NBA Live 14 Has Arrived, Post Your Impressions Here

[blackceasar]

So I have a friend who's brother works for a major game publisher (that I won't mention here). While he is NOT a dev, he's not too many steps removed from the dev side of things to answer a few questions I had for him through my friend.

I asked him about patches and just what truly is "patchable" in games. I asked him because I've seen a lot of people on here with the "omg! it's a great foundation of a game! Let's hope we see some graphics upgrades in a future patch!"

Now I've been a console and PC gamer for a loooooong time. I understand a lot about the difference between console and PC games and the guy I asked has worked on titles for both PC and console. So I was curious about just what really is patchable and his response (I will paraphrase) was this:

I asked him about NBA Live 14 in particular and he told me that especially on consoles, majority of the time the things you will see patched are things that can be scripted and coded. For example if this were Madden and the AI never called a time out when they were on my 20, down by 1 with the clock running. He said things like that are easily patchable. Then he went on to actually patching "content" into a game. He said for example if Live or 2k14 didn't have an all star weekend with dunk contest, etc.. he said that could also be patched in (if they aren't trying to tie it to you spending more money or VC, etc). He said thats a bigger patch because you are not just bringing new code into the game but you're bringing new 3d models into the game (same textures but different models) because you have to have artwork to support the all star weekend, etc.

So then he got into patching actual graphics. Not changing colors on shoes, or changing a number on a jersey or fixing a tat.. he said those are patchable too because you do not have to mess with the engine the game is built upon.

So then he talked to me about actual player models. I asked him could a patch truly be dowloaded, your game reboots and POW, the player models and animations look much better. He said no. He said two paths start when a game is being built from the ground up or for the first time. He said one team is going down the true "dev" path.. scripting logic, events, triggers, etc. Another team is building the engine and the textures that will be needed to work within that engine. He said this is why you've never seen a version of Madden get "patched in better player models", if the model gets better its because the engine got tweaked first to accomodate the visuals that get layed in on top (or injected into) the engine. He said thats why you have to wait until say Madden 2007 to come out to look better than Madden 2006... because a patch just isn't going to go THAT FAR with changing a game thats already been locked down for the most part.

He said this is also why a bunch of people that if they didnt like a game like say Madden 2007 because of the player models and such that they are the same people that would bash a company like EA Sports for 2008 not being that much different than 2007 in that dept and then 2009 not being that much different that 2008. Basically what he was getting at with me was that there's a "baseline" where they start with a title, and subsquent titles that come off of that will be tweaks to that baseline.. you wont see a major life-changing, industry defining change until that publisher decides it's time to completely tear the engine itself apart enough to make truly significant changes at that level of difference.

So in a nutshell, he basically told me from his own experiences that while he doens't think its impossible for you to see Live look more realistic towards a 2k level (just talking textures and visuals) he said it's not likely.. he said that big of a change starts with engine overhauling and THAT is one of the costliest and time consuming things to do, and it's why you don't really see that happen in a patch. He also said while he thinks next year's will look better than this years, Subsequent versions 15, 16 and 17 will probably have the same engine, and therefore similar models (with slight tweaks and upgrades) in brand new retail versions in the coming years, not in a patch.

Basically he's saying while the game can be patched to play better, and you can actually add new content... you're probably going to be stuck with what you get in the player model and animation department. He said things like the arena floor could get upgraded but they are not part of a motion-captured engine if that makes sense. He said this is why Madden 25, even current gen was a pretty decent jump from Madden 13 and 12, etc in the engine, animation and engine dept.. he also said current gen Madden probably was a benefactor of what they were doing for Next gen.. then probably just dailed down and took out things that HAD to be dailed down or taken out for the current gen version.

Again, he does NOT work for them, he's just been in the industry for a while now and gave me his 2 cents based on what he's learned over 9 years in. Better IA? to a degree.. but you're more than likely stuck with your player model quality, animations, etc until next year and even then, its if EA wants to invest that time and money into really breaking apart their engine to fix it...not sure if they will.. because it's one of the foundations every Live is expected to be built on for the foreseable years.

[DonWuan]

Quote: Originally Posted by mlp111

this is an example of whats going on when i play the game.... how do i fix this? happens too often! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcaYV5kK41E

See this at least once per game. Actually this happens in both Live and 2k(PC). Pisses me off though.

Sent from my M353 using Tapatalk

[jyoung]

Quote: Originally Posted by mlp111

this is an example of whats going on when i play the game.... how do i fix this? happens too often! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcaYV5kK41E

It feels like a programming bug, as the pass recipient will basically stop tracking the ball for some reason. Those plays happen to me at least two to three times per game.

I primarily use icon passing.

[Boilerbuzz]

Quote: Originally Posted by GisherJohn24

boiler, were there any official details?

I have not seen anything beyond terse notes on the patch. Basically:"fixed a bunch of stuff".

[Williekemp15]

Am i crazy or does the overall speed of the game feel faster now? playing a game right now and the game feels really good to me.

[Boilerbuzz]

I think you've just acclimated yourself to the speed of the game.

[pdawg17]

Quote: Originally Posted by Williekemp15

Am i crazy or does the overall speed of the game feel faster now? playing a game right now and the game feels really good to me.

Been playing a lot of Live but today I popped the other game in (had been a couple of weeks) and I felt like everything was in fast-forward. Amazing how different the two games are...

[DirtyMagic5]

I'm loving the slower pace of the game along with it being a better representation of the sport in my eyes playing via remote play is great too