Sovartus's Blog
I did a full review of NBA Live already so thank you to everyone that read my blog earlier. No sense in wasting time, Lets jump right into this thing.
Presentation:
The first question I must ask is, “what kind of virtual baller are you?” Do you want the game to look like what you see on TV or do you want the game to feel real? Either way both games have something to offer. The Live crew seemed to be going for a more life-like look while 2K was trying to build upon the success they had last year with their beautiful graphics overhaul. Live did a lot of things well like the shoes, tattoos, skin textures, and arenas. 2K hit on all of these things except the skin textures in my opinion. Everyone knows that 2K won this battle. There really isn’t a question about it but you can rest assured that this is a gap that can be closed very quickly and easily. Some people put a lot of stock in this category but my thoughts are, I can’t play the graphics. In contrast to that, my boy Croz says the game has to look good even though he can play through bad graphics if he has to. People have also made a few comments about Live players looking plastic-like. I don’t really see that, it looks less like art and the players look more 3-dimensional. 2K still looks better overall. With the incredible commentary and intros they are on a whole new level. We all knew the verdict on this one so I won’t spend a lot of time here.
Advantage: 2K
Online Features:
Here is an area that I really downed Live over. They just really dropped the ball in the online league section. I like the features that they made for offline play like the Dynamic Season. I also thought that they had a good idea with making the Addidas Live Run (a 5-on-5 pick-up game with the superstars). 2K on the other hand, took it to a whole new level with the Draft Combine thing. I personally didn’t really care about making up my own player and trying to make it to the NBA, but I have heard a lot of people say that it is one of their favorite things about this year’s game. I can see why people would absolutely love it. 2K also has that incredible online league structure that is second to none. NBA Live Rewind, Live 365, and the Dynamic DNA thing is still much better than NBA Today in my opinion. I have to give that one to Live because they started this mess and it goes right into Dynamic Season. However, overall EA doesn’t do online as well as 2K.
Advantage: 2K
Game Play:
So this is the nitty-gritty. Many of you will disagree with what I’m about to break down so I will say, more power to you. Let’s look at this from a sim perspective because that’s all I’m about. I will cut to the chase and say what the main difference is between these games this year. 2K wants it to LOOK like what you would see on TV and Live is focused on what it would FEEL like if you were on the court.
The first exhibit on display is player control. After playing 2K for the last 5 years, one thing has been annoying every year, and that's sliding. My man Czar said it best in his series on the 09 games, “If 2K slides, we will not buy!” Yet there are a ton of you who forgot about this and bought anyway. Is it better this year? The answer is no. Just because they slowed the game speed down some and changed the animations didn’t change the fact that players are all over the place. There is nothing more frustrating than wanting to do something with your player and having to wait until 2K’s miniature movie plays out before you regain control of your man. I had one instance where Zach Randolph was guarding Amare Stoudamire and when Amare got the ball, Zach ran out of bounds and got sucked into the referee for a quick hug. What? Here is the video.
I can see where 2K made some improvements like the turbo meter thing. I love it. They separated the post moves and tried to fix rotations. Unfortunately for 2K it seems like it caused more problems than it fixed in my opinion. Due to 2K’s lack of control and sliding, it becomes a straight mess. Time and time again I experienced big problems with 2K’s AI being indecisive and sometimes just flat out dumb. Here are a few examples of this:
Rudy Leaves Kobe for no reason.
Rudy won’t guard his man and neither will Zach.
Zach won’t guard Pau, Rudy leaves Kobe to help.
