NBA Live 15: Trailer and Features List Reaction (Roundtable)

Feature Article

Submitted on: 09/03/2014 by

NBA Live 15 finally showed itself in real action yesterday, as well as debuting its list of features. With about a month to go until release, the hearts and minds aspect of EA's PR campaign has only saw vieled letters of promises released up to this point, giving gamers little to be excited about with this year's title.

But now? Now we have some concrete info, and here are our thoughts on it.

Robert Kollars: Well, you can count me as one who is impressed with what was shown. I played live last year for months, and while it was extremely rough in areas, one could see the potential. Yes, it's easy to doubt this company after the last 5 or 6 years, but that trailer was full of strong attention to detail, authentic looking basketball, and much improved graphics over last year's title. As with many, I still need to see the game in motion with 5-on-5 action, but for me at least, the wait was worth it. Still not overly impressed with the feature list, but in all honesty, I would rather have them working on fixing the gameplay as opposed to worrying about new modes.

Dustin Toms: This might be the best trailer EA has ever released for the NBA Live franchise. The visuals look pretty good, but it's the consistent movement throughout the entire clip that gives you the maybe-they-got-something-right feeling. I like the added animations and the signature celebrations, especially Westbrook's 3-pointer -- that looked awesome. I wish they kept the camera on player's faces longer rather than switch in and out so quickly. EA is really touting facial reactions, so let's see them and dissect them.

It seems as though they've added in a tutorial mode, which was one of the largest gripes in last year's debacle. Perhaps the tutorial will ease gamers into actually being able to play the game and enjoy all of these "new" features. NBA Live Ultimate Team adds an auction house, which has proven to be a time waster with the Madden version. It's always fun collecting and trading to compete with the team that you want to win with. Other than that, I'm not all that excited for the additions to what was horrid gameplay.

In the end, until we see and play NBA Live 15 and know it is in fact playable, this game is dead in the water.

Matthew Coe: Well I'll tell ya what, EA Sports got this new trailer right. From the music to the action shots, the new NBA Live 15 trailer really showcases the improved visuals and some much needed new animations. I think NBA Live 15 may actually be a credible next-gen title as opposed to last year's effort. It seems that development team heard the fans and critics loud and clear and really did focus on making a game that stands out. I'm surprised and impressed.

Now with all of that said, I'm not impressed with the features that we got information on today. For me, I wanted to see a renewed focus on offline franchise mode somewhere in there and I didn't get that. I understand if EA Sports wants to focus on Ultimate Team and online play ahead of the more traditional "hardcore" features, because they've got to differentiate themselves from the competition. Ultimately though, the gameplay will be what draws me to or away from this title and we need to see some 5-on-5, as has been said.

At the very least, I'm interested in NBA Live 15 again and that's something I didn't anticipate.

Chris Sanner: Yawn. You can make NBA Live 14 look like it's a competent basketball game in a teaser trailer, so I'm not going to make any judgements on the gameplay at this point from a series that deserves none of my trust.

What we do see is that the visuals are definitely much improved, far above last year's effort and more on par with what NBA 2K has managed to do. What we don't see is how the actual 5-on-5 gameplay is going to be, and we likely won't for another week or so. The new paint-physics will help the game, as will the improved transistion game. But at the end of the day, this game is touting features the competition already does much better than it did last year, so any improvements are likely only to bring Live on par with certain aspects of 2K.

However, compared to the dumpster fire that was last year's NBA Live, this year is definitely looking to be a step in the right direction. Live simply needs to get the online human vs. human aspect right and nail something like Ultimate Team -- if it can do that, it'll have a future in EA's upcoming release schedules.

NBA Live 15 Videos

Member Comments

# 41 alaska2k3 @ 09/03/14 11:15 PM

I was impressed.

I enjoyed Live 10, disappointed by Elite 11 (played the demo before it got canceled), stayed away from Live 14 (reviews - especially Gamespot Comparison video), this trailer has definitely caught my interest.

I'm loving the faces so far, the scans look amazing, the skin tones look realistic to me (some say they looked washed out). 2K's got some tint/lighting effect on theirs, so I'm digging Live 15's art style.

