NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here 360 & PS3

[Pared]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

Ok, some good, some great, some bad.

Game is much tighter. I like how I don't have to worry about ridiculous bugs every couple of seconds. That much is a given.

I love how you can close out on defense. You certainly pay for your mistakes if you over play a defender. The CPU also runs a much better offense than the build I played. It could be that I had very limited time vs. the CPU but I certainly see plays being run and executed here as opposed to the build at Community Day.

The blocks are certainly changed. There is a delay, but as I speculated earlier I can guarantee this was done to lessen the blocks per game. It was over the top before and it's a little better now. Trade-off.

The shooting %'s up close are just way too high. That hasn't changed. HOWEVER, they did actually listen and made the defense more effective in the paint. Way too score once you get to the hoop, but that can be remedied with sliders offline. I already have a couple of settings that are "must-do's" in order to get more misses. Online... well...

Defenders now put their hands up in the paint on a shot. YES! Glad that got in there... the only problem I have is it's pretty much in-effective.

Help defense is MUCH better.

Overall, some minor changes made to the build I played to tighten it up... but nothing major. Most of the changes were for the better, I can see that already.

I just have to re-iterate how great some of the contextual animations are. I just had a PnR with Kobe and Bynum... Bynum rolls to the hoop and Kobe gives him this one handed bounce pass perfectly through the lane. Not THROUGH the defender's hands or anything... right where it should be.

Great stuff.

[MustangMan]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

Ok, some good, some great, some bad.

Bynum rolls to the hoop and Kobe gives him this one handed bounce pass perfectly through the lane. Not THROUGH the defender's hands or anything... right where it should be.

Great stuff.

You're right, some of the bounce passes are very well done as well as some other momentum based passing. I don't remember a basketball game that had this many realistic passes. Rondo was driving, pulled the ball back and shoveled to a celtic between the defenders that helped out, amazing.

[edubbs]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

- I'm hating the postgame. On offense its sucessful enough, but the amount of available moves appears low. On defense it seems like you can't guard them at all, or even contest any jumper coming from a backdown situation. I know the functionality is in there because one time using Odom I was able to push KG from the edge of the paint to nearly the 3point line when he tried to post up. That type of interaction between defender and ballhandler has been rare though.

Not being able to engage with the offensive player in the post with a defender, is REALLY annoying me in this demo.

Beluba, is it possible to lock on to a post player while defending in the paint just like on the perimeter?

I try to engage Gasol while defending him with KG down low, and I end up sliding all over the place. It looks like you can only lock on to perimeter players in this game.

I feel helpless playing 1 on 1 post D.

[Beluba]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

Not being able to engage with the offensive player in the post with a defender, is REALLY annoying me in this demo.

Beluba, is it possible to lock on to a post player while defending in the paint just like on the perimeter?

I try to engage Gasol while defending him with KG down low, and I end up sliding all over the place. It looks like you can only lock on to perimeter players in this game.

I feel helpless playing 1 on 1 post D.

You should be able to just push your defender into him and the 2 player animation should kick in. Are you holding down LT or no? Although it shouldn't really matter.

[Jano]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

I know what edubbs is talking about it happens to me too.

The 2 player animation isn't always responsive especially in the post. A lot of times I'll try to lock into a post player but it won't respond and then I end up giving up an easy basket.

It can get really annoying when the stuff happens each time down the floor. So Beluba does holding LT help in fixing this type of situation?.

[Beluba]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

I know what edubbs is talking about it happens to me too.

The 2 player animation isn't always responsive especially in the post. A lot of times I'll try to lock into a post player but it won't respond and then I end up giving up an easy basket.

It can get really annoying when the stuff happens each time down the floor. So Beluba does holding LT help in fixing this type of situation?.

it shouldn't matter. At one point holding LT would actually prevent the defender fron engaging in the post, but i thought that was fixed. Try w/o LT and see if it's any better.

[Jano]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

I tried w/o LT and the result is still hit or miss especially when the player is already moving. It works out a lot better when the player is stationary but once he starts to move I'm helpless.

And on the perimeter its the same way and it makes guarding players a little hard because if they get an inch ahead of you, you're usually beat. While I can get that same position ahead of a defender on offense and, they can usually cut me off or at least start the riding animation before I can get anywhere.

So basically my problem is stopping (or at least slowing down) players that are already on the move. As of right now it can be pretty difficult to stop a moving player with a help defender or the defender the offensive player just beat.

It's a little too black and white for me, its like I'm either in front of him or he's beat me. There's not enough in between going on there, hopefully this aspect is a little more improved in the final game.

By the way this is only when it comes to manual defense when I use LT it makes things a little easier but, I don't really the like computer doing all the work for me you know.

[stizz]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

After playing the demo for a few days I've noticed a few bugs and glitches:

• Sometimes the defending team will gather at the centre of the court until the opposing team scores.
• After the first quarter, the camera is focused on the sideline and doesn't change.
• Sometimes it doesn't show the tip off.
• You can make the person who is about to set the pick chase you in circles if you run away from him. The ball handler will then just stand there.

[dave374]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

Coming from someone who loves NBA 2k...

