NBA Elite 11 News Post

NBA Elite 11 Interview with Creative Director David Littman

05:04 PM - August 24, 2010 by RaychelSnr

We recently had a chance to interview David Littman, creative director at EA Canada for NHL Slapshot, NBA Elite and the NHL series. He helped to oversee the re-imagining of the NHL series when the current-generation consoles were released, and he is now filling a similar role for NBA Elite 11. We wanted this interview to focus on the differences between the rebuilds of NHL and Elite, and we also wanted to get a bit deeper into why NBA Elite is going in a different direction this year.

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# 21 Ermolli @ 08/24/10 08:57 PM

I liked the interview. Didn't say anything new but I liked the focus and the direction EA is trying to go

# 22 Da_Czar @ 08/24/10 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Live_4real


	The problem is people don�t care about basketball, they don�t look for the best basketball/NBA experience, they look for that specific company experience regardless Good read, I just hope that people that qualified this guy as the "Hockey guy" realize that he is a intelligent dude and he nows what to do to revolutionize sports gaming by giving extra user control, even if he is not a basketball brain, they have people at EA that are, so that "problem" invented in the beginning was non existing

Live that was a very wide generalization you made what people are you referring to that don't care about basketball ? Did you take a poll or something ? If you talking mainly about people on OS I can't even see that statement as being correct man. But maybe your talking about another crowd.

Oh and its Hockey Dude !!! ROTFLOL

# 23 ronnymixmaster @ 08/24/10 09:07 PM

I always hear only about gameplay but nothing about the franchise mode. Why is that?

# 24 loadleft @ 08/24/10 09:17 PM

Though I can appreciate the idea of being responsible for making my own shots, if I developed the ability to consistently hit 3's w/Rondo how would the represent Rondo? I now have a generic player w/a difficult shot release, do I not?

I thought this was supposed to be an NBA games with representations of REAL players. If so then why not have the real limitations that the real players have? By the way there aren't multiple releases for each player only varying margins of error. A perfect straight release hits no matter how large the sweet spot or small the margin of error.

That isn't even my major concern though. I've been wondering over the last few weeks when was the last improvement in this series made to TEAM play, meaning actual gameplay improvements to make the game more realistically reflect real life challenges of playing in the NBA? Please don't say last year! Though last year was an improvement on the series, it was simply made more challenging across the board (a lot of which was through CPU cheats) and not really reflective of the actual challenge of NBA play. Pretty much every game had the same challenge whether it was the Clippers or the Celtics.

# 25 Tha_Kid @ 08/24/10 09:31 PM

It was an interview with a specific focus. There are all kinds of facets to the game that they have yet to touch on, why speculate that they haven't?

# 26 RayDog253 @ 08/24/10 09:37 PM

Great Interview, still waiting on a release date for the demo.

# 27 eDotd @ 08/24/10 09:51 PM

As others have stated, nothing really new.

Time will tell.

# 28 BiggD @ 08/24/10 10:17 PM

I'm done with reading interviews and Blogs... wake me up when there is something to look at...

# 29 Earl1963 @ 08/24/10 10:26 PM

Great read. The producers sound confident that this game will change everything when it comes to hoop games. They seem like they're really looking forward of the release of the demo just to see gamers reaction to the new way of playing.

Can't wait for this demo!

# 30 Live_4real @ 08/24/10 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Da_Czar


	Live that was a very wide generalization you made what people are you referring to that don't care about basketball ? Did you take a poll or something ? If you talking mainly about people on OS I can't even see that statement as being correct man. But maybe your talking about another crowd. Oh and its Hockey Dude !!! ROTFLOL

My post was for those that don�t care about basketball, not you, not me, no one in particular, there is no need to point fingers

You know that people who think like that, are well aware of what they do, and what they like in a video game

And there is a reason why good looking sports video games (or video games in general) sell great

It is like looking at a replay, where you had total control of your player, the play was beautiful, full of bball fundamentals well displayed, but when I zoom in LBJs face I see that he looks like Yao mings son, and you look closely and he is using generic shoes, and his jump shot looks like Marion, and I bet with you that the first post (or impression of a casual gamer) of a non basketball guy, will be that LBJ doesn�t look like LBJ even if he plays like LBJ.

In live/elite forum, is the usual robotic moves, or the overall bad graphics, that simply out-shines what is basketball related

This is not a OS problem, this is a general gaming problem, people overrate the beauty of what they see, instead of enjoying or not, the controller in your hand...

