The best online experience from EA yet

Over the past few months anyone who has followed the site knows I’ve been very vocal about the poor online play that has been presented by EA Sports for years and most recently with the 08 line of games including Madden and NCAA Football. This is an area that has been neglected and dismissed as being unimportant.

In my initial impressions I was very pleased with how the online play for NBA Live 08 had turned out in terms of both options and performance. However I had some concerns that the performance could take a hit once the game was released and more people ventured online. I played a couple games on Tuesday to see how things were holding up.

All of the games were lag free with the smooth frame rate just as it was prerelease. Add to it that the games were flat out fun. From the first time I played online with Shawn from 5w-G it was apparent that the game plays better head-to-head (and he agreed). With the right sliders/adjustments some of the minor frustrations that come from playing the CPU could probably be alleviated, but playing H2H seems to cover up many of those issues naturally. I’ve always leaned towards playing mostly online, and until just recently (beginning with NHL 08) I’ve always been disappointed due to lag issues and lack of options.

Credit goes to the EA Canada team who were proactive and worked hard in this area. Add in a co-op mode next year and make some adjustments to the online leagues and for once the online play of an EA Sports title could not only meet expectations but surpass them.