awoolcott's Full Review: NBA Inside Drive 2000 for Windows
Microsoft's second NBA PC game attempt (some of you may remember NBA Full Court Press, which wasn't very good, more like terrible), NBA Inside Drive offers mostly arcade-like play, and really can't compare with NBA Live 2000. Don't let the $20 price tag fool you, it's worth the money to get Live instead.
ID2000 has all the usual basketball game features - all 29 teams, stadiums, seasons, created players, corrupt referees, and whiny over-paid "stars." It also has an exhibition mode (of course) and a playoff mode. So it's your typical hoops game.
That's where the problems begin. To start, the rosters are woefully out of date. I bought this game, fully expected to be able to take charge of the Suns, with Penny Hardaway and Jason Kidd leading the charge. Nope, sorry, try again. The rosters are that out of date. I did find out that I could download a roster patch off of the official Microsoft website (the best part about PC games is patches! I love patches!!..umm..sorry), but it was a hassle, and the rosters should have been more current at release (and the game should have came out in November instead of September). It's only a minor annoyance anyway.
So when you get down to playing (after the new roster patch), you discover some gameplay flaws that make you wish you hadn't wasted five minutes of your life downloading the stupid thing. First, the good. The difficulty is very solid and realistic. If you play as the Bulls (like me..how the mighty have fallen) against the Lakers or another powerhouse, you CAN win, it's just tough. A lot of it comes through cheating (Kobe Bryant got 75 points off of me), but it keeps the game challenging. I actually won that game at the buzzer, after a Elton Brand hook shot. You can win, as long as you don't get frustrated and quit.
Why? Control. Not too hot in my opinion. With my Gravis GamePad Pro USB controller (recommended), things get way out of whack. I can't tell you how many times I have accidentally stepped out of bounds or got caught for backcourt violations. Shooting free throws is a chore, because the game doesn't respond well to button presses, and it throws off your timing. Actual shooting of the ball isn't much better, it's very hard to line it up right (and when you do the computer blocks it down your throat). It's sloppy and slippery.
The sound is bearable, but it's pushing the line. Seattle Sonics announcer Kevin Calabro handles the PBP (play-by-play), and Marques Johnson (I think he works for Fox) is the color man. Calabro is actually very good (I always enjoy his PBP on television), but Johnson is terrible. Cliche after cliche and cheesy "hip" talk is annoying as all out. I could be give better insight than he does (maybe not). The crowd is voiced well though, really making noise when the home team scores, and booing when the visitors score. The menu music is cool though, with that street sound (or something). Groovy!
The graphics depend. The menu screens are VERY slick, and very easy to navigate. Clean and easy to follow, it's simple work setting up a game. The in-game graphics? If you run it on software mode (not 3D accelerated), it's not very good. The game runs a bit faster then, but the graphics take a hit. Everything is big shiny pixels, and it's quite ugly. Flip to hardware mode, different story. The graphics there are well detailed, yet something takes away from it. The frame rate. Maybe it's just my computer or 3D card, but it's slow as all get up. Very few games give you a headache playing it, but because of how slow it runs, I get one very quickly. Maybe it's just my PC, but either way you slice it, you have to give up one for the other (not fair!!).
If it's a basketball game you want, but don't want to spend a lot, get NBA Live '99. You can find it pretty cheap these days. If you want the current version, yeah, get Live 2000. Just know that while NBA Inside Drive 2000 may be inexpensive, realize, you get what you pay for.
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