Ralph Wiggum's PC Review
Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:04 am
Hi. I thought I might give my 2 cents into this version of NBA Live 06.
Specs:
-I'm playing on a AMD 64 3000+ with a gig of ram and ATI 9800 AIW.
-I'm using a PS adapter and standard PS controller
-Played around 5 games on 10 minute quarters. 1 on Allstar, the rest on Superstar.
-No probs with hanging or performance
Background:
I play Live pretty much purely for Dynasty. I'm happy to say that in Live 2004 I was able to get through an entire 82 game season playing all games - 10 minute quarters
Gamplay
Likes:
-Speed of the game
-Changes to the fastbreak logic
-Reduction of blocks
-Reduction of effectiveness of spins and crossovers in traffic
-Further tweaking of sliders should make this one of the better Live's
Dislikes:
-Can't stand the 'moocher' passes. (The ones where they jump and do a mini hook for a pass and where its about as slow as Fat Albert running for a celery stick)
-Jumping to accept a pass and taking 2-3 seconds to get back on the ground to enable you to do something. (Usually in the paint)
Dynasty
Likes:
-Training and coaches
Dislikes:
-Linear offseason
-Trading logic (I think this could use some work still. Eg 3 teams, more players...)
-Most others were covered in Andrew's review (MLE, 10d contracts etc)
Wanted Improvements
-Please fix the 'player x has entered the game for the first time' when the player has been in before. (In last year's too!
)
-Looks like this year if a player deflects a pass and it goes out of bounds, it counts as a turnover. (I had J.Kidd with 12 turnovers and the team with 30 odd with just 10 steals to the opp). Pure bballers will flame me if this is wrong...(eg does a deflection out of bounds count as a t/o?)
-In some areas you can sort stats by clicking the header. Within the game stats it does not
-Please re-introduce the change stat layer in the sub screen as per the patch last year
-Boy it really annoyed me when the screen was squashed further for the PC version. (I hate scrolling to re-order rosters, view stats etc) I hope wish and beg that EA will take advantage of the PC rez like prev vers for menus, stats etc.
-I dunno about everyone else, but I love my stats. In a previous version I think you were able to compare player's in the game stats. Eg Iverson vs Kidd for the game. It would be great if this was re-introduced. I spend 10 minutes after the game reviewing stuff.
-I think in a previous Live they had team/individual high's. (Season/career) This would also be great to add
-A hot/cold logic would be good and add a more authentic feel for seasons/dynasty. Eg Carter scores 40 in 3 games and he's ratings improve for the next game. Or he shoots 20% in 3 straight games it goes down temporarily for the next.
-If you sub in 2 players eg C and then the PG, for some reason it says that the C has substituted the PG. Eg Yao coming in for Anderson. But Yao is the C and the PG substitutes for Anderson ok.
-I know you love the T bar Andrew, but I'd like something new and more of a challenge for FTs. (Early previews sounded promising with the Tiger Woods type FT shooting)
-I wish I had the option to turn off/on auto replays. (I enjoyed this feature)
General Comments
Although I added heaps to the 'Wanted Improvements' I reckon so far this is one of the better Live's I've played gameplay and graphically wise. So far I've changed the long/short/mid range shots sliders from 50 -> 35 to get a more realistic FG% Others have remained as is so far. Commentary is good, but there seem to be long pauses of no talk. However it would be difficult to keep it continually running but also fresh all the time.
I pretty much only play the dynasty mode and I love my stats so not everyone will agree with me on the above or think that its overkill by me. Feel free to add an opinion
Specs:
-I'm playing on a AMD 64 3000+ with a gig of ram and ATI 9800 AIW.
-I'm using a PS adapter and standard PS controller
-Played around 5 games on 10 minute quarters. 1 on Allstar, the rest on Superstar.
-No probs with hanging or performance
Background:
I play Live pretty much purely for Dynasty. I'm happy to say that in Live 2004 I was able to get through an entire 82 game season playing all games - 10 minute quarters
Gamplay
Likes:
-Speed of the game
-Changes to the fastbreak logic
-Reduction of blocks
-Reduction of effectiveness of spins and crossovers in traffic
-Further tweaking of sliders should make this one of the better Live's
Dislikes:
-Can't stand the 'moocher' passes. (The ones where they jump and do a mini hook for a pass and where its about as slow as Fat Albert running for a celery stick)
-Jumping to accept a pass and taking 2-3 seconds to get back on the ground to enable you to do something. (Usually in the paint)
Dynasty
Likes:
-Training and coaches
Dislikes:
-Linear offseason
-Trading logic (I think this could use some work still. Eg 3 teams, more players...)
-Most others were covered in Andrew's review (MLE, 10d contracts etc)
Wanted Improvements
-Please fix the 'player x has entered the game for the first time' when the player has been in before. (In last year's too!
)
-Looks like this year if a player deflects a pass and it goes out of bounds, it counts as a turnover. (I had J.Kidd with 12 turnovers and the team with 30 odd with just 10 steals to the opp). Pure bballers will flame me if this is wrong...(eg does a deflection out of bounds count as a t/o?)
-In some areas you can sort stats by clicking the header. Within the game stats it does not
-Please re-introduce the change stat layer in the sub screen as per the patch last year
-Boy it really annoyed me when the screen was squashed further for the PC version. (I hate scrolling to re-order rosters, view stats etc) I hope wish and beg that EA will take advantage of the PC rez like prev vers for menus, stats etc.
