NBA Elite 11 Demo Roundtable

[Dantecamp21]

I've been reading this thread from the very beginning, waiting for my turn to share my thoughts.

I'll get this out of the way right from the start: I loved Live 10 and I believe NBA 2K11 will be a stellar effort from Visual Concepts, I'll buy it and my thoughts on NBA Elite 11 aren't related to that game. Also, I was one of the guys who demolished NBA Elite 11 on the Demo Impressions thread saying things like "this game is the biggest disappointment of my gaming life".

Since then, a lot has changed. I put on the time to learn the new controls and came to be truly appreciative of what this game can offer if you give it a fair chance. I agree with the community on many of the game's shortcomings: weird animations, generic feel, foot-planting, just to name a few...but there are positives as well.

For instance, taking a closer look at the rebounding/blocking animations which are the ones gathering most of the heat, while I'll conceive that they indeed look strange, at least they aren't broken from a functional standpoint. What I'm saying is: you can go up for a board/block and succeed.

While it's easy to take things like this for granted since every available action in any videogame should work just fine (in a FPS you pull the Right Trigger and the character will shoot), that's not always the case when it comes to sports games.

While I'm playing the demo I'll say to myself: this time around I'll try to dominate the boards and patrol the paint with Gasol or KG, and the game will offer me the tools to do that without cheating (ball warping/pre-determined outcomes). From there, we get to a number of variants that should define the outcome of my being successful: player ratings/tendencies, game difficulty, user skill, etc. If all of those things are in place you at least have a shot to succeed and that, in my opinion, makes the experience very powerful. That's what you do when you are a kid playing basketball on a court with your friends, you say to yourself: today I'll pass like Magic, venture into the paint like MJ, be quick like Zeke.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I could attempt to shut the paint down with Rondo or Kobe and succeed as well, which suggests the ratings system isn't impacting the game like it should. That breaks the immersion of the game and pushes away the sim audience. Anyway, I've seen a lot of cool unpredictable moments (and sadly, a lot of weird ones as well) while blocking and rebounding just to mention these aspects of the game.

I could say the exact same things about shooting the ball (which I found incredibly fun and rewarding), driving to the hoop, calling for picks, and running plays.

To sum it all (in my humble view): despite all of its glaring flaws, the game brings some refreshing concepts to the table, it's not THAT far from being a simulation and can be fun if you are inclined to overlook those things (which 90% of you aren't, and rightfully so). Somehow I was able to, and I'm enjoying it for what it is.

The thing is: the little cracks all over its foundation make it looks like everything is broken, which it isn't the case.

[rEAnimator]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dantecamp21

I've been reading this thread from the very beginning, waiting for my turn to share my thoughts. I'll get this out of the way right from the start: I loved Live 10 and I believe NBA 2K11 will be a stellar effort from Visual Concepts, I'll buy it and my thoughts on NBA Elite 11 aren't related to that game. Also, I was one of the guys who demolished NBA Elite 11 on the Demo Impressions thread saying things like "this game is the biggest disappointment of my gaming life". Since then, a lot has changed. I put on the time to learn the new controls and came to be truly appreciative of what this game can offer if you give it a fair chance. I agree with the community on many of the game's shortcomings: weird animations, generic feel, foot-planting, just to name a few...but there are positives as well. For instance, taking a closer look at the rebounding/blocking animations which are the ones gathering most of the heat, while I'll conceive that they indeed look strange, at least they aren't broken from a functional standpoint. What I'm saying is: you can go up for a board/block and succeed. While it's easy to take things like this for granted since every available action in any videogame should work just fine (in a FPS you pull the Right Trigger and the character will shoot), that's not always the case when it comes to sports games. While I'm playing the demo I'll say to myself: this time around I'll try to dominate the boards and patrol the paint with Gasol or KG, and the game will offer me the tools to do that without cheating (ball warping/pre-determined outcomes). From there, we get to a number of variants that should define the outcome of my being successful: player ratings/tendencies, game difficulty, user skill, etc. If all of those things are in place you at least have a shot to succeed and that, in my opinion, makes the experience very powerful. That's what you do when you are a kid playing basketball on a court with your friends, you say to yourself: today I'll pass like Magic, venture into the paint like MJ, be quick like Zeke. Unfortunately, at the moment, I could attempt to shut the paint down with Rondo or Kobe and succeed as well, which suggests the ratings system isn't impacting the game like it should. That breaks the immersion of the game and pushes away the sim audience. Anyway, I've seen a lot of cool unpredictable moments (and sadly, a lot of weird ones as well) while blocking and rebounding just to mention these aspects of the game. I could say the exact same things about shooting the ball (which I found incredibly fun and rewarding), driving to the hoop, calling for picks, and running plays. To sum it all (in my humble view): despite all of its glaring flaws, the game brings some refreshing concepts to the table, it's not THAT far from being a simulation and can be fun if you are inclined to overlook those things (which 90% of you aren't, and rightfully so). Somehow I was able to, and I'm enjoying it for what it is. The thing is: the little cracks all over its foundation make it looks like everything is broken, which it isn't the case.

In my humble opinion this is the single most balanced and fair impression of Elite I have read.

Thank you for that.

I've seen several other people draw the same conclusion as you did, after having posted a very harsh first impression.

We clearly made mistakes, and one of those is the first impression people get as a result of the rough edges.

Lesson learned there I think.

