NBA Live 14 Review (PS4/XB1)

[mrclutch]

thanks for the review. Sorry you had to play 20 hours.
I was still holding on to some hope until I read this thread.
It's amazing how there are no sliders. I'm trying to remember the last hoops season the major games didn't have them. Anyone else know?

Shame they butchered the game this bad. Seems to spell another death for the franchise.

[RandyBass]

I for one am going to take this opportunity to refrain from piling on, as tempting as that may be. Instead I'm going to look at the bigger picture. In the past five to ten years or so we've seen the sports video game genre dwindle down to almost nothing. Flagship franchises, highly regarded titles, sports gamers' dreams, have one by one fallen by the wayside. These new systems were supposed to turn the tide; they were supposed to be easy for developer's to work with, and therefore easy for publishers to get behind and support. Instead we get this dud of an effort.

So what does this point to? Who is to blame? I'm not sure now is the time to go down that road, because this here release is an indicator. It's a sign of an industry that is not in good health. Yes there is optimism abound, especially from those whose job it is to state it as such, but what about the reality? The reality is we have a real stinker of a game at a time when there probably shouldn't be. The reality is at a time when interest in video games is perhaps at an all time high, with money flowing into the industry in great abundance, a release like this is all that can be mustered. I can't see this as a good thing for gaming.

[Boilerbuzz]

Quote: Originally Posted by RandyBass

I for one am going to take this opportunity to refrain from piling on, as tempting as that may be. Instead I'm going to look at the bigger picture. In the past five to ten years or so we've seen the sports video game genre dwindle down to almost nothing. Flagship franchises, highly regarded titles, sports gamers' dreams, have one by one fallen by the wayside. These new systems were supposed to turn the tide; they were supposed to be easy for developer's to work with, and therefore easy for publishers to get behind and support. Instead we get this dud of an effort. So what does this point to? Who is to blame? I'm not sure now is the time to go down that road, because this here release is an indicator. It's a sign of an industry that is not in good health. Yes there is optimism abound, especially from those whose job it is to state it as such, but what about the reality? The reality is we have a real stinker of a game at a time when there probably shouldn't be. The reality is at a time when interest in video games is perhaps at an all time high, with money flowing into the industry in great abundance, a release like this is all that can be mustered. I can't see this as a good thing for gaming.

I think this is an over-simplification. Why are sport franchises dwindling? Let's look at each case.

1. Some titles just aren't very good. In the face of the competition, where a market is pretty saturated, only the top 2 titles can really survive any particular sport, save soccer. That market is gigantic. Football can support 2 evenly matched competitive products.

2. Exclusive licenses. This factor more so than the other is the main reason you see only 1 title in most sport genre.

3. Rising cost of making games. Plus the fact that the leagues are trying to get bigger cuts. This makes it near impossible for upstart teams to make a game.

4. Small market. As popular as baseball and hockey are, the size of the video game market for those sports just don't support more than 1 title. The second title won't make enough money. This is what happened to NHL 2K. NASCAR - for as popular as it was, wasn't making enough money for EA to continue. What do you think is happening to golf? Tennis is every other year at best! Not many of those fans play video games.

[DJ NEO]

So what is this "IGNITE" thing? Just a P.R.? If so, then find some other slogan for next year and maybe U´ll fool some people again.

[RandyBass]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boilerbuzz

I think this is an over-simplification. Why are sport franchises dwindling? Let's look at each case. 1. Some titles just aren't very good. In the face of the competition, where a market is pretty saturated, only the top 2 titles can really survive any particular sport, save soccer. That market is gigantic. Football can support 2 evenly matched competitive products. 2. Exclusive licenses. This factor more so than the other is the main reason you see only 1 title in most sport genre. 3. Rising cost of making games. Plus the fact that the leagues are trying to get bigger cuts. This makes it near impossible for upstart teams to make a game. 4. Small market. As popular as baseball and hockey are, the size of the video game market for those sports just don't support more than 1 title. The second title won't make enough money. This is what happened to NHL 2K. NASCAR - for as popular as it was, wasn't making enough money for EA to continue. What do you think is happening to golf? Tennis is every other year at best! Not many of those fans play video games.

Huh? Was that supposed to be a response to me?

All I did was point out that at a time when the industry should be riding high, it churns out a game that by most accounts is barely playable.

Considering I made no real claims as to the reasoning behind this, how then can it be an oversimplification?

[jwtucker710]

What was EA Sports thinking? Here's the deal, and where they may be stuck with their attempt at developing a bb sim: they decided to go forward with LIVE and didn't have much of a production team and Sean O'Brien (who's worked on LIVE in the heyday and on NCAA BB, which is kind of baffling why this sim was so bad). They took the NBA Elite build and used the Next-Gen programming (probably very limited of what they had to use) and just wanted to put something out.
They better improve it; just wrong for them to hype it up and expect people to get back on board. And I do think people, overall, liked the LIVE game. Otherwise, we would not have so much commentary on it.
Come on, EA!
That being said, what's the future look like for EA SPORTS? No more NCAA FB, no Tiger Woods golf, a very damaged basketball sim they seemingly cannot get right. True, they have MADDEN, FIFA, and NHL. Maybe they can make it off those three. I don't know. But that division is in a mess.

[shutdown10]

I believe if they cannot give us their best effort for Live 15, then they should scrap this franchise for good. The severity of the situation is bigger now because they failed applying a vision or plan for this game after a 4 year hiatus. It does not matter if these developers had only one year to work on this game. They did not expect Live to get all this attention whether good or bad because they attempted to hide the game-play trying to give people a hint. If the suits will not give the team a solid budget for this game game going forward, then they are wasting their time.

[GisherJohn24]

So why again did they say on the previews that they were basically saying this is DAY1 purchase??? That was one of the reasons I preordered it becausae of OS input.