NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

[Vinsanity115]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Am I the only one who doesn't have any delay on the shooting or something? It's not as instant as the other game, but it's not delayed, is just different. Players have to gather for shots a bit in real life too. I like it personally, maybe a tad quicker.

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[CMH]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Am I the only one who doesn't have any delay on the shooting or something? It's not as instant as the other game, but it's not delayed, is just different. Players have to gather for shots a bit in real life too. I like it personally, make a tad quicker.

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Are you using the stick or shoot button?

I never use stick. I'm shoot button all the way, no matter the game. No delays here.

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[Vinsanity115]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Are you using the stick or shoot button?

I never use stick. I'm shoot button all the way, no matter the game. No delays here.

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Stick, almost exclusively. No delay, just different, heavier lift off, which I prefer. I like the weight in general you feel with the game, like these are real athletes you're controlling.

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[videobastard]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

If they tone down lay up success and blocks with a retail patch it will improve the game play. Those are the two things that stand out on the default sliders. I currently have both on 20 for both human and cpu. But there needs to be a tweak also on offensive contact being raised to cause some of these driving lay ups to be contested more to lower the percentage of success.

[ffaacc03]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Well, I have just played a couple of games on all star, but in these 2 games had plenty of instances when my player (PF, space and rebounder) moved without me intending to, he jumped when I just had pushed L2 and nothing else thus I may not have pressed it, dont recall now, just wanted to have hands up ... my guy rebounded the ball without imput from me, was moved aside for someone to drive, pressed block but didnt do it, pressed to get back and he kept going forward to out of bounds, etc ... on that aspect it reminded me the competition, were sometimes you fight the controls, so dont get the better control than the competition thing.

Also, it seems very unsmooth in terms of how limited the animations are, yes animation heavy is bad but also animation light.

The pace is slower than 2K and I havent genuinely decided if it is better or not, there is something good about it, but also something that prevents me from liking it all, maybe has to do with the previous remarks.

Have not gotten to chapter 2 so, still havent played vs HUMs and still, besides all, trying to get some more time with the demo and that is a telling of something good is going on with Live.

[Mintsa]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

The ball itself feels organic.....

It's clanging the rim, bouncing off people's body parts and it's just a free for all for the loose ball and then the broken play happens which is nice.

Nothing scripted or pre-determined, I can't tell what's about to happen until it happens.

Does that make sense ?? Anyone else seeing this ?

[thedream2k16]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Stick, almost exclusively. No delay, just different, heavier lift off, which I prefer. I like the weight in general you feel with the game, like these are real athletes you're controlling.

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online is the issue

[The 24th Letter]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

The success of those contested shots is high so they keep trying no matter how many defenders are in their way

http://xboxclips.com/Teebone21/b4961...a-20c369844d7b

Smh @ all the dribbling in traffic...

There seriously needs to be a 'hold on to the ball too long' penalty or something to deter this stuff...

[JohnDoe8865]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Tried the demo with an open mind. I bought NBA Live 16 and generally enjoyed it, except for the lack of real franchise.

NBA Live 18's demo was nice in some areas, and weak in others. I think the game should focus on the streetball/online crowd if they really want to gain some market share because the single player AI, animations, and awareness isn't good at all.

I thought the streets stuff was ok, probably good if I was the demographic for that mode. The NBA game between GS and CLE wasn't very good however. I replayed it 4 times and won by double digits each time on all-pro. Not going to put up with the non-sense AI shot making ability that keeps games artificially close on SS. Higher difficulty should be a smarter, faster, better game from the AI, not shot making cheese.

I liked about half of what was going on in the NBA game, but too many times a player would just leave a guy he was defending, or an odd animation would play that would take a defender out of position and allow me to go by him or shoot over him. The acrobatic layups are so canned that make or miss, it feels wrong. I generally liked shooting, despite the floaty feel, it was fine. The passing was effective, by and large with some passes warping into place but nothing awful. The shot blocking is overpowered, even after I turned the slider down.

The biggest issue I have is that the CPU AI-controlled team doesn't seem to ever be playing with a gameplan or strategy in mind. Situational awareness is also very poor. Late in the 4th quarter, down double digits, the CPU should not be getting shot clock violations.

I won't be getting Live 18 at launch and if the franchise mode isn't really good and deep, and the CPU AI isn't much smarter in the full release, I won't be buying at all.

However, I do want to offer EA Sports some kudos for making an effort with NBA Live 18 and not just throwing in the towel. The game is good in "The Streets" mode where simulation stuff can be overlooked and I can imagine that 5 v 5 online gameplay would really shine in this title. It just isn't for me, based on demo impressions. I think for those who play more multi-player though, it's probably worth the pre-order price of $40 easily.

[JazzMan]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Online is so choppy, really kind of breaks the game for me and my buds. Just not sure if there's a franchise mode that could sway me to purchase if the online is always this laggy. It's like there's 10 frames per second.

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[2_headedmonster]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

I made it my business to give this game a fair shake...