Turnover City
2K's post moves could be a lot better if you could actually control the player better. The fact that it is an all out struggle to get a guy in position is extremely frustrating. I can’t say that I practiced for weeks but trying to initiate the back down sequence is brutal. It’s not much better in Live but from what I understand, the Live patch will bring the back to the basket button back. Out of the box, 2K isn’t sim and Live is. That says a lot about the Live crew this year. I noticed in an offline game of 2K the CPU was shooting 68% on All Star. The good thing is that you can really feel the 82games.com influence on shot distribution. I noticed the same incredible shooting percentages when I played online. I played a buddy online and was able to get to the rack at will. It wasn’t as easy as last year but still way too easy. On Live, if you get to the rack, you have earned it. Live still has a bunch of bugs to work out like players standing out of bounds at the wrong time, the online fatigue switch is backwards (so if you want fatigue to work turn it off), match ups get all mixed up sometimes, and there aren’t enough fouls/free throws. There aren’t enough fouls/free throws in 2K either. Another bad thing about Live is the on-the-fly adjustments. They have a tendency to reset when the action changes making you lose all of the adjustments you may have made. 2K copied Live in the position-specific play calling but has always lead the way in coaching on-the-fly adjustments. While 82games data is good for 2K, it isn’t touching Synergy. Live has that one sown up and I don’t know that 2K will ever be able to touch them on that simulation aspect as long as EA has that partnership. It looks like this is the year that 2K fan boys dreaded. Live is on an equal playing field as 2K. 2K is that "12" that you dated who is as fine as all outdoors but her poor attitude gives you a headache! Live is that down to earth girl that isn’t the “bad chick” that turns heads but she is cool as can be and you love to hang out with. Which one do you want? I don’t want the headache, so I will just go with the cool chick that will make me enjoy my time with her.
Advantage: Live
Dynasty/Association mode goes to 2K. It is simply deeper. When you add in the My Player mode, Live can’t even come close to the replay value.
Overall I think 2K is the “prettier” game that everyone is already familiar with. Live is the underdog now and because of the garbage they have put out in the past, some people won’t even give them a chance. While 2K makes it look real, Live makes it play real. A good way to put it is this; you can play 2K sim if you make it play sim. Live makes you play sim. If you give both a chance I’m sure you will find a game that suits your fancy. This year I prefer NBA Live 10. I don’t think anyone could play 2K and think it has better game play. The bad thing is that 2K edges Live out in so many other ways that it is hard to give Live the crown based simply on game play. So, I can’t. 2K has a better overall product, no doubt. Live has the better basketball game. So …..
Advantage: 2K.
I still like Live better because I play the game, not the bells and whistles. But it's all about your preference.
# 31
D.R.E. @ Oct 8
I totally agree, 2k looks nice, and it CAN play sim if you MAKE it. but that aint good enough for me, without getting into too much (I've been defending Live on other MSG boards for months, to be frank, I'm exhausted from typing "pro Live" banter but I will say, Live 10 is the smoothest game of video game basketball I've ever had the pleasure of controlling with my joystick past or present, and I loved 2k like a wife longer than ANYONE I kno (including Sovartus..lol) I've seen 2k be a better game bottom line, they are losing thier touch, and i dont see them ever returning to grace again, definetely with the guy that made 2k so great in the first place, taking all his expertise to EA...it just aint happenin...2k will continue to diminish to an arcade heavy baller, and Live will continue to improve and eventually the scope of basketball video games will be faced with the same change in guild that happened back in 2007 when everyone at large finally recognized 2k as the better title....this aint 2007 tho...and I have a bold prediction, by 2012, Live will be the popular choice again...and people will sit down 2k unless they completely rebuild thier game from the ground up and start over...the way Live did in 2009.
# 32
cmehustle @ Oct 9
actually mj thats not totally correct. the best flight simulators or even ship sims realistically recreate different environments from all around the world just to make it so that when a pilot training actually does it for real, they dont recognize the difference since they have been "flying" all along
# 33
cmehustle @ Oct 9
and as far as the gameplay issue, Live is actually good this year! or maybe its that it was just sooooooooo bad before now that its actually playable, that when you dug yourself in such a deep *** abyss, that now that you can actually get through a full game we put it up there with 2k. well as for me, i got to get my dynasty in, so i will go with 2k. gameplay is closer than before, but i will go with association and everything else 2k has over ea's acceptable gameplay and ????? whatever else they have this year
# 34
NBA 2KLIVE @ Oct 9
great review..right on point...I too bought Live 10..after buying 2k8 and 2k9..Live is just a better game overall in terms of playing the game of basketball. and 2k10 is better overall when it comes to mode(which some don't care about) and the tv style presentation. I will say this though...you can't lose with either game
# 35
Lieutenant Dan @ Oct 9
All I can say is excellent writeup, Sov! Much respect.
Thank you for a (to me, anyway) non-biased, thorough, respectful review of two good games.
I love how much back and forth there is this year on these two titles, it's like the old days when EA and 2K would knock heads with great titles and many fans were forced to own both, lol (I'm thinking specifically of Madden 05 and ESPN NFL 2K5, but this used to be the case with baseball and basketball once upon a time last gen).