I can only hope that with experiences like this, and a solid first patch to address problems, we can start building momentum again.

[Court_vision]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dantecamp21

I've been reading this thread from the very beginning, waiting for my turn to share my thoughts. I'll get this out of the way right from the start: I loved Live 10 and I believe NBA 2K11 will be a stellar effort from Visual Concepts, I'll buy it and my thoughts on NBA Elite 11 aren't related to that game. Also, I was one of the guys who demolished NBA Elite 11 on the Demo Impressions thread saying things like "this game is the biggest disappointment of my gaming life". Since then, a lot has changed. I put on the time to learn the new controls and came to be truly appreciative of what this game can offer if you give it a fair chance. I agree with the community on many of the game's shortcomings: weird animations, generic feel, foot-planting, just to name a few...but there are positives as well. For instance, taking a closer look at the rebounding/blocking animations which are the ones gathering most of the heat, while I'll conceive that they indeed look strange, at least they aren't broken from a functional standpoint. What I'm saying is: you can go up for a board/block and succeed. While it's easy to take things like this for granted since every available action in any videogame should work just fine (in a FPS you pull the Right Trigger and the character will shoot), that's not always the case when it comes to sports games. While I'm playing the demo I'll say to myself: this time around I'll try to dominate the boards and patrol the paint with Gasol or KG, and the game will offer me the tools to do that without cheating (ball warping/pre-determined outcomes). From there, we get to a number of variants that should define the outcome of my being successful: player ratings/tendencies, game difficulty, user skill, etc. If all of those things are in place you at least have a shot to succeed and that, in my opinion, makes the experience very powerful. That's what you do when you are a kid playing basketball on a court with your friends, you say to yourself: today I'll pass like Magic, venture into the paint like MJ, be quick like Zeke. Unfortunately, at the moment, I could attempt to shut the paint down with Rondo or Kobe and succeed as well, which suggests the ratings system isn't impacting the game like it should. That breaks the immersion of the game and pushes away the sim audience. Anyway, I've seen a lot of cool unpredictable moments (and sadly, a lot of weird ones as well) while blocking and rebounding just to mention these aspects of the game. I could say the exact same things about shooting the ball (which I found incredibly fun and rewarding), driving to the hoop, calling for picks, and running plays. To sum it all (in my humble view): despite all of its glaring flaws, the game brings some refreshing concepts to the table, it's not THAT far from being a simulation and can be fun if you are inclined to overlook those things (which 90% of you aren't, and rightfully so). Somehow I was able to, and I'm enjoying it for what it is. The thing is: the little cracks all over its foundation make it looks like everything is broken, which it isn't the case.

Very good post.

I also think a lot of the aspects are good and some are very SIM like. I'm enjoying the demo much more than I first did and I have to say that comparisons with LIVE 07 and SONY NBA are grossly unfair. Those two games were Hall Of Fame bad.

This game is a hell of a lot better than them...and some aspects are very good.

Unfortunately, some aspects...too many...are very, very poor and that's one reason the general impressions have been bad. It's not even debatable...some aspects are extremely poor.

Driving to the hoop off a pick...laying the ball up with your opposite hand as a shot blocker comes across...hitting a perfect J = all very nice.

The game's big problem IMO is that for every one of those 'nice' moments there's at least two "WTF" moments...

I won't be buying the retail version...but i will be interested to see post release if people say that some of the bad things have been ironed out / real team styles are noticeable with more teams...i.e. Utah and the Suns are completely different...and what kind of impact a patch has. The DEMO hasn't completely turned me off the game just yet. Post release feedback will be vital and I really want to see different team styles.

[Halfamazing]

The game is sick for me looking pass some of the bugs.
Fact is if shootin is to easy theres a slider to make it harder.
Only thing I dont like are the oops working to much, and cpu play, everything else is good enough to pass........ Game is addictingly fun if you appreciate it.

[Dantecamp21]

Let's hope the development team stands by its vision and keeps supporting the product post launch, otherwise this whole dev. cycle will be lost. I'll take rEAnimator being here through all of this struggle as an indicator that they'll do just that.

A lot of people that don't like the game as it stands right now, will buy it anyway just to put their hands on NBA Jam. If the patch really improves things, then those who bought it won't have nothing to loose trying to give it a second chance since they already own the game.

[lebron6_james]

@dante i don't know man, since elite demo comes out like you i gave this game a chance, i even stop playing the competitor's demo to be comfortable with the control. the control is not that revolutionary, its better but not ground breaking. man im trying to feel what other people are saying about this game. may be czar is right if you are really a hardcore sim gamer you will have a hard time understand what's ea are trying to do. respect to you man for giving a chance to this game, i'll continue to play it until the competitor's game comes out. i think that's fair enough for this game. may be just may be, ill buy elite if the price drops soon.

@rEAnimator much respect to you man for answering all our post. i salute you man. i hope you continue what's your vision bout bball games, i dont understand it right now but if you just continue to believe what you think is best for this game everybody will follow. man i hope you still here until that 3 years plan if your not and ea scrap it all over again i'll hunt you down...nah i'm joking man.lol respect to you fam!

[convince]

Where are the people with the game already? I want to see videos. Every year a game or five slip through the cracks early.

[ccoaxum]

i doubt any EA games is going to slip, cause they are doing alot of up dates there bball game and once it comes out as you can see they going to have to put patches up for the game as well. So i seriously doubt anybody got EA's game early.