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

[HOLLIDAY1183]

Been playing and playing, this time on 360, just slowly getting the controls engrained. BTW, the difference (graphics) between 360 & PS3 is pretty glaring to me personally. It's really a shame to PS3-only guys. But again, this is IMO.

Someone said before something to the effect of "why it doesn't play as smooth 5-on-5 as it does in the practice mode".... I feel the same way. The tutorials and pretty much everything I saw PREVIOUS to getting into the BOS vs LAL game, had me pretty excited. But the 5-on-5 action almost literally upsets me, knowing how much I actually liked Live 10, and how excited I was for Live 11 (until the big "new direction" news hit, that is).

Rebounding is still very bad. I had one sequence just now where Fisher rebounded three consecutive times over KG, Bynum & Gasol, when clearly they were not only in better position to grab it, but it seemed the bigs weren't even interested in getting to it.

Kobe just shot a J from the key, and it swished with the ball hitting the backboard awkwardly and bouncing back toward him. The trajectory of his shot was so flat, that IRL this could not possibly have been a swish like that. Like it warped thru the rim.

The CPU still ignores open shooters like Ray Allen. Left him open repeatedly and they didn't care. This was an issue for me in Live 10 also.

Also had a weird scenario where Gasol was posting me up from almost right under the rim, repeatedly pumpfaking. The shotclock went from about 16 to 6 or seven seconds. When I realized he wasn't going to shoot it, AND that there'd be no 3 second violation, I actually backed off and left him alone for the (assumed) easy score. But he continued to fake until the 1 second mark, after which he completed an awkward twisting 2 ft jumper.

The whole "having to switch hands manually to put body between defender and ball" is a very bad idea IMO. It's something that is natural IRL, but is "needless" in a game. A large part of the audience this game is aimed at, many of which maybe never played organized basketball, so it isn't "naturally" natural to them, thus it will seem like an extra chore to remember.

What troubles me as much as anything, are not only the flaws (every game has them), but some of these things are deliberate "design decisions." Like if I am at the top of the key with Kobe, and I master his release fromt that point (on SS level), nothing else matters, the shot is going in. I literally couldn't believe my eyes. It swished repeatedly.

That is, if it isn't blocked by the defender, which brings me to another "design decision." I heard a developer say that they sacrificed the realism of how a player needs to initiate a jumping animation, for the "game mechanic" of being able to contest a jumper/layup. Thus the ridiculous # of J's being rejected, and vertical heights. They felt this was a necessary and safe decision.... when most of us would probably assume, "wait a minute, that's not realistic! Remove or tune it until it is, guys!" Yet, no. They instead DECIDED realism takes the backseat here. First of a 3-yr plan or not, this worries me for the future, because what other "realistic" basketball fundamentals will be cut in favor of "design" choices?

The pro hop/gather button, is too powerful IMO. I'm able to just BS some moves, get a slight step on my defender, and BAM, whatever direction he is faked in, I can hop back away from him, get the space and knock down the J, the release point of which I've already mastered at this point.
But it's also way too powerful as a tool of getting to the rim. Even with Ray Ray, I've been able to hop my way into the lane and at least get a foul on the contest or an And 1 regularly (on SS level).

Graphics are to each his/her own, so I can't really say much. I do think Live 10 was sharper, but what's here isn't really bad. It's just the way everyone moves, and the lack of variety between players. I know for a fact that if the animations were 10 times better, people wouldn't dump on the graphics as much as I've seen. The "PS2" stuff is def uncalled for.

Turbo is NEEDED, and this is a huge indicator of having a "non-basketball" guy as the lead man. This shoulda been vetoed at the front door, and this is another thing that worries me about the future: the idea that the devs were onboard "from day 1" for something like the removal of turbo in a bball game. SMH man, not enough bball heads in that meeting.

But overall not terrible, I'm actually having fun the more I get the controls down. I tried to play even Red Dead after, and I had to "shake off" the Elite controls lol. The scheme is so different that it's doubtful anyone will be switching between both games this year too often.

It won't compete this year at all, but I hope that as a result we don't get another reboot. I hope they stick this out and we get all the sig and "basketball" stuff back by Elite 12 or 13.