The animations still look stiff to me. The arms don't seem to naturally bend, it's as if their arms - from shoulder to wrist - are one, reminds me of a bird flapping its wings.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 42 23 @ 09/03/14 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by watermark


	Rookie Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 2 The problem with words like 'yawn', 'vieled', 'dead in the water' and so on, is you are once again looking like a biased bunch of immature kids writing this site. It's clear the connections with 2K and their staff go back quite a bit, but for you to honestly welcome EA devs to this board and expect them to take you seriously is laughable. Spend a few minutes browsing the bball headlines for all of your recent stories and the tone is very obvious. You may certainly criticise 2K in articles, but never so damning in article headlines like you do EA. Again, if I was an NBA Live dev, seeing writers for a site even have the nerve to 'yawn' and pronounce my game 'dead in the water', I wouldn't give them a second of my time in a future interview or insight through forum posts. OS used to seen as a professional website with unbiased opinions, conveyed in a mature, sensible manner. But now we just get trolling from the writers, plain and visible bias and quite frankly, judging from what was written about Live 14, not a lot of videogame knowledge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by King_B_Mack


	BTW, why the hell is a dude that just joined the site in the last two days or so talking about what OS "used" to be? Uhhhh huh.....

Ill give watermark himself a chance to answer this one

# 43 DonWuan @ 09/04/14 12:22 AM

I searched the forum for a good year before ever joining. What does his join date have to do with anything?

# 44 23 @ 09/04/14 12:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DonWuan


	I searched the forum for a good year before ever joining. What does his join date have to do with anything?

You let us worry about that

# 45 I Djm @ 09/04/14 01:16 AM

Animations dont look too bad what they need to change are the jerseys and colors live 14 had the colors right

# 46 CaliDude916 @ 09/04/14 01:38 AM

I've watched the trailer a dozen or so times now and I really love what I see. Graphics are great, animations are good, the shoe game is crazy, the attention to detail is insane, and everything seems to run smooth.

My only gripe, and it's a well known issue, is the names on the back of the jerseys are so small. I was completely and pleasantly surprised with this trailer. I've been waiting for this franchise to return in a big way, and we may just get that.

# 47 Izzy Snow @ 09/04/14 01:21 PM

+1 for Robert. Sean O'Brien said it himself. What good are new modes if the gameplay isn't up to par? So this year the focus is on graphics, gameplay, and onboarding. Next year we will see features added. But adding auction house to LUT is major. It is hands down the most popular mode in all EA Sports games.

I agree with everyone else though. Anyone can make a sizzle trailer just like 2K did with #yakkem. We need to see the game in motion being played by someone. Preferably a developer.

# 48 Izzy Snow @ 09/04/14 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by watermark


	The problem with words like 'yawn', 'vieled', 'dead in the water' and so on, is you are once again looking like a biased bunch of immature kids writing this site. It's clear the connections with 2K and their staff go back quite a bit, but for you to honestly welcome EA devs to this board and expect them to take you seriously is laughable. Spend a few minutes browsing the bball headlines for all of your recent stories and the tone is very obvious. You may certainly criticise 2K in articles, but never so damning in article headlines like you do EA. Again, if I was an NBA Live dev, seeing writers for a site even have the nerve to 'yawn' and pronounce my game 'dead in the water', I wouldn't give them a second of my time in a future interview or insight through forum posts. OS used to seen as a professional website with unbiased opinions, conveyed in a mature, sensible manner. But now we just get trolling from the writers, plain and visible bias and quite frankly, judging from what was written about Live 14, not a lot of videogame knowledge.

I agree. Thanks for pointing this out. I was going to bring this up also but you did it for me. "Yawn" and "Dead in the Water" stood out for me. Robert was the only one that didn't sound biased.

# 49 Dr. Banner @ 09/04/14 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 23


	Why would you accept this game not being the best it can be? I don't understand this logic one bit. It's like a cop out. They need to be pushed to raise the standard as well as any other game out there.

Not sure why you don't get what he's saying. He's right it doesn't heave tobe better than 2k, and no way will it be, it just has to show the necessary improvements and steps to improvements in the future. NBA live has been so bad, that any decent improvement is something. Hopefully this year be a year we can finally say that live on to something there.

# 50 Dr. Banner @ 09/04/14 01:45 PM

Can't really blame them for not being focus on dynasty mode, which is my favorite type of mode, but they need tobe mostly focus online, cause that's where 2k clearly sucks at and we been giving a past to for ten years. They servers been trash a long time. So EA should be thinking how they can compete there because they nut gonna beat 2k in anything else.

