NBA Live 09 - Czarisode 1 Constant Variation

[Juice Malone]

Get that man a marketing job. He just sold me on live 09

[BigRan]

As I have said numerous times....... Live has truly stepped up their game. The floor spacing is a HUGE part of why these things work. I never have played from that camera view but it gives you an EXCELLENT view of the court...... and I like it MUCH better than 2k's cam.

I have been playing the demo a while and it is the 1st time in a game where I felt I could punish someone for perpetual double-teams. The spacing on the court makes it where you can pass across the court and it is too much ground for a defender to cover to block your shot (without turboing to them, but that will allow you to drive around them).

I also like the fact that if you make contact with another player you are NOT going to dunk...you are going to attempt a layup of some kind. Also, many people feel that the animations are a bit stiff (with a robotic feel)...... and while that may be true it forces people to not be able to simplyiso-dribble into the lane with ease.

[Termi]

awesome work! keep em coming!

[Jonesy]

Just a quick note to say thanks to Czar for putting that together, you a credit to the community.

[DC]

I am up at 6:30 and just happened to be browsing OS. I see this video and I go turn Live on. I am going to give it another chance. I didn't like it at first and turned it off after one quarter a week ago.

Thanks Big Cazr and this play calling system is beautiful. Simple and something you would THINK was already in a basketball game. This is beautiful man

[BigRan]

Also to Czar.......

Your video was as always...... excellent. I was unawre thate play variations were actually listed in the playbook, I simply noticed them during gameplay.

I also appreciate the fact that you try to be unbiased in your take on both games (Live and 2k). Live has definitely made some improvements to their game. I REALLY like the presure defense that will allow you to body-up on a person. I can really see this as being EXTREMELY effective against a person that is simply trying to get to the lane. By doing this and backing off, you can help keep them out of the lane as much. Especially with the defenders.

Live's improvements are the PERFECT example of why having both companies producing games is great. Live had DEFINITELY brought some improvements that 2k is going to have to address in order to stay competitve:

1) Court spacing
2) New 'Pick and Roll' control
3) Player DNA (updated rosters)

Now of course 2k still kills Live in some areas though..... The shooting in 2k COMPLETELY destroys Live. The shot-stick is simply too good, and the shooting-styles make a huge difference as well. In Live the shooters feel almost exactly the same. The shooting motions don't look right for 80% of the players. Also the free-throw shooting mechanic in Live is too easy. The best free-throw system I have ever played was in Insdie Drive on the original Xbox.

It was simple and made it difficult for poor shooters. You were likely going to miss withthem on your 1st shot because you had to adjust to the speed of the moving ball.

Anyway, let me conclude with this..... it is FINALLY nice to have 2 quality products for basketball from 2k and EA. Both will easily be getting my money this year.

[Da_Czar]

Quote: Originally Posted by jfsolo

That's good to hear. Also, I don't think any of us would have had a problem seeing the extended version of the piece.

Jf I went back through my stuff and I saw that Its only through ball pressure and playing the passing lane that they keep you from getting great position. They will take away that corner pass and pressure the ball so it takes you longer to get that pass inside or make the pass a longer pass.

You are right they need to tighten that up where pau is more aggressive. What they do keeps it from getting boring though but He or other post players should be more anxious to fight. Great eye JF. I will be doing a constructive criticism vid and that will be in there.

I ran the same play for hours on end though and never got bored though. So i think that says a lot for how they address that issue.

[Da_Czar]

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by to post. Its appreciated...

Live at first looks the same but under the covers they have a few things going right. If you can get past the things that remind you of its past there appears to be a foundation forming. I think we as a sim community have to be loud about what they are doing right that we like and help the newbys so they don't go back to the old way of doing things.

They have Super B on deck. We already know what he can do and he is like having one of our own in the EA dev meetings pushing more of a sim product. All of us 2k fans know what happened when he put that 2k8 animations thread in right after 2k7 launched.... 2k8 was NIiiiice. hehe.

I think were in for one Hell of a hoop season this year !!!