The problem with all of this is that it isn't necessary to call plays. NBA Inside Drive 2004 has three difficulty ratings: rookie, veteran, and all-star. The first two levels are laughably easy, and even all-star difficulty shouldn't pose too much of a challenge for seasoned basketball sim players. By taking any star player or fast wing player, you can very easily work your way to the basket just by dribbling back and forth across the court while trying to get your man caught up in a pile of bodies. The problem isn't as pronounced as in 989's PS2 train wreck, NBA ShootOut, but it's there nonetheless. Without calling any plays, without performing any juke moves, and by executing a minimal amount of passing, you can easily work yourself into the paint for a close shot or an easy dunk. At most, you'll just need to call for a pick to shake your man, but the screener usually won't set up in the proper spot anyway.
You should be able to dunk it on most possessions, thus achieving 70 or 80 percent shooting for the game.
Actually, you should be able to work a dunk on almost every single possession. However, the game's dunk radius does seem rather narrow--especially in traffic. Even if you have a high-flier like Kevin Garnett, with no one but a guard between him and the basket, you'll see him take a weak, short jumper. We've experienced numerous occasions where our player wouldn't dunk, even with his feet right on top of the painted circle under the basket. These jumpers have a much higher chance of rimming out than a layup or dunk. Still, at the default six-minute quarter settings, we didn't have a problem breaking 100 or 110 points in most games.
Defense is a bit of an adventure. At the highest difficulty levels, the computer will find open outside shots with disturbing frequency. The problem is that your teammates often get lost as they try to keep up with players who are moving without the ball. Often, by the time you switch over to the lost player--to fix things--his assigned man is wide open and is going up with the shot. You can obviously reduce their chances by jumping at the shooter, but at the default settings, the referees in Inside Drive 2004 will call a ton of fouls. The sensitivity is set to a point where you're almost afraid to jump at shooters because you'll hardly get any blocks--unless you have absolutely perfect position and you time the jump perfectly. More often than not, you'll get whistled for the hack, and you'll send the computer to the line for a couple of free throws or a three-point play opportunity.
The computer will foul you often as well, as it is very aggressive with reach-ins and is a little bit too successful at them. At the higher difficulty levels, don't be surprised to see lumbering centers and power forwards tapping the ball out of the hands of slick guards like Tracy McGrady or Steve Nash. You'll get fouled often though, and, subsequently, you'll get sent to the line for plenty of free throws. Between your team and the computer, it's not uncommon to have about one foul whistled per minute of play, which can make games at the default six-minute quarter setting painfully slow. It might not be quite as bad if the free throw mechanic was interesting, but it's basically the same as an early video game golf swing. You press a button to start a meter on the "upswing," and you press it again to stop the meter on the free-throw-power target to begin the "downswing." Press the button a third time to stop the meter on the accuracy target. Anyone who's played a golf game within the past 10 years or so shouldn't have a problem achieving at least a 90 percent accuracy rating on free throws.
The game includes some RPG-like elements with its create-a-player feature.
The franchise mode in Inside Drive 2004 is very basic. You play up to 25 seasons, simulating or playing the games as you wish. You're able to propose trades and receive proposals from the computer. You need to deal with injuries (which occur fairly often over the course of a season) and a hard point cap that doesn't seem to take into account the NBA's "Larry Bird rule" that allows a team to exceed its salary cap to re-sign its own player(s). You can't set team tendencies, substitution patterns, or anything specific in nature while simulating your games. The off-season draft is bare bones as well. No player scouting is done. You simply choose your rookie off the menu, where it gives you exact player ratings. There's absolutely no mystery about what you're getting. The only interesting twist is that you can create a player and add him to a team. You can assign skill points to that player to customize him, and more points can be earned by playing him in games and by completing certain challenges with him.
Online play is available over Xbox Live, and Inside Drive 2004 is also supported by XSN service. Using the XSN sports Web site, you're able to check up on your stats, find tournaments, and interact with other players via message boards. The only strange thing we noticed about the interface is that we couldn't find the leaderboard, either in the game or on the XSN Web site. We've had mixed experiences while playing the game online. Most of the matches we played at home, over a cable modem connection, were marred by network latency issues, causing the game to be slow and unresponsive. The matches we played at the office, over a much faster connection were obviously much smoother. Your own experience may vary. It's still early, so there may be some growing pains involved as Microsoft brings all the XSN features together.
If the developers had only included a stiffer defensive AI--and one that didn't rely so much on reach-ins and steals--NBA Inside Drive 2004 might have turned out to be a pretty good game, even with its lackluster presentation. As it stands, the uneven gameplay, ho-hum visuals, and shallow franchise mode leave the game with very little to help it stand out from the competition. The bottom line is that there are better choices than NBA Inside Drive 2004, unless you're dead-set on having XSN-enabled features.
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