Upon Further Review
I have been playing NBA Live 09 more and I'm starting to see many things that I didn't realize were in the game. "Upon Further Review" this game is extremely sim but in order to really get into it, you have to not come in expecting to play NBA 2K*.
Here are a couple of my findings and notice, I said "MY" findings so I don't really need the bashing and biased view points.
Footplanting. I really like this. I would have to say that if two sim players, who knew the controls as well as we do with NBA 2K, I would be interested to see what the result was. Footplanting makes it so that the player's movements are a lot more realistic. you will notice that the absence of sliding makes moving around on the court a hell of a lot more difficult. When I say difficult I mean when someone is playing smart sim style defense.
You have to actually wait until your foot is planted to push off and go a different direction. This means you have to take momentum into account. I like this. Faster players are realistically faster. More agile players are realistically quicker. Players with higher post scores have more moves to attempt but it is limited to were you can place your feet. That means no animations that force the players back as your canned animation overrides every thing. This also creates a semi robotic look. However, if you look at the way players have to lift off of the floor, they will lift with one foot to glide or two to explode up. I like how this truly determines vertical leaping ability. It is now a factor. I have read some reviews about people saying this looks stupid but I have to beg to differ at this point.
I had a 52 inch vertical in college and I know what it takes to dunk and I like the realism here. Even though it doesn't look natural to your eyes in a video game, it is physically more realistic. This feature gets an A+
Playcalling. This system is driven from the New DNA feature. I'm not sure what to think about it just yet because I haven't really used it much. It seems a little basic and takes the sets and mixes them up according to the player you want to call a play for. I guess it could be very useful but I would be afraid that cheesers would just use it to call plays for Kobe all game. If it were two true simmers playing though, I could see how it could create ease of playcalling. I do like the Team DNA thing though. I like how it will allow people to see where the strengths of their teams and what would be the best strategy to use them. This Feature gets a B-
Quickstrike Ankle Breakers. I'm 50 - 50 with this feature. What I like about it is that the footplanting makes the moves believably limited in effectiveness. This is good because the players can't do anything too spectacular unless they have the speed, agility, and ball handling to do it. That is a very good thing. What I don't like is that it's too hard to pull off a move. I felt like I was playing Street Fighter for the first time. They took the constitution of the feature straight out of 2K. You have moves you can do with just the RS and if you hold the RT it opens up a new set of moves. Still hard to do for me. This feature gets a C-
Defensive Lockdown. I have to say that it is different. I like it but it will take some getting use to. I like how you still have to work hard to play defense even with the assistance of the computer. Holding the trigger only keeps you on the man according to their defensive abilities but you still have to play defense. You can physically control playing tight and up in his grill or loose enough to still contest the shot and not get burnt off the dribble. Double teaming is nice though. I didn't really get a lot of time with it but it seems to be a whole lot smarter than the doubling we have seen in 2K. Realistic people come to help double the man you want doubled and you aren't forced into some cheap animation. I give this feature a B.
Post play. I can't really say much about this feature because I have mastered 2K's post game so well. I don't want to be biased so I'll keep it brief. I know that there is more to the post game than I have uncovered so I can see where it would be nice. Unlike 2K you can actually create your own post moves. I kind of like that. I was able to actually pull off an up and under with KG and then plant both feet after the under and explode for a backwards dunk. "It was Nasty!" I must admit, if I could learn to do post moves at will, Yao would be something to deal with. I'm still too awkward with the stick to make a fair judgement. One other thing I like about the post is the ability to defend. You aren't just helpless down there, you can actually stop someone and smaller guards better be good to strip the ball from a big. I give this feature a B-.
Shooting and Layups. They have the shoot and layup buttons seperated. This can cause a major problem for 2K players. X is for layups and B is for jumpers. It's ok once you get the hang of it but it is extremely inferior the the Shot Stick. You have no control over the type of dunk or layup. You can't control anything more than making your shooter fade away from what I can tell so far. This Feature gets a D-
A.I. I'm iffy on this part. I think the players do realistic things that are smart basketball wise but it all seems very scripted. I don't feel like there is enough movement but I haven't really looked at the ten man motion capture in action (if they still use that stuff). This feature gets a C
Overall. I would have to say that if you never played a 2K game, you would be blown away by the realism this game provides. If 2K produced 2K8 this year, Live would be the better game. But we all know that 2K9 will be something special. 2K is creating the heat and when they release it we will all be doing the stop, drop, & roll. I will probably purchase Live 09 for two reasons. 1. NCAA Basketball 09 is the only College BBall game this year and it is using the NBA Live 09 engine this year. 2. I'm sold on the Footplanting thing and DNA. I like these things enough to give it a spin this year.
