NBA Live 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (360)

[sambowie]

Quote: Originally Posted by Scoop 24

just use this and Queue it up from here. than startup your system it will automatically start downloading. http://marketplace.xbox.com/zh-SG/ga...-d802454108c1/

TYTYTYTYTYTY

[The 24th Letter]

demo is decent....the Live team really put in work this year....

a few likes a dislikes..

atmosphere....best in the biz...I love the way the crowd erupts in this game...

control is cool, you have alot of well...control....I just wish you could get past someone w\ your speed rather then having to do a cross or dribble move every time...

still not feeling the lack of animations....looks like there are only a couple collision animations when driving toward the basket, which can make things stl imo...

I definitely like the passing controls...great new feature I cant wait to explore more...

dunking, layups still look clunky to me in some spots...Its not super fast like prior Lives, but sometimes it still looks awkward

some player faces and models on some players are laugh out loud funny to me man lol like Kevin Durant in the other game funny....

I actually like the commentary..probably b\c im sucha fan of Marv

overall, pretty good...still not getting that feeling of individuality that I craved from last years game...but hey,you can only play w\ two teams...ill have to wait and see.

[TheKasmar]

It's finally playable for me.

Positives:

• steals are varied and unpreditcable
• Freestyle passing on the right stick feels great
• Atmosphere and sound is excellent
• Signature shots look spot on
• Dribble to shot animations feel fluid
• Announcing is good(Nice job Marv)
• Off ball fouls done well
• Feels great not to be sucked in to a double team

Negatives:

• The prancing back downcourt animation is horrible
• saw alot of forced shots from the cpu that led to same forced shot animation
• When I substitute a player during play, that player doesn't come off the bench(maybe it's a demo thing)

[BamaBoy88]

Definitely a buy for me, I love how you finally have to play real basketball to be successful in the game. It's not perfect but it's definitely moving in the right direction and will definitely be challenging 2k10 this year.

[cool2fool]

Quote: Originally Posted by sambowie

TYTYTYTYTYTY

whats that for?

[lakers4life]

Can someone tell me if the lakers organ is in the game? The "let's go lakers" one

[XxX syntax XxX]

Quote: Originally Posted by cool2fool

whats that for?

The game has a learning curve and we all can get use to it. Like fight night with the analog everyone hated it at first but it grew on them..Live is back tho 100 percent

[MagillaGorilla]

Ok so I've had the demo for a couple of hours. Here are my initial impressions which may change in the next week or so as I get more time with the game. *** I played the first three games on Allstar, then the rest (maybe another 8-10 games on Superstar). I figured I would break this down into sections so you guys can read the parts that are important to you. Here we go....


Graphics
Huge step up from 09, lets get that out the way. The player models look very good. There are plenty of different body types, but the skin textures could use a little work. The players often look too "shiny", and certain players (while playing in the "hangar") have the completely wrong skin tone. Lebron James is not that light skinned. But thats why I said in the hangar, because the lighting in there and on the court are very different. Another thing that caught my attention are the faces. While VASTLY improved over last year, they are hit or miss, and they are still a step below 2k9's faces(not overall graphics, just the faces). Lets talk about the court. The lighting in the crowd is great, very comparable to the real life Staples Center. There are cheerleaders, but I have not noticed them even stand up or do anything(not important I know, but if they're there, do something). The bench shows support through out the game, but sometimes they just stay standing up for a while. I decided to tone down the brightness of the game, and the saturation. Ok back to the players. You can definitely tell there are tons of new animations the Devs have captured to prevent the warping that happened in previous years. My only gripe was that a lot of moves still looked unnatural and robotic, but the ones that flowed smoothly, look SICK! Luckily the dribbling animations are spot on.

Presentation
I love the Hangar. I love how Lebron walks in and pretty much gives everybody an "AYO" (im in the building). Being able to play in the Hangar while the game loads is great so your not just there waiting for it to load. Once it does load, it shows you a pic of the staples center (which could be a little more detailed, and crisp) and off to the arena. There are no (at least in the demo) introductions, rather yet your team stands together and it shows all of their names and position. This area could have done so much more. It shows pregame routines which look great and you see players laughin and goofin off. Overall its pretty much on point, and I'm sure(I hope, lol) that there are other elements or cut scenes the full game will have.

Audio
Sneaker squeaks, players talking, and the commentary crew all sound great. The commentary kept it pretty varied. I played alot of games, and it was kind of rare to hear the same thing twice. Thats reassuring considering this only a demo. What I didnt like was the sound of the net, bouncing of the ball, and the ridiculous sounding blocks. LOL, I used Jameer Nelson and barely blocked Fisher and it sounded like I punched the ball to the other side of the court. Nothing serious there, and I'll probably just turn the sound effects slider down when playing the full version.

