I would especially appreciate hearing what you Inside Drive fans think although I hold the same credibility with anyone who shares my same priorities in the gameplay department for Basketball games. Anyone who also loved last year's Inside Drive probably knows what I'm looking for since it obviously isn't graphics. This year I'm being open minded with all my sports games and it seems like Live has gone from worst to first on paper. I'll list my priorities in order and maybe some of you guys would be kind enough to address how these stack up in NBA Live. Please don't skip responding if you don't have an answer to all my questions. Even a comment here or there about one of my concerns will be helpfull. Also don't be afraid to comment just because you don't have a positive response to everything I asked about. I don't expect any of the Basketball games to get everything right in the gameplay department and they all have holes somewhere. To me it's about averaging out the strengths and weaknesses of all the games based on my priorities. If Live nails down 80% of my major priorities, I'll probably go out and get it.
1. Ball movement, player movement, spacing, and A.I. - I group these all together because I feel that they are all related. I usually love Sega but I hate their Basketball series regardless of how good their graphics get because it has horrible ball movement and off-the-ball player movement which are so important to making a Basketball video game flow and look like the real thing. I hate stagnant half court offenses where no one uses screens away from the ball to get themselves open. As a huge Piston's homer, I like seeing Rip Hamilton run off of screens so that he can get those temporarily open mid range jumpers if you hit him at just the right time. I like to see the spacing in such a way that after I sim a few seasons to where Darko is a contributer, I want to make the defense pay for double teaming him in the post by him kicking it out to the open man for an open look.
2. Team and Player Tendancies - I hate seeing New Jersey and San Antonio push the ball against me with the same aggressiveness. I want to see Kidd get out and run and make me sweat everytime they get a defensive rebound. I want to see Duncan get the ball in the post often and try to make me pay for double teaming him by getting it to the open man. Also I like what I hear about the primacy rating on offense. Is there other stats related to player tendancies or is that it? Also can I edit players before beggining my franchise if I don't like their ratings?
3. Statistical Accuracy - I'm not really worried about how many minutes it takes me to play a game to get accurate stats and I don't care about having to tweak sliders. What really bothers me is when I can't create an accurate representation of the game statistically regardless of the sliders. Is there any areas of Live that are so inbalanced that they can't be corrected by sliders?
4. Rebounding - This was a major problem in Inside Drive even though it was my favorite game last year. I hate when I can't get an accurate offensive to defensive rebounding ratio. Generally in the NBA, if you get 40 rebounds, 10 will be offensive. Inside Drive supposedly fixed this problem this year and made it so that your defense boxes out better. From what I understand, Live has the opposite problem. Can you get close to 25% offensive rebounding with some slider adjustments? Also, is it possible to come down with rebounds with a user-controlled player. In most games other than Sega's Basketball games (this is the one thing they do right), you really have to let the computer do all the rebounding for you. Will I be able to get them myself finally?
5. The Post game - Does weight and strength make a difference here? I really want to see some disparity down low. If I leave Darko to guard Shaq one on one, it should only be a matter of seconds before his *** is dunked on. If I bring Ben over to help out, I want to see the back down slowed down or at least make him turnover prone even with sliders set at low steal ratings.
6. Dunk Attempts - Are dunk attempts by the computer realistic? Most games have dunking sliders but all lowering them means is that you'll miss a bunch of dunks. I want to know if they (unrealistically) insist on trying to throw it down in traffic every time. In the NBA, usually guys will try making a layup when there's traffic in front of them unless they have a good, full head of steam and the defender is out of position.
So that's it in a nut-shell....graphics, animations, controls, presentation, and franchise mode be damned. Well actually, those things are also important however I expect that all 3 games are at least adequate enough in those areas that I can deal them. The only thing holding me back and waiting for Inside Drive is the fact that they have great player tendancy sliders and that they are online with the Xbox. If the default player tendancies are close enough in Live, I'll be able to overlook Live not having complex tendancy sliders. If the overall single player game is good enough, then I'll simply go another year without playing Basketball online which I could live with considering all the other online games coming out. All comments are appreciated.
1. Ball movement, player movement, spacing, and A.I. - I group these all together because I feel that they are all related. I usually love Sega but I hate their Basketball series regardless of how good their graphics get because it has horrible ball movement and off-the-ball player movement which are so important to making a Basketball video game flow and look like the real thing. I hate stagnant half court offenses where no one uses screens away from the ball to get themselves open. As a huge Piston's homer, I like seeing Rip Hamilton run off of screens so that he can get those temporarily open mid range jumpers if you hit him at just the right time. I like to see the spacing in such a way that after I sim a few seasons to where Darko is a contributer, I want to make the defense pay for double teaming him in the post by him kicking it out to the open man for an open look.
2. Team and Player Tendancies - I hate seeing New Jersey and San Antonio push the ball against me with the same aggressiveness. I want to see Kidd get out and run and make me sweat everytime they get a defensive rebound. I want to see Duncan get the ball in the post often and try to make me pay for double teaming him by getting it to the open man. Also I like what I hear about the primacy rating on offense. Is there other stats related to player tendancies or is that it? Also can I edit players before beggining my franchise if I don't like their ratings?
3. Statistical Accuracy - I'm not really worried about how many minutes it takes me to play a game to get accurate stats and I don't care about having to tweak sliders. What really bothers me is when I can't create an accurate representation of the game statistically regardless of the sliders. Is there any areas of Live that are so inbalanced that they can't be corrected by sliders?
4. Rebounding - This was a major problem in Inside Drive even though it was my favorite game last year. I hate when I can't get an accurate offensive to defensive rebounding ratio. Generally in the NBA, if you get 40 rebounds, 10 will be offensive. Inside Drive supposedly fixed this problem this year and made it so that your defense boxes out better. From what I understand, Live has the opposite problem. Can you get close to 25% offensive rebounding with some slider adjustments? Also, is it possible to come down with rebounds with a user-controlled player. In most games other than Sega's Basketball games (this is the one thing they do right), you really have to let the computer do all the rebounding for you. Will I be able to get them myself finally?
5. The Post game - Does weight and strength make a difference here? I really want to see some disparity down low. If I leave Darko to guard Shaq one on one, it should only be a matter of seconds before his *** is dunked on. If I bring Ben over to help out, I want to see the back down slowed down or at least make him turnover prone even with sliders set at low steal ratings.
6. Dunk Attempts - Are dunk attempts by the computer realistic? Most games have dunking sliders but all lowering them means is that you'll miss a bunch of dunks. I want to know if they (unrealistically) insist on trying to throw it down in traffic every time. In the NBA, usually guys will try making a layup when there's traffic in front of them unless they have a good, full head of steam and the defender is out of position.
So that's it in a nut-shell....graphics, animations, controls, presentation, and franchise mode be damned. Well actually, those things are also important however I expect that all 3 games are at least adequate enough in those areas that I can deal them. The only thing holding me back and waiting for Inside Drive is the fact that they have great player tendancy sliders and that they are online with the Xbox. If the default player tendancies are close enough in Live, I'll be able to overlook Live not having complex tendancy sliders. If the overall single player game is good enough, then I'll simply go another year without playing Basketball online which I could live with considering all the other online games coming out. All comments are appreciated.
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