NBA Live 14 Reviews From Around the Web

[GisherJohn24]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmood88

There have already been enough impressions from site staff members that you should know where they stand without them giving the game a score.

I can't see them giving this game a GOOD score do you? 6 maybe? I'm not being a stinker about this. I WANTED so bad for Live to be good again. But someone tell me what is good about taking Roy Hibbert up the court as a PG and driving to the basket like Chris Paul and dunking through 3 guys warrants anything but negativity? I spent 60 bucks on NBA Live, believing the trailers, believing the promises made, believing we'd have a next gen experience and they give us a game still in beta stages not even worthy of being compared to NBA Live 10 which is 4 years old. You hear my frustration with this game? I want to have fun, but I CANNOT!

[jyoung]

Quote: Originally Posted by GisherJohn24

Why is operation sports waiting so long to release their review? We know what it will be. Just do it OS!

Major sites like Gamespot and IGN usually receive review copies well in advance of a game's release date. That gives them plenty of time to play games and have the review written on or closely following games' release date.

I don't think any of the OS reviewers had early copies of the PS4 games, so we've all been playing these games since Friday afternoon at best.

For Live, I've only been playing the game since Tuesday afternoon.

[GisherJohn24]

What would be your review score?

[Boilerbuzz]

Quote: Originally Posted by El_Poopador

im about halfway through the shakedown video right now and im seeing both good and bad things. the bad things are mostly related to visuals though with the exception of one player clipping through the rim on one play.

I recognized you say "mostly", but the issues with the game go far beyond visual. Let's list just some of the issues mentioned in the reviews: (note, these are not MY issues - just listing what was mentioned in the reviews)

1. Players standing around doing nothing
2. Very laggy and unresponsive controls
3. Unbalanced shooting
4. Bad ball targeting for rebounding and blocking
5. Slow movement contributing to few fastbreaks.
6. Bad pass targeting - players need to stop to catch some passes.
7. Unnatural ball physics
8. AI players making odd decisions or reacting very slowly to what's happening on the court.

I could go on. And these are just gameplay. But you see my point, right? There are big issues that have nothing to do with visuals (graphics or animation quality).

Quote:

again im not saying this is a great basketball game. but it is a competent game that has potential. if they improve the visuals and make player movement smoother and more natural it would be much better. right now its probably around a 6-6.5/10. it has the core fundamentals of basketball down. i hope they continue on the path theyre on.

It's debatable that if the issues listed are true, that it's even a competent game. It does NOT have the fundamentals down. I don't know why folks say that. People say the spacing is "great" when it's not. Spacing for the wrong reasons is NOT good fundamental basketball. Fixing visuals will absolutely improve the game. But to say that visuals is all it needs is not only short sighted, it's dead wrong.

[blackceasar]

Please forgive me if someone already called this out because I'm too lazy to read through all these posts... I just saw the GAMEINFORMER REVIEW of this game.. You think those so called "hacks" at IGN gave it a bad score.. Gameinformer outdid them.. gave it a FLAT 4.0

So I grabbed the demo last night. And again, I think my harshness comes from comparing it to a much better (even though buggy) basketball game. Like I said in a previous post, when it comes to EA and Madden you don't expect much from them because they literally don't have to worry about competition, although next gen Madden is suprisingly fun. So back on topic though.. With Live.. they HAVE competition. FIERCE COMPETITION. Heck they took time off because of that COMPETITION and yet they still threw up so many bricks with this offering.

So I pop the game in and the intro is kinda cool until you see the player models come in. They look better than current gen Live (we had a current gen live???) but the models feel rushed.. some look like they are made out of clay. There's inconsistencies between the quality of even the super starts. Carmello looks pretty good... Steve Nash not so much.. all in all they look like they were made from clay.

There is absolutely no atmosphere with the game when you start to play. The crowd is really not alive at all... and it feels like the lighting is the exact same no matter what arena you are in. For example the game I played was NOT in the Stapels Center when the Lakers play and we all know when they play at home, they dim down all the lights excpet for that front row section and the court. Through the laziness of EA, they have done this same treatment on every arena.. so you never really see or feel the crowd. It looks like some 3D graphics student's demo where he's only putting in the bare necessities to show off his animation chops. Also, the on the court action looks washed out. The game looks like one long animated low quality JPEG.

While some might argue that there are too many cut scenes in 2k14, there are hardly any in Live.. and I mean any CONTEXTUAL ones. Again, you don't feel like you are there at a real game and it takes away from the feeling of immersion. Not only do you not see the crowd that much, you don't really hear them that much either. Its like they are all at some opera or play and being quiet as the actors play out their parts on the stage.

The animations are jerky in places. Shooting doesn't feel fluid. It just feels like it's missing something. When I made a 3 with Carmello, I didnt feel like I made a jumper.. I feel like I pressed a button and the ball went into the hoop.

So the audio and play by play. I'm sorry and I'm not a 2k Fanboy but you would be hard pressed to say that Live comes anywhere near what the competition is doing. Again it feels rushed, half-assed, and robotically stitched together. But to be fair to EA on this one... I feel when you use celebrity commentary you also have to worry about just HOW involved these real NBA personalities want to work with your developers and you as a game publisher. I read more than one article a couple of years back with the NBA personalities that do the play by play and commentary for 2K.. they talked about how dedicated they were to the process of 2k making that game. They gave 2k A LOT of their time to give 2K what they needed to give what is arguably the greatest commentary in any sports game ever. Part of me feels like Jalen Rose and Crew agreed to work with EA but only gave them so much of their time because you know.. they are so "busy".. and thats what EA got... on top of that, even if those guys gave EA enough of their time to do this stuff right.. those guys are kind of fail in real life commentary too.

