It seems that basketball fans are either into EA's NBA Live or Visual Concepts' NBA 2K series. Like playoff contenders, both studios try to jam their game with new features aimed to take out the competition.

This year, NBA 2K is gaining the Living Rosters feature. Every time you play the game, NBA 2K9 downloads the latest information and stats available on the real-world NBA. Player ratings will change, and if there are any trades, your teams in-game will change. Another neat feature brought with 'Living Rosters' is unlockable animations. If any particular player in the real-world NBA is having a kick-butt season, the player will gain new animations. Like say one particular player -- let's call him Eddie Baskets -- has a tendency to nod his head twice before taking a free throw, then the in-game Eddie Baskets might gain that head-nodding twice animation.

Furthermore, details on the game's soundtrack were released today. The sound track is pretty sweet -- it's sort of hip-hop heavy, but hey, this is basketball. Judging from the artists involved, even non-gaming hip-hop fans might be inclined to purchase the soundtrack. 

A brand new and original track for the game, "2K Pennies", was commissioned by Take Two, and group The Cool Kids stepped up to the plate. Another NBA 2K9 exclusive track is "In Yo Face" by DJ UNK.  

Here is the line-up:

§ Beastie Boys - Root Down

§ Blackwizard - Dem Nah Ready fe We

• Blockhead - Duke Of Hazzard
• Bloody Beetroots - Mac Mac
• Dangerdoom - Sofa King
• Dawn Penn - You Don’t Love Me (Extended Mix)
• DJ Rasta Root - RootZilla Beez
• DJ UNK - In Yo Face **
• Gnarls Barkley - Going On
• Jamalski - That Undaground (Remix)
• Mochipet - Sharpdrest
• Mommy and Daddy - Pretty Loser
• Money Mark - Silly Putty
• N.E.R.D. - Spaz
• Nickodemus - Funky In The Middle
• Santogold feat. Switch & Freq Nasty – Creator
• Skeewiff - Light the Fuse
• Spank Rock & Benny Blanco - Loose (inst.)
• The Brand New Heavies - Jump ‘N’ Move
• The Cool Kids - 2K Pennies **
• The Heavy - Coleen
• The Limp Twins - Moving Closer to The Sofa
• The Meters - Cissy Strut
• The Pharcyde - Passing Me By
• Ursula 1000 - Step Back (Deekline & Ed Solo Remix)

As you can tell from the picture above, and the trailer below, the graphics for NBA 2k9 aren't too shabby at all.

The game comes out tomorrow for the Xbox 360, PS 2 and PS 3, and in three weeks, a PC version will be released.