NBA Live 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here 360 & PS3

[Stumbleweed]

Nice video -- lots of good playcalling happening in that one, and that Ray Allen pumpfake-then-leaner was beautiful.

[Chi Dynasty12]

This is the first time in 5 years that Live feels like they have made major improvements. Gameplay is much improved, but not at the level 2k8 is, or where 2k9 will be. It feels like this should have been Live 08.

The passing is the worst part.

(I was Live through '06, 2k since 2k7; not a fanboy, just pick the best game)

[the_future420]

After about 20 games of the demo, I'm ready to post my impressions. This is my first time playing any next-gen Live except for about 10 painstaking minutes of the NBA Live 08 demo. I'll start off with the things that bug me the most:

1) Offensive Control

In general, I feel like I don't have enough control. The last time I played Live, I felt that the freestyle control was superb. This was around NBA Live 05 or so. After fooling around in the practice gym for about 20 minutes, I felt I had a decent enough grasp of the controls. Once I got on the court though, it seemed like there were alot of times where I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but just couldn't pull it off. I really miss the pro-hop, I'm sad that EA took it out. I understand that it was abused in the past, but it was a perfect compliment to the freestyle control.

There are times when I will do a freestyle move, and once I finish it, it seems like there is something missing before I go up for a shot. As several others have mentioned, the right-stick moves are a bit unresponsive. I would have loved it if it were possible to "pre-load" moves to string together nice crossovers and breakdown moves. I think this would have went a long way in making the game feel smoother. There is definitely a bit of the "stuck in quicksand" feeling when it comes to using the right stick moves. In general, I just dont feel like I can completely make my guy do what I want him to do in any situation. Obviously part of this is my unfamiliarty with the control scheme, but I think part of it is the execution in the system itself.

2)Defense

On defense, its a mixed bag. Perimeter D feels nice (I'll talk more about that in a bit) but interior D feels very hit or miss. Closing out on open shooters is a nightmare. Why can't I manually use the right-stick to put my hands up? Pressing left or right on the stick attempts to draw the charge and it feels good, but the other directions aren't being used. If I could use the right stick to put my hands up in the post along with using LT defensive assist and the L-stick, post defense would be great. As far as closing out on shooters, what in the hell is up with the block button? It takes 2 seconds to respond, and once it does, alot of times my player doesn't even jump in the general direction of the shooter. I can be rotating with Pao trying to close out on a shooter in the corner, and when I press that direction + Y, he jumps toward the wing. Very annoying.

Now that I think about it, those are probably my two biggest faults with the game so far. I won't mention other things such as CPU offensive rebounding and shooting because those things have already been mentioned and can be fixed with sliders.

Now, onto the things that I like:

1)Animations.

There are some GREAT animations in this game. One of my favorite parts of this game contrary to what alot of you are saying is the jumpshots, specifically the leaners. Kobe and Ray Allen's sig shots look very nice. I love the feel of coming off a Garnett pick with Pierce and putting up one of those nice midrange leaners. Feels very nice. I pulled off a very nice baseline dunk with Kobe and have thrown down some nice jams with KG and Pierce that looked eerily realistic.

2)Play-Calling/Execution

As many have already said, the playcalling in this game is excellent. IMO it is definitely the best playcalling system in any basketball game to date that I have played. Calling plays is easy, and they are very intuitive to run. I love the myriad of options that you can run out of what basically seems like the same set. I'm so glad that there is no static play-calling art on the court. This forces you to think logically and react to what the defense is giving you and how your players are moving in the set. I definitely notice a difference between the sets of the Lakers/Celtics and I love that the CPU runs offense. There is NO super PG to be found here folks.

3) More Animations

Yep, I absolutely love the animations. Specifically when it comes to perimeter defense. Timing the passing lanes feels great, yet it doesnt seem cheap. When you time a pass perfectly and intercept it, you feel rewarded. In general, there is a good sense of risk/reward when playing Perimeter D. Steals arent easy to come by, and if you press the steal button at the wrong time, you will effectively take yourself out of the play and leave your team at a 5 on 4 disadvantage. There is a great sense of battling for position and beating your opponent to the spot when on defense. This is probably going to be the first BBall game that I can remember where guys like and Artest and Bowen will actually show their worth in more than just steals. Using them to ball deny as well as force there opponents into tough shots will probably be one of the more pleasing aspects of this game. Alot of this is because of the excellent foot-planting involved with player movement.

4) Flow

The pace of this game is perfect, IMO. I noticed that some of you bumped up the speed to 75, but I think that is crazy. The game speed is fine at the default 50. The tempo feels right. I havent seen a ton of fastbreaks, but the ones Ive seen have felt right. Im not seeing players stop to catch the ball on fastbreaks. Honestly, its tough to explain what makes the flow of the game good, but it just FEELS LIKE a real NBA game. Working the ball inside out, passing, player speed, it all contributes to a game that plays out like you are watching an NBA telecast.

5)Commentary/Presentation

I think this goes hand in hand with number 4. Marv and Steve just draw you in with their banter and their quirps about the players. You really get the sense that you are watching an NBA telecast, although there are some lapses where it is quiet for 10-15 seconds at a time. The crowd is great as well. One thing that annoys me a bit is the announcer though. He's been the Live announce for over a decade and his voice is just starting to get to me. Hes also a bit too loud. I haven't messed around with the sound setting too much though, so I may be able to change this.


Overall, this game has a very solid foundation like others have said, but it still needs some work. After playing the demo, even with its obvious faults, this game is very fun to play and has the most important feature of drawing me back for that "one-more game" feel. I will probably purchase this game day one now because I believe that with good sliders, this game, while not perfect, will deliver a very fun game of basketball.

[Stumbleweed]

About raising your hands with the right stick... it's in there, but it just takes FOREVER to get it to trigger. Even slower than the response time on the blocks (if that's possible).

[the_future420]

Quote: Originally Posted by Stumbleweed

About raising your hands with the right stick... it's in there, but it just takes FOREVER to get it to trigger. Even slower than the response time on the blocks (if that's possible).

Really?

If it takes that long though, it really isn't in there. I feel like John McCain in the post.

[-DaVe-]

First thing that stood out to me was the rail thin player models......

[Stumbleweed]

Yeah, and it doesn't seem all that useful in the first place. I saw that KG was going to likely shoot a hook and got in good position, was able to raise my hands before the shot released (first time) and it was still nothing but net. Heh, Live is getting more and more like 2K -- they've even added the useless-*** "tree stance" command hah..

[23]

Quote: Originally Posted by DakkoN

here you go KDRE.. My camera shut off near the end and I didn't get the whole video but I tried to show off some variations of the same play and mostly just screwing around

Thats for appreciation Dakkon