NBA Elite 11 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here (PS3, 360)

[Moneybalzs]

Love this demo. I think its a good first step in redirecting the series and i love the fresh take and controls. having ALOT of fun playing this.

[mrprice33]

After playing it some more today (this time on 360), I've come to the conclusion that the control system isn't as good as last year's live. The one big thing missing for me is the holding of moves and the explosiveness off of moves. For example, last year you could hold the right stick to the right and hold the left stick left and explode out of the hesitation into a crossover and drive. This year the guy does the hesitation, but then just sidesteps left without any explosion or aggresiveness. The controls feel too binary, if that makes sense. It feels like you click the moves using the stick (for example you don't hold a hesitation, you tap it) and chaining moves feels very sluggish.

The 360 version looks and plays better than the ps3 version, but it doesn't change the game being pretty bad. While I won't go into the hyperbole that others have, I will say that this game does feel like a launch title for a new system, as opposed to the fourth iteration of a series on a new console. I'm hopeful that they'll get it straightened out in future releases, but I fear that they will run out of time.

[rEAnimator]

Quote: Originally Posted by DEFTFUNDAMENTALZ

I am curious about the whole, "No Canned Animations" claim that is being advertised. Maybe I was very tired last night while playing the demo, but I thought that I saw plenty of "canned" goofy shot animations that looked eerily similar to Live 07/08. They looked very "canned" to my untrained eye. Please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

For the shot animations in particular, the fact that you can release the ball at any point during the shot means that they are dynamic to user input and not canned.

Also, if a defender collides with you mid shot the animation changes to reflect that.

A "canned" shot animation would play out in a predetermined way for the moment the animation was launched.

[dunebugs]

Honestly, I'm having a lot of fun with the controls. Sometimes clunky, but for the most part intuitive. I don't know if it helped that I've played NHL but it didn't take long for me to get used to it (i.e. right trigger for passing). Also I absolutely love the "gather" (LT) button. Everyone else has already said all the bad things about the game so no need for me to beat a dead horse.

[Dawgthem]

The inside contact animations are so fast you can barely see them and they look horrible. Its like a quick snipe that seems ugly. Man i was like really looking forward to this in a way. This definatly isn't a pickup and play game. One thing that urks me is the dribbling mechanic in real life players naturally dribble right when walking right this whole total control thing is out of hand why do i have to flick the stick right so my dribble when walking right dosen't look broken or akward. I sometimes forget it and it has caused rondo to lose the ball like he's O'neal speaking of losing the ball am i the only one who sees way to many steals happening in the game its crazy. Though scoring in the paint is difficult it looks horrible from a presentation stand point. Animations from last year seem to have made it into this game on the bench including that one guy on the lakers bench that seems to crouch down like spider man on the bench numerous times lol like why is he doing that. It seems to be the same animations every possession on the bench shooting i know has a trick to it but it should be easy to shoot with a player as they get hot. I was wide open with ray ray and missed an open 3 his shot comes and goes but come on now. I still saw bynum do that turn around jump shot right infront of the basket against kg that looked ugly and was in The miami Heat v Orlando demo

[sportyguyfl31]

Not sure what TV folks are playing on, but the game looks pretty sharp on mine.

I feel like Im the lone acorn in forrest full of maple oaks who likes the game so far lol

Thats okay though..we all have choices and opinions...once you sort out all of the nonsense posts, there are good points on both sides of the fence

[Moneybalzs]

Quote: Originally Posted by sportyguyfl31

Not sure what TV folks are playing on, but the game looks pretty sharp on mine. I feel like Im the lone acorn in forrest full of maple oaks who likes the game so far lol Thats okay though..we all have choices and opinions...once you sort out all of the nonsense posts, there are good points on both sides of the fence

Lol you're not completly alone, i for one love this game, one of the VERY few if not only one who is going to buy this and not 2k. so far i love having to learn the controls and its awsome to know that i actually have some input on the shot and movements instead of just pounded a key over and over til the AI lets me by a man.

[joel0078]

First off, before you people start flaming me, I understand this is a demo. But having said that, the developer himself has said this is more or less gonna be what the retail version plays like. Having said that:

I'm bummed that I can't get into this more. As someone who has been a Live fan dating back to the original Lakers vs Celtics, I am officially no longer a fan of this series. To be honest though, I have also been a huge fan of 2k since their first game too. Most of you who post here regularly have probably seen me say that I've purchased both games every year for the last 6-7 years and that's the truth. I enjoy(ed) both games a great deal.

I love the concept of the controls and it would undoubtedly take some getting used to before even being slightly comfortable, had I elected to waste any more time on this. But what lies beyond these "revolutionary controls"?? IMO, not a whole lot besides controls and commentary. Nothing else feels good about this demo. The graphics are ugly and the players have absolutely no smoothness or flow to their movement. I know the term "arcadey" is debatable, but in terms of what that word means to me, this game feels way to arcadey for my personal style. I'm disappointed and now know what Mike Wang meant when he said he wasn't happy with the direction the series was taking.

Everyone knew "Live" was changing things up this year, so I'm not surprised to have a totally different feel for the game. But I am surprised about how much I dislike it. When I fired that demo up and actually got into the game (not practice, which is pretty good) my first thought was that this is terrible. Maybe I'm being harsh, I dunno. In any event, it's just my opinion. I'm sure there will be plenty of people who think I'm crazy. To those people, I say enjoy the game.

Sorry EA. You've lost a long time customer, my money and more importantly, my faith in your product. Better luck next year.