pros, anyway.  I'm not sure about the
rule. 
I like this game overall, but I think some things still need a lot of
tweaking.  The graphics are gorgeous, and I would bet that a lot of the
problems I mention above could be fixed without too much trouble. 
I would suspect that this is an AMAZING multi-player game, where the
computer's AI problems wouldn't be as glaring.  I have only played the one
player mode. 
As I mentioned before, even though I have a long list of gripes, I enjoy
playing this game and really look forward to playing it against a human
opponent! 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Kennedy
brk@acpub.duke.edu