NBA Elite 11 Video: OS Exclusive All-New Hands-On Control: OJ Mayo

[convince]

I know the demo will be released soon b/c well its like a little over two weeks left. I think the issue is more releasing when its ready and not giving the nit pickers time with demo to complain about every minor flaw that may or may not exist. I still want to see you guys release video of an AI controlled team running a legit offense. I'm an offline player and i could care less about user vs user or the AI running a simplistic offense like the Thunder. I will say agiain, show me the CPU ran Suns, Jazz or Spurs.

[BiggD]

I would say its almost a lock for the demo to come out tuesday or thursday next week..

[ffpp]

One thing that I never got an answer for is:
was it really necessary to release Elite only one year after a complete overhaul of the series ? I'm interested in the features it brings and although I'm not that convinced of the controls yet (just didn't have any gripes with the old ways of controls) I think that the RTP will be a great addition in the long run and will make 2k adopt something comparable in the foreseeable future.

But what I gather from reading this thread and others is that the Elite devs are under enormous pressure to get anything done in time of the official release that they hardly have time to present any footage.
The game just doesn't looks very polished to me (not only graphics), one additional year of development would have been really helpful without the devs being interrupted by the usual release cycle.

So what do you guys think ? (Even rEAnimator maybe ?) Would it have been better to not release a game this year and fully concentrate on development instead ?

[Pared]

It's not an option at all at this point. Why discuss something that is not going to happen?

It's just not a financial option. Besides, there is enough there that is decent and worth playing.

They just need some help, and they are trying to get it.

[ffpp]

My thought was not that it should be considered at *this* point but that it was rather a bad decision in the first place.
They knew how much work they had on their hands, starting this new 3 year plan. I would think the responsibility lies in general EA marketing strategy and the devs had more or less no other choice.

[rEAnimator]

Quote: Originally Posted by ffpp

My thought was not that it should be considered at *this* point but that it was rather a bad decision in the first place. They knew how much work they had on their hands, starting this new 3 year plan. I would think the responsibility lies in general EA marketing strategy and the devs had more or less no other choice.

Not so much a marketing choice but more like what Pared said, a financial one.

I think about this often myself.

Certainly if we had more time to build the game it could have been better, but that can also cause problems in and of itself.

Often times when you have a lot more time you tend to not take full advantage of it. You may waffle on things, switch between different ideas back and forth.

Sometimes this can cause things to get much better, but often it can make you waste time and never commit to a final decision when the choice isn't obvious.

I think the tight timeline we had forced our hand and made us make those tough choices early.

We were then able to tune around those choices and ultimately made a really solid game.

As painful as it was, I think in the end I'm glad we only had a year to do what we did.

A deadline can be a really, really positive thing as it keeps you focused on what's important.

[Pared]

Yeah, they really put in a lot of stuff under the pressure of one year.

On top of that, with competition working on a one year schedule and you working on a two year schedule, that gives them two very different approaches to take because they have a final offering mid-way and can see the public's reaction to their work. With a two year schedule, if what you are doing is received poorly, you've just lost two years of hard work and you're right back where you started: looking for a direction.

A lot of the feedback the Elite team received I'm sure will come to fruition next year. The things we discussed just couldn't be done in the time frame they had, given there was already a project timeline in place.

I just hope during the brain-storming meetings next year they have those notes close by!

[ffpp]

Yes, feedback is important. That is a drawback of my suggestion the lack of feedback of the new features.
I just meant it with respect to the vast amount of work that this restart of the series brings, I didn't mean this to be the general rule.

Basically, I want the Live/Elite series to succeed. At the very least the competition between EA and 2k is needed to keep the whole genre alive and keep improvements coming.