NBA Live 14 Has Arrived, Post Your Impressions Here

[The Timber Wolf]

Yeah, the pace is nice. As is the spacing.


The full game is much better than the demo simply because you can turn auto motion ON and your cpu players actually move. The game is definitely better than I thought. It is not a 3/10 game, more like 6/10. The game actually looks good in close up replays. There's lots of details in players tattoos, jerseys, shoes etc. So, I don't really understand why it looks like crap whilst playing. The players all look like wax models when you play.

[El_Poopador]

Quote: Originally Posted by 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.

i may be going out on a limb but i think it may be possible to upgrade things like textures with the new consoles. with all games requiring a full install no one is playing off the disc anymore. this means that (potentially) its similar to pc games where all of the files are able to be accessed and changed (much like mods for nba 2k pc). that would be the only thing i can think of in terms of updating the visuals through a patch. animations i dont know if that can be changed substantially though since like you said thats part of the core engine.

[WTF]

Textures, camera angles, and lighting can all be patched, which would all enhance what we see and can give us more of the "next gen feel".

Regardless, I'm enjoying the game as is, my hope is that they don't change too much under the hood, tweaking some of the smaller things. I'm in the minority I'm sure, but still yet, that's my hope.

[The Timber Wolf]

Just playing a game now as Houston and was thinking this was okay. Then, a moment of Colonel Kurtz like horror. I was fouled whilst driving and went to the line as James Harden. The camera zoomed in and I honestly let out a loud WTF as I saw Harden close up for the first time.
This is the only online photo I can find, so please excuse the 2K photo here also. They are linked. EA's Harden is ATTROCIOUSLY bad. This type of stuff just kills the immersion.

[The Timber Wolf]

I'm struggling how to rate this game. I have finally come up with what I think is fair.


If this was 2007 = 9.5/ 10


If this was 2010 = 7.5


In 2013 / 14 = 4.5 /10.


Does that make sense? It has some cool basketball stuff. I love the coaching options, but the game just feels dramatically dated. The graphics and animations honestly look like PS2 at times. ***PS2, most sports games moved better than this on the PS3***.

[El_Poopador]

Quote: Originally Posted by The Timber Wolf

Just playing a game now as Houston and was thinking this was okay. Then, a moment of Colonel Kurtz like horror. I was fouled whilst driving and went to the line as James Harden. The camera zoomed in and I honestly let out a loud WTF as I saw Harden close up for the first time. This is the only online photo I can find, so please excuse the 2K photo here also. They are linked. EA's Harden is ATTROCIOUSLY bad. This type of stuff just kills the immersion.

its weird because they actually have the skin texture almost perfect. i think its the eyes that make it look so off. and the cheekbones are too pronounced.

[Boilerbuzz]

See, comparing the graphics to PS2 is just over the top in my opinion.

[The Timber Wolf]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boilerbuzz

See, comparing the graphics to PS2 is just over the top in my opinion.

Some of the animations are PS2 level. There's stuff around the basket that is almost a decade ago type animations for a sports game. There's one "animation" where you seem to go from one side of the basket to behind the other that just looks wrong on every level.


Conversely, some things like the Bobcats arena look GREAT. That court for the Cats is the best looking court I have seen in either next gen game.


For what it's worth, he's my final thoughts on this game:


1. Blocking is way, way, way, way too easy. You basically can't use a team like Houston or The Pacers in this game as it's just so easy to block shots with Howard and Hibbert. I had 11 blocks in a half using Dwight on my first game with them (SS level). It's just so easy to block the CPU.


2. Pace is awesome.


3. Pick and roll is sweet.


4. Synergy is great / terrible. For a few minutes everyone plays and shoots from spots on the floor and it's very realistic. Then, a player just stands there and does nothing or walks out of bounds, or passes to a team mate standing out of bounds.


5. Rebounding is terrible.


6. Defensive contact is terrible.


7. Coaches options are great.


All up, hit and miss. More misses than hits unfortunately.