Sorry for the wall of text guys, but wanted to play a bit more before posting

[bears5122]

Quote: Originally Posted by UnusualMattyB

I have so much negative to say about this demo I will just end with "What the heck was that?!!?" I can't believe this is being sold in a couple weeks like this...there has got to be some major changes if EA stays afloat in the NBA genre.

The problem is that I think these were the major changes. They re-did a ton of stuff and even changed the name. I just don't see them starting over again next year.

My biggest concern now is that they'll get desperate and buy up another exclusive license.

[Jano]

One adjustment you guys should make before playing your next game is to make sure the playcalling is on auto for the CPU's team. You should find it under gameplay settings, the cpu plays a little more aggressively and runs more plays that way.

[Peter_OS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Playmakers

LOL! How the heck did you get that guy to stay at halfcourt and play dead..... Love the commentary had me rolling.....i'm going to show it to some people at work. They are going to trip out at that broadcasting you did.....

This is some of the funniest commentary, and video I have seen a long time! I needed a good laugh, and this video did it for me. Classic stuff!

[Court_vision]

Quote: Originally Posted by jtdribbles25

what exactly do you mean by this. can you give an example

I coul;d post for an hour on it.....but it's all been said before.

Generic players / no tendencies / CPU AI making constant boneheaded plays / CPU AI passing into stupid areas / CPU AI centers like Bynumm doing crossovers / CPU hardly running any offense apart from one pass + shoot / CPU fastbreaks like they are brain dead................and on and on.

[treasy21]

Also, is it just me or does the defensive stance look the same for all players?

It's also terribly awkward. The players' arms look too long for their bodies

[Court_vision]

Quote: Originally Posted by HOLLIDAY1183

Someone said before something to the effect of "why it doesn't play as smooth 5-on-5 as it does in the practice mode".... I feel the same way. The tutorials and pretty much everything I saw PREVIOUS to getting into the BOS vs LAL game, had me pretty excited. But the 5-on-5 action almost literally upsets me, knowing how much I actually liked Live 10, and how excited I was for Live 11 (until the big "new direction" news hit, that is). Rebounding is still very bad. I had one sequence just now where Fisher rebounded three consecutive times over KG, Bynum & Gasol, when clearly they were not only in better position to grab it, but it seemed the bigs weren't even interested in getting to it. Kobe just shot a J from the key, and it swished with the ball hitting the backboard awkwardly and bouncing back toward him. The trajectory of his shot was so flat, that IRL this could not possibly have been a swish like that. Like it warped thru the rim. The CPU still ignores open shooters like Ray Allen. Left him open repeatedly and they didn't care. This was an issue for me in Live 10 also. Also had a weird scenario where Gasol was posting me up from almost right under the rim, repeatedly pumpfaking. The shotclock went from about 16 to 6 or seven seconds. When I realized he wasn't going to shoot it, AND that there'd be no 3 second violation, I actually backed off and left him alone for the (assumed) easy score. But he continued to fake until the 1 second mark, after which he completed an awkward twisting 2 ft jumper. The whole "having to switch hands manually to put body between defender and ball" is a very bad idea IMO. It's something that is natural IRL, but is "needless" in a game. A large part of the audience this game is aimed at, many of which maybe never played organized basketball, so it isn't "naturally" natural to them, thus it will seem like an extra chore to remember.

Great post man.............I've highlighted the bits I myself was too lazy to type up.

I hope a producer reads them. AI like that simply isn't good enough after all these years on next gen consoles. It's like CPU AI was completely ignored this season / sole focus was user control.

[Kush77]

I liked the demo. The controls take a lot of getting used to - the passing more than the shooting.

I found myself taking really bad shots when I wanted to pass. I also ended up passing the ball when I wanted a layup/dunk because I would hit the right trigger. I'm so used to pressing RT for turbo.

I like the idea of not having a turbo button, with faster guys just being naturally faster. Someone did bring up a good point about how turbo should be a part of the game because players will pick and choose what points to push the ball. So I can understand that criticism.

The players look too skinny. Rondo's arms look like twigs from a distance. And from a distance the players look good, but when I saw them up close at the FT line, they didn't look as good as last year.

I liked the demo, and still plan on playing the full version of the game. I'm gonna be playing Elite and 2K - a lot.