After playing the demo, I can actually say that I had fun playing it. I will say that the players in Live move more realistically than the players in 2K8. Only problem is that EA is a year late huh?
Here are a couple of my findings and notice, I said "MY" findings so I don't really need the bashing and biased view points.
Footplanting. I really like this. I would have to say that if two sim players, who knew the controls as well as we do with NBA 2K, I would be interested to see what the result was. Footplanting makes it so that the player's movements are a lot more realistic. you will notice that the absence of sliding makes moving around on the court a hell of a lot more difficult. When I say difficult I mean when someone is playing smart sim style defense.
You have to actually wait until your foot is planted to push off and go a different direction. This means you have to take momentum into account. I like this. Faster players are realistically faster. More agile players are realistically quicker. Players with higher post scores have more moves to attempt but it is limited to were you can place your feet. That means no animations that force the players back as your canned animation overrides every thing. This also creates a semi robotic look. However, if you look at the way players have to lift off of the floor, they will lift with one foot to glide or two to explode up. I like how this truly determines vertical leaping ability. It is now a factor. I have read some reviews about people saying this looks stupid but I have to beg to differ at this point.
I had a 52 inch vertical in college and I know what it takes to dunk and I like the realism here. Even though it doesn't look natural to your eyes in a video game, it is physically more realistic. This feature gets an A+
Playcalling. This system is driven from the New DNA feature. I'm not sure what to think about it just yet because I haven't really used it much. It seems a little basic and takes the sets and mixes them up according to the player you want to call a play for. I guess it could be very useful but I would be afraid that cheesers would just use it to call plays for Kobe all game. If it were two true simmers playing though, I could see how it could create ease of playcalling. I do like the Team DNA thing though. I like how it will allow people to see where the strengths of their teams and what would be the best strategy to use them. This Feature gets a B-
Quickstrike Ankle Breakers. I'm 50 - 50 with this feature. What I like about it is that the footplanting makes the moves believably limited in effectiveness. This is good because the players can't do anything too spectacular unless they have the speed, agility, and ball handling to do it. That is a very good thing. What I don't like is that it's too hard to pull off a move. I felt like I was playing Street Fighter for the first time. They took the constitution of the feature straight out of 2K. You have moves you can do with just the RS and if you hold the RT it opens up a new set of moves. Still hard to do for me. This feature gets a C-
Defensive Lockdown. I have to say that it is different. I like it but it will take some getting use to. I like how you still have to work hard to play defense even with the assistance of the computer. Holding the trigger only keeps you on the man according to their defensive abilities but you still have to play defense. You can physically control playing tight and up in his grill or loose enough to still contest the shot and not get burnt off the dribble. Double teaming is nice though. I didn't really get a lot of time with it but it seems to be a whole lot smarter than the doubling we have seen in 2K. Realistic people come to help double the man you want doubled and you aren't forced into some cheap animation. I give this feature a B.
Post play. I can't really say much about this feature because I have mastered 2K's post game so well. I don't want to be biased so I'll keep it brief. I know that there is more to the post game than I have uncovered so I can see where it would be nice. Unlike 2K you can actually create your own post moves. I kind of like that. I was able to actually pull off an up and under with KG and then plant both feet after the under and explode for a backwards dunk. "It was Nasty!" I must admit, if I could learn to do post moves at will, Yao would be something to deal with. I'm still too awkward with the stick to make a fair judgement. One other thing I like about the post is the ability to defend. You aren't just helpless down there, you can actually stop someone and smaller guards better be good to strip the ball from a big. I give this feature a B-.
Shooting and Layups. They have the shoot and layup buttons seperated. This can cause a major problem for 2K players. X is for layups and B is for jumpers. It's ok once you get the hang of it but it is extremely inferior the the Shot Stick. You have no control over the type of dunk or layup. You can't control anything more than making your shooter fade away from what I can tell so far. This Feature gets a D-
A.I. I'm iffy on this part. I think the players do realistic things that are smart basketball wise but it all seems very scripted. I don't feel like there is enough movement but I haven't really looked at the ten man motion capture in action (if they still use that stuff). This feature gets a C
Overall. I would have to say that if you never played a 2K game, you would be blown away by the realism this game provides. If 2K produced 2K8 this year, Live would be the better game. But we all know that 2K9 will be something special. 2K is creating the heat and when they release it we will all be doing the stop, drop, & roll. I will probably purchase Live 09 for two reasons. 1. NCAA Basketball 09 is the only College BBall game this year and it is using the NBA Live 09 engine this year. 2. I'm sold on the Footplanting thing and DNA. I like these things enough to give it a spin this year.
After playing the demo, I can actually say that I had fun playing it. I will say that the players in Live move more realistically than the players in 2K8. Only problem is that EA is a year late huh?
Comment