And five years after the rest of us became weary of their greed and incompetence, a huge chunk of the NBA Live '07 has wised up and realized that EA blows.

At one time, EA was producing the best titles money could buy and one had little reason to look elsewhere. Now gamers have a sense that if you want the best, it's not EA. Whether it's looking at the NBA 2K series for our basketball game fix, users leaving Battlefield 2 because they feel the problems will never be addressed, or former FIFA players moving onto Pro Evolution/Winning Eleven, it's a sense that we are all sharing. We look at NBA Live over the last few years and we see the same basic game being re-released with new fancy features. The same elemental problems from the last few years are still there, some have been tweaked but the overall issues still exist. While there are plenty of new features, it gives the impression that EA is saying in response to the lingering issues "yeah, well, HEY! Look at this!" Be it All-Star Weekend (a long time wish that EA has in fact fulfilled), superstar moves or dynasty additions. While those additions are nice to have, it is piling on a base that cannot support it. Instead of addressing the underlying fractures, EA is just constructing a new structure on the old crumbling foundation.

At the bottom of the long, open letter to EA by some frustrated fans is a long list of YouTube videos detailing some pretty hysterical NBA Live 07 bugs. Judging by the videos, these guys have reason to be upset... it's hard to believe this got out the door. Florian Eckhardt

NBA LIVE COMMUNITY LETTER TO EA [NBALive.org]

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