# 51 Dr. Banner @ 09/04/14 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 23


	Well we know you don't try to deny yours. It's just amazing how you love to point out some bias but can't see yourself standing in the same crowd with them. And once again another obvious post. It's gotten real old seeing you do this stuff

The pots calling the kettle black all over this article. :-)

# 52 Dr. Banner @ 09/04/14 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by King_B_Mack


	BTW, why the hell is a dude that just joined the site in the last two days or so talking about what OS "used" to be? Uhhhh huh.....

I've been coming to this site for years, but have only had a account for months or close to a year or whenever I made this name. So it's definitely possible to know if things changed around here but not being a member for long.

# 53 shutdown10 @ 09/10/14 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Banner


	Not sure why you don't get what he's saying. He's right it doesn't heave tobe better than 2k, and no way will it be, it just has to show the necessary improvements and steps to improvements in the future. NBA live has been so bad, that any decent improvement is something. Hopefully this year be a year we can finally say that live on to something there.

You have to realize that EA told us that their Ignite Engine could not be ran on last gen because it was a highly advanced tech that was going to make sports game feel alive and have true player motion. Looking at those Live 14 and now Live 15 videos, we cannot take them serious yet because they still are holding back from making this game move right. There is an improvement in Live 15, but it's not enough imo, and you will see that when the consumers speak with there wallets again this year. They need to seriously look into finding a developer that can help them fix this serious issue with the movement and animation quality. Stuff like this would have been accepted last gen, but you cannot be critical of people who do not want to see that anymore on 400 to 500 current gen consoles with more power and tech capabilities. I told people on here that all of their excuses are gone, and they now have to deliver. The pressure they are facing are from the cancellations and the sub-par games they have released throughout the years.

# 54 Sundown @ 09/12/14 01:53 AM

The only reason Live gets the "bias" it does here is because of what it did to its own franchise and the fast ones it tried to pull with borderline false advertising for years while being unable to put out a product. When EA finally did it was far from a good one. "Ball-tek" promos versus what was actually delivered? Really?

Now Live seems to have changed its tune. It's marketing is comparatively understated and actually in the realm of believability. There also seems to be significant changes to the game with what very little that's been shown. You cannot be unbiased without looking at the Live franchise with an EXTREME dose of skepticism, but I will applaud the changes in both areas this year. It will probably be a relatively rough game compared to its competition, but it may end up being an interesting distraction-- and could possibly be a viable, perhaps even good product next year so long as EA stays the course and remains committed to simulation basketball and not horribly executed gimmicks ( Ball-Tek, dynamic dribbling, what have you).

# 55 King_B_Mack @ 09/12/14 02:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shutdown10


	You have to realize that EA told us that their Ignite Engine could not be ran on last gen because it was a highly advanced tech that was going to make sports game feel alive and have true player motion. Looking at those Live 14 and now Live 15 videos, we cannot take them serious yet because they still are holding back from making this game move right. There is an improvement in Live 15, but it's not enough imo, and you will see that when the consumers speak with there wallets again this year. They need to seriously look into finding a developer that can help them fix this serious issue with the movement and animation quality. Stuff like this would have been accepted last gen, but you cannot be critical of people who do not want to see that anymore on 400 to 500 current gen consoles with more power and tech capabilities. I told people on here that all of their excuses are gone, and they now have to deliver. The pressure they are facing are from the cancellations and the sub-par games they have released throughout the years.

No it wouldn't have and it wasn't, which is why we're in this mess that we're in right now in the first place with this series. EA pissed people off so much with this franchise and was getting their asses handed to them in sales so badly that people wouldn't even buy Live 10 which was legit a solid basketball game. The numbers were so bad that they pulled the rug out from under the team that was on the verge of bringing them back so they could turn the series over to hockey people so they could try to con everybody into giving them a quick fix on those sales numbers with that pile of garbage Elite. Which EVEN THEN as bad as that damn game was people were still in here clinging to every bite forcefed to them ready to co-sign whatever they spit out and yet we gotta keep hearing about all this "bias" nonsense. There's definitely a bias here and it's painfully obvious where it is. But I digress.

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