So far, shot blocking seems to be the area that needs the most work. EA - please attempt to fix this for the retail version or via patch (if that is not possible, it should be the top priority for Live 11).
The shot blocking just feels very random and unwieldy. As of now, there appears to be no "intelligence" built into the blocking animations - all you can do is hit the button and hope your player performs a block animation that is good enough to contest the shot...unfortunately you often get a weird animation where your player jumps in the wrong direction, or just doensn't jump TOWARD the shooter at all. Many times the players will also block with the wrong hand - like if the shooter is to my right, my defender will swat with his left hand, which isn't even anywhere near the ball. If he had used his right hand, his hand would've lined up with the ball. When I attempt a block, it does not feel like my player has eyes or a brain, he just randomly jumps in unpredictable ways and doesn't look like he even knows where the shooter is. Shot blocking just needs to have more AI built into it so that when you press the block button, your player looks like he knows where the shooter is and at least jumps in the direction of the shooter - he should look like he's trying to get his hand as close to the ball as possible.
Part of the problem is that the players only jump straight up - there is no directional jumping. After all the great work they did to incorporate player momentum into the offense, there isn't really any momentum or realistic movement in the shot blocking and other areas of defense. You should be able to use the left stick movement to control the direction of your jump on block attempts...so you can perform "moving momentum shot contests" similar to the "momentum shooting".
They also need to add more contextual block animations for different situations...like when you are trying to block from behind the shooter, the animation should look different than a block that is attempted from a different position. Right now, it's always the same generic straight up swatting motion no matter what the situation...There needs to be way more blocking animations for various positions and momentum variations. Also, some contextual "collision blocking animations" for situations when there is body contact along with a block attempt. Obviously, this is something that probably could not be patched in because they'd need to mo-cap and create new animations.
Overall the general defensive control and offball control needs to be improved so it feels as good as the dribbling. They've nearly perfected the dribbling control and movement...now it's time to put the same type of control into other areas (defense and offball movement). When controlling a defender or off ball player, I don't feel like I have the same speed and "explosiveness" as I do when dribbling. If I'm controlling D Wade off ball or on defense, I should be able to explode and change direction just like when I'm dribbling with him. This would obviously require adding some more off ball animations like jukes, quick directional changes, and quick speed bursts.
When I move my player on defense, I want to feel that same sort of "pop"...the same momentum and responsiveness that is in the dribbling...on defense and offball control I want that same ability to do a quick burst of speed or a juke based on my left stick movement (obviously quicker players would have access to quicker speed bursts and directional changes, just like the with dribbling movement).
The shot blocking just feels very random and unwieldy. As of now, there appears to be no "intelligence" built into the blocking animations - all you can do is hit the button and hope your player performs a block animation that is good enough to contest the shot...unfortunately you often get a weird animation where your player jumps in the wrong direction, or just doensn't jump TOWARD the shooter at all. Many times the players will also block with the wrong hand - like if the shooter is to my right, my defender will swat with his left hand, which isn't even anywhere near the ball. If he had used his right hand, his hand would've lined up with the ball. When I attempt a block, it does not feel like my player has eyes or a brain, he just randomly jumps in unpredictable ways and doesn't look like he even knows where the shooter is. Shot blocking just needs to have more AI built into it so that when you press the block button, your player looks like he knows where the shooter is and at least jumps in the direction of the shooter - he should look like he's trying to get his hand as close to the ball as possible.
Part of the problem is that the players only jump straight up - there is no directional jumping. After all the great work they did to incorporate player momentum into the offense, there isn't really any momentum or realistic movement in the shot blocking and other areas of defense. You should be able to use the left stick movement to control the direction of your jump on block attempts...so you can perform "moving momentum shot contests" similar to the "momentum shooting".
They also need to add more contextual block animations for different situations...like when you are trying to block from behind the shooter, the animation should look different than a block that is attempted from a different position. Right now, it's always the same generic straight up swatting motion no matter what the situation...There needs to be way more blocking animations for various positions and momentum variations. Also, some contextual "collision blocking animations" for situations when there is body contact along with a block attempt. Obviously, this is something that probably could not be patched in because they'd need to mo-cap and create new animations.
Overall the general defensive control and offball control needs to be improved so it feels as good as the dribbling. They've nearly perfected the dribbling control and movement...now it's time to put the same type of control into other areas (defense and offball movement). When controlling a defender or off ball player, I don't feel like I have the same speed and "explosiveness" as I do when dribbling. If I'm controlling D Wade off ball or on defense, I should be able to explode and change direction just like when I'm dribbling with him. This would obviously require adding some more off ball animations like jukes, quick directional changes, and quick speed bursts.
When I move my player on defense, I want to feel that same sort of "pop"...the same momentum and responsiveness that is in the dribbling...on defense and offball control I want that same ability to do a quick burst of speed or a juke based on my left stick movement (obviously quicker players would have access to quicker speed bursts and directional changes, just like the with dribbling movement).
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