-I dunno about everyone else, but I love my stats. In a previous version I think you were able to compare player's in the game stats. Eg Iverson vs Kidd for the game. It would be great if this was re-introduced. I spend 10 minutes after the game reviewing stuff.
-I think in a previous Live they had team/individual high's. (Season/career) This would also be great to add
-A hot/cold logic would be good and add a more authentic feel for seasons/dynasty. Eg Carter scores 40 in 3 games and he's ratings improve for the next game. Or he shoots 20% in 3 straight games it goes down temporarily for the next.
-If you sub in 2 players eg C and then the PG, for some reason it says that the C has substituted the PG. Eg Yao coming in for Anderson. But Yao is the C and the PG substitutes for Anderson ok.
-I know you love the T bar Andrew, but I'd like something new and more of a challenge for FTs. (Early previews sounded promising with the Tiger Woods type FT shooting)
-I wish I had the option to turn off/on auto replays. (I enjoyed this feature)
General Comments
Although I added heaps to the 'Wanted Improvements' I reckon so far this is one of the better Live's I've played gameplay and graphically wise. So far I've changed the long/short/mid range shots sliders from 50 -> 35 to get a more realistic FG% Others have remained as is so far. Commentary is good, but there seem to be long pauses of no talk. However it would be difficult to keep it continually running but also fresh all the time.
I pretty much only play the dynasty mode and I love my stats so not everyone will agree with me on the above or think that its overkill by me. Feel free to add an opinion
Tue Oct 11, 2005 2:05 am
Nice review Ralph. I like the fact that you were not biased. My first thoughts of the game was that it was boring with all the lack of defense. After tweaking sliders and changing my gameplan around I am starting to enjoy it more. Deflecting a pass out of bounds in the NBA is not a turnover.
I don't play online, but if EA can make Battlefield 2 hold up to 64 players on a server with little to no lag(based on high speed connections), they should be able to have two people play against each other smoothly during online games. The first online game I played EVER was NBA Live 97 and it was dialup. I had to call another person or be called while the game was running and there was absolutely no lag. I won with a great 4th quarter comeback by shooting 3pt runners with Brent Barry(Clippers) against the Knicks. When my opponent missed his buzzer beater to tie, he disconnected(BIG SMILE ON MY FACE).
I also can't stand the receiving animation from passes into the paint when your not posting up. Also a better logic needs to be implemented for adjusted shots whether manually or by contact because the closer to the basket you are, the more likely the shot will hit behind the backboard. I would like to see support for running the baseline when inbounding the ball after a basket.
EA can improve many aspects of the game by creating a new "trigger system". A trigger is what is used to tell the game what is happening like when you shoot a trigger tells the game engine to add a shot attempt to your stats. In Live '06 they must not have a different trigger for "possession of the ball" and "contact of the ball" which is why deflections out of bounds count as turnovers. The trigger system also tells the commentators what to say based on the action. I believe creating a whole new trigger system could completely improve the presentation and the stats.
My sliders constantly change based on the difficulty/stats of each game for me and the cpu. My changes include on-ball physical defensive and on-ball assist to 100 for cpu and user, 0 off rebounding and 100 defensive rebounding for cpu and user, and turning dunk/layup frequency to 10 or lower for both user and cpu. As I am getting better at offense and defense I am lowering my sliders and upping the cpu's for closer games.
Anyone remember the year EA said they were going to tailor Live with enhancements for the PC version? Which year was that and what were the enhancements? They need to do that again.
Also it shouldn't be hard to implement widescreen resolutions for PC users...ESPECIALLY SINCE XBOX USERS HAVE WIDESCREEN SUPPORT AND LIVE 06 IS PORTED FROM XBOX TO PC.
I don't play online, but if EA can make Battlefield 2 hold up to 64 players on a server with little to no lag(based on high speed connections), they should be able to have two people play against each other smoothly during online games. The first online game I played EVER was NBA Live 97 and it was dialup. I had to call another person or be called while the game was running and there was absolutely no lag. I won with a great 4th quarter comeback by shooting 3pt runners with Brent Barry(Clippers) against the Knicks. When my opponent missed his buzzer beater to tie, he disconnected(BIG SMILE ON MY FACE).
I also can't stand the receiving animation from passes into the paint when your not posting up. Also a better logic needs to be implemented for adjusted shots whether manually or by contact because the closer to the basket you are, the more likely the shot will hit behind the backboard. I would like to see support for running the baseline when inbounding the ball after a basket.
EA can improve many aspects of the game by creating a new "trigger system". A trigger is what is used to tell the game what is happening like when you shoot a trigger tells the game engine to add a shot attempt to your stats. In Live '06 they must not have a different trigger for "possession of the ball" and "contact of the ball" which is why deflections out of bounds count as turnovers. The trigger system also tells the commentators what to say based on the action. I believe creating a whole new trigger system could completely improve the presentation and the stats.
My sliders constantly change based on the difficulty/stats of each game for me and the cpu. My changes include on-ball physical defensive and on-ball assist to 100 for cpu and user, 0 off rebounding and 100 defensive rebounding for cpu and user, and turning dunk/layup frequency to 10 or lower for both user and cpu. As I am getting better at offense and defense I am lowering my sliders and upping the cpu's for closer games.
Anyone remember the year EA said they were going to tailor Live with enhancements for the PC version? Which year was that and what were the enhancements? They need to do that again.
Also it shouldn't be hard to implement widescreen resolutions for PC users...ESPECIALLY SINCE XBOX USERS HAVE WIDESCREEN SUPPORT AND LIVE 06 IS PORTED FROM XBOX TO PC.