Gameplay
This is what you guys want to know about. Well lets get right into it. The right stick is the . I played in the hangar for almost a half hour before even playing a game. I love the hesitation moves, the step backs, the double cross, the spin move. It took alot to get used to using the right stick. It's very responsive and theres different combinations. You can use the RT + the stick, or you can go without the RT. Your momentum, angles, and player all affect what you can and can not pull off(which is great). Each player has a sense of weight to him. First thing I noticed is when I switched from Wade to Dwight. WOW what a difference. Wade can pretty much cross, spin and drive to the hoop for the slam. Meanwhile, Dwight can do standard cross overs(that will get stripped when playing a real game) and a slow drive to the hoop. I noticed that Kobe, Wade, Lebron and pretty much everyone in the hangar had their own dunks. I didnt see Wade doing any Lebron tomahawks, or Dwight doing a Kobe dunk, etc. The dunks no longer suck you in, and look pretty fluid. The passing game is serious. I love the LT+ Right stick combo. After I felt comfortable I hardly used Icon passing, or regular ol' A button. Keep in mind though, that overusing the LT+ RS will likely lead to some unfortunate turnovers. Especially if there are two players in the area you want to pass it to. Thanks to this system Fastbreaks are beautiful to run. Look at one instance I had. Nelson on the break, crosses Kobe, goes semi baseline, Kobe cuts him off, Nelson fires a behind the back(using the RS) pass to Howard who then proceeds to two hand SLAM, and I mean SLAM right on top of Kobe. Kobe then drops to the ground, and looks at the ref like "Thats not an offensive foul? (No Kobe it's not, it was a top ten play on Sports Center, thats what that was).

Like I stated earlier, you can dribble how you want to, or how the player your using will allow you to. I tried a simple cross on Bynum with Dwight multiple times, but the help defense would come over and strip me. yes help defense exists in this game. More on this in a minute. Sometimes the defense is unforgiving. I understand Pietrus is not a GREAT ball handler, but he's decent and he's a SF/SG. Anways, I used Pietrus various times and anytime I put it on the floor, RON RON would steal it. I know Ron Artest is a beast on D, but not to the degree he was showing me. Dont tell me I need to work on my dribble cuz I know I do, but this happened ANY and EVERY time Pietrus tried to go from right hand to left on a hesitation move. Lets talk about rebounding. I noticed boxing out, but I didnt feel like I was in control of it, like I should. So I would pretty much just be in the vicinity of the hoop and try to time my jump. All is not bad though, because when I timed it correctly, I snatched the ball out of the air. It felt good. I even started tipping it to myself, or to a teammate.

Now for defense, and this is the area that needs the most improvement in my opinion. I am WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to used to using the LT button to get into a defensive stance. I kept accidentally switching players, but with time this will be corrected. By the way, can someone please tell me what the hell the RB (defensive assist button) does? It did not in anyway seem to help me. It maybe locked on, but it keeps you very far from the ball handler, and the minute you try to move closer, the lock on would break. I think every game needs a defensive stance button, so I dont know how this is going to work. It seems like EA just wants you to try to stay in front of your man and rely on help defense. Which is cool, but it if the AI blows by you(and it will on SUPERSTAR), it makes your defense OVER-REACT and you get left with a wide open lane. The result is alot of and 1's for the AI. The whole adjusting their shot thing is WAY too effective. They practically dont miss when that animation plays(<-- this felt like a canned animation). The steal button felt a little unresponsive to me as well, especially going for a steal on a passing lane. The block button worked, but I got called for a lot of fouls. So I made sure to let go of turbo when I hit Y to block, and I still got called for a lot of fouls. If this is the case, your Post players in live will foul out of a game a lot.

The AI in this game is great. Kobe did what he does and destroyed me in a couple of games. Fisher let it rain when I left him open. Ron Artest cause havock on defense like in real life. Luke Walton cheered from the bench like he does in real life(lol). When I played as LA, Orlando fed the ball inside to Dwight, who proceeded to embarass Bynum. Rashard let it rain from 3. Nelson got penetration and kicked it out to a wide open Carter, who pump faked the three and drove the lane and totally tea-bagged Gasol. This synergy stuff is great. The players do what their supposed to.

I'm almost wrapping this review up. My biggest problem was still the way the game moves. Theres still a little bit of jerkiness moving around, and the players move like their on crack. My solution was this. I went into settings and toned down the speed by a few notches. The game moved and looked more believable after this. I hope the Developers tone down the default speed to about where I had it. NBA live has stepped it up in just about every way possible. The total control they give you is fantastic, and I think it will be 100% working by next years Live.

To sum up my review. NBA LIVE 10 is actually going to contend this year, but there are still minor problems that may or may not be ironed out in time for OCT. 6. I am not ready to give Live the title until I see what 2k has up their sleeve. But based on the games I have played so far I'm going to make this statement.

If you took Live's presentation, visual quality, and total control sytem, and added 2k's(2k9) animations, player faces, and defense, we would have the best video game representation of basketball EVER!

Thanks for reading guys. Give me opinions, debate on what I said, or ask me questions. See you guys later.