Thank you for a (to me, anyway) non-biased, thorough, respectful review of two good games.
I love how much back and forth there is this year on these two titles, it's like the old days when EA and 2K would knock heads with great titles and many fans were forced to own both, lol (I'm thinking specifically of Madden 05 and ESPN NFL 2K5, but this used to be the case with baseball and basketball once upon a time last gen).
# 36
tfin1212 @ Oct 9
Great write up. I've bought 2K and College Hoops (when it existed) for the past few years, but this year after playing both Live and 2K I went with Live. Simply better on the court....period!
# 38
TreyIM2 @ Oct 10
I came back here to read the posts and no matter how fair one presents their debates about which game has what over the others, some people don't respect that. Kudos to those who get what is being said here by Sovartus...but then you have people like Smoke4DAyz who is constantly running round this site trying to ram down people's throats HIS opinion about 2K10 being better as if were an actual fact then you go all over the world and back track to previous things that have nothing to do with Live 10 actually being a very enjoyable game of b-ball to MANY. Does that frighten you or something? Do YOU work for 2KSports? I don't get why you feel the need to bash Live and people who actually like Live 10. You're taking this waaay too personally. Maybe u need to lay off the, uhh, smoke, eh?
# 39
Ao defense @ Oct 10
hey live boi all the things you say you can do in live 10 you were able to do in 2k since 08.
# 40
Sovartus @ Oct 10
I'm a little confused as to why some of you guys are so stuck on one company. 2K has done a great job up to last year IMO so they should be happy with what they have accomplished. For Smoke to say that Mike Wang was not the most talented from 2K isn't necessary. Mike is a very talented designer and has partnered with the other EA designers to improve Live by leaps and bounds over the last two years.
2K10 isn't a bad product; it just isn't as good as live from a game play aspect. Everything else, it surpasses Live. The problem isn't 2K and it's prestige, it's that all that fluff no longer cuts it for people who are BSS players.(check my "What is in a sim" blog. Many of the people on this site are BSS players and can't stand to not to have control over our players. In order for 2K to correct what has them heading south, they will have to rebuild a lot of code. Basically they will need to scrap what they are doing and start over from scratch. If they do that, they would never catch up with Live. I'm sorry 2K fans; I called it in 05 when EA decided to start over that they would catch 2K in about 5 or 6 years. Well, here they are. Now, 2K is simply in trouble. But hey, as long as there are FSS players and people like Smoke, they have someone to make games for. If 2K keeps going at this rate, they will have a coaching simulator because the players basically do what they want now anyway. 2K needs fewer animations to make the game look good and more control over the action. I want to play a basketball game, not watch one. If I want to watch basketball, I will just turn on my TV.
I don't have a problem with EA taking things from 2K and implementing them. 2K is doing the same thing from the fans. EA does the same thing. 2K is taking things from EA and implementing them. Where do you think the 82game.com thing came from? Where did they get player specific play-calling? Both companies will copy each other because they are finally listening to the fans.
It's simple for the 2K fans. Both games can do features. If EA decides to have a "My Player" mode next year, it's possible. If 2K decides to put an "Addidas Live Run" in the game next year, it's possible. So features aren’t a big deal. 2K can't fix sliding and the physics because their engine doesn't support it. 2K can't match Synergy because EA has a 5 year contract with them. EA can fix the things that 2K has over them but those two things will never be matched by 2K. Those are very big things. So you may want to start thinking about your future gaming experiences.
2K10 isn't a bad product; it just isn't as good as live from a game play aspect. Everything else, it surpasses Live. The problem isn't 2K and it's prestige, it's that all that fluff no longer cuts it for people who are BSS players.(check my "What is in a sim" blog. Many of the people on this site are BSS players and can't stand to not to have control over our players. In order for 2K to correct what has them heading south, they will have to rebuild a lot of code. Basically they will need to scrap what they are doing and start over from scratch. If they do that, they would never catch up with Live. I'm sorry 2K fans; I called it in 05 when EA decided to start over that they would catch 2K in about 5 or 6 years. Well, here they are. Now, 2K is simply in trouble. But hey, as long as there are FSS players and people like Smoke, they have someone to make games for. If 2K keeps going at this rate, they will have a coaching simulator because the players basically do what they want now anyway. 2K needs fewer animations to make the game look good and more control over the action. I want to play a basketball game, not watch one. If I want to watch basketball, I will just turn on my TV.