I'm actually very impressed with this game overall. Sure, the animations are still a little choppy, but there are also some really cool animations in there that I've never seen in a video game. The whole NBA atmosphere is better than it is in 2k, and the graphics are excellent. I'll have to play it a little more to decide on the gameplay, but with how fun this is combined with Live 365, and this may be a surprise hit!

Finally. Someone with an open mind.
If I read one more - "It'll never be 2k" I'm gonna puke.
I agree the 2k series has led the way for at least five years, but does that mean we relegate Live to the dumpster to the end of times?
Geez.
I have played the final build of NBA Live, and while it still doesn't touch 2k for features, its gameplay is very, very solid. This game is a legitimate contender now.
I'm not saying go out and buy Live over 2k. It may not be quite there yet, but a lot of you guys are determined to call it garbage without even giving it a chance.

[LAKE4742]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

For anyone messin' with the brightness setting on their T.V. usin' the EA Logo for optimization: I just found out that lowerin' the brightness on the T.V. actually loses alot of detail. It's better to just move the in-game contrast setting up one notch for optimization. IMO, it looks near photo-realistic! Perfect blacks , and no detail loss.
Still enjoyin' the demo-actually even more! The shot accuracy is just too high, though. Of course, I hate to adjust sliders, so I'd much rather have a patch for this small issue. Other than that, I can't wait to create my custom baller and play in this vibrant and ridiculously pretty game!

Unless......

[LAKE4742]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

But, somethin' that's odd to me about this demo is, in the CPU slider settings the offensive rebounding is only at 17, while the user is at 50. I thought maybe changin' the difficulty up to All-Star there'd be a change-but nothin'. Everything else is the same as the user, so why give the CPU a rebounding handicap?-strange. Maybe, it's just for the demo? I haaate changin' sliders, but that's really unfair. So, in this case I have to. The shooting foul slider I kind of understand bein' a little bit short, but not totally. Not a fan of sliders, period. But especially when they have such a broad range of effect. I say, just keep it simple, with 5 to 10 clicks available of adjustability.

[thmst30]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

OK I've trashed Live many times over the years and have hated where the game has been going, BUT I just played the demo and I'm very very impressed. I've played Live and 2K every year since 2K3, but the last Live I actually bought was 2004. I've hated this series ever since then and I've been a big NBA 2K fan since 2K5. Last year I didn't buy EITHER game, I played both of them and 2K was miles better but they both bored the crap out of me. I can honestly say after playing this demo that I will be buying at least one NBA game this year. I believe 2K will bring the goods this year for sure and so two purchases are very likely, but I'm 99% sure that I will get Live for the first time in 5 years. Yes there are still some problems and annoyances, BUT the improvements from last year are immense. I'm just really enjoying the hell out of this demo. I've seen things that I have NEVER seen in Live before, the animations are vastly improved, the game is graphically as beautiful as ever, everything just looks really vivid and crisp, the new NBA academy is damn cool, the Live 365 deal is very in-depth and has awesome potential, the sounds are solid, etc. If you played Live 08 and 09 side by side, most of the game would be unrecognizable. It really is a giant step forward from what I can tell. Now I just want to get my hands on the Dynasty mode to make sure its not buggy as hell. Still waiting for 2K to actually show me something other than a few videos, but no matter what I do believe the competition between Live and 2K has been taken to astronomical heights this year. Going to be the absolute best year for NBA gaming ever! Guaran-sheed.

Also, its been said that NCAA Basketball 09 is going to run off of Live's engine plus the extra time they get to work with it! I'm going to miss CH for sure, but that excites me. March Madness has truthfully been even more dreadful than Live the past couple of years, but for once it may actually turn out better. It needs to, seeing as its our only choice now.

Now some negatives:

• No importing draft classes
• The passing sucks nuts, way too many times I will press one direction to pass to a player and instead it pass the completely other way, either all the way down court or completely across the court. Created way too many turnovers that never should have happened. Also caused me to miss some wide open players driving down the lane.
• The players models aren't horrendous, but they aren't right either. Needs some work for sure.
• Having to hold down the left stick for the DNA/hot spots really sucks. Its damn hard to move players while pressing down on the stick.
• Time after time after time, I thought I had a three pointer only to find out that my player always takes an unnecessary step forward and steps on or over the line 50% + of the time.

Thats all for now, but overall the most solid effort put forth on Live in half a decade.

[slvicick]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

My favorite part of the demo is the unpredictability of the cpu. They run all around on offense and on D. I hated in 2K that after a while you could pretty much predict what the cpu was gonna do, how they would rotate, who they will double team...

[phant030]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

On perimeter D, instead of pressuring the ball handler up close. Which leads to easy penetration as IRL. U should play D at an arms distance away. So when u see a player driving, you can cut him off at an angle. Known as beating him to the spot. Thats good D. Works on human players as well....realistic to me. Also, try playing D by pressing right analog down. Defensive stance button.

[blingballa333]

Re: NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here (Xbox 360)

Have you guys noticed that sometimes you can step out of bounds but they won't call it. It happens mostly on the baseline. Sometimes its subtl but other times it's downright blatant. Anybody else seen this? I think 2k8 had this problem too???