NBA Live 15 Hands-On Preview (iDigitalTimes)

[wdh6325]

Another NBA Live 15 hands-on preview has arrived, this one from iDigitalTimes.

They talk about the improved graphics, simple controls, customization and more, but they also note the game is too easy on offense and the defense is lacking. Maybe they were playing on an easier difficulty setting? Only time will tell.

Hopefully we see more soon and get some sort of official word on a demo.

[The 24th Letter]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

For those who can't get to the link.

NBA Live 15 does not release till Oct. 28 but EA Sports held an event to give game journalists -- and some basketball journalists -- a first look at their upcoming games. Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Sims 4 and NBA Live 15 were featured and I got to get some hands-on action with the finished product.

With the market having two premiere basketball games in NBA 2K15 and NBA Live 15, can it be that both games could be good? We already have seen how great NBA 2K15 looks, despite the hazardous facial scans, but what about EA Sports’ offering?

While this is not a traditional review, this is my first impressions after having some hands-on time with EA Sports’ NBA Live 15 broken down into five points. So Let’s get started.

LeBron Looks like Lebron

It’s become a staple in sports games to include facial scans to make their games look as close to the real thing as possible. In NBA Live 15, the EA team have really outdone themselves. Just as Madden 15 really nailed how the most prominent NFL players looked, NBA Live 15 has taken the biggest stars in the NBA and put them on your screen to control.

We got to see the OKC Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers play each other and the way Kevin Durant and LeBron James look on the next-gen console was a marvel to behold. From the tattoos to the LeBron headband, these graphics are as lifelike as you can get.

It’s also interesting to note that Ryan Santos, lead developer of NBA Live 15, said that they will look into having players scan their own faces onto their custom players, akin to NBA 2K15 in next year’s edition.

The Controls are so Simple; Newbies and Veterans can Appreciate it:

It was a point of emphasis that the controls in NBA Live 15 be simpler and that newcomers can easily pick up the game and dive in. This edition of NBA Live will have a tutorial mode to help players get the basics down and some of the more complicated offensive and defensive schemes.

In-game, the simple controls are noticeable with passing being a little easier along with driving and shooting. However, with these simple controls comes a drawback...

Offense Is Too Easy and Defense is Lacking:

While playing NBA Live 15, I found the offense to be a little too easy to control. You can easily drive to the hoop on every possession and shots are rarely contested by the AI.

But if you are controlling a player and plan to defend, you’ll have a hard time. Stealing seems random, with most of the time you try to swipe the ball resulting in a reach-in foul. Blocking is all about anticipation as the mechanics won’t allow for quick reactions. It got frustrating when my opponent constantly threw up alley oops and no matter where he threw it from -- one case, Kevin Love hooking an alley from the deep wing -- someone would come in and dunk.

Postgame And Halftime Shows Have Promise:

Many praises went to Madden 15’s handling of the Halftime and Postgame shows. NBA Live tries to harness the same greatness from the football game and is pretty close to matching it. EA Sports has hired the talent of MIke Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Jalen Rose to do the analysis for the game.

However, for the halftime and postgame it’s only Jalen Rose speaking throughout. From the version that I played, there was a lot of ‘dead air’ throughout, which was unfortunate considering how great it looks. Imagine you are watching Sportscenter, the rundown on the side is present so you know what they will talk about. And the postgame gives you options to see how each player or team shot in each quarter with a complete shot chart, which was really cool.

Customization is Very Deep BUT…

When I went to the career mode in NBA Live 15, I quickly went to create my own player to see how deep you can customize. And I was surprised to see how many different combinations a player can have. From hair, tattoos, finger wraps, socks and the great sneakers your custom player will be unique.

BUT with the implementation of facial scans for players in NBA 2K15 this sort of customization where you have to pick between only a small set of faces is tedious and seemingly unauthentic. In a world where the Wii U and 3DS can quickly scan your face and make a Mii character, NBA Live will have to get into that arena to really compete in terms of customization.

[DirtyJerz32]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

Wonder what setting their playing on. I'll wait to pass judgement until I play it, but maybe playing on higher difficulties would help some of the dunks and getting to rim. We'll see

[wdh6325]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

Yeah I was wondering what difficulty they were playing on too.

[nick_sr]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

So we can edit faces again?

[The 24th Letter]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

Sounds like the halftime show wasn't worked on much...which sucks because it has a fantastic set up, it's just kind of silly having those long pauses...I wonder if its difficult recording transition lines for each slide. Not a huge deal.