And when some gamers notice this, it is too late, and Madden is a pure example of that, great visuals, and horrible gameplay, but hey, why change if they keep selling millions, and why is that??? because it is a visually appealing game

And this is why I love the APPROACH of NBA elite, FEEL the game of basketball, the other game will outsell elite (even if jordan wasn�t on the cover) simply on graphics (and I am not saying that this game has only great graphics)

Some people question why did the NHL franchise rebuilt was so talked about, and for me it is simple, it was based on user control, it was based on Hockey fundamentals, and not about how well it looked, or even if they had many game modes, no they built a fun game to play, simply because they made controls more complex/more intuitive at the same time, a huge aspect gameplay wise

This does not mean that graphics or these little things are worthless for me, that means that these companies should have priorities, and the consumer should demand the fundamentals first (if they care about the sport), I recall people demand player sig shots, when last year Live didn�t even had post game.... this means something about what some consumers demand...

My opinion

PeAcE

# 31 Earl1963 @ 08/24/10 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdplaya04


	I'm not sure I like this new shot stick mess, remember this is a video game not real life basketball, i should be able to make shots according to how good the player can shoot, I dont want to miss open shots with ray allen all the time because I didnt aim strait on shot stick!!!

Ray Allen's margin of error is bigger, he has larger accuracy area than someone like Rodney Stuckey from 3 point range.

Have any of you read the previews or watched vids?

# 32 TUSS11 @ 08/24/10 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dewie12


	Reading this confirms my assumption more and more again. EA games are more about trying to win a video game. Which is fine and great. But not what I am looking for in my sports title. I want to win a game of basketball, not a video game representation. Those are two different elements and invoke a whole different set of challenges. As far about as online vs. offline. Good luck to NBA Elite I hope people enjoy it for the sake of the NBA.

So you don�t want your video game to be a video game representation of the real thing? You want your video game to be the real thing. That�s theoretically impossible. There's nothing as real as the real thing.

Quote:


	It is about giving the gamer the exact same tools that a pro athlete has and letting gamers create their own brilliance. It is about giving you the feeling that you are on the ice/court in front of 20,000 fans. It is about making the gamer the star online and becoming the best virtual athlete in the world. It is about making a shot with no time left to win a game for your team, knowing that it was YOUR skill that did it.

Quote:


	While animation is obviously important in FIFA, NHL and MLB: The Show�that is not why people love these games. People love them for the overall gameplay feel. It feels like you are PLAYING the sport, not just influencing the sport.

Isn't this the closest thing to what you want?

# 33 BDM313 @ 08/24/10 11:38 PM

good read, no offense tho but the interviews are growing tiresome its about time we see some gameplay videos to see what elite really has to offer...from the lack of videos elites losing steam

# 34 Suave35 @ 08/25/10 12:23 AM

What ever you prefer. Just comes down to what you prefer!

# 35 ShindoHikaru @ 08/25/10 12:29 AM

NBA Elite is looking to be a very promising game. At first I thought Mike Wang leaving the Live series really made matters worse but judging at how Littman and the team is progressing by ACTUALLY improving the gameplay, chances are, they will catch up with all the 2K features in two more years.

# 36 funkysven @ 08/25/10 12:58 AM

Suerly with all the videos that 2K have released you would think EA would bring some stuff to the table by now.

# 37 mlp111 @ 08/25/10 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BDM313


	good read, no offense tho but the interviews are growing tiresome its about time we see some gameplay videos to see what elite really has to offer...from the lack of videos elites losing steam

i couldn't said it any better, im not a bias gamer, i usualy purchase both game considering on what they bring to the table, but elite is losing much steam.... i might not be purchasing elite this year at all..... demo will be my deciding factor.....

# 38 ParisB @ 08/25/10 02:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlp111


	i couldn't said it any better, im not a bias gamer, i usualy purchase both game considering on what they bring to the table, but elite is losing much steam.... i might not be purchasing elite this year at all..... demo will be my deciding factor.....

The amount of info you receive 3 months before release is your deciding factor? Not the demo? Not reviews? Not a rental? wow....

Personally I think the interview was good. It talked about his vision and direction of Elite, and everything is looking promising.

This is like NHL '07 starting the process of dominating the market....it's pretty big news.

# 39 eDotd @ 08/25/10 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ParisB


	The amount of info you receive 3 months before release is your deciding factor? Not the demo? Not reviews? Not a rental? wow.... Personally I think the interview was good. It talked about his vision and direction of Elite, and everything is looking promising. This is like NHL '07 starting the process of dominating the market....it's pretty big news.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlp111


	i couldn't said it any better, im not a bias gamer, i usualy purchase both game considering on what they bring to the table, but elite is losing much steam.... i might not be purchasing elite this year at all..... demo will be my deciding factor.....

Did you read his post?

# 40 sportyguyfl31 @ 08/25/10 09:40 AM

Good interview. Shed some light on some questions I had.

Looking forward to the game.

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