I don't have a problem with EA taking things from 2K and implementing them. 2K is doing the same thing from the fans. EA does the same thing. 2K is taking things from EA and implementing them. Where do you think the 82game.com thing came from? Where did they get player specific play-calling? Both companies will copy each other because they are finally listening to the fans.
It's simple for the 2K fans. Both games can do features. If EA decides to have a "My Player" mode next year, it's possible. If 2K decides to put an "Addidas Live Run" in the game next year, it's possible. So features aren’t a big deal. 2K can't fix sliding and the physics because their engine doesn't support it. 2K can't match Synergy because EA has a 5 year contract with them. EA can fix the things that 2K has over them but those two things will never be matched by 2K. Those are very big things. So you may want to start thinking about your future gaming experiences.
# 41
jonesha2000 @ Oct 10
The only thing I didn't really agree with was giving 2k the nod on the online feature when we wouldn't know because the servers are never up. I rented both on Tuesday and so far I have played 1.75 games online on 2k. I got to the third quarter when it was nap time for the server and I was able to complete one full game. Today is saturday...it has taken me that long to play 1.75 games. My online with Live has been the exact opposite. Also, 2k's presentation and commentators are great, but personally I would rather have a rowdy crowd than great commentators. After playing Live, the crowd in 2k is very dull and boring. Next year, Live will take over 2k because Live is hungry and 2k is on cruise control.
# 42
apManila24 @ Oct 10
I think both games could have been way better. It seems like 2k just focused on presentation and animations, while live focused on getting the gameplay right and didn't really give a crap about the presentation. The problem for live is that their gameplay was so bad the last previous years that they were forced to focus on that the most. I'm not saying that live has the best gameplay ever, it's just that 2k gameplay is so bad and live made big strides this year. I think it's another bad year for basketball fans.
# 43
thunder008 @ Oct 10
the game has been out for what, 4 days? kinda premature to claim that 2k has poor controls. every single year there is somewhat of a learning curve to 2k's Isomotion. every year there is a learning/getting accustomed to the game period. I will take this "review" with a grain a salt considering the relatively short amount of time the game has been out. people always get a true sense of the potential and capability of a nba2k game about a month from release date -- after hours of practice and truly learning the controls and getting accustomed. 4 days doesn't cut it sorry; you can't master the controls in 4 days. plus, this review didn't really highlight very specifically what makes Live's gameplay better than 2k's. I think because Live has sucked for so many years, any improvement that puts it on a level of "playable" will be overblown by its fans.
# 44
Sovartus @ Oct 10
Thunder.......... (shaking head) Thunder..... You totally misunderstood.... lol
We are not talking about the controls... lol We are talking about sliding and the animations being more in control of the players than you are..... not stick skills. 2K hasn't changed that much that there is some big learning curve to figure out how to play the game.
We are not talking about the controls... lol We are talking about sliding and the animations being more in control of the players than you are..... not stick skills. 2K hasn't changed that much that there is some big learning curve to figure out how to play the game.
# 45
10yard-Fight @ Oct 10
was enjoying live 10 very much and then all of a sudden it just hit me like a ton of bricks that i wasn't really enjoying myself anymore. each game i played started feeling longer and longer and a couple nights ago i started nodding off while i was playing and it was only like 10 something(not to mention, i woke right up once the game was over). At that point i knew it was time for me to stop faking for live. it wasn't deep enough on the floor and the presentation is years behind. that was enough for me to go back to another year of 2k. i actually traded in live 10 and 2k9 for 2k10 today. im my honest opinion this is now the most realistic basketball game ever created... live is cool and a good game, but it still has a nice ways to go before it's really on 2k's level as far as im concerned.
Sovartus
20
502 Forum Posts
5 Blog Entries
85 News/Blog Comments
3 Reader Score Votes
34 Friends
11 Chalkboard Messages
0 Screenshots
2 Videos
43,954 Arena Visits
Sovartus's Blog Categories
Sovartus's Xbox 360 Gamercard
Sovartus's PSN Gamercard
' +
Sovartus's Screenshots (0)
Sovartus does not have any albums to display.
More
Sovartus's Friends
Recent Visitors
The last 10 visitor(s) to this Arena were:
Sovartus's Arena has had 43,954 visits
Sovartus's Arena has had 43,954 visits
Working...