I can't help but feel NBA Live is a prime example of when bigger isn't always better. What I mean is, there are probably so many uneccasarry "business" people and VP's of things that have nothing to do with the production of the game at EA that it hurts their development process. I cant help but feel like they HAD to put a game out for next gen especially after one of the big shots did all that grandstanding about why they cancelled Live 11 (or Elite, or whatever the heck they were calling it). I cant help but feel that the really low (and well deserved) scores they have been getting is a combination of the fact that the game is pretty sub-par AND the fact that they really have no excuse to put a game out like this.

I would have rather EA waited and put this out even if it was during all star break and it was a stellar title than one again rushing a half-assed game out because a bunch of share holders and board members want it out with the console. If the final nail isn't in the coffin.. there's probably only one more nail to go.

[El_Poopador]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boilerbuzz

1. Players standing around doing nothing 2. Very laggy and unresponsive controls 3. Unbalanced shooting 4. Bad ball targeting for rebounding and blocking 5. Slow movement contributing to few fastbreaks. 6. Bad pass targeting - players need to stop to catch some passes. 7. Unnatural ball physics 8. AI players making odd decisions or reacting very slowly to what's happening on the court.

1. there is a toggle to turn on/off off ball movement. its off by default. poor decision from ea but it is one issue that is fixable. my only guess is that it was done to encourage playcalling. either way not a good decision to have it off by default.

2. i have to play the game to see if thats the case. cant say anything one way or another.

3. can you elaborate? what do you mean by unbalanced?

4. from what ive seen ball targeting looks ok. i only saw one clip from the shakedown video that had a bit of an odd block but other than that it looked ok. the players seem to be aware of the ball.

5. cant really say much on this. movement does look a little slow. i would have to go back and really watch for potential fast break opportunities that is affected by that.

6. can you give a few examples?

7. i agree with this one to a point. it seems to be hit or miss. sometimes the ball reacts naturally and others it looks off. usually when it hits off the rim is when it looks off.

8. i havent seen too many oddities in the ai. there have definitely been some bad decisions but overall it seems ok. i would also like to see videos showing different difficulties. that may be the cause of some of the slow reactions i would hope.

i finished watching shakes video and it is strange how easily he was driving the lane at the end. i say that because i saw other videos where players tried the same thing and were shut down. maybe a difficulty thing? if that is consistent it definitely needs to be fixed though.

[Boilerbuzz]

Quote: Originally Posted by El_Poopador

1. there is a toggle to turn on/off off ball movement. its off by default. poor decision from ea but it is one issue that is fixable. my only guess is that it was done to encourage playcalling. either way not a good decision to have it off by default. 2. i have to play the game to see if thats the case. cant say anything one way or another. 3. can you elaborate? what do you mean by unbalanced? 4. from what ive seen ball targeting looks ok. i only saw one clip from the shakedown video that had a bit of an odd block but other than that it looked ok. the players seem to be aware of the ball. 5. cant really say much on this. movement does look a little slow. i would have to go back and really watch for potential fast break opportunities that is affected by that. 6. can you give a few examples? 7. i agree with this one to a point. it seems to be hit or miss. sometimes the ball reacts naturally and others it looks off. usually when it hits off the rim is when it looks off. 8. i havent seen too many oddities in the ai. there have definitely been some bad decisions but overall it seems ok. i would also like to see videos showing different difficulties. that may be the cause of some of the slow reactions i would hope. i finished watching shakes video and it is strange how easily he was driving the lane at the end. i say that because i saw other videos where players tried the same thing and were shut down. maybe a difficulty thing? if that is consistent it definitely needs to be fixed though.

1. Is THAT the "AutoMotion" option? good to know.

3. Missing more WIDE open mid range shots versus making HEAVILY contested layups. An issue I had that was echoed in one of the reviews. I think it was Game Informer. I could be wrong.

4. Indicative of rebounders watching the ball fall to the ground right in front of them. It's mentioned a few times.

6. There was video and mention of outlet passes going players ahead of the crowd, and them having to stop or slow down to catch it. Also, there were mentioned cases where the pass was thrown to player on the perimeter and he would have to move or get moved to a point out of bounds to perform the catch.

8. One example, the onball defender gets beat from the point, but the dribbler flairs to the wing because there is help in the paint. The onball defender takes a cutoff angle that takes him deeper in the paint than the helper, leaving the dribbler WIDE open for a jumper that he could have recovered to and contested the shot.

[GisherJohn24]

Rebouding is atrocious. There is no organic flow and the A.I. is equal to 5 high school teens playing at a local high school gym over their lunch hour. Is this an NBA game? Serioulsy though, 3-4 defensive guys pile in under the basket after a missed shot, then basically stand there and watch the ball hit the rim and hit the floor and the offense picks up the ball while they continue to stand there. Again, it's no joke about the following: You can take a 6'9-7'0 center on any team, dribble down the court, do spin moves, crossovers, etc and nobody seems to mind this? I supported Live over the years, but I can't be the defending of this game that is going on here. What else? How about the commentary being pretty bad? Players like Lebron James looking like a zombie from a left for dead game? No sliders? Are you kidding me?