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

[beastwork]

so I came back to the Elite demo to see how it feels and think I'm sold on the total control stick. However, I hope EA understands that using the analog stick for all the controls is "very" frustrating for people new to the game or video game basketball. You certainly cannot go to a friend's house and start playing this game without first spending a few hours in practice mode.

This is the very thing that is confusing me about EA and the direction they are going with many of their sports games. In Madden its all about "simpler" or "ability to pickup and play". you absolutely cannot pickup and play NBA Elite. Honestly i don't have the patience to master these controls and I probably never will. I'm sure there will be tons of other NBA enthusiasts who will skip on this game because of the initial difficulty. Granted I am a NBA video game noob but i think my perspective is shared by many others.

the first change i would make to this game is to add an option to autoswitch the dribbling hand while dribbling. having to consciously switching the ball to the correct hand is something that takes away from the fun factor of the game.

[Bumi]

Quote: Originally Posted by ajknows

Ok I wanted some time with both demo's before I gave my impressions, so here goes. When I played the 2k demo I was not all that impressed at first because I had hyped it so much in my on mind it couldn't live up to it, but the more I played the more I became to like it and thought wow this game really is great. Then the Elite demo came out, and my expectations for this game were really, really low.So I go to download it after reading all the bashing it was getting from people on here and try it out for myself, and damn if they weren't right I was like how in the world could EA even think about putting this game out this year with what 2k was doing. But then I said to myself go into the practice gym and play around with the controls thats kinda fun... that was a mistake, I learned the controls and some cool combos. So what the heck lets go play a game and see if we can pull them off... now I can't stop playing! The more I play the more I love the control and begin to feel the flow of the controls not just spamming trying to force all the moves but feeling them in a natural flow of the game. Now with the way the game looks, I really like the look, players look like them selfs but in a gta cover art kinda way is the best way I can but it. Where as 2k players just look like they are from a dawn of the dead movie, kinda scary looking. The sounds, love the ball bouncing on the floor, rim and net sounds... commentary no were near as bad as I thought it would be after watching the vid's, I like it. The crowd emotion is great and really adds a lot too the game. Ok now that I'm hooked on playing the game I go back to the 2k demo to do some comparison and wow ELITE you ruined it for me, my player feels out of control, moves are hard to pull off,it feels sluggish and well just blah to me. So then I find myself turning on my xbox 360 and playing the Elite demo more than 2k's, I keep going back trying to make myself like playing 2k's more than Elites But I can't... but why, 2k's got it all the player sig moves that look perfect tons and tons of cool animations, AI plays better. Why,because Elite is just more fun and I have so much more control. Is Elite the prettiest game to watch, no. There are a lot of bad animations and wtf moments in this game, but guess what there in 2k also, they just have tons of great animations so people can live with it. And I know people complain about rocket dunks in Elite and they should, but I'm about tired of seeing K.G. hit turn around jumper's from all over the court with Gasol all up in his face in the 2k demo. And it too has it share of well he shouldn't have been able to do that dunk moments. Elites AI needs a lot of help, to many wrong things going on here, 2k seems much better here but not perfect. In both games I pulled players off their man and ran them off the court to see how the AI would respond, and well they didn't...2ks was a little better but still had problems knowing how to react to this. Bottom line neither game is really a sim game in my mind, they are both videogame basketball not even close to a real broadcast nba game, yea 2k has all the window dressing this year, Jordan and tons of other things packed into their game, but if the core of the game is no fun to me then none of those other things matter, the gameplay will become stale to were I can't enjoy all of those things. Elite doesn't have all that window dressing but once you learn how to play it and learn the controls it's just fun, and I hope they stay the course and fix the AI problems add sig's and all the cool looking animation's for the players without hurting the control we have now. I think you guys have a good foundation here... now stay with it!! I know 99.9% of the people on here will disagree with me but I think I would rather play Elite with all it's warts than watch a lot pretty animations on 2k.

I loved this post.

[poseidon44]

Quote: Originally Posted by ajknows

I think you guys have a good foundation here... now stay with it!!

That's the key right there and I hope that rEAnimator, stepsix and the rest of the Elite dev team will take this to heart (if they haven't already).

Great post BTW. I feel the same way about both demos as well. While 2K's is more polished, Elite keeps sucking me back in because of the controls and the fun-factor.

I'm having so much fun playing Elite 11 demo that I really don't pay attention to those "WTF" type moments anymore.

[JerseySuave4]

i finally played the Elite demo and i wish i had not. Last year the Live 10 demo had me liking the game and thinking of buying it but the Elite demo is much worse than last year, the controls are not good enough to overshadow the ugly this game has, and it left me with no real reasons to even think of buying this game.

[Pared]

Quote: Originally Posted by 23

I want all of you to get back on impressions or be banned. Who cares what other people's opinions are...none of you can tell someone what to post and what not to post.

This had to be re-iterated again and some people still can't listen.

[HoosierDaddy]

NBA Elite 11 Impressions Video (Part 1/4 - Presentation)

[rEAnimator]

Quote: Originally Posted by HoosierDaddy

NBA Elite 11 Impressions Video (Part 1/4 - Presentation)

Looking forward to the gameplay impressions video.

Thanks.

[HoosierDaddy]

Thanks Geoff, it will be coming up in the next few days. Finishing up the Controls video now. Did you get a chance to read my email, wanted to get your thoughts about what I proposed, respond via email when you get a chance! Thanks!