In 21 days, the NBA season will be under way. For gamers, however, the future is now! This week sees the release of every known basketball franchise under the sun. EA dribbles up the court with NBA Live '09, PlayStation owners go to the line with NBA '09 The Inside, and 2K Sports bounce passes their own iteration, 2K9.

A trailer released today gives more insight into what 2K is calling their "Living Roster" feature. Essentially real-life players' stats and trends are tracked throughout the season, and then incorporated into the gaming experience. Personally, I'm not sure I'm psyched for the idea of a game that has a patch (albeit an optional one) every single time I go to play it, but if it's incorporated well, it could be the wave of the future for sports games. EA has incorporated a similar system into Live, but theirs will be a paid service. No word on whether 2K will charge for their roster changes.

Here's the video:

2K also gave the full soundtrack listing for 2K9, and unlike the Madden soundtrack, there is music here I've actually heard of. Beastie Boys, N.E.R.D. and Gnarls Barkley are the highlights of the hip-hop-heavy musical selection. Take a look:

•    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)
 

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