I sat down, zoned out, and played it for hours. I went into practice, learned the controls and fought every bit of 2k muscle memory i had in an effort to really sink my teeth in. After all that, i came away feeling underwhelmed on almost all fronts. The game isnt bad per se,
the thing is, it just isnt good. Lets start with the pros

Pros

- I like the feeling of rebounding, it seems as if positioning matters. I dont remember too many times a player swooped in for a board that made me feel like my positioning was disrespected. One thing i didnt notice however was a way to improve your positioning. The comp has it, they're just not utilizing it fully IMO.

- The steals didnt seem as if they were a tool for harassment. I felt that reaching needed to be used sparingly and in a timely manner.

- Defensive positioning on the interior seemed to be aware of keeping themselves between their man and the basket. I really appreciated it considering how frustrating multiple rifle passes into the paint for cheap buckets can feel.

- The transition defense was aware of the need to match up, even if it resulted in cross matches. As my play time wined down, i almost began to wonder if it was too good.

Cons

- The double-clutch lay-ups are almost like 'posterizers'. They are slow, deliberate, obvious when initiated and theres very little you can do about them. I try to come with a help defender, i get a weak jump. I try to jump later with the initial defender to defend the clutch, and im drawn in. Very frustrating especially when....

- Majority of players finish with GREAT efficiency. Its over-done. Traffic? Lunging defenders? No problem, Shawn Livingston will simply avoid it all, and put it off the glass with the touch of an angel.

- I listed interior defensive positioning as a pro, and it was. There wasnt any noticeable times when a person who scored inside seemed as if he was ignored by the defense. The problem was that the offensive player could ignore the defender because the animation would disregard said positioning. There were times that i was amazed at how such an aggressive animation wasnt met by contact consider a defender was in the way. Id find myself scrolling back and forth in a replay whispering to myself "but he was RIGHT there".

- The shooting feels unnatural in its gathers and releases. If i didnt feel like my timing was off because of a clunky foot work, it was off because of how unnecessarily long id have to hold the button.

- Also under the clunky umbrella is the dribble moves. They too dont seem natural and I felt as if my freedom to string together snappy moves was non-existent.

- The on-ball defense is predicated on contact, the exact opposite of what NBA defense is all about. This isnt to say i have a problem with the hip-riding animations, I love'em. There's a time and a place for them. My gripe is that you HAVE to endure contact to get rim. Watch any nba iso clip and the contact between defender and ball-handler is minimal at best. Now when i try to digest it in a video game context, I can see why some really like it. It gives visual feed back, has a 'For Honor' like meta design and the contact gives defenders the feeling of being able to control the offensive player. I just cant praise it, because essentially it plays like a more deliberate version of the comps defense with On-ball and Lateral Quickness sliders turned down and less freedom of movement. I never felt like a quick 1-2 dribble could put the defender on his heels, freeze them or free me up. At all times i felt my best weapon was the step-back.

-The graphics seem to use some odd technique that only concentrates it efforts when at close range. From the textures, to the faces to the frame-rate, the best way i could describe them is inconsistent.

- At random times, the defender of the inbounder would go brain-dead at the top the the arch and leave someone wide open.

[RogerDodger]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Maybe be left to work on "the one" mode which is fantastic. I think Dynasty may be untouched.

Edit. Just saw WTF's post. Great to hear. Blog coming soon about Dynasty.


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He wasn't shifted from Madden to work on any other NBA Live mode other than franchise. They've been putting out some nonsense about wanting to align the two franchise modes feature wise, whether that manifests is another matter.

[BluFu]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Played for about 3 hours so far. I've got some mixed thoughts.

Big fan of the One (street ball). I'm liking the ball handler/defender one-on-one game play in this game. I hate that no fouls get called at all thoughAlso really liking that I'm not a worthless basketball player at the very start, I was able to do some damage on the court from the jump.

Not really liking the NBA 5 v 5. One thing I'll give Live here is that the defensive AI rotations are a lot better than 2K's. I let my friend (with little gaming experience) play a match and I see Draymond save his *** on 3 or 4 defensive possessions in crunch time. Literally came from nowhere and blocked shots at the rim after he played terrible defense on the perimeter. I thought that was really cool.

I like that Kyrie and Steph can do crazy layups at the rim but I think Zaza, TT and even Love are too good at the hoop. I'm seeing a whole lot of tip slamming by guys that generally like to operate under the rim, not above it.

Number one thing I pray gets a tune up for future releases are the animations. They're better than previous games but a LOT of animations just don't trigger/play out at a real life NBA game speed. The stepbacks for example are extremely slow and drawn out and it's really an eyesore to me to watch it unfold. Some of the layups/dunks have very slow takeoffs as well and it just looks very unnatural. I went and cranked the game speed up to 100 and some of my issues were solved at least.

Will play some more. So far I'll say there's a solid foundation for Live to build on.

[Smallville102001]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Just had my first example of bad clock management just now. I made a shoot with James to tie the game at 66 and got fouled with 2 seconds left and missed the foul shoot and the CPU got the rebound and instead of calling a time out so they could set up something with around a second or so left what do they do? Well instead they just try a like 3 quarter court shoot.

[Quentin32]

Re: NBA Live 18 - Demo Impressions

Just had a Jesus Bynum with Durant.

Dude didn't get back on D for like 4 possessions and I didn't notice until my assignment line pointed to the end of the court

Smh