5 Reasons To Be Excited For NBA Live 18

EA Sports is about to make another comeback into the world of professional basketball video games with the release of NBA Live 18. The road to this place wasn't pretty, as it involved two hiatuses and a lot of broken promises.

EA Sports has tried to beat NBA 2K since forever - a tough task after their rival's output established itself as one of the all-time greatest sports franchises.

It took three years for the series to bounce back after the iOS-only NBA Elite 11, and last year NBA Live was also a no-show, because EA Sports decided that it would be better to just wait a year and return with something they're proud of.

NBA Live 18 will definitely be out this year, which is good news. It's noteworthy that the game is beating NBA 2K18 in at least one department: we know more about NBA Live 18 than about it's 2K counterpart. While some of this information may be discouraging - like the fact that the creators have chosen evolution over revolution - a large part of it is actually positive and can get the most devoted 2K fans hyped up for the EA Sports product.

It's hard to escape comparisons to NBA 2K, which had and very probably will still have the upper hand over NBA Live for some time, but it's OK to have a cheat meal once in a while, right? Taking into account the realism of NBA 2K, NBA Live may seem like a guilty pleasure of some sort, being less a simulation and more a right-to-the-action arcade.

The word "pleasure" is not to be ignored here. NBA Live was always very concerned with making the experience more fun than 'real', and fun it'll probably be. While NBA Live 16 was frustrating when it came to mastering the jump shot and other gameplay aspects, according to those that were able to play the new game, EA Sports has spent a lot of time attempting to fix what was broken, and so far the signs are promising.