Hopefully it's a matter of difficulty, but the offense and defensive issues sound a lot like Live 14. Don't like hearing the mechanics not allowing you to react to things...and the soft AI inside.

At least this hands on gave some actual feedback...that's whats needed.

[swac07]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

"Offense is to easy and Defense is lacking"

And this is what i was afraid to hear

This is why I asked if there were any impressions about defense as well cause all we have seen is live strictly talk about offense. IF the defense is atleast better than last year..that will be ok...if your defensive player can move while his hands are in the air in 15 I can live with that cause that means they atleast touched defense.


This is why sliders are needed..hopefully since its being delayed they are working on balancing both offense and defense out....CMON DEMO!!!!!

[El_Poopador]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

Sounds like the halftime show wasn't worked on much...which sucks because it has a fantastic set up, it's just kind of silly having those long pauses...I wonder if its difficult recording transition lines for each slide. Not a huge deal.

Hopefully it's a matter of difficulty, but the offense and defensive issues sound a lot like Live 14. Don't like hearing the mechanics not allowing you to react to things...and the soft AI inside.

At least this hands on gave some actual feedback...that's whats needed.

This is one thing that's kind of puzzling. I know one thing they put an emphasis on this year was responsiveness, so I'm curious to see more on this. He mentioned stealing being random, but only refers to on-ball steals (which shouldn't happen often--glad to hear he got a bunch of reaching calls lol); he didn't mention trying to jump the passing lane for a steal.

[Playmakers]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

Wonder what setting their playing on. I'll wait to pass judgement until I play it, but maybe playing on higher difficulties would help some of the dunks and getting to rim. We'll see

Regardless of settings or difficulty this game IMO should have had sliders included for that exact reason...

I've never played any NBA LIve game in the last decade that didn't require sliders to tone down the offense and dunks.

I'm sure there will be some guys who try to argue that sliders aren't required but anyone who has played Live and is being honest about the game will tell you Sliders have always been needed to tone down those things that guy mentioned in the article.

I'm afraid Synergy alone isn't ging to fix those issues he described an neithe will the difficulty level ifyou are killed USER player.

AT the end of the day you simply need sliders to modify somethings to get a better SIM experience

[Jano]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

The defensive issues the guy had are interesting. I'm sure some of his gripes with it are legit but the way he described it sounded more like user error.

Reaching in for steals should result in more fouls if you do it excessively. And blocking should be about timing lol.

But either way tho interesting to hear him not liking the D in Live. It'll be the first thing I'm focused on when I get the game myself.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[wdh6325]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

He also said he was playing a finished product. So I wonder if they are still polishing and will have a day 1 update to reflect it or have they actually finished it. Because most of all the other previews we have read this week mention they were playing early builds.hmmmm

[DirtyJerz32]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

Regardless of settings or difficulty this game IMO should have had sliders included for that exact reason...

I've never played any NBA LIve game in the last decade that didn't require sliders to tone down the offense and dunks.

I'm sure there will be some guys who try to argue that sliders aren't required but anyone who has played Live and is being honest about the game will tell you Sliders have always been needed to tone down those things that guy mentioned in the article.

I'm afraid Synergy alone isn't ging to fix those issues he described an neithe will the difficulty level ifyou are killed USER player.

AT the end of the day you simply need sliders to modify somethings to get a better SIM experience

Sliders are a double edge sword. Sometimes they can break a game and sometimes they can help it. With 14, sliders would've seriously helped, but we all now EA's issues with sliders.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

Sliders are a double edge sword. Sometimes they can break a game and sometimes they can help it. With 14, sliders would've seriously helped, but we all now EA's issues with sliders.

But at least it's my fault if I break it by doing crazy things with sliders. Give me that option. Is it confirmed that Live 15 won't have sliders again? I personally think that's just nuts if true.

[WTF]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

If you play Live 15 on defense like you play defense in 2k, you WILL NOT succeed. I'll leave it at that. Reliance on L2 will kill you.

I've not read the article yet, but I can only assume that the issues with it are user control related and difficulty settings.

[DirtyJerz32]

Re: Another Hands On Preview

But at least it's my fault if I break it by doing crazy things with sliders. Give me that option. Is it confirmed that Live 15 won't have sliders again? I personally think that's just nuts if true.

Oh true, I agree with you and playmakers. Not having sliders like this is crazy. I don't know where the link is, but it's during on of the Q&A interviews.