EA Sports have posted a new NBA Elite 11 defensive blog.
Quote:
"This year we’ve spoken a lot about “Hands-On Control” and how it relates to shooting, dribbling and Post Play but we haven’t given you a ton of info on defense in NBA ELITE 11. Our goals for defense this year were simple:
- Ensure “Hands-On Control” applied to defense just as much as offense.
- Reward defenders for good positioning using the new Real Physics system
- Provide the user the tools to be proactive on defense.
- And most importantly - making defense fun to play.
Mistakes of the past – In previous basketball games there have been many gimmicks and features that allowed you to guard the ball but took the control completely out of your hands. Features like the “hold a button down and let the AI play defense for you”. Or, using 2 player animations as a crutch to stop the dribbler from getting to the basket – taking control away from both the offense and defense. Features like this aren’t fun, remove any element of skill from the game and limit the user’s ability to control the player. All reasons for a new approach to playing defense.
On Ball Defense – the most important aspect of defense is guarding the ball. This year we’ve developed a great system for dribbling the ball using a combination of the left and right analog sticks. This gives the offensive player the ability to pull off any type of dribble move, at any time, in any direction, while always maintaining user control. It’s a very powerful game play mechanic that could have been very unbalanced had we not put the same emphasis on guarding the ball."
Nothing new in this blog that rEAnimator hasn't let us in on over the last couple months.
I look forward to getting the demo and trying out this dual analog control scheme. I like the logic for having the defender's hand tracking the ball on steal and block attempts (and using ratings to determine how well they do it). Eliminates ball warping. It's also nice that steal attempts don't take you out of position or keep you flat footed. Using your body position relative to the ball handler and using the logical hand to attempt the steal is one of those little things I think people will appreciate while playing Elite.
Blackflash said on twitter that he has gotten PS3 approval but not 360 approval (re: demo information). My assumption is either tonight or tomorrow we'll know when the demo drops. The 21st looks like a safe bet IMO.
Too little too late with the white flag blogs. Werent they promising a blog a week, and only 1 of those ever showed up weeks ago?
Meh, wheres more vids at and not the 1 minute cherry-picked vid of a defender getting pumped faked 15ft in the air and able to recover on the play? Guess I'll read it...
Nice blog glad to see all the defensive controls got just as much of an upgrade as the offense. Defensive controls have been sorely needed in the Live series for years so its good to see they are in this year.
Only question now is how user friendly are and more importantly how effective they are at stopping the offensive player. The amount of control does sound great though I can't wait to try all this out in the demo..
Late blog, but i think its purpose serves more as a blog for those who don't know how to play defense once the demo comes around. No one can really complain that there's no defense in the demo because they put out a blog on how to play it.
How many times do we have to hear about the new hands on control? Great, its new, great, you use the sticks, ...so lets see the game. Maybe its because the actual gameplay we have seen so far has been second rate so the strategy is to show as little as possible to try and get the curious gamers to buy to find out what the game is really like???
Not a bad blog if you hadn't heard it all before. I guess we owe Reanimator props for keeping us ahead of the curve.
Thanks man, I'm glad you see it that way.
Before the blog all I was reading was that we hadn't released enough information.
After the blog, which contained a lot of info, I'm reading that there's nothing new and we've already heard all this. Or that the info has come too late.
No you guys can win, but you've got to give us something worth having. the write-ups feel like they are weeks old. and more marketing hype and words than anything. how about a video showcasing these new defensive moments. but ok. you guys can't win. The demo would have curtailed this oh, lets see, a WEEK ago maybe.
Not if the demo wasn't good.
There is a correlation between the timing of the demo release and the quality of the demo.
The later the demo, the closer it will be to the final product.
We made a call that it was more important to have the demo better represent the final product than release it early.
It's not because we're playing any games.
You've said you wanted a video to back up the words in the blog. Guys back in Burnaby, can we make that happen?
I can respect that ReAn...hey we got a early demo from the other game and while fun, its bare. You guys are trying to show us a brand new kind of game...Im fine with releasing a quality demo...
There is a correlation between the timing of the demo release and the quality of the demo.
The later the demo, the closer it will be to the final product.
