Capture the NBA: My NBA Elite thoughts - IV THA UNITY's Blog

IV THA UNITY's Blog

Capture the NBA: My NBA Elite thoughts

Posted on September 28, 2010 at 06:04 AM.

Note: I am not trying to bash EA Sports or the dev team for NBA Elite. Just stating my thoughts.

My biggest problem with EA and their sports titles is that they are to busy trying to make their games fun. Basketball is already fun, I mean people actually watch it and have fun doing so. The thing that you would assume would be the problem would be capturing the sport from the dunking to the footwork (Details matter). Elite was lacking this big time and other than Avatar skins it didn�t really feel as if I was controlling Kobe, Garnett and Pierce etcetera in the demo. This team probably has been together to long and honestly, are to friendly with each other to challenge each other�s ideas in pre-production.

That is neither here nor there; I think they should just capture the NBA and then add the bells and whistles. I wasn�t really a fan of Elites controls but perhaps if the animations played out in ways that were semi-realistic and signature, I wouldn�t mind them as that would be my reward for learning these controls.

A good dev team would probably get angry but realize that all of this fan feedback even the nastiest comments are there to help push them to make a better game. Because for one, people need alternatives. These devs may even surprise themselves if they just capture the sport first and foremost. I am in school so I don�t know what methods they use for creating their game per se, but I myself would Capture the sport then ask my team how do we control these move sets from dribbling to shooting. How do we enforce ratings so that shooting doesn't become a cheese fest? How will control impact the capturing of the sport? Will too much control take away from the direction in which we are going? These should all be answered before doing any code. My point is to question everything, don't just run with an idea just to do so, because you limit the teams ability when you do so. Some of those guys on that team know this already, but I'm surprised the game turned out this way.

Also, in live ten, new control mechanics were added on top of the already existing one, so why not just add to that? This is baffling to me, as it seems the controls in ten was very much liked by the masses that bought the game. Here is a theory; I believed that people like the right stick for dribbling in Live, but because of the amount of things that 2k actually captured in their game over the years people have learned to deal with the issues that isomotion presents rather than deal with the limited amount of animations and sequences that plays out in the Live/Elite series. I mean till this day I can honestly say that I have not seen everything in 2K10 and I been playing it since day 3 of its release. In live ten although it had Signature, I saw everything there was to see in probably about a month or two.

Again I am not trying to bash the Elite devs, I am just stating that Basketball is fun in and of itself. Capture the sport from the basics to the details and signature, give the user control and make sure there is enough there to make sure the user doesn�t get bored after seeing everything past six months and Live will be on an even Keel. By the way when I say capture the sport, this means realistic jumping, shot contesting/blocking, Rebounding, all of the rules, foot planting, post moves, realistic defensive recovery, signature, dribbling/shooting, shot arcs, backboard shots, collisions, etc.

The one thing I loved about Elite is the Presentation, even though I hate espn Broadcast techniques in real life, it definitely made me feel like I was watching a television broadcast. If the devs can do this for Elite 12, I believe they will be successful down the road. However, I think Elite 11 should be scrapped or turned into Elite 12 for next October. What do you guys think?

Comments

# 1 cuzzo @ Sep 28

not!!! give me elite in january cause you can still have it both ways. in january release elite 11 and in october release elite 12 why you ask? cause if ea gets it right they will have alot of momentum towards 12. also once 2k fanboys get burnt out on a great OFFLINE game(2k servers are the worst in history) they will beg for the better ONLINE game that is elite 11.

# 2 IV THA UNITY @ Sep 28

Okay, Elite 11 in January won't be much different from what you saw in the demo but if they take a whole year it will be that much better in 12. There would be too many resources dedicated to releasing the game which would cut into development time. Which in turn would hurt elite 12 if they release 11 in jan. Just cancel it and work straight through to the next release date and they should ultimately have A great BBall title. Momentum won't mean anything if Elite is Just Polished to the point where the hook shot is fixed and the jesus bynum glitch is gone. There are just too many issues. You will undoubtedly get a better game if they just go straight through to 12. Just from a development standpoint its not logical and elite 12 would end up being the same game as 11. This is not anything you can really debate. The only way to do this is if they have a background team working on elite 12.