We made a call that it was more important to have the demo better represent the final product than release it early.
It's not because we're playing any games.
You've said you wanted a video to back up the words in the blog. Guys back in Burnaby, can we make that happen?
Hey reAnimator thanks for getting us some more information..there was alot in that blog that I haven't heard or read so I found it informative, and I accept your position on the importance of releasing a quality demo...I think the thing that would help the frustration is if someone or whoever is in control of announcements would just simply say when we can expect the demo...all this delay is only making things worse for the success of your game...patience is wearing thin ..(just sayin)
now at this point like I said before when you do release information if, since we can't seem to get our hands on the demo...at least attemp to show us the new improvements of your game with the blogs...if that is possible......credibility is everything at this stage of the game...
the Hype will build as I said before by coming through on your promises..it's really that simple....(just sayin)
rEAnimator is right, I rather have a quality demo that represents the final build well, than having something with an earlier build that doesn't play solid.
I played the other demo and I'm not sold, all I have is Elite this year for my basketball fix
I hope they post some footage from the game Nov and I played a couple days ago - he was down by about 8 pts with 2 minutes to go in the fourth and managed to bring it back within 2 with full court pressure on my inbounds.
You have to stay alert if someone is pressuring the inbound, but there are some good counters if you're paying attention. Having two guards back, you can icon pass to either one, or player switch to either one. In previous years inbound steals were cheesy so we'd have to tone down the ability to intercept passes just after inbounds. This year it actually feels appropriately intense when the ball is about to get inbounded.
I can respect that ReAn...hey we got a early demo from the other game and while fun, its bare. You guys are trying to show us a brand new kind of game...Im fine with releasing a quality demo...
Agreed. I dont mind waiting on the demo. They have so much more to prove ,and I assume they will be a lot more data in Elites demo then the other guys which just makes sense that it would take longer to get to us.
EA take your time and make sure it's right because you guys have so much to gain and lose based on this demo.
No you guys can win, but you've got to give us something worth having. the write-ups feel like they are weeks old. and more marketing hype and words than anything. how about a video showcasing these new defensive moments. but ok. you guys can't win. The demo would have curtailed this oh, lets see, a WEEK ago maybe.
You speak as if there is a supreme entitlement that must be vindicated. For if not, you will withhold your gold pieces and forever cast all that toil away on this NBA Elite 11 to depths of game maker Haddes, where they will never be seen nor heard from again.
Really now, these guys work for guy, who works for another guy, who works for another guy, rinse and repeat until you get to the top guy at Electronic Arts Corporation. You have no idea what limitations are in place as far anything where this game is involved. Not demos, blogs, videos or any other information relating or pertaining to said game.
These guys bust their hump to make the best game possible given the time and resources available to them. And when the game is finished they’ll give you a test drive. From that test drive you decide whether or not to buy the game. It’s a simple process.
The fact that these guys are even here to dialogue with us should be appreciated and respected. I am not saying that these guys are being personally disrespected, but, if every time they come around they’re being slammed no matter what they do and basically told, in a roundabout way that they suck at their job, there is going to come a point where they say; “F*@k it” why bother and not come around anymore.
The amount of criticism positive and negative for a game that very few if any of us here at OS have even had the chance to play yet, tells me that a lot of this criticism is merely co-signing, because it seems to be in vogue for this game.
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again “WAIT FOR THE DEMO, IT WILL GET HERE WHEN ITS HERE, THEN VOTE WITH YOUR FEET, IF NECESSARY, ALL THE WAY TO THE OTHER OPTION”
MrMars
Can't say I agree with most of you. With the exception of the NHL franchise, EA has an extensive history of putting out inferior games, so of course most of us will be skeptical. To make things worse, they have begun to penalize frugal gamers who choose to wait for a used copy by not including features that were previously standard, as if $54.99 will put their executives in the poor house.
The bottomline is this, as consumers we want a product we feel is worth our $60+, I don't think we owe it to any video game company to take their word for it when they say we've made vast improvements, especially if their word has not be reliable in the past. The game is supposed to be out in about three weeks, if it's not "ready" at this point chances are it will not be "ready" on release date.